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u 






AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



OK THE 



COMMONWEALTH 



OF 



PENNSYLVANIA, 

CIVIL, POLITICAL, AND MILITARY, 

FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME, 



INCLUDING 



Historical Descriptions 



OF 



EACH COUNTY IN THE STATE, 

THEIR TOWNS, AND INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES. 

/BY 

WILLIAM H. EGLE, M.D., M.A., 

:^?s OF ^ 



Metnber of tiie Historical Society of Pennsylvatiia *''^'\'^H OF - 



SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

E. M. GARDN ER. 
1880. 



NOTE TO REVISED EDITION. 



January 1, 1880. — The autlior takes pleasure in preseuting a revised edition of 
The History of Pennsylvania, which has afforded him au opportunity of correctina; 
a number of important errors in bringing up the general history of the State to 
1880, and of adding a sketch of the new county of Lackawanna, as also the entire 
rewriting of that of Juniata county. 

W. H. E. 









OFFICIAL COAT OF ARMS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Copyright, 1876, by D. C. GOODFTICH & COMPANY. 



Copyririlit, 1880, by E. M. GARDNER. 



t 



t^\ 



/ 



PREFATORY. 




WRITE the History of an Empire State, wliicli Pennsylvnnia now 
is, sliould properly be the work of a lifetime, since the startling 
events of three centuries crowd its pages. For a long period we 
have been collecting material for such an undertaking, in the hope 
that as the years sped on we might present our contribution to the bibliography 
of this great Commonwealth. Believing, however, that the present time is 
opportune for the publication of a fixithful remme of the transactions, local 
and general, which have transpired in the Past, after several years of labor 
we have essayed to otter to the good people of our native State the result. 
While the volume may not be as comprehensive in its details as some may 
desire, yet for general and popular perusal and information, we trust it will 
supply a want felt everywhere, containing as it does the complete stor}'- of the 
Commonwealth and the County, briefl}' and simply rehearsed. 

Following in the footsteps of Achelius, Campanius, Thomas, Smitu. 
Ebeling, Proud, Gordon, Scott, Day, Burrowes, Treqo, and Sypher, whose 
volumes relating to the Histor}' of Pennsylvania are of inestimable value, and 
of that glittering array of local historiographers, of whom the venerable Rupp 
heads the list, we have endeavored to give a fair and accurate representation of 
the History', the Resoui'ces, the Progress, and the Development of the Colonies on 
the Delaware, of the Province, and of the Commonwealth. 

To tlie many kind friends who have aided us by their pen in the prepara- 
tion of this volume, we tender at this time our warm acknowledgments, and 
in doing so, crave their pardon in the liberty we were compelled to take in 
limiting their sketches. In doing so, we endeavored not to omit more impor- 
tant matters than those oiven. When it is recollected there are sixtv-seven 
counties in the State, and that an average of ten pages to each would make 
of themselves, a formidable volume, our friends, we trust, will full}^ appreciate 
our position wlien we also inform them that the MSS. in our possession 
would have made almost thrice the number of pages required. As it is, tlie 
Histories of the Counties have exceeded in length by two hundred pages the 
space originally assigned for that portion of tlie work, and the volume 
thereb}' increased in size. The enterprising Publishers, in their determination 
to send forth a thorough, full, and complete sketch of every county, notwith- 
standing the additional expense, deserve the patronage of the reading public 
of Pennsylvania. 

In the matter of engravings, the great difficult}' has been in several Counties 
to secure subjects for illustration. In a few cases, after a great deal of 

V 



vi PREFATORY. 

trouble and expense, we have failed. It was the intention of the Publishers 
to full}^ illustrate every County, and yet, when the entire number of engrav- 
ings are taken into consideration, it must be acknowledged that this 
volume is unequalled in that respect by any historical publication ever issued. 
To the photographers and others who have rendered us their assistance, we 
can only say " thank you." The Photo-engraving Company of New York, 
to whose care most of the local views have been committed, have, by their 
(the Moss) process, given accurate representations of the photographs and 
designs sent us; while Messrs. Crosscup & West, of Philadelphia, to whom 
the portraits of the Governors have especially been confided, in the main have 
succeeded in their portion of the work. 

It ma}^ not be out of place, in this connection, to state that we have 
endeavored to preserve a uniformity in the orthography of the Indian names. 
The admirable work of the devoted IIeckewelder has been taken as authority. 
Scarcely two authors write the same names alike. For instance, Moshannon is 
spelled Meahannon, Mushanno77, and Moshannin. In the neighborhood of 
Pittsburgh, Allegheny is thus written, but in the northern part of the State, it is 
given Allegany and Alleghany. Although Eittochtinny is undoubtedly far more 
correct than KiUatinny, j^et the latter is so frequently used that we have 
adhered to it. Attention is called to the tendency there is in many instances 
in destro^-ing the orthography of the names of streams, etc. Most writers 
call the Tonoloway creek, in Pulton county, Gonolloway^ while Qimin's run, 
in Centre and Clinton, is denominated Queen'' s. These errors should be 
carcfull}^ guarded against, not only by the historian but by writers generally, 
[f our friends object to the alterations we have made in this respect, we can 
only I'efer them to the works of one who made the Indian language a study, 
and whose authority on such matters is unquestioned. It is proper to state 
that we have omitted the given meanings of streams in certain instances, and 
inserted those furnished b}^ the Indian lexicographer referred to. 

In conclusion, we commit the work to the general reading public of the 
State of Pennsylvania. If it will give the young especially an incentive to 
learn more of the history of our old Commonwealth, — if it will stimulate all 
to search among the archives of the Past and gather up the records that none 
be lost, — if it enable every citizen to appreciate the greatness of the Keystone 
State of the Union, it will have served its purpose. The volume should be 
viewed as an entirety, and not simply regarded as a sketch of this or that 
county, but as covering the whole State; — subjects purely local giving place to 
facts in which the general reader should be properly interested. Realizing 
fully the responsibility resting upon him, the author has avoided in the main 
thrusting his opinion in preference to facts. Where, however, material 
difference as to date or intention existed, he has endeavored to diffuse light 
and correct error. With the objects heretofore expressed, and in the hope, 
briefly set forth, we present this contribution to the bibliography of our State 
to the candid appreciation of the citizens of Pennsylvania. 

„ WILLIAM H. EGLE. 

Harrisburq, Penn'a, July 4, 1876. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



GENERAL HISTORY 



Chapter I. 

The Aborigines. The Susquehannas. The Delawares. The Shawancsc- 

Indian Characteristics 17 

Chapter II. 
Discovery of the Delaware b}' Hudson. Settlement of the Dutch and 

Swedes. 1609-1681 28 

Chapter III. 

The Province of Penns3dvania granted to William Penn. The Proprietary 
Rule, until the Death of the Founder. 1681-1*718 

Chapter IV. 
Proprietary Rule. Administrations of Lieutenant Governors Keith, Gorflon, 
Logan, Thomas, Palmer, and Hamilton. 1718-1754 

Chapter Y. 
Proprietary Rule. French and Indian War. Braddock's Expedition. In- 



dian Ravages on the Frontiers. 1754-1756. 



.-/'^. 



*& 



Chapter VI. 
Reward for Indian Scalps. Destruction of Kittanning. Expedition of 
General Forbes. Pontiac's Conspiracy. Bouquet's Expedition 
1756-1763 

Chapter VII. 
Indian Depredations on the Frontiers. The Destruction of the Indians at 
Conestoga. The so-called Insurrection ofthePaxtang Boys. Bouqnot's 
Expedition to the Muskingum. 1763-1764 ■ 107 

* 

Chapter VIII. 
Relations between England and the Colonies. Mason and Dixon's Line 
The outset of the Revolution. Resolves and Instructions of the Pro- 
vincial Deputies. The Committee of Safety. 1765-1775.. 123 

vii 



viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Chapter IX. 

The Battle-Drum of the Revolution. The Pennsylvania Navy. The Provin- 
cial Conference. The Declaration of Independence. The Convention 
of 177C, and the end of Proprietary Rule. 1775-1776 164 

Chapter X. 
'':he Revolution. Battles of Trenton and Princeton. The Battle of Brandy- 
wine. Massacre at Paoli. British Occupation of Philadelphia. Battle 
of Gennantown, and Reduction of Fort Mifflin. 1776-1777 168 

Chapter Xl. 
The Revolution. The Cantonment at Valley Forge. The Mischianza. 
Philadelphia Evacuated by the British. Indian Outrages. Sullivan's 
Expedition. Abolition of Slavery in Pennsylvania.. 1776-1780 181 

Chapter XII. 
The Revolution. The Treason of Arnold. Revolt of the Pennsylvania 

Line. Surrender of Cornwallis. Declaration of Peace. 1780-1783... 196 

Chapter XIII. 

Trouble in the Settlement of the Claims of the Soldiers. Council of Censors. 
Treaty at Fort Stanwix. Convention to revise the Constitution. 
1783-1790 206 

Chapter XIV. 
Administration of Governor Mifflin. The Yellow Fever in Philadelphia. 
The Presqu'Isle Establishment. The Whiskey Insurrection. Defence 
of the Frontiers. 1790-1794 213 

Chapter XV. 

Jay's Treaty. The Fries' Insurrection. Removal of the Seat of Govern- 
ment. Administrations of Governors M'Kean and Snyder. War of 
1812-U. 1795-1817 232 

Chapter XVI. 
Administrations of Governors Findlay, Hiester, Schulze, Wolf, and Ritner. 

Internal Improvements. The Common School System. 1817-1837... 242 

Chapter XVII. 
Constitutional Convention. " Buck-shot War." Administrations of Gover- 
nors Porter, Shunk, Johnston, Pollock, and Packer.- 1837-1861 249 

Chapter XVIII. 
The Civil War. Establishment of Camp Curtin. Pennsylvania Troops 
the First to reach the National Capital. Pennsylvania Invaded by the 
Confederates. Constitutional Convention of 1873. Administrations 

of Governors Curtin, Geary and Hartranft. 1861-1876 259 

Administrations of Governors Hartranft and Hoyt. 1876-1 880 277 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. [^ 



COUNTY HISTORIES. 



[To those marked * credit is due for revision or data.] 



PAGSi 



Adams Aaron Sheely, Gettysburg 2('^'i 

Allegheny Wm. M. Darlington* and Thos. J. Bigliam* 314 

Armstrong A. D. Glenn, Eddy ville 330 

Beaver James Patterson, Beaver Falls 340 

Bedford Charles N. Hickok, Bedford 3G] 

Berks J. Lawrence Getz, Reading 378 

Blair Rev. A. K. Bell, D.D., Hollidaysburg 396 

Bradford Rev. David Craft, Wyalusing 405 

Bucks Joseph Thomas, M.D.,* Quakertown 438 

Butler Jacob Ziegler, Butler 454 

Cambria Robert L. Johnston, Ebensburg 461 

Cameron John Brooks, Sinnemahoning 479 

Carbon Robert Klotz,* Mauch Chunk 486 

Centre John Blair Linn, Bellefonte 50S 

Chester J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, West Chester. ... 517 

Clarion Rev. James S. Elder, Clarion 547 ^• 

Clearfield William D. Bigler, Clearfield 55T 

Clinton D. S. Maynard, Lock Haven 569 

Columbia John G. Freeze, Bloomsburg , ... 584 

Crawford Samuel P. Bates, LL.D., Meadville 597 

Cumberland I. Daniel Rupp and others* 612 

Dauphin A. Boyd Hamilton, Harrisburg 636 

Delaware H. G. Ashmead, Chester 654 

Elk Charles R. Earley, M.D.,* and others, Ridgway 682 

Erie Isaac Moorhead, Erie 692 

Fayette James Veech,* Emsworth, Allegheny county 724 

Forest Samuel D. Irwin, Tionesta 733 

Franklin Benjamin M. Nead, Chambersburg 739 

Fulton James Pott, McConnellsburg 760 

Greene Alf. Creigh, LL.D.,* and W. J. Bayard,* Waynesburg 769 

Huntingdon J. Simpson Africa, Huntingdon 775 

Indiana A. W. Taylor* and J. M. Robinson,* Indiana 790 

Jefferson G. Ament Blose, Hamilton / 79S 

Juniata A. L. Guss 806 

Lackawanxa L. A. Watres,* Scranton 911 

Lancaster Samuel Evans, Columbia 814 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Lawrence Rev. D. X. Junkin, D.D., New Castle 854 

Lebanon L D. Rupp tind George Ross, M.D.,* Lebanon 862 

Leuigu R. K. Buehrle and E. G. Leisenring,* Allenlown 871 

Luzerne Steuben Jenkins* and others, Wyoming ." 880 

Lycoming E. S. Watson, Williamsport 913 

M'Kean William King, Ceres 923 

Mercer AVilliam S. Garvin and Setli Hoagland, Mercer. . .' 931 

Mifflin Silas Wright* and C. W. Walters,* Lewistown 939 

Monroe William S. Rees, Stroudsburg 946 

'Montqo>;ery Morgan R. Wills, Norristown 950 

Montour John G. Freeze 961 

Northampton Rev. William C. Reichel, Bethlehem 967 

NoRTiiu^MBERLAND. John F. Wolfingcr, Milton 997 

Peru . Silas Wright, Millerstown 1006 

riKi:,ADE,-rniA Thomson Westcott, Philadelphia 1015 

r: I William Westfall, Rowlands . 1049 

PoTTEU E. 0. Austin, Forest House 1056 

ociiUYLK'LL George Chambers, Pottsvillc , 1064 

Snyder Horace Allcman, Sclinsgrove 1072 

Somerset Edward B. Scull, Somerset 1077 

'-'I'LLIVAN Edwin A. Strong, Dushore 1081 

Susquehanna Miss Emily C. Blackman, Montrose 1086 

TiocA John L. Sexton, Fall Brook 1101 

Unto John Blair Linn 1110 

A'enango Rev. S. J. M. Eaton, D.D., Franklin 1117 

Warren Samuel P. Johnson, Warren 1132 

Washington Alfred Creigh, LL.D., Washington 1140 

Wayne Thomas J. Ham, Honesdale 1145 

Westmoreland Dallas Albert, Youngstown 1152 

Wyoming Charles M. Lee, Tunkhannock 1 163 

York ... M. 0. Smith, Hanover 11 69 

}Li\KRAL INDEX 1181 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PARE 

ALLEGHENY county court house, rittsbuigli 315 

Alleglieuies, distant view of 399 

Alk'griiipus, scene at, on I'ennsylvauia lailioaU.... 401 

Amber cascade, Uleii Thomas 499 

Antluaeite coal trade, pmgressor I(i62 

Armstrong county public buildings 3:ii» 

Aniol, coal scliutesat lUiS 

Arnot, incline at 9G5 

5f!8 
348 
•.M 
o(i2 
3(i8 

513 
8(17 
378 
9()9 
993 
979 



Haul Eagle's Nest, on Spring creek 

15eaver college 

' Heaver Falls borough, view of 

lied ford, I'lovincial court house at 

IJedt'ord Springs, view at 

Hellefonte borough, view of 

liellefonte, view of gap near 

ISeig (bill) Ivirclie, Lebanon county 

ISerlis county court house ; 

liethlehem, first house built in 

liethlehem,mai'ried brothei's' and ^istel■s'' house at, 

IJethleheni, old Crown Iiiu at 

liethlehem, old mill at 

ISellilehem, old Sclmitz house at 

Bigier, William, portiaii of 

iiirminghaiu Friends meeting-Iiouse 

Itlair county court liouse, Hollidaysbui g 

Hlijomsburg, State Noimal school at 

IJraddock's route, 17o5 

Jiraildoclc surprised by the Indians 

ISrooUside, view near 

Hrownsville borough, view of 

I lucks county <'OurC lujusc, l)oy lest own 

lUickingham" Friends meetiug-liouse 

15ut!er borough, view of 

Huller county con it house 

Uutler public school building 



Camp Curtin, geneial hospital at, 18G4 

Carbon counlycourt house, Maucii Chunk 

Carlisle, soldiei's' monument at 

Carpenter's hall, I'hiladelphia, 1774 

Cariollowu, cliuich and convent at 

Carrier fenuvie seminary at Clarion 

Cascade, UlenOuoko 

Catawissa, ancient Friends luceling-house at 

Chauibersburg, before the burning, 18154 

Chaiid)ersburg, after the burning, ISW 

Chameleon falls. Glen Unoko '... 

Cliester, old town hall at 

Chester county court house. West Chester 

Chester, first inee ting-house of Friends at 

Chester or Great valley, view of 

Chew mansion. Germ an town 

Christ church, I'hiladelphia 

Clarion county court house. Clarion 

Claricju county jnisou, Clarion 

Clear field borough, view of 

Clinton county court house 

Cloiul Foint, view of 

Columbia county court liouse, Ulooiusburg 

Columbia borough, town liall in 

Conemaugh, scene on, near Uolivar, I'enn'a U. K.. 

Cornwall mines, Leban(Hi county 

Orawfurd county court house, Meadvillc 

Cresson Springs, Allegheny mountains 

Crozer theological semi nary at Upland 

Cumberland county court house 

Curtln, AndrewG., portrait of... 



99'J 

2-').) 

f)3l 

397 

o92 

84 

87 

1CU8 

724 

438 

450 

458 

454 

459 

268 
4S(! 
628 
141 
476 
552 
497 
594 
754 
756 
485 
655 
517 
661 
519 
178 

1026 
647 
549 
5-57 
569 
500 
584 
831 

1152 
864 
597 
4li6 
681 
612 
259 



Delaware, view on the .. Inset. 

Delaware county court house. Media — 678 

Derricks, cable gioup of, ar I'leasantville 1131 

Dickinson college, Carlisle 630 

Deny church, Dauphin county 644 

Derry church, interior view of 645 

Dickinson, John, portrait of 2ii5 

Doyleslown, sokliers' monunient at 449 

Drake's l'iou(5er oil well, Venango couuly lirj 

Economy, assembly house at 356 

Emigh's Gap, Tyrone and Clearfield railroad 564 

Emporium borough, view of 479 

Ephraia, brotliers' and sisters' house at 835 

Eiie city, view ol from the lake 692 

Erie, old block-house at 693 

Erie, soldiers' and sailors' monument at 720 



PAOK 

Fall-Brook, northern View of, from the centre 1108 

Findlay, William, portrait ot 242 

Fort Kedlord house, Bedford a63 

Fort, Deshlei's, on Coplay creek 876 

Fort l<"orty, 1778 902 

Fort Hunter, near Harrisburg 649 

Foit Lvttlelon, Jilau of, 1755 765 

Fort I'itt, plan of, 1760 08 

F(ut I'itt, redoubt at, 1763 104 

Forts, Fienchand English, at Venango 1123 

Franklin aiul Marshall college, Lancaster 825 

Franklin, Benjamin, portrait of ,. 2ii9 

Flank I in, town of, in 1840 1128 

Franklin, street view, in 1876 1117 

Fulton County court house 760 

Gallatin, Albert, residence of 731 

Geary, John W .. p(utiait of 273 

Germantowu academy l(i46 

Getlyslmig, p'aii of battle of 295 

Gettysburg, national monumentat 313 

Gettysburg, theological seminary at 303 

Girard college, I'hiladelphia 1044 

Glaiz mansion, York county, 1732 1172 

Glen Moneypcnny, Wyoming county 1166 

Glen of Cilenolden, Kidley jiark ". 668 

Gnrdon, I'atrick, portrait of 70 

GreatorBig island, map of 572 

Green county court house, Waynesbiiig 709 

Hamilton, James, portrait of 99 

Hanover cliurch, Dauphin county 646 

Hanover, York couutj-, public fountain 1179 

Main's church, near Wnruersvilie 3s9 

llaiinonisl cluirch, at Economy 353 

Harrisburg city, view of, from the west 636 

Harrisburg, Slate Capitol at 244 

Harrisburg, first German cluirch at 647 

Harrisburg, first English church at 647 

Harris, John, grave of 640 

Harris mansion, built 1766 637 

Harirauft, JohiiF., portrait of 275 

Hiester, Joseph, pmtiait of 243 

llonesdale boroiigh, view of 1145 

Huntingdon borougn, seal of 779 

Huntingdon borough, view of 775 

Horse-suoe curve, Allegheny mountains 396 

Independence Hall, 1876 10:50 

lndei)endence Hall, rear view 167 

Indiana county court liouse 790 

Indian chapel at liethlehem, 1765 967 

Indian depredations on tlie f ion tiers 103 

Indian god rock, Venango county 1121 

Indian god rock, insci ipilonson 1122 

Indian inscriptions on rocks at Safe Harbor S39 

Indian relics fmind near Safe Harbor 818 

Insane, State liospital for, at Danville 964 

Insane, State liospiial for, at Warren H39 

Internal improvements, vignette 789 

living female college, Mechanicsburg 632 

Jack's Narrows, near Mapleton, I'enn'a railroad ... 781 

Jefferson county court house, Brookville 798 

Johnston, Willian F., portraitof '254 

Johnstown, and Cambria iron wtnks 464 

Juniata county court house, Mifflintowu 806 

Keith, Sir William, portraitof 65 

Knoxvjilo borough, Cowauesque valley UOl 



ackawanna falls 

afavette college, I'ardee hall, Eastoii... 
uicaster county court house, Lancaster 



884 
966 

827 



ancaster county court house, old 814 

ancaster county hospital 851 

uicaster county soldiers' monument 829 

ancaster high school 828 

awrence county court house. New Castle 854 

eaden plate buried by the French, 1749 318 

ebaiion borougli, view of 80? 

ebanon county court house, Lebanon 863 

ee's head-quarters at Gettysburg 288 

ehigh county court house, Allentown 87] 



XI 



Xil 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

I.elilgli university, Bothlehem i'SO 

l.fuislmrg l)orou{,'li, view of 1114 

l,i-uisl)urg uiiivfi'sity I'l;] 

Lowistowii iKiroiiKli, viow of y« 

hcwisiowii narrows, i'eiiiisvlviiuia railroad 941 

l.iherty liell, Iii(lf|ii'ii(UMicu liall 556 

l>illz, spiiiig and «allv at °'-i^ 

l.OKaii, .lames, iiorlrait of '<> 

I.iiuer Meiioii l''rieiids iiieetiiig-iiouse 9-j4 

I, oval Sock, liead-waler.s of 1081 

l.irnierau inissiunaiy iiistituli'. Seliii.sf;rove 1074 

Luzerne eoiiiity eoinl lioiise, Wilkes- iJarre 881 

Luzerne eounty prison, \Vill;es-Harre 008 

Lycoming county court liousc, Williamsiiorl 916 

IM'Kean county court house, Smetliport 92:i 

M'Kean connty prison, Sinetliport 929 

M'lCean, Thuiiias, portrait of 234 

niaMslield, Episcopal eliurcli at 1104 

Mansfield, iMetliodist church at 1107 

JMansHehl, State normal school at Inset. 

Meadi^'s headquarters at Gettysburg 2S.5 

Sleailville city, view of 607 

Mexico, Pennsylvania nnjnnnient to heroes of 27'1 

Mifflin county couit house, Lewislown 939 

-MilUin, Thon'ias, portrait of 21.3 

Mint, United Slates, at I'hiladeliihia 404 

Mlllersville, State normal scliool at 842 

JUIitarv academy at Chester 672 

Jlontgomery county court house, Norristown 9.dO 

Montour county court house, Danville 96t 

Montrose iKUOugh, view ot 1095 

JMoore, William, iior trait of 202 

Moravian nionumentat Wyalusing 415 

Mount risgah inclined plane 496 

Nazareth Hall. Nazareth 990 

Nesiiuehoning bridge 501 

New Kiightou, view of 350 

iii'w Castle, Disciples' church at 8fio 

Newcastle, public school building at 859 

New Sweden, map of 43 

Newport boro\igh, view of 1009 

Norristown fire company 957 

OnoUo falls. Glen Onoko 498 

Osterhout mansion, Wyoming county 1167 

I'acker, William F., portrait of 257 

Tax tang church, Dauphin county 646 

Penitentiary, western, at Allegheny City 320 

I'enn, .lohn, portrait of Ill 

Penn, Richard, portrait of 131 

Penn, William, portrait of Kiontispiece. 

Petin's liook ])late 66 

PeiinVs chair 106 

I'enn 's residence at Chester 659 

Penn's treaty with the Indians, 1 682 50 

Penn's treaty monument 49 

Penn's valley, from Nittany mo\intain 505 

Pennsylvania college at Getty sl)urg 305 

Pennsylvania, map of, 1685 .." 52 

Pennsylvania, map of, 1730 92 

Pennsylvania, map of, showing Indian pnrcliases. .. 208 

Pennsylvania, university of, dep. of science and arts, 1034 

Pennsylvania, university of, medical department. . . 1036 

Perry county court house, New Bloomtield 1007 

Perry's flag ship Lawrence 706 

Philadelphia, city buildings in 1018 

Philadelphia, view on the Delaware at 1043 

Philadelphia, old court house at 1021 

Philadelphia, old navy yaid at 1040 

Pike ctninty con it house, Milford 1049 

Pine street church, Philadelidiia 732 

Pittsburgh city, from down the Ohio 314 

Pitlslmrgh city hall 315 

Pollock, James, portrait ot 256 

Portage road, view on 474 

IVnter, David K., portrait ot 250 

Potter county court house, Condersport 1053 

Pottstown, cottage seminary at Inset. 

Pottsville borough, view of 10.58 

President's house, erccled by Pennsylvania 2.32 

Piovincial Stale house, in 1734 71 

Provincial State house, in 1778 1S7 

Pulpit rocks, Kound island, Phila. & Krie railroad, 580 

Punxsutawney borough, view of 803 

Kalston inclined plane 922 



PAQK 

Heading, cemetery gate at 395 

lieading. Provincial court house at 393 

Heading, Trinity Lutheran church at 394 

lieed, Joseph, porfi-ait of 190 

Kenova station, Philadelphia and Erie railroad 582 

Reynolds, General John, monument to 310 

Ridgway borough, view <.l 682 

Ridley park lake 666 

Ridley park station 679 

Ritner, Joseph, portrait of 247 

St. Aloysius college, Loretto 477 

St. Clair, General, home of, on Chestnut ridge 11.56 

St. Clair, monument to. at Greeusburg 1161 

Schuylkill river, view on 248 

Stal of Assembly, 1776 168 

Seal of Committee of Safety, 1775 143 

Seal of Proprietary 27 

Shulze, John Andrew, portrait of 245 

Shunk, Francis R., portrait ot 2.52 

Slate roof house, Philadelphia 1016 

Snyder county court house, Middleburg 1072 

Snyder mansion, Selinsgrove 1075 

Snyder, Simon, portrait of 236 

Solebury Friends meeting-house 444 

Somerset county court house, Somerset 1077 

South-western college, California 1143 

SpruceCreek tunnel, Pennsylvania railroad 786 

Slate (Agricultural) college. Centre couniy 511 

Stewart's block-house, Wyoming 895 

Stevens, Thaddeus, grave of, at Lancaster 830 

Susquehanna couirty court house, Montrose 1087 

Susquehanna county, plan of townships in 1086 

Su,s(|ueliaiina river, above Milton 998 

Susquehanna river, near Lewisburg UI2 

Susquehanna, junction of North and West branches, 1002 

Swarthmore college, Delaware county 654 

Swedes' church, Philadelphia 1024 

Taylor, Abiah, house of, built 1724 .5'' 

Tiouesta boiough, view of T&i 

To wan da liorough, view of 405 

Trappe, ancient Lutheran church at 960 

Union county court house, Lewisburg 11 10 

Union League house, Philadelphia 2.5S 

Valley Forge, view at 955 

Warren borough, view of 1133 

Washington and Jefferson college 114ii 

Washington female seminary .. - 478 

Washington's head-quarters at Bedford, 1794 371 

Washington's head-quarters at Valley Forge 182 

Whaitoii house , 1.S5 

Wharton, Thomas, Jr., portrait of Lo 

Wayne, General, birth-place and residence of .540 

Wayne county soldiers' monument, Horesilale 11-50 

Westmoreland county court house, Gree isbiiig 1153 

Wicaco, First Swedes' church at 1015 

AVilcox borough, view ot 689 

Wissahickon, view on 635 

Wolf. George, portrait of 24G 

Wriglit's Ferry mansion. Coin in bia 833 

Wyoming battle-ground, plan ot 898 

Wyoming county courthouse. Tunkhannock ■ 1163 

AVyoming, Indian massacre at 880 

Wyoming, incident in history of Inset. 

Wyoming valley, fi'rst glimpse of 882 

York county court house, York ... 1170 

York, Provincial court house at 1173 

York, Reformed church at 1176 

Ziesherger preaching to the Indians, 1767 735 

Centennial Exhiliition at Philadelphia, 1876. 

Bird's-eye view of the Centennial buildings. Inset. 

Memorial hall 774 

Agricultural building 6.53 

Horticultural hall 437 

Main Exhibition building 596 

AVomen's pavilion 813 

Machinery hall 861 

Exhibition medal, obverse 339 

Exhibition medal, reverse 360 

Eagle, Centennial— vignette 583 

Eagle, National— vignette ■ 738 




PART I. 



GENERAL HISTORY. 



I 



GOVERNORS 



OF THE COLONIES ON THE DELAWARE, OF THE PROVINCE, AND OF 

THE COMMONWEALTH. 



QOVERXORS OF NEW NETHERLANDS AND OF 
THE DUTCH ON THE DELAWARE. 

Peter Minuit 1G24-1G32 

WouTER Van Twiller 1G33-1G38 

SiK William Kieft 1G38-1G47 

Peter Stu yvesant 1G47-1G64 



GOVERNORS OF THE SWEDES ON THE 
DELAWARE. 

Peter Minuit 1638-1G4 1 

Peter Hollandare 1641-1643 

John Pkintz 1643-1603 

John Pappegoya 1653-1654 

John Claudius Rysingh 1654-1655 

[Captured by Peter Stuyvesant, 1655.] 



DOMINION OF THE DUTCH. 

Peter Stuya'Esant, Governor of New Netherlands and of the settlements on 

the Delaware 1G55-1G64 

Andreas Hudde, Commissary 1655-1G57 

John Paul Jacquet 1655-1657 

[The Colon}"- divided into that of the City and Company, 1657.] 



colony of the company. 

GoERAN Van Dyke 1657-1658 

William Beekmax 1658 1662 



colony of the city. 

Jacob Alricks 1657-1659 

Alexander D'Hinoyossa. . . 1659-1662 

William Beekman 1663-1664 

Alexander D'Hinoyossa 1663-1664 

[Settlements captured by the English, 1664.] 



DOMINION OF THE DUKE OF YORK. 

Colonel Richard Nicolls, Governor 1664-1667 

Robert Carr, Deputy Governor 1664.-1667 

Colonel Francis Lovelace 1667-1673 

[Colonies captured by the Dutch, 1673.] 



DOMINION OF THE DUTCH. 

Anthony Colve, Governor of New Netherlands 1673-1674 

Peter Alricks, Deputy Governor of the Colonies on the west side of the 

Delaware 1673-1674 

[Colonies re-captured by the English, 1674.] 



DOMINION OF THE ENGLISH. 

Sir Edmund Andross 1674-1681 

14 



Five Commissioners appointed by Penn, Feb., 1688-Dec., 1G88. 



GOVERl^OliS. 15 

PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT. 

William Penn, Proprietary 1681-1G93 

William Mabkham, Deputy Governor, June, 1681-Oct., 1G82 

William Penn, Proprietary Oct., 1682-June, 1684 

Tlie Council (Thomas Lloyd, President) June, 168-1-Feb., 1688 

1. Thomas Lloyd, ^ 

2. Robert Turner, 

3. Arthur Cook, 

4. JohnSymcock, 

5. John Eckley, ) 

Captain John Blackwell, Deputy Governor Dec, 1688- Jan., 1690 

The Council (Thomas Lloyd, President) Jan., 1690-Mar., 1691 

Thomas Lloyd, Deputy Governor of Province, ) _ 1691-Apl., 1693 

\\ illiam Markham, Deputy Governor of Lower Counties, ) 

Okown of England 1693-1695 

Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of New York, Governor ApL, 1693-Mar., 1695 

William Markham, Lieutenant Governor Api., 1693-Mar., 1695 

William Penn, Proprietary 1695-1718 

William Markham, Deputy Governor Mar., 1695-Dec., 1699 

William Pknn, Proprietary Dec, 1699-Nov., 1701 

Andrew Hamilton, Deputy Governor (died) Nov., 1701-Apl., 1703 

The Council (Edward Shippen, President) Apl., 1703-Feb., 1704 

John Evans, Deputy Governor Feb., 1704-Feb., 1709 

Charles Gookin, Deputy Governor Feb., 1709-May, 1717 

Sir William Keith, Deputy Governor May, 1717-July, 1718 

John Penn, Richard Penn, and Thomas Penn, Proprietaries 1718-1746 

Sib William Keith, Deputy Governor Jul}', 1718-Aug., 1726 

Patrick Gordon, Deputy Governor. Aug., 1726-Aug., 1736 

The Council (James Logan, President) ... Aug., 173G-Aug., 1738 

George Thomas, Deputy Governor Aug., 1738-May, 1746 

[John Penn died 1746; Richard Penn died 1771, when John Penn, his son, 

together witii Thomas Penn, became sole Proprietaries.] 1746-1776 

George Thomas, Deputy Governor May, 1746-May, 1747 

The Council (Anthony Palmer, President) May, 1747-Nov., 1748 

James Hamilton, Deputy Governor Nov., 1748-Oct., 1754 

Robert Hunter Morris, DejDuty Governor Oct., 1754-Aug., 1756 

William Denny, Deputy Governor Aug. 175G-Oct., 1759 

James Hamilton, Deputy Governoi- Oct., 1759-Nov., 1763 

John Penn (son of Richard Penn), Lieutenant Governor Nov., 17C3-Apl., 1771 

The Council (James Hamilton, President) ApL, 1771-Oct., 1771 

Richard Penn (brother of John Penn), Lieutenant Governor. Oct., 1771-Sept., 1773 
John Penn, Lieutenant Governor Sept., 1773-Sept., 1776 



IN THE REVOLUTION. 
The Committee of Safety (Benjamin Fbanklin, Chairman) Sept., 1776-Mar., 1777 

presidents of the supreme executivh council. 

Thomas Wharton, Jr Mar. 5, 1777-May 23, 1778 

Geo. Bryan, V. P., acting, vice President Wharton, deceased May 23, 1778-Dec. 22, 1778 

Joseph Reed Dec. 22, 1778-Nov. 15, 1781 

William Moore Nov. 15, 17Sl-Nov. 7, 1782 

John Dickinson Nov. 7, 1782-Ocfc. 18, 1785 

Bknjamin Franklin Oct. 18, 1785-Nov. 5, 1788 

Thomas Mifflin Nov. 5. 1788-Dec 21, 1790 






16 GOVERNOltS. 

VICE PRESIDKNTS. 

George Bryan (resigned) Mar. 5 lT77-Oct. 11, 1779 

Matthew Smith (resigned) Oct. 11, 1779-Nov. 15, 1779 

William Mooric Nov. 15, 1779-Nov. 15, 1781 

James Potter ,. . . . Nov. 15, 1781-Nov. 7, 1782 

James Ewing Nov. 7, 1782-Nov. 6, 1784 

James Irvine (resigned) Nov. 6, 1784-Oct. 10, 1785 

Charles Biddle Oct. 10, 1785-Oct. 31, 1787 

Peter Muhlenberq (resigned) Oct. 31, 1787-Oct. 14, 1788 

David Uedick. Oct. 14, 1788-Nov. 5, 1788 

George Ross Nov. 5, 1788-Dec. 21, 1790 



GOVERNORS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1790. 

Thomas Mifflin Dec. 21, 1790-Dec. 17, 1799 

Thomas M'Kean Dec. 17, 1799-Dec. 20, 1808 

Simon Snyder Dec. 20, 1808-Dec. 16, 1817 

William Findlay Dec. 16, lS17-Dec. 19, 1820 

Joseph Hiester Dec. 19, 1820-Dec. 16, 1823 

John Andrew Shulze Dec. 16, 1823-Dec. 15, 1829 

George Wolf Dec. 15, 1829-Dec. 15, 1835 

Joseph Ritner Dec. 15, 1835-Jan. 15, 1839 



GOVERNORS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1838. 

David Rittenhouse Porter Jan. J5, 1839-Jan 21, 1845 

Francis Rawn Shunk Jan. 21, 1845-July 9, 1848 

William Freame Johnston {vice Shunk, deceased) July 9, 1848-Jan. 20, 1852 

William Bigler Jan. 20, 1852-Jan. 16, 1855 

James Pollock Jan. 16, 1855-Jan. 19, 1858 

William Fisher Packer Jan. 19, 1858-Jan. 15, 1861 

Andrew Gregg Curtin Jan. 15, 1861-Jan. 15, 1867 

John White Geary Jan. 15, 1867-Jan. 21, 1873 

John Frederick Hartranft Jan. 21, 1873-Jan. 18, 1876 



GOVERNORS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1873. 

John Frederick Hartranft .Jan. 18, 1876-.Jan. 21, 1879 

Henry- Martyn Hoyt.. Jan. 21, 1879. 



LIEUTENANT (GOVERNORS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1873. 

John Latta Jan. 19, 1875-Jan. 21, 1879 

Charles W. Stone Jan. 21, 1879. 




CHAPTEE I. 

THE ABORIGINES. THE SUSQUEHANNAS. THE DELAWARES. THE SnAWANESE. 

INDIAN CHARACTERISTICS. 

the Moravian and Jesuit missionaries of tlie seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries we are cliiefly indebted for tlic information we 
have of the aborigines who inhabited Pennsylvania on the advent of 
the European, and in our account we shall make free use of Ilecke- 
wclder, Charlevoix, and others of that band of God-fearing men. At this period 
the territory embraced between the gi'eat lakes and the St. Lawrence to the 
northward, and the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac to the southward, was 
occupied by two families of tribes — the Algonquin and the Huron Iroquois. 
The former, which included the Micmacs, Mohegans, Illinois, Chippcwas, 
Ottawas, Pottawatamies, Sacs, Foxes, Miamies, the Delawarcs of Pennsylvania, 
and man}' of the Maryland and Virginia tribes, surrounded the more powcrl'id 
and civilized tribes, who have been called the Huron Iroquois, from the names 
of the two most powerful nations of the group — the Ilurons or Wyandots of 
Upper Canada, and the Iroquois or Five Nations of New York. Besides these, 
the group included the Neuters, on the Niagara; the Dinondadics, in Upper 
Canada; the Fries, south of the lake of that name; the Andastogues or Sus- 
quehannas, on that river; the Nottaways and some other Virginian tribes; and 
finally, the Tuscaroras in North Carolina, and perhaps the Chcrokees, whose 
language presents many striking points of similarit}'. 

Both these groups claimed a western origin, and seem in their progress east 
to have driven out of Ohio the Quappas, called by the Algonquins, Alkausas or 
Allcgewi, who retreated down the Ohio and Mississippi to the district which has 
preserved the name given them by the Algonquins. 

After planting themselves on the Atlantic border, the various tribes seem to 
have soon divided and become embroiled in war. The Iroquois, at first inferior 
to the Algonquins, were driven out of the vallc}'- of the St. Lawrence into the 
lake region of New York, where, by greater cultivation, valor, and union, they 
soon became superior to the Algonquins of Canada and New York, as the 
Susquehannas, who settled on the Susquehanna, did over the tribes of New 
Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. Prior to 1600, says the Relation de la Nouvelle 
France, the Susquehannas and the Mohawks, the most eastern Iroquois tribe, 
came into collision, and the former nearly exterminated their enemy in a war 
which lasted ten years. In IGOS, Captain Smith, in exploring the Chesapeake 
and its tributaries, met a party of these Sasquesahanocks, as he calls them, and 
he states that they w^ere still at war with the Massawomekes, or Mohawks. 

De Vries, in his Voyages, found them in 1633 at war with the Armewamen and 
Sankiekans — Algonquin tribes on the Delaware— maintaining their supremacy by 
butchery. They were friendly to the Dutch. When the Swedes arrived in 1G38, 
17— B 



1 8 HIS TOB T OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

they renewed the friendly intercourse begun by the Dutch. According to 
Hazard, they purchased lands of the ruling tribe, and thus secured their friend- 
ship. Southward, also, they carried the terror of their arms, and from 1G34 to 
1G44, says Bozman, they waged war on the Yaomacoes, the Piscataways, and 
Patuxents, and were so troublesome that in 1642 Governer Calvert, by procla- 
mation, declared them i^ublic enemies. 

When the Hurons, in Upper Canada, in 1647, began to sink under the fearful 
blows dealt by the Five Nations, the Susquehannas sent an embassy to offer them 
aid against the common enemy. Nor was the offer one of little value, for the 
Susquehannas could put into the field one thousand three hundred warriors, 
trained, says Proud, to the use of fire-arms and European modes of war by three 
Swedish soldiers, whom they had obtained to instruct them. Before interposing, 
however, they began a negotiation, and sent an embassy to Onondaga to urge 
the cantons to peace. The Iroquois refused, and the Hurons, sunk in apathy, 
took no active steps to secure the aid of the friendly Susquehannas. That tribe, 
however, maintained its friendl}'' intercourse with its European neighbors, and in 
1652, Sawahegeh, and other sachems, in presence of a Swedish deputy, ceded to 
Maryland all the territory from the Patuxent river to Palmer's Island, and from 
the Choptauk to the north-east branch north of Elk river. 

Four 3'ears later, the Iroquois, grown insolent by their success in almost anni- 
hilating their kindred tribes north and south of Lake Erie, provoked a war with 
the Susquehannas, plundering their hunters on Lake Ontario. During that A'ear 
the small-pox, that terrible scourge of the aborigines, broke out in their town, 
sweeping off many, and seriously enfeebling the nation. War had now begun in 
earnest with the Five Nations, and though the Susquehannas had some of their 
people killed near their town, they in turn pressed the Cayugas so hard that some 
of them retreated acrpss Lake Ontario to Canada. They also kept the Senecas 
in such alarm that they no longer ventured to carry their peltries to New York, 
except in caravans escorted by six hundred men, who even took a most circuitous 
route. A law of Maryland, passed May 1, 1661, authorized the Governor of that 
Province to aid the Susquehannas. 

Smarting under constant defeat, the Five Nations solicited French aid, but in 
April, 1663, the AVestern cantons raised an army of eight hundred men to invest 
and storm the fort of the Susquehannas. This fort was located about fifty miles 
from the mouth of the river. The enemy embarked on Lake Ontario, according to 
the French account, and then went overland to tlie Susquehanna. On reaching 
the fort, however, they found it well defended on the river side, and on the land 
side with two bastions in European style, with cannon mounted and connected 
by a double curtain of large trees. After some trifling skirmishes the Iroquois had 
recourse to strategem. They sent in a party of tAvent3^-five men to treat of peace, 
and ask provisions to enable them to return. The Susquehannas admitted tliem, 
but immediately burned them all alive before the eyes of their countrymen. The 
force o'f the Iroquois, according to Proud and Hazard, consisted of one thousand 
six hundred Avarriors, while that of the Susquehannas only one hundred. On the 
retreat of the Iroquois, the Susquehannas pursued them with considerable 
slaughtei'. , 

After this the war was carried on in small parties, and Susquehanna prisoners 



GENEBAL HISTORY. 19 

were from time to time burned at Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Cayuga. In 
the fall of 1669, the Susquehannas, after defeating the Cayugas, offered peace, but 
the Cayugas put their ambassador and his nephew to death, after retaining him 
five or six months — the Oneidas having taken nine Susquehannas, and sent some 
to Cayuga, with forty wampum belts to maintain the war. 

At this time the great war chief of the Susquehannas was one styled Hoclii- 
tagete, or Barefoot, and raving women and crafty medicine men deluded the 
Iroquois with promises of his capture and execution at the stake, and a famous 
medicine man of Oneida appeared after death to order his body to be taken up 
and interred on the trail leading to the Susquehannas, as the only mear.s of 
saving that canton from ruin. Toward the summer of 1612 a body of fortv 
Cayugas descended the Susquehanna in canoes, and twenty Senecas went by 
land to attack the enemy in their fields ; but a band of sixty Andaste, or Susque- 
hanna boys, the oldest not over sixteen, attacked the Senecas and routed them, 
killing one brave and taking another. Flushed with victory, they pushed on to 
attack the Cayugas, and defeated them also, killing eight, and wounding with 
arrow, knife, and hatchet fifteen or sixteen more, losing, however, fifteen or 
sixteen of their gallant band. At this time the Susquehannas were so reduced 
by war and pestilence that the}- could muster only three hundred warriors. 

In 1675, according to the Relatione Tnedi/^s and Colden, the tribe was com- 
pletely overthrown, but unfortunately we have no details whatever as to the forces 
which eff'ected it, or the time or manner of their utter defeat. The remnant, too 
proud to yield to those with whom they had long contended as equals, and, by 
holding the land of their fathers b}^ sufferance, to acknowledge themselves sub- 
dued, yet too weak to withstand the victorious Iroquois, forsook the river bearing 
their name, taking up a position on the western borders of Maryland, near the 
Piscataways. Shortly after they were accused of the murder of some settlers, 
apparentl}^ slain by the Senecas; they sent five of their chiefs to the Maryland 
and Virginia troops, under Col. John Washington, great-grandfather of General 
George Washington, and Major Thomas Truman, who went out in pui-suit. 
Although coming as deputies, and showing the Baltimore medal and certificate 
of friendship, these chiefs were cruelly put to death. The enraged Susque- 
hannas then began a terrible border war, which was kept up until their utter 
destruction. 

Having thus followed the fortunes of the aborigines in the centre of Pennsyl- 
vania, we turn our attention to the two tribes residing therein upon the arrival of 
the Founder — and whose important connection with the subsequent history of the 
State deserves more than a passing notice. We refer to the Delaware? and 
Shawanese. 

The Lenni Lenape, or the original people, as they called themselves, inha- 
bited principally the shores of the river Delaware, thence their name. The 
Lenape were of western origin ; and nearly forty tribes, according to Ileckewelder. 
acknowledged them as their " grandfathers " or parent stock. It was related by . 
the braves of the Delawares, that many centuries previous their ancestors dwelt 
far in the western wilds of the American continent, but emigrating eastward ly. 
arrived after many years on the Namoeai Sijiu (the Mississippi), or river of fish, 
where they fell in with the Mengwe (Iroquois), who had also emigrated from a 



20 HISTOB Y OF FEN'NS YL VANIA. 

distant country, and approached this river somewhat nearer its source. The 
spies of tlic Lenape reported the country on the east of the Mississippi to be 
inhabited by a powciful nation, dwelling in large towns erected upon their 
principal rivers. 

This people, tall and stout, some of whom, as tradition reports, were of gigantic 
mould, bore the name of Allegewi, and from them were derived the names of the 
Allegheny river and mountains. Their towns were defended by regular fortifica- 
tions or intrcnchments of earth, vestiges of which are yet shown in greater or less 
preservation. The Lenape requested permission to establish themselves in their 
vicinity. This was refused, but leave was given them to pass the river, and seek 
a country farther to the eastward. But, whilst the Lenape were crossing the river, 
the Allegewi, becoming alarmed at their number, assailed and destroyed many of 
those who had reached the eastern shore, and threatened a like fate to the others 
should they attempt the stream. Fired at the loss they had sustained, the Lenape 
eagerly accepted a proposition from the Mengwe, who had hitherto been specta- 
tors only of their enterpi-ise, to conquer and divide the country. A war of many 
3-ears duration was waged b^' the united nations, marked by great havoc on both 
sides, which eventuated in the conquest and expulsion of the Allegewi, who fled 
by the way of the Mississippi, never to return. Their devastated country was 
apportioned among the conquerors ; the Iroquois choosing their residence in the 
neighborhood of the great lakes, and the Lenape possessing themselves of the 
lands to the south. 

After many ages, during which the conquerors lived together in great har- 
mony, tlie enterprising hunters of the Lenape crossed the Allegheny mountains, 
and discovered the great rivers Susquehanna and Delaware, and their respective 
bays. Exploring the SheyicJibi countrj^ (New Jersey), they arrived on the Hud- 
son, to which they subsequently gave the name of the llohicanniltuck river. 
Iveturning to their nation, after a long absence, they reported their discoveries, 
describing the country they had visited as abounding in game and fruits, fish and 
fowl, and destitute of inhabitants. Concluding this to be the country destined 
for them by the Great Spirit, the Lenape proceeded to establish themselves upon 
the principal rivers of the east, making the Delaware, to which they gave the 
name of Lena]}e-wihiUuck (the river or stream of the Lenape), the centre of 
their possessions. 

They say, however, that all of their nation who crossed the Mississippi did not 
reach this country ; a part remaining behind to assist that portion of their people 
who, fiightened by the reccpti'on which the Allegewi had given to their countr}'- 
men, fled far to the west of the Namcesi Sipu. They were finally' divided into 
three great bodies ; the larger, one-half of the whole, settled on the Atlantic ; the 
other half was separated into two parts, the stronger continued bej'ond the 
Mississippi, the other remained on its eastern bank. 

Those on the Atlantic were subdivided into three tribes — the Turtle or 
(Jnamis, the Turkey or Unalachlgo^ and the Wolf or Minsi. The two former 
inhabited the coast from the Hudson to the Potomac, settling in small bodies in 
towns and villages upon the larger streams, under the chiefs subordinate to the 
great council of the nation. The Minsi, called by the English Monseys, the most 
warlike of the three tribes, dwelt in the interior, forming a barrier between their 



GENERAL HISTORY. 21 

nation and the Mengwe. They extended themselves from the Minisink, on the 
Delaware, where they held their council seat, to the Hudson on the east, to the 
Susquehannah on the southwest, to the head waters of the Delaware and Susque- 
hannah rivers on the north, and to that range of hills now known in New Jersey 
by the name of the Muskenccun, and by those of Lehigh and Conewago in 
Pennsylvania. 

Man}' subordinate tribes proceeded from these, who received names from 
their places of residence, or from some accidental circumstance, at the time of its 
occurrence remarkable, but now forgotten. Such probably were the Shawanese, 
the Nanticokes, the Susquehannas, heretofore referred to, the Nesharaines, and 
other tribes, resident in or near the Province of Pennsylvania at the time of its 
settlement. 

The Mengwe hovered for some time on the borders of the lakes, with their 
canoes in readiness to fly should the Allegewi return. Having grown bolder, 
and tiieir numbers increasing, they stretched themselves along the St. Lawrence, 
and became, on the north, near neighbors to the Lenape tribes. 

The Mengwe and the Lenap?, in the progress of time, became enemies. The 
latter repi'esent the former as treacherous and cruel, pursuing pertinaciously an 
insidious and destructive policy toward their more generous neighbors. Dread- 
ing the power of the Lenape, the Mengwe resolved to involve them in war 
with their distant tribes, to reduce their strength. They committed murders 
upon the members of one tribe, and induced the injured party to believe they 
were pepetrated by another. They stole into the country of the Delawares, sur- 
prised them in their hunting parties, slaughtered the hunters, and escaped with 
the plunder. 

Each nation or tribe had a particular mark upon its war clubs, which, left 
beside a murdered person, denoted the aggressor. The Mengwe perpetrated a 
murder in the Cherokee countrj', and left with the dead body a war club bearing 
the insignia of the Lenape. The Cherokees, in revenge, fell suddenly upon the 
latter, and commenced a long and blood}' war. The treachery of the Mengwe 
w^as at length discovered, and the Delawares turned upon them with the determi- 
nation utterly to extirpate them. Tliey were the more strongl}' induced to take 
this resolution, as the cannibal propensities of the Mengwe, according to Hecke- 
welder, had reduced them, in the estimation of the Delawares, below the rank of 
human beings. 

Hitherto each tribe of the Mengwe had acted under the direction of its par- 
ticular chiefs ; and, although the nation could not control the conduct of its mem- 
bers, it was made responsible for their outrages. Pressed by the Lenape, the}' 
resolved to form a confederation whicli might enable them better to concentrate 
their force in war, and to regulate their affairs in peace. Thannawage, an aged 
Mohawk, was the projector of this alliance. Under his auspices, five nations, the 
Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senecas, formed a species of 
republic, governed by the united councils of their aged and experienced chiefs. 
To these a sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, was added in ni2. This last originally 
dwelt in the western parts of North Carolina, Init having formed a deep and 
general conspiracy to exterminate the whites, were, as stated in Smith's History 
of New York, driven from their country, and adopted by the Iroquois confederacy 



22 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

The beneficial effects of this system early displayed themselves. The Lenape 
were checked, and the Mengwe, whose warlike disposition soon familiarized them 
with fire arms procured from the Dutch, were enabled, at the same time, to con- 
tend with them and to resist the French, who now attempted the settlement of 
Canada, and to extend their conquests over a large portion of the country between 
the Atlantic and the Mississippi. 

But, being pressed hard by their new, they became desirous of reconciliation 
with their old enemies; and, for this purpose, if the tradition of the Delawares 
be credited, they effected one of the most extraordinary strokes of policy which 
history has recorded. 

The mediators between the Indian nations at war are the women. The men, 
however weary of the contest, hold it cowardly and disgraceful to seek reconcilia- 
lion. They deem it inconsistent in a warrior to speak of peace with bloody 
weapons in his hands. He must maintain a determined courage, and appear at 
all times as ready and willing to fight as at the commencement of hostilities. 
With such dispositions, Indian wars would be interminable, if the women did not 
interfere and persuade the combatants to bury the hatchet and make peace with 
each other. On these occasions, the Avomen pleaded their cause with much 
eloquence. " Not a warrior," they would say, " but laments the loss of a son, a 
brother, or a friend. And mothers, who have borne with cheerfulness the pangs 
of child-birth, and the anxieties that wait upon the infancy and adolescence of 
their sons, behold their promised blessings crushed in the field of battle, or pe- 
rishing at the stake in unutterable torments. In the depth of their grief they 
curse their wretched existence, and shudder at the idea of bearing children." 
They conjured the warriors, therefore, by their suffering wives, their helpless 
children, their homes, and their friends, to interchange forgiveness, to cast away 
their arms, and, smoking together the pipe of amity and peace, to embrace as 
friends those whom they had learned to esteem as enemies. 

Pra^'ers thus urged seldom failed of their desired effect. The function of the 
peace-maker was honorable and dignified, and its assumption hy a courageous and 
powerful nation could not be inglorious. This station the Mengwe urged upon 
the Lenape. " They had reflected," they said, "upon the state of the Indian 
race, and were convinced that no means remained to preserve it unless some mag- 
nanimous nation would assume the character of the woman. It could not be given 
to a weak and contemptible tribe ; such would not be listened to ; but the Lenape 
and their allies would at once possess influence and command respect." 

The facts upon which these arguments were founded were known to the Dela- 
wares, and, in a moment of blind confidence in the sincerity of the Iroquois, they 
acceded to the proposition, and assumed the petticoat. The ceremony of the 
metamorphosis was performed with great rejoicings at Albany, in 1617, in the 
presence of the Dutch, whom the Lenape charged with having conspired with the 
Menajwe for their destruction. 

Having thus disarmed the Delawares, the Iroquois assumed over them the 
riffhts of protection and command. But still dreading their strength, they art- 
full}' involved them again in war with the Cherokees, promised to fight their bat- 
tles, led them into aii ambush of their foes, and deserted them. The Delawares, 
at length, comprehended the treacher}^ of their arch enemy, and resolved to resume 



QENEBAL HISTOBY. 23 

their arms, and, being still superior in numbers, to crush them. But it was too 
late. The Europeans were now making their way into the country in every 
direction, and gave ample employment to the astonished Lenape. 

The Mengwe denied these machinations. They averred that they conquered 
the Delawares by force of arms, and made them a subject people. And, though 
it was said they were unable to detail the circumstance of this conquest, it is more 
rational to suppose it true, than that a brave, numerous, and warlike nation should 
have voluntarily suffered themselves to be disarmed and enslaved by a shallow 
artifice ; or that, discovering the fraud practised upon them, they should unresist- 
ingly have submitted to its consequences. This conquest was not an empty acqui- 
sition to the Mengwe. They claimed dominion over all the lands occupied by the 
Delawares, and, in many instances, their claims were distinctly acknowledged. 
Parties of the Five Nations occasionally occupied the Lenape country, and wan- 
dered over it at all times at their pleasure. 

Eventually, in 1756, Tedyuscung, the noted Delaware chief, seems to have 
compelled the Iroquois to acknowledge the independence of his tribe, but the 
claim of superiority was often afterwards revived. 

The origin of the Shawanese was southern. They probably belonged to the 
Algonquins, as they spoke the same language. From the most authentic 
information, Harvey informs us, it appears that the basin of the Cumberland 
river was the residence of the Shawanese before the settlement of the Europeans 
on the continent, and that they connected the different sections of the Algonquin 
families. 

At the celebrated treaty of 1682, the Shawanese were a party to that covenant, 
and they must have been considered a very prominent band, from the fact of their 
having preserved the treaty in their own possession or keeping, as we are informed 
that, at a conference held many years after, that nation produced this ti-eaty on 
parchment to the Governor of the Province. It was the custom with the Indian 
tribes who made a joint treaty with the whites to commit the preservation of the 
papers containing the treaty, etc, to such of the bands as were considered most to 
be trusted. From the best authority, it appears that as early as 1673 upwards of 
seventy families of that nation removed from the Carolinas and occupied some 
of the deserted posts of the Susquehannas. Others of the tribe soon followed. 

In the year 1698, some Shawanese applied to the Proprietary Government of 
Pennsylvania for permission to settle on the Conestoga and Pequea creeks, under 
Opessah, their principal chief. Here they remained a quarter of a centurj^, when, 
with other families settled on tlie Swatara, Paxtang, and the Susquehanna 
streams on the east, they branched off to the westward. As early as 1728 we find 
the Shawanese as far west as the Ohio, and by the middle of the eighteenth century 
the entire tribe had settled on the branches of that river. In the year 1732 the 
number of fighting braves of that nation in Pennsylvania amounted to seven hun- 
dred. The Shawanese, says Golden, were the most restless of all the Indian tribes. 
In 1745, he says, one tribe of them had gone to New Spain. This band of four 
hundred and fifty, who located themselves on the head-waters of the Mobile river, 
probabl}' never returned to Pennsylvania. 

As it is difficult to disentangle the web of conflicting evidence respecting the 
nationality of the Indians who from time to time occupied the soil of Penns^l- 



24 UIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA . 

vania, we shall content ourselves with the foregoing reference to the three prhici- 
pal nations, the most important of whom were the Delawares and Shawanese, as 
for almost a century and a half they were the principal parties to all treaties. 

The language of the aborigines, says Gordon, was said to be rich, sonorous, 
plastic, and comprehensive in the highest degree. It varied from the European 
idioms chiefly in the conjugation of the verbs, with which not only the agent and 
patient were compounded, in every possible case, but the adverbs were also 
blended, and one word was made to express the agent, the action, with its accidents 
of time, place, and quantity, and the object effected by them. And, though 
greatly pliant, it was subjected to rules, from which there were few exceptions. It 
had the power of expressing every idea, even the most abstract. The Old and 
New Testaments were translated into it, and the Christian missionaries liad 
no difficulty, as they asserted, of making themselves understood on all subjects by 
the Indians. As a specimen, we give the following translation of -the Jubilate 
Deo in the language of the Six Nations : 

Sewatonnharen ne Rawenniioke, nise ne Tsionwentsiagweon ; hetsisewa- 
wenniiostak ne Rawenniio, 7iok tsi elho nensewaiei'e sewatshennonnihak ; nok 
gasewe tsi nonwe nihenteron, nok tetsisewariwagwas ne Rawenniio. 

Ao-wa sewerhekne Rawenniio raonha ne Niioh; nok raonha songwaiatison ; 
nolc iah i-i ne tiongwe teiongwatatiatison ; nok raonha rahongweta ni-i ne tion- 
gwehogon. 

Wasene tsit honnhogarontc, etho tetsisewanonweraton ; nok ne rahononsagon 
tetsisewariwagwas: Tetsisewanonweraton, nok hetsisewasennanoronst nonen 
wesewatati. 

Roianere na-ah ne Rawenniio, tsinihotennitenraskon iah tiaiehewe ; nok ne 
rahoriwatokenti toitkon tontatie, tsinahe tsontagawatsiratatie nongwe. 

A cultivated language usually denotes great civilization. But our abori- 
gines seem to have confined their efforts to the improvement of their speech. 
This was a consequence naturally flowing from their form of government and 
political institutions, in which the most absolute liberty prevailed. The public 
welfare was confided to the aged and experienced chiefs, whose resolutions were 
obeyed in full conviction of their wisdom. They had no law but public opinion, 
and the redress of injuries belonged to the injured. Among such a people, par- 
ticularly, eloquence is the handmaid of ambition, and all power must depend 
upon the talent of persuasion. To this cause we may ascribe the cultivation 
and the many beauties which are said to mark the Indian tongues of North 
America. 

In other respects, these tribes had advanced little beyond the rudest state of 
nature. The^^ had no written language, unless rude drawings may be thus con- 
sidered. Their intercourse with each other was regulated by a few simple rules 
of justice and courtes}^ Their passions generally preserved an even and mode- 
rate tenor; but, occasionally becoming intense, they produced enormous crimes, 
or deeds of heroism. In the commerce of the sexes, love, as a sentiment, was 
almost unknown. Marriage was a physical convenience, continued by the will 
of the parties, either sex having the power to dissolve it at pleasure. The treat- 
ment of the women, however, if not marked by tenderness, was not cruel. A 
full proportion of labor, it is true, was imposed upon them, but it was of that 



GENEBAL HISTORY. 25 

kind which necessarily falls to their lot, where the men are absent from their 
homes in search of sustenance for their families. It consisted of domestic and 
agricultural services. Children were educated with care in the knowledo-e of 
the duties and employments of their future life. Their lessons were taught in a 
kind and familiar manner, their attention awakened by the hope of distinction, 
and their efforts rewarded by general praise. Threats nor stripes were ever 
used. Lands and agricultural returns were common property ; peltries and the ^ 
other acquisitions of the chase belonged to individuals. 

It is well known they were ver^^ much averse to European religion and 
customs, unless in such things as they could comprehend and clearly understand 
wei-e for their real benefit. Yet, in this, sometimes, their passions prevailed 
over their better understanding; instance, their drunkenness, &c. But though 
the hoped and desired success did not so fully attend the labors bestowed on 
them, and the means used, both by William Penn himself, in person, and b}^ 
divers others of the more pious and early settlers, whose good example was 
very remarkable, with the later endeavors since continued, to inform the judg- 
ment of the Indians in regard to religious affairs, to acquaint them with 
the principles and advantages of Christianity^ to restrain them from some 
things acknowledged b}^ themselves to be manifestly pernicious, particularly 
from abusing themselves with strong liquor, by law, as well as advice, &c., so 
much as might reasonably have been wished or expected ; yet these very labors 
and means were far from being useless, or entirel}^ without good effect ; for the 
consequence declared that the Indians, in general, were sensible of the kind 
regard paid them and of the good intended thereby, which they showed and 
proved by their future conduct and steady friendship, though thej' generally 
refused in a formal manner to embrace European manners, religion, and opin- 
ions: "For, governed by their own customs, and not by laws, creeds, SiQ., they 
greatly revered those of their ancestors, and followed them so implicitly that a 
new thought or action seldom took place among them." 

" They are thought," says William Penn, •' to have believed in a God and immor- 
tality; and seemed to aim at a public worship: in performing this, they some- 
times sat in several circles, one within another: the action consisted of singing, 
jumping, shouting, and dancing; which they are said to have used mostly as a 
tradition from their ancestors, rather than from any knowledge or inquiry of 
their own into the serious parts of its origin. 

. " They said the great King, v/ho made them, dwelt in a glorious country to the 
southward ; and that the spirits of the blest should go thither and live again. 
Their most solemn worship was a sacrifice of the first fruits, in which they 
burned the first and fattest buck, and feasted together upon what else they had 
collected. In this sacrifice they broke no bones of any creature which the}' ate; 
but after they had done the}' gathered them together and burned them very care- 
fully. They distinguished between a good and evil Manito, or Spirit ; worship- 
ping the former for the good they hoped ; and, it is said, some of them, the 
latter, that they might not be afflicted with the evil which they feared ; so slav- 
ishly dark were some of them represented to have been in their understandings! 
But whether this last was true, in a general sense, or peculiar only to some parts, 
it was certainly not the case at all among the Indians within the limits of these 



26 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

provinces, or, at least, very much concealed from the first and early settlers of 
them, 

" But in late years it was less to be admired that the Indians, in these provinces 
and their vicinity, had shown so little regard to the Christian religion, but 
rather treated it, as well as its professors, with contempt and abhorrence, when 
it was duly considered what kind of Christians those generally were, with whom 
they mostly dealt and conversed ; as, the Indian traders, and most of the inhabi- 
tants of the back counties of this and the neighboring provinces, who had 
chiefly represented the professors of Christianity among them, for many years ! 
viz., such of the lowest rank, and least informed, of mankind, who had flowed in 
from Germany, Ireland, and Xha jails of Great Britain, and settled next them, 
as well as those who fled from justice in the settled, or better inhabited parts of 
the country, and retired among them, that they might be out of the reach of the 
laws, &c., the least qualified to exhibit favorable ideas of this kind ; but it was 
most certain they have done the contrary ; insomuch that, it were to be 
wished the cause of the late unhappy Indian war within the limits of these pro- 
vinces, did not take its rise, in no small degree, from the want of common jus- 
tice, in the conduct of too many of these people towards them ; for notwith- 
standing the general ignorance of the Indians in many things, especially of 
European arts and inventions, yet in things of this kind they relied move on ex- 
perience than theory ; and they mostly formed their judgment of the English, or 
Europeans, and of their religion and customs, not from the words, but from the 
actions and manners of those with whom they most conversed and transacted 
business. 

" For, however ignorant and averse to European refinement and ways of think- 
ing, on religious subjects, the Indians, in general, might appear to have been, 3^et, 
as in all other nations of mankind, it is most certain there were some among them 
of a more exalted way of thinking, and enlightened understandings, who, not- 
withstanding the great absurdities among the generality, were not without some 
degree of a just sense and acknowledgment of the providential care snd regard 
of the Almighty Creator over the human race, both in a general and particular 
capacity, and, even, of divine grace and influence on the human mind, and tliat 
independent of foreign information, or instruction: of this their immediate sense 
and understanding of mental objects, which it is most manifest man}' of them 
possessed, even of the highest nature, and very demonstrative ; besides, ])art at 
least of their traditions, from their ancestors, whose prime original, so far as it 
is founded on truth, must necessarily have first arisen from the divine intelli- 
gence, though communicated in difl'erent degree to different parts of the liuman 
race, and though much of such tradition may be mixed with imagination and 
absurdity." 

The strongest passion of an Indian's soul was revenge. To gratif}' it, distance, 
danger, and toil were held as nothing. But there was no manliness in hisA^engeance. 
He loved to steal upon his enemy in the silence of the forest, or in his midnight 
slumbers, and to glut himself, like a ravenous wolf, in undistinguished slaughter. 
In war, not even the captive was spared, unless he were adopted to supply the 
place of a deceased member of the capturing nation. If not thus preserved, he 
was destined to perish, in protracted torture, under the hands of women and chil 



GENEBAL HISTOBY. 



27 



dren. On the other hand, hospitality and respect for the property of others were 
their distinguishing virtues. Strangers were treated with great attention and 
kindness, their wants liberally supplied, and their persons considered sacred. 
To the needy and suffering of their own tribes they cheerfully gave; dividing 
with them their last morsel. Theft in their communities was rare, and is said to 
have been almost unknown before their acquaintance with the whites. 

Such are, in brief, the peculiar characteristics of the aborigines. With the 
exception of a mere handful in the northern part of Warren county, all have 
disappeared from the limits of our State, and only the names of our streams and 
our mountains are left to remind us of the native red man, although the revenjie- 
ful Delawares and perfidious Shawanese hold a prominent place in the history 
of the State for at least an entire century. 




PBOPBIETARY SEAL. 




CHAPTER II. 

DISCOVERY OP THE DELAWARE BY HUDSON. SETTLE3IENT OP THE DUTCH AND 

SWEDES. 1G09— 1G81. 

EVERAL j-cars subsequent to the first settlement of Virginia, 
Henry Iludson, while in the service of the Dutch East India 
Company, made his celebrated voyage that resulted in the discov- 
ery of the great river which most justly bears his name. lie sailed 
from Amsterdam in the Ualf-Moon, on the 4th of April, 1609, with the view of 
discovering a northwest passage to China. lie arrived off the Banks 
1G09. of Xew Foundland in Julj^, continued his course westward)}-, and, after 
some dela}', entered Penobscot Bay, on the coast of INIaine. Aftei 
making some slight repairs, Hudson continued southwest along the coast until 
the 18th of August, when he arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Ba^'. 

Reversing his course, on the 28th of August, 1G09, in latitude thirty -nine 
degrees and five minutes north, Iludson discovered ''a great bay," which, after 
having made a very careful examination of the shoals and soundings at its 
mouth, be entered. According to Juet, he soon came to the over-cautious con- 
clusion that "he that will thoroughly discover this great bay must have a small 
pinnace, that must draw but four or live feet water, to sound before him." 
To this great bay the name of Delaware has been given, in honor of Lord 
Delaware, who is said to have entered it one year subsequently to the visit of 
Hudson, although this has been denied by Mr. Broadhead and other historians. 
Coasting along the Eastern shore of New Jersey, Hudson, on the third day 
of September, anchored his ship within Sandy Hook. On the twelfth he entered 
New York Bay through the Narrows. The time between the 11th and 19th of 
September was employed in exploring the North River, He ascended with his 
ship as high as the spot on which Albany now stands. Satisfied that he could 
not reach the South Sea by this route, he retraced his steps. 

On the 4th of October he reached the ocean, and on the "Zth of November 
following arrived on the English coast. Though an Englishman, Hudson was in 
the employ of the Dutch, and his visit to the Delaware, however transient it 
may have been, is rendered important from the fact that on it principally, if not 
wholly, rested the claim of that Government to the bay and river, so far as it 
was based on the ground of prior discover3\ This claim is now fully conceded ; 
for although the bay was known in Virginia by its present name as early as 1G12, 
no evidence exists of its discovery by Lord Delaware, or any other Englishman, 
prior to IGIO, when it is said that navigator " touched at Delaware Bay on his 
passage to Virginia." Plantagenet — very doubtful authority — in his " Descrip- 
tion of New Albion," gives Sir Samuel Argall the credit of being the first 
European who entered its waters after its discovery by Hudson. An oflTicial 
Dutch document, drawn up in 1644, claims that New Netherland " was visited by 
28 



GENERAL HISTORY. 29 

inhabitants of that country in the year 1598," and that "two little forts wore 
built on the South and North Rivers." This assertion, made by an interested 
party after the lapse of half a century, is also to be doubted. 

The various names by wliich the Delaware River and Bay have been known, 
are: by the Indians — Pautaxat, Marisqueton, Malierisk-kisken, and Lenape 
Wihittuck ; by the Dutch — Zuydt or South River, Nassau River, Prince Hendrick 
River, and Charles River; by the Swedes — New Swedcland Stream; and by tlio 
English, Delaware River. 

In 1G14 a general charter was granted by the States General of 
1614. Holland, securing the exclusive privilege of trade during four voyages 
■with "any new courses, havens, countries, and places" to the discoverer, 
and subjecting any persons who should act in violation thereof to a forfeiture of 
their vessel, in addition to a heavy pecuniar}^ penalty Stimulated by this edict, 
the merchants of Amsterdam fitted out Ave vessels to engage in voj-agcs, in 
pursuance thereof. Among them was the Fortune, commanded by Captain 
Cornells Jacobsen Mey. 

"With more enterprise and industry than his predecessors, this navigator 
visited the shores from Cape Cod to the South, or Delaware River, examining 
and mapping as he went along the numerous inlets and islands. From him the 
bay of the Delaware was called New Port iSIey, its northern cape. Cape Mey, and 
the southern. Cape Cornel is. To a cape still further soutli he gave the name of 
Ilindlopen, after a town of Friesland. Returning to Holland, and making report 
of his discoveries^ in connection with the other skippers, the exclusive privileges 
of trade were granted to the United Company of Merchants of the cities of 
Amsterdam and lloorn, by whose means the expedition had been fitted out. It 
was limited, however, to "newly discovered lands situate in America between 
New France and Virginia,, whereof tlie sea coasts lie between the fortieth and 
forty-fiftii degrees of latitude, now named New Netherland," and was to extend 
to four voyages, to be made witiiin three ycai's, from the first of January, 1GI5. 
It will be seen that the Delaware Bay is not included in this grant, a circumstance 
that would suggest that the discoveries in that quarter by Captain Mey had not 
been appreciated. 

To Skipi)cr Cornells Ilendrickson is due the credit of the first exploration of 

the Delaware river as high up, probably, as the month of the Schuylkill, 

1616. in the year IGIG. His report, furnished by his employers to the States 

General, was not considered, however, as furnishing additional proof 

that the discoveries made b}"- him went much beyond what had been previously 

made, for the application for trading privileges was refused. In anticipation of 

the formation of a Dutch AVest India Company, these privileges were not again 

granted under the general charter of 1G14, except in a very few instances. The 

trade to New Netherland, regarded by the Dutch fis extending beyond the 

Delaware, "was thrown open, in a measure, to individual competition. This did 

not last long, for on the third of June, 1G21, the West India Company was 

incorporated. 

This company having, by virtue of the charter, taken possession of the 
country, they dispatched the ship New Netherland, Avith a number of people, 
thereto, under the direction of Captains Cornells Jacobsen Mey and Adrien Joriz 



30 SIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Tienpont. Mey proceeded to the Delaware, or South, River, on tho 

1623. eastern bank of which, fifteen leagues from its mouth, he erected Fort 
Nassau, at a place called by the natives Tcchaacho, supposed to be on 

the Sassackon, now Little Timber Creek, a short distance below the present town 
of Gloucester, in New Jersey. It was the first settlement, if it can so be 
regarded, on the Delaware. 

The administration of the affairs of New Netherland was confided by the West 

India Companj^ to Peter Minuit, who arrived at Manhattan Island in 1624. He 

was assisted in his government by a council of five members and a 

1624. "Scout Fiscal," whose duties embraced those now usually performed 
by a sheriff and district attorney. The authority vested in the Directoi', 

as he was styled, and his council, was ample, being executive, legislative, and 
judicial, and extended to the South as well as the North River. 

The commencement of the Directorship of Minuit is fixed by Wassenaer, in 
bis History of Europe, in the year 1026, and he assigns him two predecessors in 
that office, viz., William Van Hulst, for the year 1625, and Cornelis Mey, for 
the 3^ear 1624. These men, in conjunction with Adrien Joriz Tienpont, appear, 
however, to have been merely directors of an expedition, and it would seem that 
the government of the country, of which the territory embraced within the 
limits of that portion of the State on the Delaware constituted a part, com- 
menced with the administration of Minuit. According to the authority last 
quoted, the effort at a settlement on the Delaware seems to have been abandoned 
before the expiration of a single year, in order to strengthen the colony at 
Manhattan. It is not remarkable that tliis policy should have been adopted, as 
the whole colony at tiiat place scarcely numbered two hundred souls. The fort, 
therefore, at the South River, was abandoned to the Indians, who did not fail 
to occupy it as their occasions required ; and the countr3^ again passed into their 
possession as completely as it was on the day Hudson touched at the capes. 

In 1629, the West India Company granted, by charter, special privi- 

1629. leges to all persons who should plant any colony in New Netherland. 
They adopted certain articles termed " Fiif:ED0MS and Exemptions," 

under which scheme the feudal tenure of lands was to be introduced into 
America, south of Canada, where settlements on an analogous plan had already 
commenced. 

Thus encouraged, several of the directors of the compan}', among whom vrers 

Samuel Godyn and Samuel Dloemaert, resolved to make vast territorial 

acquisitions, and by their agents had purchased a large tract of land at the 

mouth of the Delaware Bay. This grant was confirmed to the purchasers by 

Peter Minuit, the Director, and his council, on the 16th of Juh', 1630. 

1630. Tlie land embraced in the grant, thus confirmed, was "situate on 
the south side of the aforesaid bay of the South River, extending in 

length from cape Hinlopen off into the mouth of the aforesaid Soutli Rivei', about 
eight leagues, and half a league in breadth into the interior, extending to a 
certain marsh or valley through which these limits can be clearly enough 
distinguished." Samuel Godyn had previously given notice of his intention to 
make the above purchase, and to occupy the bay of the South River as ' Patroon " 
on the conditions set forth in the " Freedoms and Exemptions." Meeting with 



GENERAL HISTORY, 31 

David Pieterszeu De Vries, of Hoora, "a bold and skilful seaman," wlio had 
been " a master of artillery in the service of the United Provinces," he made him 
acquainted with the design of himself and associates, of forming a colony. The 
bay of the South River was held up to De Vries as a point at which a whale 
fishery could be profitably established, as Godyn represented " that there were 
many whales " which Iccpt before the bay, and the oil, at sixty guilders a hogs- 
head, he thought, would realize a good profit. De Vries, declining to accept a 
subordinate position in connection with the colony, he was at once admitted, on 
perfect equality, into a company of " Patroons," who associated themselves 
together on the IGth day of October, 1630. 

On the 12th of December following, a ship and a yacht for the South River 
were dispatched from the Texel, " with a number of people, and a large stock of 
cattle," the object being, says De Vries, " as well to carry on a whale fishery in 
that region, as to plant a colony for the cultivation of all sorts of grain, for 
which the country is well adapted, and of tobacco." 

Swanendael (valley of swans) was the name given to the tract of land pur- 
chased by Godyn for his colony on the " South River, in New Netherland." 
From him the bay was named in the Dutch records, " Godyn's Ba}'." This was 
in midwinter, 1630-1, but the date of the arrival of the colonists is not known. 
Skipper Ileycs, who commanded the Walrus, for that appears to have been the 
name of the ship that brought out this little colony, purchased of the Indians a 
tract of land sixteen English miles square, at Cape May, and extending sixteen 
miles on the baj'. This document, duly reported and recorded, is still in ex- 
istence. 

A house, " well beset with palisades in place of breastworks," was erected on 

the northwest side of Hoorn-kill (Lewes creek), a short distance from 

1631. its mouth. It was called " Fort Optlandt," and appears to have served 

the colony, which consisted of thirty-two persons, as a place of defence, 

a dwelling, and a storehouse. This colony, the most unfortunate that settled 

on the bay or river, was left under the charge of Giles Osset. 

Commissary Osset set upon a post or pillar the arms of Holland painted on 
tin, in evidence of its claim and profession. An Indian, ignorant of the object of 
this exhibition, and perchance unconscious of the right of exclusive property, 
appropiiated to his own use this honored symbol. The folly of Osset con- 
sidered this offence not only as a larceny, but as a national insult, and he urged 
his complaints and demands for redress with so much vehemence and importu- 
nity that the harrassed and perplexed tribe brought him the head of the offender. 
This was a punishment which Osset neither wished nor had foreseen, and he 
ought justly to have dreaded its consequences. In vain he reprehended the 
severity of the Indians, and told them, had they brought the delinquent to him, 
Le would have been dismissed with a reprimand. The love of vengeance, inscpa 
rablc from the Indian character, sought a dire gratification ; and, though the 
death of the culprit was doomed and executed by his own tribe, still they beheld 
its cause in the exaction of the strangers. Availing themselves of the season in 
which a greater part of the Dutch were engaged in the cultivation of the fields, 
at a distance from tlicir house, the Indians entered it, under the amicable pre- 
tence of trade, and murdered the unsuspicious Osset, with a single sentinel who 



32 HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

attended hira. Tlience proceeding to the fields, they fell upon the laborers, in 
the moment of exchanging friendly salutations, and massacred every individual. 
This conduct of the Indians, with its extenuating circumstances, as related by 
themselves to De Tries, is sufficiently atrocious; but it is neither improbable 
nor in(^.onsistcnt with the disposition the aborigines had frequently displayed 
towards foreigners, that the desire of possessing the white man's wealth was as 
powerful a stimulant to violence as the thirst for vengeance. 

In December, 1G31, De Tries again arrived from Holland. lie found no 
vestio-es of his colonists, save the ashes of their dwelling and their unburied 
carcasses. Attracted by the firing of a cannon, the savages approached his 
vessel with guilty hesitation. But having at length summoned courage to ven- 
ture on board, they gave a circumstantial narrative of the destruction of his 
people. De Tries deemed it politic to pardon what he could not safely punish; 
and was, moreover, induced, by the pacific disposition of his employers, to seek 
reconciliation. lie made a new treaty with the Indians, and afterwards, with a 
view to obtain provisions, ascended the river above Fort Nassau. He had nearly 
fallen a victim here to the perfidy of the natives. Pretending to complj^ with his 
request, they directed him to enter the Timmerkill (Timber Creek), which fur- 
nished a convenient place for an attack, but warned by a female of the tribe of 
their design, and that a crew of a vessel, which had been sent from Tirginia to 
explore the river the September previous, had been there murdered, he returned 
to Fort Nassau, which he found filled with savages. They attempted to surprise 
him, more than forty entering his vessel; but, aware of their intention, he 
ordered them ashore with threats, declaring that tlieir Manito, or Great Spirit, 
had revealed their wickedness. But subsequently, pursuing the humane and 
pacific policy which had hitherto distinguished him, he consented to the wishes 
they expressed, of forming a treaty of amit}', which was confirmed with the cus- 
tomary presents on their part; but they declined his gifts, saying they did not 
now receive presents that they might give others in return. 

Failing to procure the necessary provisions, De Tries, leaving part of his crew 
in the bay to prosecute the whale fisherj', sailed to Tirginia, where, as the first 
visitor from New Netherland, he was kindly received, and his wants supplied. 
Upon his return to the Delaware, in April following, finding the whale fishery 
unsuccessful, he hastened his departure, and, witli the other colonists, returned 
to Holland, visiting Fort Amsterdam on his way. Thus, at the expiration of 
twenty-five years from the discovery of the Delaware by Hudson, not a single 
European remained upon its shores. 

Director Minuit, suspected to have favored the claims of the Patroons, 
having been recalled, left tlie now fiourishing colony of New Amsterdam 
1632. in the spring of 1G32. He was succeeded by Wouter Tan Twiller, who 
arrived at Fort Amsterdam early the following year. 

The same year. Lord Baltimore obtained a grant for Marj'land, under which 
he claimed the lands on the west side of Delaware river, the fruitful source of 
continual controversies beiween him and the Dutch, and later with the Pennsyl- 
vania proprietaries, which ^-ere not settled lor more than one hundred and thirty 
years. After his death, liio patent was confirmed to his son. The extent of the 
grant will be seen from the following proceedings and description, but had it not 



GENEBAL HISTOBT. 33 

been for the occupancy of the Dutch thus nai-ratecl, Delaware as a separate State 
would have had no existence. Therefore "the vo3^age of De Vries," says 
Bancroft, "was the cradling of a State. According to English rule, occupancy 
was necessary to complete a title to the wilderness. The Dutch now occupied 
Delaware, and Harvey, the governor of Virginia, in a grant of commercial 
privileges to Claiborne, recognised the adjoining plantations of the Dutch." 

"By letters patent of this date, reciting the petition of Cecilius, Lord 
Baltimore, for a certain country thereinafter described, not then cultivated 
and planted, though in some parts thereof inhabited by certain barbarous people, 
having no knowledge of Almighty God, his Majesty granted to said Lord 
Baltimore : 

"All that part of a peninsula lying in the parts of America between the 
ocean on the east, and the bay of Cliesapeake on the west, and divided from the 
other part thereof by a right line drawn from the promontory or cape of land 
called Watkins' Point (situate in the aforesaid bay, near the river of Wigheo), 
on the west, unto the main ocean on the east; and between that bound on the 
south, unto that part of Delaware bay on the north, which lieth under the 40th 
degree of north latitude from the equinoctial, where New England ends; and all 
that tract of land between the bounds aforesaid ; i. e., passing from the aforesaid 
bay called Delaware bay, in a right line by the degrees aforesaid, unto the true 
meridian of the first fountain of the river of Pattowmack, and from thence 
trending towards the south unto the further bank of the aforesaid river, and 
following the west and south side thereof, unto a certain place called Cinquack, 
situate near the mouth of the said river, where it falls into the bay of Chesa- 
peake, and from thence by a straight line unto the aforesaid promontory and 
place called Watkins' Point." 

It does not appear that actual steps towards the settling of the banks of the 
Delaware were taken until 1G38, and the authentic notices of transactions 
belonging to the interval which have come down to us are not of sufllcient mo- 
ment to be chronicled in this place. 

Peter Minuit, after his return to Holland, went to Sweden and succeeded in 
reviving the plan of colonizing the Delaware, abandoned by Usselinx, who is 
supposed to have died at tlic Hague, in 1647. Towards the close of 1637, iNIinuit, 
under the patronage of Queen Christina, at the head of an expedition consisting 
of .the ship of war Key of Kalraar, and the transport Griffin, and carrying 
a clergyman, an engineer, about fifty settlers, with the necessary provisions, 
merchandise for trade and presents to the Indians, left Gottenberg, and after 
calling at Jamestown, in Yii-ginia, for wood and water, reached the Delaware 
about May, 1638. Purchasing the soil on the western shore, from the 
1638. capes to the falls of Santhikan, opposite to the present city of Trenton, 
from the Indians, he erected the fort and town of Christina, on the 
north bank of the Minquas-kill, or Minquas creek, almost three miles above its 
mouth. The Rev. Reorus Torkillus, who accompanied Minuit, was the first 
Swedish clergyman in America ; he died in 1643, aged 35. The establishment of 
the Swedes led to remonstrances on the part of Kieft,thcn director-generol of New 
Netherland, which were unheeded by Minuit, whose intercourse with the Indians 
was of an amicable character. Minuit died at Christina several years afterwards. 





34 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

While it is conceded that the Dutch had for a long time traded on the river, 
that they had there erected forts, or trading posts, one of which had been 
occupied from time to time since 1G24, that they had purchased lands from the 
Indians on both sides of the bay near its mouth, and had made an unsuccessful 
attempt to plant a colony at Swanendael, yet it cannot be denied that the 
colony of Minuit constituted the first permanent settlement on the Delaware. 
While the Swedish government may claim the distinction of planting this colony, 
it is really entitled to very little credit on account of any immediate care and 
attention bestowed on it. "The whole number of emigrants," says Hazard, 
"did not exceed fifty souls, and a portion of these, according to Van der Donk, 
were criminals." Though well supplied in the beginning, they were left a long 
time without aid or succor from Sweden, and but for the experience and energy 
of the commander, a Dutchman, the permanency of the colony could not have 
been maintained. As it was, but a single day intervened between the time 
appointed for its dissolution, and the arrival of supplies that saved it from that 
catastrophe. 

Peter Ilollandare, a Swede, appointed to succeed Peter Minuit as GoA-ernor 
of New Sweden, arrived in one of the vessels sent for the relief and 
1641. reinforcement of the colony at Christina. His administration con- 
tinued for a year and a half, when he returned to occupy a military 
post in his native country. 

John Printz, appointed Governor, accompanied by Rev. John Campanius with 
another colony, on board the Stoork and the Renown, arrived in the 
. 1643. Delaware on February 15, 1643, at Fort Christina, after a passage of 
one hundred and fifty days. Agreeably to his instructions, he erected 
on the island of Tenakong, or Tinicum, a fort called New Gotten])erg, a hand- 
some residence which he named Printz Hall, and, subsequently, a church. A 
mill was also built on Cobb's creek. The principal inhabitants had their dwell- 
ings and plantations on this island. Printz's instructions acknowledged the right 
of soil in the Indians; directed him to conQrm the contract made by Minuit ; to 
maintain a just, upright, and amicable intercourse with them, and, if possible, 
also with the Dutch. Still, in case of hostile interference on their part, he was 
to " repel force b}^ force." 

Durino- the same year, Printz is said to have erected on or near the present 
Salem creek, another fort called Elftsborg, or Elsingborg, for the purpose of 
Bhutting up the river, a matter which greatly exasperated the Dutch, whose 
ships, when passing, had to lower their colors and were boarded by the Swedes. 
Report says that the latter had, however, soon to vacate the fort on account of 
the mosquitoes, and that the}^ called it Myggenborg, or Mosquito Fort. 

Two years previous, against the anxious admonition of Director General 
Kieft, a company of emigrants from New Haven proceeded to the Delaware, 
located themselves at Salem creek and on the Schuylkill. This intrusion, in the 
estimation of the Dutch, was an affair of " ominous consequence," that might 
eventually result in the ruin of their trade on the South River; accordingl}', no 
time was to be lost in getting rid of these dangerous rivals. In effecting their 
removal the Swedes have the credit of lending a helping hand to the Dutch. 
The only measures in which the Dutch and Swedes could unite harmoniously in 



QENEBAL HISTORY. 35 

carrying out, were such as would keep the English from gaining a footing on the 
river. 

In 1645, when Andreas Hudde, the Dutch commissary on the Delaware, made 
his examination of the river preparatory to making his report to the 
1645. government, there were on the same side of the river with Fort 
Christina, and -about two (Dutch) miles higher up, "some plantations," 
which, in the language of the report, "are continued nearly a mile; but few 
houses only are built, and these at considerable distances from each other. The 
farthest of tliese is not far from Tenakong. . . . Farther on, at thesame 
side, till you come to the Schuylkill, being about two miles, there is not a single 
plantation at Tenakong, because near the river nothing is to be met but under- 
wood and valley lands." After Tinicum, according to Hudde, Chester, Marcus 
Hook, and one or two points above and below, may claim a priority of settlement 
to any part of the Province of Pennsjdvania. 

Though the Swedes had erected a fort on the New Jercey side of the river 
they never placed so high an estimate on their title to the land on that side as to 
that on the western shore. As a consequence, most of their settlements were at 
first made on that side of the Delaware, up which, and the Schuylkill, they were 
gradually extended. These rivers, and the numerous tide-water creeks consti- 
tuted the highways of the Swedish settlers, and it was in close 
1646. proximity with these streams their habitations were erected. In 1G46 
they constructed and consecrated a church on Tinicum island. 
As to the social and domestic condition of the settlers on the Delaware, at 
the time of the arrival of Governor Printz, no satisfactory conclusion can be 
arrived at. The Swedes were of three classes, " The company's servants," those 
who came " to better tlieir fortunes," and were called freemen ; and a third class, 
consisting of " vagabonds and malefactors," who were to remain in slaver}-, and 
were employed " in digging earth, thinning up trenches, and erecting walls and 
other fortifications." 

Fort Nassau was merely a military establishment to maintain a trading post- 
Thc fort was occupied by the soldiers and servants of the Dutch West India 
Compau}^, and there is reason to believe that, at times, some of the latter were 
negro slaves. But little is known of the early doings of the Hollanders under 
Swedish authority on the river and bay below Christina. 

Governor Printz possessed many qualifications that fitted him for the position 
he occupied. His plans were laid with good judgment, and were executed with 
energy. He managed the trade of the river with the natives so as to monopo- 
lize nearly the whole ; yet succeeded during his entire administration in avoid- 
ing an open rupture with the Dutch authorities, whose jealousy was said to 
be excessive. 

The settlement of the country, however, proceeded ver}^ slowly under the 
Swedish dynasty, while trade was pushed to an extent never before known upon 
the river. This, as before remarked, was a source of great annoyance to the . 
Dutch, as the trade of the river was lost to them in proportion as it was 
acquired by the Swedes. On account of the progress made by the latter, 
Governor Kieft sent Hudde to keep a watch on the proceedings of Governor 
Printz, and to resist his supposed innovations. Iludde, at this time, estimated 



36 HISTOR Y OF FEIGNS YL VAI^IA. 

the whole force of the Swedish governor at from eighty to ninet}' men. But the 
Dutch force on the river, at the same time and for some years afterwards, 
was utterl}' insigniflcant, even when compared with that of the Swedes. As 
late as 1G48 they had but six able-bodied men on the river. 

It was not long ei-c lludde and Governor Printz got into an angry contro- 
versy-, whicli, through the negotiation of Rev. Campanius, an amicable arrange- 
ment was entered into between the Swedes and the Dutch about the trade of the 
Schuylkill. Nevertheless the planting of a Dutch settlement on the western 
shore of the Delaware was now the policy of the authorities at Manhattan. To 
this Governor Printz entered a sharp protest. 

Governor Kieft having been recalled, the administration of affairs 

1647. upon Dutch account on the Delaware passed into the hands of Peter 
Stuyvesant. His administration commenced on the 27th of May, 1G47. 

and continued till 1CG4, when the American interests of the Dutch passed into 
the hands of the English. 

The disagreements between the Swedes and the Dutch continued, giving rise 
to a mutual hatred and jealousy. Stuj'vesant in a letter complains of the en- 
croachments of the former, while they in turn suggest plans to inter- 

1648. fere with the Dutch to and on the North River. Each party steadily 
pursued the policy of obtaining additional grants of lands from the 

Indians as the one most likely to strengthen its claims upon the Delaware. The 
Swedes, however, maintained their suprcmac}'. 

Governor Stuyvesant's troubles were not alone with the Swedes on the Dela- 
ware. He was constantly embroiled with his own people, and his New England 
neighbors gave him much uneasiness. The directors of the West India Company 
intended to apply to the Government of Sweden for the establishment of limits 
between the two colonies on the South River. StU3'vesant made a visit to the 
Delaware, and at once, without waiting for a personal interview with Governor 
Printz, conducted negotiations by means of "letters and messengers," but no sat- 
isfactory conclusion was arrived at. Before he left the river, he secured from an 
Indian sachem, by "a free donation and gift," lands he had refused to sell to 
the Swedes. Certain other suspicious negotiations were conducted with the 
Indians, by which their title to the land from Christina-kill to Bombay Hook 
the Dutch pretended to have extinguished. 

Having thus acquired " an Indian tille " to the west bank of the river, 
Governor Stu3'vcsant at once determined to erect another fort, and to raze Fort 
Nassau, which "lay too high up." This new fort, named Casimir, was 
erected about a league from Fort Christina, and its site was within the limits 
of the present town of New Castle. 

Governor- Printz, having been accustomed to an active military life, became 

wearied of his position, and requested permission to return to Sweden. 

1653. Not waiting for the arrival of his successor, he sailed for his native 

country in October, 1653, leaving his son-in-law, John Pappego}'?, in 

charge of the government. The interval between the departure of the old 

Governor and the arrival of the new one did not exceed five or six months, and 

Pappegoya also returned to Sweden the following year. 

The commission of John Claudius Rysingh, the successor of Printz, bears 



GENEBAL HISTORY. 37 

date the 12th December, 1653. Arriving in New Sweden towards the end of 
May, on board the ship Aren, Rysingh commenced his administration by 
capturing the Dutch Fort Casimir, in direct violation of his instructions. With 
its capture, the authority of tlie Dutch on the river, for the time being, was sus- 
pended. The engineer, Peter Lindstrom, who constructed the first m^ap of New 
Sweden, and who came to the country with Rysingh, caused this fort to be 
greatly strengthened. He also laid out the town of Christina, back of the fort 
of that name. 

On the nth of June, a great couA^ocation of Indians was held at Printz ITall, 

on Tinicum, at which it was offered, on behalf of the Queen of Sweden, 

1654. to renew the ancient league of friendship that subsisted between them 

and the Swedes, who had purchased from them the lands they occupied. 

The Indians complained that the Swedes had brought much evil upon them, for 

many of them had died since their coming into the country; whereupon a 

considerable number of presents were distributed among the Indians, which 

brought about a conference among themselves. The result was a speech from 

one of their chiefs, Naaman, in which he rebuked his companions for having 

spoken evil of the Swedes, and told them he hoped they would do so no more, 

for the Swedes were very good people. 

"Look," said he, pointing to the presents, "what they have brought to us, for 
which they desire our friendship." " Afterwards he thanked the Swedes for their 
presents, and promised that friendship should be observed more strictly between 
them than it had been before ; that if any one should attempt to do any harm to 
the Indians, the Swedes should immediately inform them of it; and, on the 
other hand, the Indians would give immediate notice to the Christians of any 
plot against them, even if it were in the middle of the night. On this they were 
answered, that that would be, indeed, a true and lasting friendship, if every one 
would agree to it ; on which the}'" gave a general shout in token of consent. 
Immediately on this the great guns were fired, wliich highly deligiited the natives. 
After advising that some Swedes should be settled at Passyunk, where there 
lived a great number of Indians, they expressed the wish that the title to the 
land which the Swedes purchased should be confirmed, on which the agreements 
were read to them, word for word. When those who had signed the deeds heard 
their names they appeared to rejoice, but when the names were read of those 
who were dead they hung their heads in sorrow." 

The recorded proceedings of this treaty with the aborigines have come down 
to us through Campaniusf, and it is conclusive evidence that the Swedes had 
purchased from the Indians the lands then occupied by them ; and the fact that 
one of the principal chiefs was a party to this transaction, renders it a certainty 
that the former purchase of the Swedes had been made from "the right owners," 
the pretensions of Stuyvesant to the contrary. Campanius informs us that the 
treaty thus so solemnly made between the Swedes and Indians " has ever been 
faithfully observed by both sides," 

The affairs of the Swedes on the Delaware were now approaching a crisis, 
but nothing had occurred to arouse the suspicions of the home government. 
The triumph of Rysingh was regarded as a re-conquest of usurped territoiy, and 
no other means to reclaim it by the Dutch were apprehended. This was a fatal 



38 BISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

delusion ; for at the close of 1654, while estimates were being made in Sweden 
for the support of their colony during the ensuing year, on a peace basis, an 
armament was being fitted out in Holland, not only sufficient " to replace matters 
on the Delaware in their former position," but "to drive out the Swedes from 
every side of the river." 

In the spring of 1G55, five armed vessels, well equipped, were forwarded to 
Stuyvesant, with authority to charter others. The armament, when 
1655. completed at New Amsterdam, consisted of seven vessels and about six 
hundred men. The expedition was commanded by Governor Stuyve- 
sant in person, and arrived at the bay of South River on the afternoon of 
Monday, the 5th of September. The deserted Fort Elsingborg was visited the 
foUowino- da}'^, but it was not until Friday that the fleet reached Fort Casimir, 
now christened Trefalldigheit, or Trinity. This post was under the immediate 
command of Swen Schute, '-the brave and courageous lieutenant" of the Swedes, 
while Governor Rysingh, in person, had charge of Christina. To prevent a 
communication between the two forts, Stuyvesant had landed fifty men. The 
demand made by the Dutch was a " direct restitution of their own property," to 
which Commander Schute, after having had an interview with Stuyvesant, 
reluctantly yielded on the following day, upon very favorable terms of capitula- 
tion. The Dutch Governor then proceeded to Fort Christina, and, after a seige 
of fourteen days, it also was surrendered by Rysingh ; articles of capitulation 
were signed, according to which the Swedes were suffered to vacate the fort with 
flying colors, and the Governor and as many persons as might choose to accom- 
pany him, besides being allowed their private property, were offered a free pas- 
sage to Sweden, whither they ultimately returned. Agreeably to special 
instructions from the home government, an offer was made to restore the pos- 
session of Fort Christina to Rysingh, but he declined the offer, preferring to 
abide by the articles of capitulation. Thus ended, on September 25, 1655, the 
short career of Governor Rysingh, and with him fell the w^hole Swedish Colony. 

The hardships of the Swedes, though they were not protracted under the 
Dutch government, did not terminate with the capture of their forts. We are 
informed by Acrelius,that the "flower of their troops were picked out and sent to 
New Amsterdam. Under the pretext of their free choice, the men were forcibly 
carried on board the ships. The women were ill-treated in their houses, the 
goods pillaged, and the cattle killed." 

Many improvements were made by the Swedes, from Henlopen to the Falls 
of Alumingh or Santhikans. They laid the foundation of Uplandt, the present 
Chester ; Korsholm Fort was built at Passayung; Manayung Fort was placed at 
the mouth of the Schuylkill ; they marked the sites of Nya Wasa and Gripsholm, 
somewhere near the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers ; Straws 
Wijk, and Nieu Causeland (the present New Castle) ; and forts were erected at 
Kingsessing, Wicacoa ( South wark), Finlandt, Meulendael, and Lapananel. On 
the eastern shore the Swedes had settlements at Swedesborough and other 
places. 

The government of the Dutch on the river was established by the appoint- 
ment of John Paul Jacquet as vice-director and commander-in-chief, and 
Andreas Hudde, as secretary and surveyor, keeper of the keys of the fort, etc. 



QENEBAL HISTOBY. 



39 



As evidence that the Swedish government had been kept in ignorance of the 
intended conquest of New Sweden by the Dutch, was the arrival, on the 
1656. 24th of March, 1656, of the Swedish ship Mercury, with one hundred and 
thirty souls on board, intended as a reinforcement to the colony. They 
were forbidden to pass the fort, but a party of Indians joined the crew and con- 
ducted the ship up the river, the Dutch not venturing to fire a gun against them. 
Although the Dutch government never yielded its assent to the landing of the 
immigrant passengers, they all did land, and probably most of them remained in 
the country. 

The Dutch West India companies had become greatly embarrassed by the 
large amount of their debts, which had been increased by the aid 
1657. afforded the City of Amsterdam, towards the conquest of the Swedes 
on the Delaware, and to liquidate this debt, that part of the South 
River extending from the west side of Christina-kill to the mouth of the bay, 
" and so far as the Minquas land extended," was transferred to that City. The 
colony thus established took the name of Nieuer Amstel. The government of 
the City colony was organized by the establishment of a board of commis- 
sioners to reside in the City of Amsterdam. Forty soldiers were enlisted and 
placed under the command of Captain Martin Krygier and Lieutenant Alexander 
D'Uinoyossa, and one hundred and fifty emigrants, freemen, and boors, were forth- 
with dispatched to settle in the new colony. Jacob Alricks accompanied the 
expedition as Director of New Amstel. Alricks assumed the government of 
the colony towards the close of April, 165T, when Hudde was appointed to the 
command at Fort Christina, the name of which was changed to Altona, and also 
of New Gottenberg. 

Over the Swedes and Fins, who were exclusively the inhabitants of the river 
above the colony of the City of Amsterdam, Goeran Tan Dyck had been 
appointed with the title of " schout fisscal," and under him Anders Jurgen. 
Van Dyck suggested to Stuyvesant the necessity of concentrating the Swedish 
inhabitants, and procured from him a proclamation inviting them to assemble in 
one settlement. The invitation was not accepted. 

In May, 1658, Governor Stuyvesant madea\isit to South River to examine 
into afl"airs there. Finding some irregularities concerning the customs, 
1658. he appointed William Beekman, with the title of commissary and vice- 
director, to superintend the revenue. Outside of the district of New 
Amstel, Beekman was charged with the administration of civil and criminal 
justice, and the superintendence of military affairs. Within that district the 
authority was vested in Alricks. 

The prosperous commencement of the City colony was soon followed by evils 
that almost threatened its dissolution. Sickness, a scarcity of provisions and 
failure of crops, followed by a severe winter, spread dismay and discontent 
among the people. Added to these distresses were news of a threatened invasion 
b}^ the English, and the arrival of commissioners from Marjdand to command 
the Dutch to leave, or to acknowledge themselves subjects of Lord Baltimore. 
Jn regard to the latter a protracted conference ensued, in which the Dutch title 
to the lands on the Delaware river and bay was defended with considerable 
ability. The land from Bombay Hook to Cape Henlopen was secured by 



40 HIS TOBY OF PENNS YL VAWIA. 

purchase from the savages, and a fort erected at Hoern-kill as a further security 
against the English claim. It was attached to the district of New Amstel. 

The clashing of interests between the City and the Company, taken in connec- 
tion with the adverse circumstances with which he was surrounded, rendered 
Director Alrick's position one of great difficulty. Towards the close of 
1659. the year 1G59 he departed this life. Previous to his death Alricks nomi- 
nated D'llinoyossa as his successor, and Gerit Van Gezel as Secretary. 

While the City and Companj- occupied the country jointly', the seat of justice 
of the latter jurisdiction was at Altona. The Swedes did not resort voluntarily 
to the court held there, pi'eferring to settle their differences among themselves, 
and in one or two instances they wilfully disregarded its processes. 

The time had now arrived when tlte dominion of Pennsylvania was to be 

wrested from the Dutch, and, with the exception of a short interval, for ever. 

The crown of Great Britain having been restored to Cliarles 11. , he granted to 

his brother James, Duke of York, the territory embracing the whole of New 

York and New Jersey, and, by a subsequent grant, that which now comprises the 

State of Delaware. To secure the possession of his newly acquired territory, 

the Duke fitted out an expedition consisting of four men-of-war and four hundred 

and fifty men, which he placed under the command of Sir Richard 

1664. Nicolls. Associated with the commander were Sir Robert Carr, Sir 

George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, Esq., as commissioners. 

The expedition reached the mouth of the Hudson in the latter end of August, 
1664. The formidable force and the favorable terms offered to the inhabitants 
disposed them to capitulate, notwithstanding the efforts of the Governor to 
excite resistance. After a few daj's of fruitless negotiation, during which 
Stuyvesant pleaded in vain the justice of the title of the States General, and the 
peace existing between them and the English nation, a capitulation was signed, 
August 27, 1664, and, immediately afterwards, a force was dispatched to reduce 
Fort Orange. In honor of the Duke of York, the city of New Amsterdam 
received the name of New York, and Fort Orange that of Albany, The greater 
part of the inhabitants submitted cheerfully to the new government, and 
Governor Stuyvesant retained his property and closed his life in New York. 

Matters being thus arranged at New Amstei'dam, the reduction of the colony 
on the Delaware having been determined, Sir Robert Carr, with two frigates, the 
Guinea, and the William and Nicholas, and the troops not needed at New 
York, sailed thither and accomplished his mission with the expenditure of two 
barrels of powder and twenty shot. The capitulation took place on October 1, 
1664, and stipulated that " the burgesses and magistrates submitting to his 
majesty should be protected in their persons and estates ; that the present mag- 
istrates should be continued in office ; that permission to leave the country 
within six months should be given to anyone desirous so to do; that all persons 
should enjoy liberty of conscience as formerly ; that an 3^ person taking the oath 
of allegiance should become a free denizen, and enjoy all the privileges of trading 
into any of his Majesty's dominions, as freely as any Englishman." 

The whole country being thus reduced without bloodshed. Colonel Nicolls, 
by virtue of a commission of the Duke of York, assumed the government of 
New York, and on November 3rd was commissioned by his colleagues, Cart- 



GENEBAL niSTOEY. 41 

Wright and Maverick, to proceed to Delaware, " to take special care for the 
good government of said place, and to depute siich officer or officers therein 
as he shall think fit for the management of his Majesty's affairs, both civil and 
military, until his Majesty's pleasure be further known." Colonel Robert 
Carr was appointed Deputy Governor. 

New Amstel was now called New Castle. The capture of New York and 
its dependencies led to an European war between Great Britain and Holland, 
ending in the treaty of Breda, at which the riglit of the former to their 
newlj^-acquired territories in America was acknowledged. 

Colonel NicoUs governed for nearly three years with justice and good 
sense. He settled the boundaries with tlie Connecticut Colony, which, yield- 
ing all claim to Long Island, obtained great advantages on the main, push- 
ing its line to Marmaroneck river, about thirty miles from New Yoik ; he 
prescribed the mode of purchasing lands from the Indians, making the consent 
of the governor requisite to the validity of all contracts with them for 
1665. the soil, and directing such contracts to be entered in the public 
registry ; he incorporated the city of New York, under a mayor, five 
aldermen, and a sheriff, in 1GG5, and, although he reserved to himself all 
judicial authority, his administration was so wise and impartial, that it enforced 
universal praise. 

Colonel Francis Lovelace succeeded Colonel Nicolls, in Ma}-, 1G67. By 
proclamation he required that all patents granted by the Dutch, for 
1667. lands upon the Delaware, should be renewed, and that persons hold- 
ing lands, without patent, should take out titles under the English 
authority. Power was given to the officers on the Delaware to grant lands, 
and the commission of surveyor-general, of all the lands under the govern- 
ment of the Duke of York, on the west side of the Delaware, was issued to 
Walter Wharton. Governor Lovelace also renewed the duty of ten per cent, 
imposed on goods imported by the Delaware, which had been ordained by the 
Dutch, and repealed by his predecessor; but it was found so oppressive, that he 
also was compelled to revoke the order by which it was established. 

In the Spring of the year 1672, the town of New Castle was, by the 
1672. government of New York, made a corporation ; to be governed by a 
bailiff and six associates ; after the first year, four old to go out and 
four others to be chosen. The bailiff was president and had a double vote; 
the constable was chosen b}' the bench. They had power to try causes, as ftir 
as ten pounds, without appeal. The English laws were established in the town, 
and among the inhabitants, on both sides of Delaware. The office of schout was 
converted into that of sheriff, for the corporation and river, annuallj'^ chosen. 
And they were to have free trade, without being obliged to make entry at New 
York, as before. 

The fears of the government of Maryland, says Gordon, lest the title of Lord 
Baltimore to the country on Delaware Bay should be weakened by non-claim, 
produced occasional irruptions of a very hostile character. An act of violence 
was committed at Iloarkill [1672], by a party of Marylanders led by one Jones, 
who seized the magistrates and other inhabitants, plundered them, and carried 



42 BIS TOE Y OF FEIGNS YL VANIA. 

off the booty. They were joined by one Daniel Brown, a planter of Hoarkill. 
Brown was soon talien, sent to New York, and there tried and convicted ; but 
on promise of amendment, and security given for his good behavior in future, 
was dismissed. 

Governor Lovelace wrote a letter to Governor Calvert of Maryland, on this 
aggression, and instructed Captain Carr, his deputy at Delaware, to resist future 
encroachments. 

Charles II. having declared war against the States General of Holland, 
Dutch privateers soon infested the American coasts, and plundered the inhabi- 
tants of New Castle and Hoarkill. With a view to repairing their losses, per- 
mission was granted to them by the government to impose, for one year, a duty 
of four guilders, payable in wampum, on each anker of strong rum imported or 
sold there. Wampum being the chief currency of the country and scarce, the 
o-overnor and council of New York issued a proclamation increasing its value, 
whereby " instead of eight white and four black, six white and three black 
should pass for a stiver: and three times so much the value in silver," This was 
the Indian money, by them called wampum ; b^^ the Dutch, sewant. It was 
worked out of shells, into the form of beads, and perforated to string on leather. 
Six beads were valued at a stiver ; twenty stivers made what they called a 
guilder, which was about sixpence currency, or fourpence sterling. The white 
wampum was worked out of the inside of the great conques. The black, or 
purple, was formed out of the inside of the mussle, or clam-shell. These, being 
struno; on leather, were sometimes formed into belts, about four inclies broad 
and thirty in length, and were given and received at treaties, as seals of friend- 
ship. 

A squadron of Dutch ships, under command of Evertse and Benke, arrived 
on July 30, lGi3, and recaptured New York without opposition. The 

1673. commander of the fort at the Narrows, John Manning, treacherously 
made peace with the enemy and delivered up the fort without giving 

or receiving a shot, and the major part of the magistrates and constables swore 
allegiance to the States General and the Prince of Orange. Thus New York 
and New Jersey came again under Dutch rule. Deputies were also sent by the 
people inhabiting the country as far west as Delaware, who, in the name of their 
principals, made a declaration of their submission, and Delaware again reverted 
to the Dutch in that year. Anthony Colve was appointed governor, with Peter 
Alricks Deputy, who held the offices until the country was restored to England 
by the Treaty of Westminster, concluded the 19th February, 1G74. 

The Duke of York, says Proud, on June 29, IGH, obtained a new royal 
patent confirming the land granted him in 1664, and two days after 

1674. appointed Major, afterwards Sir, Edmund Andross, governor of his 
territories in America, which were surrendered to him by the Dutch 

on October 31 following. Andross authorized Captain Edmund Cantwell and 
William Tomm to take possession of the forts and stores at New Castle for the 
Kino-'s use, and directed them to adopt measures for the establishment of order 
and tranquility on the Delaware. 

On June 24, 1674, the Duke of York granted to John, Lord Berkley, and Sir 
George Carteret, " the Province of New Jersey, bounded on the east by the 



GENEBAL HISTORY. 



43 



Atlantic ocean, on the west by Delaware Bay and river, on the north by a line 
drawn from the Delaware river at forty-one degrees forty minutes, to the 
Hudson River, in forty-one degrees northern latitude." 

Lord Berkley, in 16*75, sold his half of the province of New Jersey to a 
person named John 
Fenwicke, in trust for 
Edward Byllinge and 
his assigns, in conse- 
quence of which the 
former, this year, ar- 
rived with a number 
of passengers, in a ship 
called the Griffitli, from 
London, on a visit to his 
new purchase. lie land- 
ed at a place, in West 
Jersey, situated upon a 
creek, or small river, 
which runs into the 
river Delaware, to 
which place he gave 
the name of Salem, a 
name which both the 
place and creek still 
retain. Byllinge being 
pecuniarily' involved, 
conve3'ed his interest in 
the Province to William 
Penn, Gawen Lawrie, 
and Nicholas Lucas, in 
trust for his creditors. 
The trustees sold pro- 
prietary rights to seve- 
ral other persons, and 
having made, with Sir 
George Carteret, a divi- 
sion of the Province, 
, proceeded to frame a 
constitution for their moiety under the title "concessions and agreements of 
the proprietors and free-holders of West Jersey, in America." 

According to Gordon, in June, 1677, Thomas Olive, Daniel Wills, John 

Kinsey, John Penford, Joseph Ilelmsley, Robert Stacey, Benjamin 

1677. Scott, Thomas Foulke, and Richard Gu}-, commissioners, appointed 

by the Proprietaries to superintend their interests in the Province, 

arrived at New Castle, with two hundred and thirty settlers, principally Quakers. 

Having explored the country for many miles along the shores of the Delaware, 

they made allotments of land among the adventurers at several miles distance 




5IAP OF NEW SWKDKN. 



44 niSTOE Y OF PEIfNS YL VANIA. 

from each other. But fear of the natives finally induced the emigrants to settle 
together, in and about a town plot, laid out by the commissioners, first called 
Beverly, then Budlington, and afterwards Burlington. In the same year two 
ships arrived, bearing many families of great respectabilitJ^ The quiet of the 
colonists was undisturbed, except by the duty again levied upon their commerce 
at the Iloarkill, by the New York government. This was vexatious as a tax, 
and insulting to the sovereignty of the proprietaries, who remonstrated for. 
some time in vain with the agents of the Duke of York ; but finally, after an 
investigation, by commissioners appointed for the purpose, the duty was 
repealed. 

Dispensing with their executive of commissioner's, the Proprietaries 
appointed Edward Byllingc Governor, who, soon after his arrival in the 
Province, commissioned Samuel Jennings as his deputy. In November, 1G8I, 
Jennings called the first Assembl\', and, in conjunction with them, adopted 
certain articles, defining and circumscribing the power of the Governor, and 
enacted such laws as the wants of the colony required. 

Sir George Carteret, the proprietor of East Jerse}', died iu IGYO, having in 

his last will ordered the sale of that country to pay his debts. His 
1681. heirs sold it, by indenture of lease and release, bearing date February 

1 and 2, 1G81-82, to William Penn and eleven other persons. These 
twelve proprietors added twelve more to their number, and to these the Duke 
of York made a fresh grant of East Jersey under date March 14, 1682. 

William Penn, as one of the trustees of Byllinge, became thus intimately 
connected with the colonization of West Jersey, and subsequently as a pur- 
chaser with that of East Jersey. Under these circumstances he became 
familiar with the aflairs of the new world, and conceived the design of founding 
a commonwealth on principles of perfect equality, and of universal toleration 
of religious faith, on the west side of the Delaware. 





CHAPTER III. 

THE rnOVIXCE OP PENNSYLVANIA GRANTED TO WILLIAM PENN. THE TROPRIE 
TARY RULE, UNTIL THE DEATH OE TUE FOUNDERS. 1081-1718. 

DMIRAL SIR WILLIAM PEXX, renowned in English history by 
his martial valor as an officer of the British Navy, left to his son a 
claim against the government for sixteen thousand pounds, consist- 
ing to a great extent of money advanced by him in the sea service, 
and of arrearages in his pay. In 1G80 William Penn* petitioned Charles 11. to 
grant him in lieu of said sum "letters-patent for a tract of land in America, 
lying north of iMaryland, on the east bounded with Delaware river, on the west 
limited as JNIaryland, and northward to extend as far as plantable." This peti- 
tion was referred to the " Committee of the Privy Council for the Affairs of 
Trade and Plantations," who ordered copies to be sent to Sir John Werden, the 
Duke of York's agent, and to the agents of Lord Baltimore, "to the end that 
they may report how far the pretensions of Mr. Penn may consist witli the boun- 
daries of Maryland, or the Duke's propriety of New York, and his possessions 
in those parts." The Duke of York desii-ed to retain the three lower counties, 
that is, the State of Delaware, as an appendage to New York, but his objection 
was finally withdrawn, being the result of an interview between him and Mr. 



* WiT.LlAM Penn, Uio fouiuler of Poiinsylvaiiia, was born in London, October 1-1, 1044. 
While a studenl at Oxlbrd lie became deeply impressed Ijy tlie preaching- of a celebrated 
Quaker, Thomas Lee. He studied law at Lincoln's Inn, but in 1(3G3 went to Ireland to 
manage an estate of his father's. He acquired military renown as a soldier at the siege of 
Carrickfcrgus, and caused himself to be painted in military costume. This is considered 
to be the only genuine portrait of the great " Apostle of Peace." He soon after joined the 
Quakers, and at a meeting at Cork, in 1GG7, was arrested and put into prison, lleleased 
tln-ough the etlorts of the Earl of Orrery, he began to preach, and for writing " The Sandy 
Foundation Shaken," was imprisoned in the Tower, where he wrote his celebrated work, 
"No Cross, No Crown." Liberated by the influence of his father, he was, in 1C70, arrested 
for street preaching, and committed to Newgate. At the trial he pleaded his own cause, 
was acquitted, bnt detained in prison, and the jury were fined. While in Newgate ho 
wrote several religions tracts. In 1(374 lie wrote " England's Present Interest Considered," 
an able defence of freedom of conscience and the rights of Englishmen. In 1G72 he married 
Gulielma Maria S[)ringett. In 1G77 Penn, with r>arclay and otliers, preached in Holland 
and Germa.Ty. In 1G7G he became concerned in the settlement of West .lersey. In IGSl he 
obtained IVom the king a charter for Pennsylvania. He then pnlilished " A Urief .\ccount 
of the Province of Pennsylvania," proposing the easy imrchase of lands and good terms for 
settlers. On the 27th of October, 1682, he arrived in the Delaware. Returned to England 
in 1GS4. Secured, in IGSG, the liberation of over l,20f) imprisoned Quakers, and the passage 
of the "Toleration Act" in 1GS7. In 1G8S he was tried for treason, but acqnitted. In IGItO 
made a secoi:d visit to liis Province, returning in 1701. In 1708 was committed to prison 
for deljt, ))ut released l)\' the intervention of friends. lie died of paralysis, at Rnshcomije, 
July 30, 1718. His enduring monument is the great State founded by him "in deeds of 
peace " 

45 



46 HISTOB Y OF FENNS YL VANIA. 

Penn. Lord Baltimore's agent wanted the grant, if made to Penn, to be ex- 
pressed as " land that shall be north of Susquehanna Fort, also north of all lands 
in a direct line westward from said fort, for said fort is the boundary of Mary- 
land northward." 

After sundry conferences and discussions concerning the boundary lines and 
other matters of minor importance, the committee finally sent in a favorable re- 
port and presented the draft of a charter, constituting William Penn, Esq., abso- 
lute Proprietary of a tract of land in America, therein mentioned, to the King for 
his approbation, and leaving to him also the naming of the Province. The King 
affixed his signature on March 4, 1681, naming the Province Pennsylva- 
1681. nia, for reasons explained in the subjoined extract from a letter of William 
Penn to his friend Robert Turner, dated 5th of 1st month, 1681 : " This 
day my country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England, with largo 
powers and privileges, b\^ the name of Pennsylvania ; a name the King would give 
it in honor of my father. I chose New Wales, being, as this, a pretty hilly coun- 
try, but Penn being Welsh for a head, as Penmauraoire in Wales, and Penrith in 
Cumberland, and Penn in Buckinghamshire, the highest land in England, called 
this Pennsylvania, which is, the high or head woodland:^, for I proposed, when 
the Secretary, a Welshman, refused to have it called New Wales, Si/loania, and 
they added Pen ?i to it, and though I much opposed it, and went to the King to 
have it struck out and altered, he said it was past, and would take it upon him ; 
nor could twenty guineas move the under-secretar}- to A^ary the name, for I fear 
lest it be looked on as vanity in me, and not as a respect in the King, as it truly 
was, to m}^ father, whom he often mentions with praise." 

This charter, under date March 4, 16SI, exists in the office of the Secretary 
of the Commonwealth, and is written on three pieces of strong parchment, in 
the old English handwriting, with each line underscored with lines of red ink, 
that give it a curious appearance. The borders are gorgeously decorated with 
heraldic devices, and the top of the first page exhibits a finely-executed likeness 
of his Majest}', in good preservation. 

Nearly a month after tlie signing of the charter, the King, on the second 
day of April, issued a declaration informing the inhabitants and planters of the 
Province that William Penn, their absolute Proprietarv, was clothed Avith all the 
powers and preeminences. necessary for the government. A few days later, on 
8th of April, the Proprietary addressed the following proclamation to the inhabi- 
tants of Pennsylvania : 

" My Friends : I wish you all happiness here and hereafter. These arc to let 
you know that it hath pleased God, in his providence, to cast j'ou within my lot 
and care. It is a business that, though I never undertook before, yet God hath 
given me an understanding of my duty, and an honest mind to do it uprightl}^ 
I hope you will not be troubled at your change, and the King's choice, for j^ou 
are now fixed, at the mercj'^ of no governor that comes to make his fortune great. 
You shall be governed by laws of 3'our own making, and live a free, and, if you 
will, a sober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the right of an\', or 
oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution, and has 
given me his grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober and free men can rea- 
sonably desire for the security and improvement of their happiness, I shall 



GENEBAL HISTORY. 47 

heartily comply with, and in five months resolve, if it please God, to see you. 
In the meantime, pray submit to the commands of my deputy, so far as they are 
consistent with the law, and pay him those dues that formerly you paid to tlie 
order of the Governor of New York, for my use and benefit ; and so I beseech 
God to direct you in the way of righteousness, and therein prosper you and your 
children after you. 

" William Penn." 

Captain William Markham, a cousin of William Penn, was the deputy re- 
ferred to in the preceding proclamation, whose commission, bearing date April 
10, 1681, contained the following directions: 

1. To call a council, consisting of nine, he to preside. 

2. To read his letter and the King's declaration to the inhabitants, and to 
take their acknowledgment of his authority and propriety. 

3. To settle boundaries between Penn and his neighbors ; to survey, set out, 
rent, or sell lands according to instructions given. 

4. To erect courts, appoint sheriffs, justices of the peace, etc. 

5. To call to his aid any of the inliabitants, for the legal suppression of 
tumult, etc. 

Governor Markham carried also letters from Penn and the King to Lord Balti- 
more, authorizing him to adjust boundaries. He arrived at New York on June 21, 
1G81, and Lord Baltimore, being in the Province, had an interview with Markham, 
at Upland, which resulted in discovering, from actual observation, that LTpland 
itself was at least twelve miles south of 40 degrees, and that boundaries claimed 
by Lord Baltimore would extend to the Schuylkill. This discovery ended the 
conference, and gave fresh incentives to Penn to obtain from the Duke of York 
a grant of the Delaware settlements, as without such grant he had now reason 
to fear the loss of the whole peninsula. 

Penn soon after published an account of his Province, with the royal charter 
and other documents connected with it, ofi"ering easy terms of sale for lands, 
viz., forty shillings sterling for one hundred acres, subject to a quit rent of one 
shilling per annum for ever. 

Many persons from London, Liverpool, and Bristol embarked in his enter- 
prise ; and an association, called the " Free Traders' Society of Pennsylvania," 
purchased large tracts of land. 

In the autumn of the same year Penn appointed three commissioners, viz., 
Wm. Crispin, John Bczar, and Nathaniel Allen, to proceed to the Province, ar- 
range for a settlement, lay out a town, and treat with the Indians. To these 
commissioners, says Westcott, was added afterwards William Ilaige. They set 
sail from London probably near the end of October, but it is not known at what 
date they arrived. 

In the beginning of the year following, Penn published his frame of govern- 
ment, and certain laws, agreed on in England by himself and the 
1682. purchasers under him, entitled •' The frame of the government of the 
Province of Pennsylvania^ in America; together with certain laics, 
agreed upon in England by the Governor and Divers of the Free-Men of the 
aforesaid Province. To he further Explained and Confirmed there, by the first 
Provincial Council and General Assembly that shall be held, if they see meet." 



48 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

South of the Province lay the territories or counties on Delaware, stretching 
one hundred and fifty miles along the bay, to the Atlantic Ocean. The posses- 
sor of this country, commanding the entrance and course of the river, would 
have power to harass the commerce, and in other respects to affect the welfare 
of the neighboring colony. Penn was desirous, says Gordon, to possess these 
territories, as well on account of the security they afforded, as of the advantages 
to be derived from a hardy and laborious population. The Duke of York held 
them as an appendage to Lis government, and, though reluctant to cede them, 
he could not resist the solicitations of the Proprietary. lie executed three 
deeds to Penn in August, 1682. The first, dated the twenty-first, releasing his 
right to the Province ; the others, dated the twenty-fourth, granting the town of 
New Castle and the land lying within a circle of twelve miles about it; and 
the tract of land beginning at twelve miles south of New Castle, and 
extending southward to Cape Ilenlopen. For the last tract, Penn cove- 
nanted to pay the Duke and his heirs one-half of all the rents and profits 
received from it. These grants conveyed to the Proprietary a fee-simple estate 
in the soil, but no political right whatever. Holding in socage as of the Duke's 
castle at New York, he owed fealty to, and was a subject of that government. 
Whether he ever obtained from the crown political power over this country is 
questionable. It is 'certain that, when the right he assumed became the subject 
of controvers}'- among the inhabitants of the Province and territories, no grant 
of this nature was exhibited. These deeds were duly recorded in New York, 
and, by pi'oclamation of the commander there, twent}'^- first November, 1682, to 
the magistrates on the west side of the Delaware, the rights of Penn under them 
were publicly recognized. 

Penn having completed all arrangements for his voyage to America, after 
writing an afiectionate letter to his wife and children, and another " to all faith- 
ful friends in England," accompanied by about one hundred passengers, mostly 
friends from Sussex, after a passage of about two months on board the ship 
Welcome, of three hundred tons burthen, came in sight of the American 
coast about Egg-IIarbor, in New Jersey, on the 24th of October, and reached 
New Castle on the 2'Ith. On the following day he produced his deeds from 
the Duke of York, and received possession by the solemn " delivery of turf, 
and twig, and water, and soyle, of the River Delaware." lie was received with 
demonstrations of gladness by the inhabitants, and at the Court House, at New 
Castle, says Clarkson, made a speech to the old magistrates, in which he 
explained to them the design of his coming, the nature and end of government, 
and of that more particularly which he came to establish. 

To form some idea of the proportion of the different sorts of people, observes 
Proud, on the west side of Delaware, about this time, or prior to William 
Penn's arrival, on the lands granted him, it may be noted, that the Dutch then 
had a meeting place, for religious worship, at New Castle ; the Swedes, three — 
one at Christina, one at Tinicum, and one at Wicacoa. The Quakers had three 

one at Upland, or Chester, one at Shakamaxon, and one near the lower falls 

of Delaware. 

Penn went to Upland, on the 29th of October, 1682. On his arrival there he 
changed its name. This was a memorable event, says Clarkson, and to be 



GENERAL HISTORY. 



49 



distinguished by some marked circumstance. He determined, ihereforo, i,o 
change the name of the place. Turning around to his friend Pearson, one of his 
own society, who had accompanied him in the ship Welcome, he said: " Trovi- 
dence has brought us here safe. Thou hast been the companion of my perils. 
What wilt thou that I should call this place?" Pearson said, " Chester," in 
remembrance of the city from whence he came. William Penn replied, thlt it 
should be called Chester, and that when he divided the land into counties, one 
of them should be called by the same name. 

From Chester Penn is said to have proceeded with some of his friends in an 
open barge, in the earliest days of November, to a place about four miles above 
the mouth of the Schuylkill, called Coaquannock, " where there was a high, 
bold shore, covered with lofty pines. Here the site of the infant city of Phfla- 
delphia had been established, and we may be assured, writes Janney, his approach 
was hailed with joy by the whole population : the old inhabitants, Swedes and 
Dutch, eager to catch a glimpse of tlieir future governor ; and the Friends, who 
had gone before him, anxiously awaiting his arrival." 

Penn immediately after his arrival dispatched two persons to Lord Balti- 
more, to ask of his health, offer kind neighborhood, and agree upon a time of 
meeting, the better to establish it. While they were gone on tliis errand he 
went to New York to pay his duty to the Duke, in the visit of his govern- 
ment and colony. He returned from New York towards the end of November. 

To this period belongs the '' Great Treaty," which took place at Shaka- 
maxon. It seems to have been a place of resort for the Indians of different 
nations to consult together and settle their mutual differences, and on this 
account it was probably selected by Markham, and Penn after him, as the place 
for holding their successive treaties. 

Thompson Westcott, whose researches have exceeded perhaps those of any 
other historian, says there is no evidence that a treaty of peace or of purchase of 
lands ever was held under the great elm tree at Shakamaxon, in IG82, by William 
Penn, and yet tri^dition is very positive upon the subject, and such antiquaries 
as Watson and Fisher, with the graphic 
descriptions of earlier writers, have so fully 
engrafted this pleasing transaction on Penn- 
sylvania histor}'', that we almost hesitate to 
dispel the illusion. The site of the great 
elm tree is marked by a monument, erected in 
1821. It contains the following inscriptions : 

North side. — Treat}^ Ground of William 
Penn and the Indian Nations. 

South side. — William Penn, born 1C44, 
died 1718. 

East side. — Pennsylvania Founded, 1681, 
by deeds of Peace. 

West side. — Placed by the Penn Societ}^, 
A.D. 1827, to mark the site of the Great 
Elm Tree. 

If the treaty was not held at the Shakamaxon, Penn undoubtedly met the 

D 




TRBaYSROUMl -~—_ 
OF 

WILLIAM PENN g 

ASO THE 

NDUvN NATION 
168 2 
I^UNBRSKiH FAITH 




PENN TREATY MONUMENT. 



60 



HIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA . 



representatives of the Indian tribes at other localities, for the aborigines them- 
selves alluded to the treaty of amity and peace held with the great and good 
Onas, on all public occasions— and true it is that for a period of forty, if not fifty 
years, it was not broken, and the Land of Penn was preserved during all that 
time from the reeking scalping-knife and the deadly tomahawk. 




CO 

to 






1=1 

M 

a 
W 

w 



W 
K 



w 



William Penn, on the 'fourth of December following, convened a Greneral 
Assembly at Chester, of which Nicholas Moore, president of the Societ}' of Free 
Traders, was chosen Speaker. During a session of four days this Assembly 
3nacted three laws : 1, An act for the union of the Province and Territories; 
2. An act of naturalization ; and 3. The great law, or code of laws, consisting 
of sixty-nine sections, and embracing most of the laws agreed upon in England 
and several others afterwards suggested. 



GENERAL HISTORY. 51 

On the 19th of the same month, Penn, by appointment, met Lord Baltimore 
at West River, but their interview led to no solution of the vexatious question 
of boundary. 

About this time the Province and territories were divided by the Proprietary 
each into three counties; those of the former were called Bucks, Pliiladclphia, 
and Chester; those of the latter. New Castle, Kent, aud Sussex. Sherilfs and 
other officers having been duly appointed for the several counties, writs for tbe 
election of members of Council and Assembly were issued conformable wit!i the 
Constitution, and on the 10th day of the first month, 1683, Penn met the Council 
at Philadelphia, and the Assembly two days later. The number of, members for 
both the Council and Assembly was twelve for each county, viz., three for the 
Council and nine for the Assembly, making in all seventy-two. 

At this time Penn was probably renewing his negotiations with the Indians, 
as would appear from two deeds on record for land purchased. The 

1683. first, dated June 23, 1G83, between William Penn and Kings Tamanen 
and Metamequan, conveys tlieir land near Neshemanah (Neshaminy; 

Creek, and thence to Pennapecka (Pennypack). The second, dated July H, 
1683, is for lands lying between the Schuylkill and Chester Rivers. 

During the spring or summer of this year, the Proprietary visited the interior 
of the Province, going as far west as the Susquehanna, The result of his trip 
he embodied in a letter to the " Society of Free Traders," in London, but its 
length precludes its insertion here. His description of the aborigines is full 
and interesting. It was while on this expedition that William Penn i)lanned 
the founding of a great city on the Susquehanna, an idea never reali/ic<l b}' 
himself. 

The controversy with Lord Baltinioi'e concerning boundaries became a 
subject of great anxiety to Penn, who resisted the high-handed and 

1684. aggressive measures of the former with gentle and courteous firmness. 
In the beginning of 1684, a number of people from Maryland made a 

forcible entry on several plantations in the Lower Counties, whereupon the 
Governor and Council at Philadelphia sent a written remonstrance to Lord 
Baltimore's demand, with orders to William Welsh to use his influence to rein- 
state the persons who had been disi)0ssessed, and in case mild measures should 
prove unavailing, legally to prosecute the invaders. The remonstrances had, 
temporarily, the desired effect, but some inhabitants were threatened the next 
month with similar outrages, if they should persist in refusing to be under Lord 
Baltimore. The Governor issued a declaration showing Penn's title, and such 
other requisites as were thought most likely to prevent such illegal proceedings 
in future. 

The important interests involved in this controversy and other weight}' 
matters requiring Penn's presence in England, he provided for the administra- 
tion of the government. The executive power was lodged with the Provincial 
Council, of which Thomas Lloyd, a Quaker from Wales, was made president — 
to whom the charge of the great seal was specially committed. Markham was 
ci-eated secretary of the Province and the territories ; Thomas Holmes, surveyor- 
general ; Thomas Lloyd, James Claypoole, and Robert Turner, commissioners 
of the land office; and Nicholas Moore, William Welsh, William Wood, Uobert 



52 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Turner, .and John Eckley, Provincial judges for two years. The Proprietary 
sailed for Europe on the 12th of June. 

At his departure, the Province and territories were divided into twenty-two 
townships, containing seven thousand inhabitants, of whom two thousand live 
hundred resided in Philadelphia, which comprised already three hundred houses. 
Penn wrote a farewell letter to his Province, from on board the vessel, couched in 
the most endearing terms. 

After a voyage of seven weeks he reached England. Charles II. died the 
12th of December following, and was succeeded by James, Duke of York, whose 
accession was greatly dreaded by the Protestants, who apprehended a revival of 
the persecutions during the reign of Mary. Penn might have taken advantage 

of these apprehensions to in- 
duce more emigrants to settle 
in Pennsylvania, but he was 
disinterested, and used his in- 
fluence with the King to grant 
liberty of conscience to all re- 
ligionists, and more especially 
to the Quakers. Penn had 
stood hiofh in the Kins^'s favor 
long before he ascended the 
throne, for the friendship 
which James entertained for 
the father, who had bravely 
fought under his flag, was en- 
joyed in a still higher degree 
by the son, who by that means 
succeeded in obtaining from 
the King's Council a favorable 
decree in his dispute with Lord Baltimore. 

On the first daj' of the second month, 1685, the lines of separation 
1685. between the county of Philadelphia and those of Bucks and Chester, 
were confirmed b}'' the Council. 
" The county of Chester was to begin at the mouth, or entrance of Bough 
creek, upon Delaware river, being the upper end of Tenicum island ; and so up 
that creek, dividing the said island from the land of Andrew Boone and com- 
pan}'^ ; from thence along the several courses thereof, to a large creek called Mill 
creek ; from thence, along the several courses of the said creek to a west-south- 
west line; which line divides the liberty lines of Philadelphia from several tracts 
of land, belonging to the Welsh and other inhabitants ; and from thence east- 
north-east, by a line of marked trees one hundred and twenty perches, more or 
less; from thence north-north-west by Ilaverford township, one thousand perches, 
more or less ; from thence east-north-east by the land belonging to John 
Humphre}', one hundred and ten perches, more or less; from thence north 
north-west b}^ the land of John Eckley, eight hundred and eighty perches, more 
or less; fi'om thence continuing said course to the bounds of Sculkill river; 
which said Sculkill river afterward to the natural bounds." 







MAP OF PENNSYLVANIA — 1685. 



GENEBAL HISTORY. r,;i 

The period of William Penn's absence from the Province is marked chietly 
by unhappy differences between the legislature and the executive, and between 
the members from the territories and those of the Province proper. Our limits, 
however, will compel us to give merel}'^ a resume of the more important events 
and incidents. 

In 1685, the Proprietary appointed Nicholas Moore, from London a lawyer, 
and president of the Company of Free Traders, and a member of the Assembly, 
to the office of chief justice. The Assembly, jealous of its prerogatives, disre- 
garded the fundamental laws of the Province in enacting statutes without pre- 
viously publishing them as required by the constitution. Moore, by opposing 
some of the measures of the Assembly, and more particularly their attempt to 
alter the organization of the courts of justice, had incurred the enmity of the 
House, which proceeded to impeach him. He was charged, saj-s Ebeling, with 
violence, partiality, and negligence, in a cause in which the Society of Free 
Traders was interested. Ten articles were preferred against him, which he re- 
fused to answer, though frequently summoned by the Council, and he was saved 
from conviction by some technical obstacle in the form of proceeding. But tliis 
did not protect him from punishment. He was expelled from the Assembly, and 
was interdicted all places of trust by the Council, until he should be tried upon 
the articles of impeachment or should give satisfaction to the board. His 
offence was not of a heinous character, since he retained the confidence of the 
Proprietary; and, in noticing his punishment, it should be remarked, that ho 
had incurred the displeasure of the House by having entered thrice in one day 
his single protest upon its minutes against the passage of bills which had been 
introduced without the publication directed by the charter. The anger of the 
Assembly was extended to Patrick Robinson, clerk of the provincial court, who 
had refused to produce before them the minutes of that court. Tiiey voted him 
to be a public enemy and a violator of tlieir privileges, and ordered him into the 
custody of the sheriff. When brought before tlie House he complained of arbi- 
trary and illegal treatment, refused to answer the questions put to him, and in 
a fit of sullenness cast himself at full length upon the floor. An address was 
presented to the Council requesting that the prisoner might be disqualified to 
hold any public office within the Province or territories; but this punishment 
was not inflicted, as Robinson subsequently' held the clerkship of the Council and 
other offices. Neither Moore nor Robinson were Quakers ; they were charged 
with enmit}' to that sect, or, in the language of Penn, " were esteemed the most 
unquiet and cross to Friends." There were other disturbances at this time in 
the Province. A certain John Curtis, a justice of the peace, was charged with 
uttering treasonable and dangerous words against the King. He was ordered to 
be tried by commissioners from the Council, and, though no bill was found 
against him, he was dismissed from his office and compelled to give suretj' of the 
peace, in the sum of three hundred pounds. Charges were made against several 
officers of government for extortion ; and gross immoralities were practiced 
among the lower class of people inhabiting the caves on the banks of the Dela- 
ware. These things were reported with great exaggeration in England, by the 
enemies of Penn and the Quakers; they prevented emigration, and greatly 
affected the reputation of the Society of Friends and the Proprietary. 



54 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Pcnn, however, in 1686, changed the form of executive government 
1686. to a board of five commissioners, any three of whom were empowered 
to act. The board consisted of Thomas Lloyd, Nicholas Moore, James 
Claypoole, Hobert Turner, and John Eckley. 

The next session of the Assembly was marked by the usual want of 
unanimity and the objectionable act of laying on its members a solemn 

1688. injunction of secrecy. This measure was not without an exhibition of 
undignified violence, resisted by the Council, and the lack of harmony 

greatly obstructed legislation. Lloyd, in consequence, requested to be released 
from the public affairs of government. His request was I'eluctantly granted, and 
on his recommendation, the Proprietary changed the plural executive into a 
single deputy, making choice of Captain John Blackwell, formerly an officer of 
Cromwell, under whom he had earned a distinguished reputation in England 
and Ireland. He was in New England when he received his commission, dated 
July 25, 1688. 

Governor Blackwell met the Assembly in the third month, 1689 ; but, by reason 
of some misunderstanding or dissension between him and some of the 

1689. Council, the public affairs were not managed with harmony and satis- 
faction ; and but little done during his administration, which continued 

only till the twelfth month this year, when he returned to England, and the 
government of the Province, according to charter, devolved again on the 
Council, Thomas Llo3"d, president. The appointment of Captain John Black- 
well, who w^as no Quaker, to be Deputy Governor, appears, by the Proprietary's 
letters to his friends in the Province, " to have been because no suitable person, 
who was of that society, would undertake the office." 

B^'^ the Revolution of 1688, which drove James from the throne, the Proprie- 
tary lost all influence at the English court. His intimacy with that unhappy 
monarch covered him with dark suspicion. His religious and political princi- 
ples were misrepresented; he was denounced as a Catholic, a Jesuit of St. 
Omers, and a self-devoted slave to despotism, and was charged with conspiring 
the restoration of James. It is now unnecessary to disprove these accusations ; 
for though his enemies caused him to be thrice examined before the privy coun- 
cil, and to give bail for his appearance in the King's Bench, he was discharged by 
that court, no evidence appearing against him. The ties which bound him to 
Europe having been thus broken, he prepared to revisit his Province, accom- 
panied by anotlier colony of five hundred persons, which he had assembled by 
publication of new proposals. A convoy was appointed by government for his 
protection, and he was on the eve of sailing, when his enterprise was marred by 
another persecution. A wretch, named Fuller, subsequently declared infamous 
by parliament, and pilloried, accused him, on oath, with being engaged in a 
conspiracy of the Papists in Lancashire to raise a rebellion, and restore James 
to the crown. He narrowly escaped arrest on his return from the funeral of 
George Fox, the celebrated founder of the Society of Friends. Hitherto he had 
met his accusers with a courage worth}' of his character and his innocence, 3^et 
such was his dread of the profligacy of the witness who now appeared against 
him, that he deemed it prudent to seek retirement and privacy. His contem- 
plated colony failed, and the expenses of its outfit were lost. 



QENEEAL HISTOBl . 55 

After Blackwell's departure, in 169G, the Council elected Thomas Lloyd 
their president, and according to the constitution, assumed executive 
1690. functions ; but, six councillors from the Lower Counties, without the 
knowledge of tlie president, formed themselves into a separate Council 
h 1691, appointed judges for those counties, and made ordinances. 

The President and Council of Pennsylvania forthwith published a proclama- 
tion declaring all the acts of the six seceding members illegal. The latter made 
proposals towards an accommodation, in which they principally required that the 
judges and all officers of the government should be appointed by the nine council- 
lors from the Lower Counties. But this was not allowed them. On the other 
hand, Penn tried to restore a good understanding between the two sections of the 
Province, between whom the breach was widening, by giving them the choice of 
three modes of executive government, viz., by a joint council, by five com- 
missioners, or by a lieutenant-governor. The majority favored the last mode, 
but seven of the members for the Lower Counties protested against it, and 
declared for the commissioners, which form of government, in case the members 
for Pennsylvania should persist in favor of a lieutenant-governor, they meant to 
introduce into their territories until the will of the Proprietary should be known. 
Their principal objections against a lieutenant-governor were the expense of his 
support and the fear lest the officers should be arbitrarily dismissed. The 
efforts on the part of the Council of Pennsjdvania to eff"ect a good understanding 
proving fruitless, the three Upper Counties chose Lloyd for their Governor 
while the Lower Counties rejected him. Penn, therefore, perceiving it impossible 
to bring about a union, confirmed the appointment of Llo3'd, and conferred the 
government of the lower counties on William Markham, the former Secretary 
of the Province, who had joined with the protesting members. This was done 
by William Penn much against liis will, and had the consequence he predicted, 
viz., that the King, as will presently appear, annexed the two colonies to the 
government of New York. 

William Penn foresaw that these dissensions would furnish the crown a 
pretext for depriving him of his Province. His fears were soon verified. 
William and Mary seized with avidity this opportunity to punish him for his 
attachment to the late King ; and they were well pleased to clothe an act of 
naked power with such justification as the disorders of the Province presented. 

Their Majesties' commission to Benjamin Fletcher, Governor-General of New 
York, constituting him Governor of Pennsylvania and the territories, was 
notified to Thomas Lloyd on the 19th of April, 1693. There was no 
1693. notice in this commission, of William Penn, nor of the Provincial con- 
stitution. Governor Fletcher was empow^ered to summon the General 
Assembly elected by the freeholders, to require its members to take the oaths 
and subscribe the tests prescribed by act of parliament, and to make laws in 
conjunction with the Assembly, he having a veto upon their acts ; and was 
directed to transmit copies of such laws, for the approbation of the crown, within 
three months from their enactment. Official information of this change was 
not given to the constituted authorities of the Province, either by the King or 
Proprietary ; yet, on the arrival of Colonel Fletcher at Philadelphia, the govern- 
ment was surrendered to him without objection; but most of the Quaker 



56 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

magistrates refused to accept from him the renewal of their commissions. The 
Proprietary condemned tliis ready abandonment of his rights, and addressed a 
cautionary letter to Fletcher, warning him of the illegality of his appointment, 
which mio-ht have restrained the latter from exercising his authority had it been 
timely received, as he was attached to Penn by personal favors. 

At the very beginning a misunderstanding arose between the Governor and 
the Assembly, who attempted the introduction of a mode of summoning and 
electing the representatives at variance with the fundamental laws of the 
Province, which he w^as bound to observe. The Assembly, consisting of 
members from the Upper and Lower Counties, but reduced to about sixteen in 
number, on convening, took steps to maintain their own and the peoples' 
rights. The Governor, on the majority of the members refusing to take the 
oaths, honored their conscientious scruples in permitting them simply to 
subscribe, but told them that this was an act of grace and not of right, which 
must not be used as a precedent. 

In this Assembly two important subjects were considered ; the confirmation 
of the old laws, and a grant of aid in men (;r money to the King for the then 
existing war with France. The Assembly used the latter in order to secure the 
former, hoping that Fletcher would yield this point for the sake of obtaining the 
other, as his Province of New York was much exposed to the Indians, who 
were supported by the French in Canada. Fletcher maintained a firm attitude, 
insisting upon the rejection of eight of the old laws, chiefly penal, as in conflict 
with and less rigorous than the laws of England. Long negotiations ensued, 
but he finall}'^ confirmed them all (one concerning shipwrecks excepted), subject 
to the King's pleasure. The Assembly', on their part, granted the required sub- 
sid}^, after considerable delay, they insisting that their grievances should first be 
redressed. Fletcher claimed the right of altering the new laws, even without the 
deliberations of the Assembly. This was strenuously resisted b}^ a party in the 
Assembly, w^hich, though in the minorit}^, had their protest against Fletcher's 
pretensions entered upon the journal of the House. The Governor threatened to 
annex the Province to New York, and then the moderate party, rather than 
submit to this, preferred receiving the confirmation of their rights and liberties as 
a favor at the hands of the Governor. 

Prior to his departure for Ncav York, in 1694, Fletcher appointed 
1694. William Markham, the Proprietary's kinsman, Lieutenant-Governor. 

Governor Fletcher, being engaged at New York, did not meet the 
Assembly at its first session of this j^ear. At the second he earnestly solicited 
them to make fui'ther appropriations for the public defence. He endeavored to 
excite their emulation by the example of New Jersey, which had freely c(m- 
tributed troops and money, and tried to engage their compassion b}^ desci'ibing 
the sufiei'ings of the inliabitants about Albany, from whence " fourscore families," 
he said, " had been driven, rather by the negligence of their friends, than b}' the 
force of their enemies." Experience having taught him that it was vain to ask 
men, whose religion forbade the use of arms, to organize a military force, or 
appropriate funds for its support, he sought to frame his demands in a less 
questionable shape. Putting out of view all warlike intentions, he solicited their 
charity "to feed the hungry and clothe the naked," by supplying the Indian 



QENEBAL HISTORY. 57 

nations with such necessaries as might influence them to continue their friend- 
ship to the Province. But even these instances proved powerless. For, although 
another tax, similar to the last, was voted, no part of it was appropriated to the 
war or relief of the Indians. As a considerable sum had been given to Governor 
Fletcher, justice demanded that the services of the Proprietary deputies should 
also be rewarded. The Assembly, therefore, directed two hundred pounds each 
should be given to Markham and Lloyd, and that the balance to be raised by the 
bill should defray the general expenses of the government. Fletcher rejected 
their bill, because the whole sum was not granted to their Majesties, with a 
request that they would appropriate it to the use of the deputies, and to the 
defence of New York and Albany; and the Assembly, refusing to modify it, and 
asserting their right to appropriate their money at their pleasure, Avas dissolved. 

The Proprietary, whose political views were rarely obscured by his religious 
principles, reprehended strongly this resolute refusal ; nor was he blind to the 
effects which such opposition to the wishes of the crown might have upon his 
particular interests. 

The clouds of suspicion, which had long enveloped William Penn, were 
at length broken. He had many friends among the nobles who surrounded tlie 
King, and his true character was at last made known. He was heard before the 
privy council, and was honorably acquitted, and was restored to his Propi'ietary 
rights by patent, dated August, 1694, in which the disorders in the Province 
were ascribed solely to his absence. Shortly before his reinstatement, Penn 
lost his wife, Gulielma Maria, in the twelfth month of the preceding year. 

Penn appointed William Markham his Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania 
and territories, on the 24th of September, 1G94. 

The restoration of the former government, however, did not bring with it 
contentment and a good understanding between the different branches of the 
legislature. Governor Fletcher was disliked because he had innovated upon the 
legislative forms, but the Assembly, summoned by Markham, in Sep- 
1695. tember, 1695, was as much dissatisfied with him, although he had 
summoned them according to forms prescribed by the charter. The 
great bone of contention still being the subsidy to be granted to the King, 
Penn's letter shows that he disapproved of their conduct. Markham presented 
to the Assembly a new act of settlement, which was readily agreed to, but not 
finally adopted until the following year, because the Governor, no doubt on 
account of their obstinacy in refusing to pass the subsidy act, unexpectedly 
dissolved the Assembly. After a long remonstrance to the Governor had been 
found without effect, the proposal of a joint committee of the two branches of the 
Legislature was acceded to, by which it was agreed to accept the new constitu- 
tion, provided Penn should approve of it, and immediately a new subsidy of 
£300 was granted for the support of the royal government and of the suffering 
Indians. This Avas done by a tax of one penny on the pound on all assessed 
property. 

The new Constitution was more democratic than the former one. The 
Council, chosen biennially, consisted of two, and the Assembly, elected annually, 
of four members from each county. The right of the latter to originate bills, to 
sit on its own adjournments, and to be indissoluble during the term for which it 



58 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

was elected, was explicitly established ; and the powers and duties of the scA'cral 
officers were accurately defined. This instrument was never formally sanctioned 
by the Proprietary, and it continued in force only until his arrival in the 
Province, in 1699, or rather until 1701, when a new and more lasting one was 
substituted in its place. Under it the peoi)le were content, and calmly and 
industriously applied themselves to the improvement of the country. 

William Penn, accompanied by his second wife and children, sailed from 
England in the ship Canterbury in September, and after a tedious 

1699. voyage of more than three months, arrived in the Delaware on the 1st 
day of December, 1699. Penn was cordially welcomed, it being gene- 
rally believed that he had come resolved to spend the remainder of his life in the 
Province. Still he did not encounter that warm affection and unbounded confi- 
dence amonof the colonists which on his first visit had enabled him to lead them 
entirely according to his will. 

The Proprietary, believing everything ready for the introduction of a new 
form of government, free from the defects of the former ones, and 

1700. calculated to impart strength and unity to the administration, called an 
extraordinary^ meeting of the Assembly in May following, which con- 
sisted of a larger number of members than those which preceded it, and held a 
session of unusual length. The new charter, although frequentl}^ discussed by 
the two houses jointly and separately, was not carried through at this and the 
next General Assembly, which was held in October of the same year at New 
Castle. The formation of a code of laws securing the titles to landed property, 
and a grant for the support of the government in addition to the new charter, 
were the chief objects of said Assembly. Its enactment failed to be accom- 
plished, chiefly on account of the exacting and unreasonable conditions stipulated 
by the Lower Counties. 

The Proprietary endeavored, though vmsuccessfullj', to obtain additional legis- 
lative restrictions upon the intercourse with the Indians, in order to protect them 
from the arts of the whites. Nor was he more happy in his renewed exertions to 
instruct the aborigines in the doctrines of Christianity — their language, according 
to the report of the interpreter, not affording terms to conve}^ its nij-steries. ■ 
This reason, however, was not well founded, and was the subterfuge of the agent 
to cover his own ignorance or indolence. The success of the venerable ]{lliot, 
and of the Moravian missionaries, has proven that the Indian language is compe- 
tent for the communication of the most abstract ideas. But, resolute to improve 
their temporal condition, Penn conferred frequently with the several nations of 
the Province and its vicinity, visiting them familiarl}^ in their forests, partici- 
pating in their fep<^ivals, and entertaining them with much hospitalitj^ and state 
at his mansion at Pennsbury. He formed a new treaty with the tribes located 
on the Susquehanna and its tributaries, as also with the Five Nations. 

1701. This treaty was one of peace. In the Spring of 1701, William Penn 
took a second journc}'' into the interior of the Province. 

The Proprietar3''s situation becoming uncomfortable, in consequence of mis- 
chief to his government brewing in England, lie made preparation for a speedy 
return. Since the Revolution, it had been a favorite measure of tie crown to 
purchase the Proprietary governments in America. Jealousy of the power of 



GENERAL HISTORY. 59 

these governments, says Gordon, had grown with their growth, and a bill was 
now before the Lords to change them into regal ones. The friends of Penn, and 
others interested in the Province, had succeeded with difficulty in obtaining n 
postponement of the bill until his return, which they earnestly represented to 
him should be immediate. 

Penn forthwith convened the Assembly on September 16, 1701. The comple- 
tion of a new constitution, and the enactment of such laws as required his special 
sanction, made the session important and laborious. The address of the Proprie- 
tary was most frank and conciliatory. He apologized for having summoned 
them before the customary time, expressed his regret at being so unseasonably 
called away, and assured them of his unceasing love and regard, " Think," said 
he, "therefore (since all men are mortal), of some suitable expedient and provi- 
sion for your safety, as well in your privileges as property, and you will find me 
ready to comply with whatever may render us happy by a nearer union of our 
interest." Yet actuated by his duty to the crown, he again drew their attention 
to the King's demand for money, and mentioned a late treaty of peace, concluded 
with the Indians b}^ the Governor of New York in behalf of all the Provinces, as 
worthy of their acknowledgments. The House replied to the address with 
grateful thanks, but refused the war contribution for the reasons already given. 

The Assembly then prepared an address detailing their wants and wishes, 
which related particularly to the appointment of a Lieutenant-Governor in liis 
absence, the secui'ity of their land-titles, and the allowance of ten for every 
hundred acres connected with them, which they claimed by virtue of the Gover- 
nor's promise. They proposed the establishment of a patent office, and that the 
quit-rents should be made redeemable. The Lower Counties, in the twenty-one 
articles of which the address consisted, had asked much for themselves in direct 
opposition to the Proprietary's interest, yet he granted the most of what was 
asked, refusing only some unjust demands and others of a private character, with 
which the Legislature had no right to interfere. The Assembl}^, on the other 
hand, pressed their demands, although Penn's complaisance went so far as to 
invite them to nominate his Lieutenant, which, however, they modestly declined. 

While they were debating on a bill to confirm the laws at New Castle, and the 
majority seemed to be in favor of its passage, the misunderstanding between the 
representatives of the Province and the Lower Counties was again revived, with 
more violence than ever, so that several of the members for the Lower Counties 
left the House. It needed all of Penn's weight of character and earnest interpo- 
sition to prevent an open rupture. He promised to agree to the separation of 
the two colonies. But then, continued the Proprietary', it must be upon amicable 
terms, and a good understanding. That they must first resolve to settle the 
laws ; and that, as the interest of the Province and that of those Lower Counties 
would be inseparably the same, they should both use a conduct consistent with 
that relation. Matters were adjusted temporarily with the provision for a 
conditional separation, if they chose it, within the space of three years. 

The constitution, which had been under consideration for more than eighteen 
months, was finally adopted on the twent^'-eighth of October, six parts in seven 
of the Assembly having formally surrendered the previous charter granted by 
Penn. The new charter was as comprehensive on the subject of civil and reli- 



CO HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

gious liberty as the former ones. Whilst it secured, by general provisions, tho 
most important of human rights, it left minor subjects to be detailed and 
enforced by the laws. 

Penu likewise, by letters-patent, under the great seal, established a Council of 
State, composed of ten members, chiefly Quakers and his intimate friends, of 
whom four made a quorum, who were empowered "to consult and assist, with 
the best of their advice, the Proprietary himself or his deputies, in all public 
aftairs and matters relating to the government." And, in his absence, or on the 
death or incapacity of his deputy, the}', or any five of them, were authorized to 
execute all the Proprietary powers in the administration of the government. 
The members of the Council were removable at the will of the Governor, who 
might increase their numbers at pleasure. 

Andrew Hamilton,* one of the Proprietaries of East Jersey, and formerly 
Governor of East and West Jersey, having been appointed Deputy Governor, 
and James Logan Provincial Secretary and Clerk of the Council, William Pcnn 
sailed for England in the ship Dalmahoy, and arrived at Portsmouth about 
the middle of December. The bill for reducing the Proprietary into regal 
governments, pending in Parliament, was entirely dropped. King 
1702. William died on the 18th of the first month, 1701-2, and was suc- 
ceeded by the Princess Anne of Denmark, with whom William Penn 
was in great favor. 

Governor Hamilton's administration was very brief, for he died in the 
month of April, 1703. His chief efibrts had been unsuccessfully directed to the 
consummation of a union between the Province and territories. Upon his death 
the government devoh^ed upon the Council, Edward Shippen being President. 

During this time of dispute, or endeavors for an union between the representa- 
tives of the Province and territories, not much other public business of impor- 
tance appears to have been transacted in the affairs of the government. The 
latter persisted in an absolute refusal to join with the former, in legislation, till 
it was finally, in the year 1703, agreed and settled between them, that they should 
compose diff"erent and distinct Assemblies, entirely independent of each other, 
pursuant to the liberty allowed by the clause in the charter for that purpose ; 
which clause was said to have been there inserted by the particular and special 
request of the representatives of the territories, with previous full intention of the 
separation which ensued ; and in this capacity they had ever acted since that 
time. 

The Proprietary's choice of a successor to Governor Hamilton fell on Mr, John 
Evans, a young man of six and twenty years of age, and of Welsh extraction. 
He was earnestly recommended to Secretary Logan, under whose direction he 



* Andrew Hamit^ton was a native of Scotland. Originally a merchant of Edinburgh, ho 
emigrated to America in 1685; was one of the Council of Lord Neil Campbell, whom he 
succeeded as Deputy Governor of New Jersey, in 1686. In 1689, while on a voyage to Eng- 
land, was made prisoner and detained some time in France. He devised the scheme for 
the establishment of post-offices in the Colonies, and received the appointment, April 4, 
1G92, of Deputy Postmaster-General for all the plantations. He was Governor of New Jersey 
from 1692 to 1698, and again from 1699 to 1701, when he received the appointment of Deputy 
Governor of Pennsylvania. He died while on a visit to Amboy, April 20, 1703. 



GENERAL HISTORY. 61 

had promised to place himself. He arrived in the Province in February, and 
soon after increased the number of the Council, calling to that board, with 
others, William Penn the younger, who had accompanied him to the Province. 
Pursuant to the instructions of the Proprietary, he earnestly applied himself to 
re-unite the Province and territories; and his want of success in this Uicasure 
produced an unfavorable disposition towards the former, which embittered his 
whole administration. 

John Evans* was a young man, uncommonly zealous and active in whatever 
affected the Proprietary's interests ; deficient neither in wit nor talents, he lacked 
experience, prudence, and tact; his private life was, moreover, higlil}^ offensive to 
the stead}' and quiet ways of the sober and moral Quakers. He earl}^ attached 
himself to the interests of the Lower Counties, and induced their Assembly to 
pass laws manifestly designed to produce unpleasant effects in the Province. 
England being then at war with France and Spain, he had been ordered by 
the Queen to raise an armed force in Pennsylvania, but his efforts 
1706. proved unsuccessful. He affected to treat the peaceful of the 
Quakers with contempt, and, unable to argue them out of their princi- 
ples, endeavored to gain his object by a stratagem, which completel}^ failed, and 
tended to make him odious to the people of Philadelphia, which occurred almost 
simultaneously with an unwise and unlawful measure, greatly offending the 
merchants of the Province. He had authorized the Assembly at New Castle to 
erect a fort near the town, where it could be of little use to the safet}- of the two 
Provinces. For the maintenance of this fort, inward bound ships, not owned b}' 
residents, were obliged to deliver their half a pound of powder for each ton 
measurement. The provincialists remonstrated against this abuse in vain. At 
length Richard Hill, William Fishbourne, and Samuel Preston, three spii-itcd 
Quakers, resolved to I'cmove the nuisance by a method different from any that had 
yet been attempted. Hill and his companions, on board the Philadelphia, a 
vessel belonging to the former, dropped down the river and anchored above the 
fort. Two of them went ashore and informed French, the commander, tiiat their 
vessel was regularly cleared, demanding to pass uninterruptedl}'. This being- 
refused. Hill, who had been bred to the sea, stood to the helm and passed the 
fort with no other injury than a shot through the mainsail. French pursued in 
an armed boat, was taken alone on board, while his boat, cut from the vessel, fell 
astern, and was led prisoner to the cabin. Governor EA^ans, apprized of the 
matter, followed their vessel by land to New Castle, and after she had passed the 
fort, pursued her in a boat to Salem, where he boarded her in great anger, and 
behaved with great intemperance. Lord Cornbury, Governor of New Jersc}-, 
who claimed to be vice-admiral of the Delaware, being then at Salem, the priso- 
ners Avere taken before him, and having, together with Governor Evans, been 
severely reprimanded, and giving promise of future good behavior, was dismissed 
with the jeers of the captors. After this spirited action, th'e fort no longer 
impeded the navigation of the Delaware. 



* John Evans, though of Welsh descent, was born at London in 1G78. At the time of 
his appointment as Deputy Governor of the Province he was an officer of the Queen's house- 
hold. His administration, from 1704 to 1709 was not a successful one. Of his subsequent 
career little is known. He returned to England, and died there about 1730. 



6 2 HIS TOE Y OF PEJ^NS YL VANIA. 

Ou the 27th of June, 1707, it is narrated in the Provincial Records, the Gover- 
nor, in company of several friends and servants, set out on a journey to the 

Indians, occasioned by a message from the Conestogaand other Indians, 
1707. upon the Nanticokes' designed journey to the Five Nations. He visited 

in turn the following places : Pequehan, on the Pequea, Dekonoagah, on 
the Susquehanna, about nine miles distant from Pequehan, Conestogoe, and Peix- 
tano- had friendlv intercourse with them, and seized one Nicole, a French Indian 
trader, afainst whom heavy complaints had been made. Ilis capture was attended 
with dillicultics, but he was finally secured and mounted upon a horse with his 
Ico-s tied. From the articles of remonstrance, addressed to the Proprietary by the 
Assembly, subsequently, it seems that the Governor's conduct among the Indians 
was not free from censure, it being described as " abominable and unwarrantable." 
The unhappy misunderstanding between the Governor and his seci'etary, 
Loo-an, on the one hand, and the Assembly on the other, almost paralyzed legis- 
lative action, and led to the most lamentable exhibition of ill-temper on the part 
of the latter, which first produced articles of impeachment against Logan, and 
afterwards, determined to have Evans removed, a remonstrance against both 
addressed to William Penn. The language of that instrument was intemperate, 
many of its charges exaggerated, and some unfounded. This remonstrance 
was not only unjust, but also unwise and inconsiderate, for it tended to produce 
the vcr}' steps Avhich they were desirous to guard against, by provoking the 
Governor to relinquish a troublesome and ungrateful Province to the crown of 
England, which had long wished to repossess it. 

In the beginning of this year, 1709, Governor Evans was removed, and 
Charles Gookin* appointed his successor. Gookin was an officer in the arm}'-, but, 

in the language of Penn, a man of pure morals, mild temper, and mode- 
1709. rate disposition. When he arrived, the Assembly was in session. That 

body, instead of waiting for the propositions of the Governor, hastened 
to present to him a statement of grievances, in which they repeated the weightiest 
of their complaints against his predecessor, and demanded immediate satisfac- 
tion. In vain Gookin endeavored to convince them that he had no right to sit in 
judgment over the acts of his predecessor. These beginnings were not promis- 
ing. Lloj'd was almost always at the head of the Assembl}', and Logan had as 
much influence on Gookin as on his predecessor. The spirit of discontent Avhich 
reigned in the Assembly probably originated in the embarrassment of Penn, 
whose means were now greatly curtailed by his generosity towards his Province 
and the cause of the Quakers. Alread}'^, in 1707, he was involved in a heavy 
lawsuit with the executors of his former steward, wdio preferred large claims 
against him, the injustice of which he could not sufficiently prove, since even the 
Court of Chancery could not liberate him from imprisonment until he had 
satisfied the complainants. The income of his European estate was inadequate 
to pay his other debts, and he had to borrow £6,600 sterling, for Which he 
mortgaged his Province. The knowledge of his situation may have prompted 



* Charles Gookin, a captain in Earle's Royal Regiment, was born in Ireland in 1G60, 
Ho was well advanced in years on being appointed Provincial Governor, in 1709, an office 
he held for eight years, althongh not to the satisfaction of the Assembly. He returned to 
England, and died in London about 1725. 



QENEHAL HISTORY. 63 

the Assembly to extort more privileges from him, and to limit his prerogative. On 
the other hand, necessity compelled him to be attentive to the collection of his 
revenue from the Province, and to increase it as much as possible. This con- 
duct of the Assembly, however, contributed not a little to disgust him with the 
whole undertaking. Repeatedly urged to restore the Province to the crown, but 
long struggling against the abandonment of the brilliant hopes he had cherished 
to found a religious nation and a model of true freedom, his growing necessities 
and the constant opposition of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, finally com- 
pelled him to take that step. Several circumstances which occurred durino- 
the administration of Gookin contributed to produce this resolution. The 
Queen required the aid of the Province towards the conquest of Canada, in 
which the New England colonies assisted her Avith zeal. Pennsylvania was 
required to furnish and support 150 men, at an estimated expense of £4,000. 
The Assembly voted a free gift to the Queen of £800. To this was added the 
Governor's salary of £200, which, however, they would not allow until he should 
have passed the bills presented to him, and redressed their grievaaices, which 
bore chiefly on the retention of Logan. The latter being about to visit England 
on the Proprietar^^'s business, at the next sitting of the Assembly demanded a 
trial, instead of granting which, the Assembly ordered the sheriff to take him 
into custody; the Governor prevented his arrest by issuing a supersedeas. 
This put the Assembly quite out of temper and arrested all business, besides 
the entering on their minutes of a protest against the Governor's illegal and 
arbitrary measures. Logan went to London, fully justified his conduct, and 
returned to the Province confirmed in his otlice, and enjoying more than ever 
the favor of the Proprietary. 

Penn addressed a toucliing letter to the Assembl}', in whicli he detailed and 
described their unjust and illegal pretensions, taxed them with ingratitude, took 
the part of Logan, and finally informed them that if they should persist in their 
opposition to his government, he must seriously consider what he should do with 
regard to his Province, and his determination should be governed by the con- 
duct of the future Asscmbl}'. 

This letter effected an instantaneous change in the minds of the people. A 
new Assemblj' was chosen in IT 10. Harmony of action ensued between 
1710. it and Governor Gookin. They completed by their laws the organiza- 
tion of the courts of justice, and voted to the Queen the sum of £2,000, 
although the}^ were well informed of her determination to go to war with France. 
The expedition to Canada, says Gordon, pi'oved most disastrous. Colonel 
Nicholson, under whom served Colonels Schuyler, Whiting, and Ligoldsb}', mus- 
tered at Albany tAvo thousand colonists, one thousand Germans from the Pala- 
tinate, and one thousand of the Five Nation Indians, who commenced their 
march towards Canada on the twenty-eighth of August. The troops from 
Boston, composed of seven veteran regiments, of the Duke of Marl- 
1712. borough's army, one battallion of marines, and two provincial regi- 
ments, amounting to six thousand four hundred men, sailed on board 
of sixty-eight vessels, the 30th of July, and arrived off" the St. Lawrence on 
the" 14th of August. In ascending the river, the fleet, by the unskilfullness 
of the pilots, or the obstinancy and distrust of the Admiral, Avas entangled amid 



64 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

i-ocks and islands on the northern shore, and ran imminent hazard of total 
destruction. Several transports, and near a thousand men, perished. Upon this 
disaster the remainder bore away for Cape Breton, and the expedition, by the 
advice of a council of naval and military officers, was abandoned, on the ground 
of the want of provisions, and the impossibility of procuring a seasonable supply. 
The Admiral sailed directly for England, and the colonists returned to Boston, 
whilst Colonel Nicholson, thus deserted, was compelled to retreat from Fort 
George. Want of skill, fortitude, and perseverance Avere eminently conspicu- 
ous in the British commanders of this enterprise. 

In 1712, William Penn entered into an agreement with Queen Anne to cede 
to her the Province of Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties, for the sum of 

£12,000 sterling. But before the legal forms were completed, an apo- 
1714. plectic stroke prostrated his vigorous mind and reduced him to the 

feebleness of infancy. The Queen died on the first of August, 1114, 
and was succeeded b}'^ George the First. 

Two years subsequent. Governor Gookin arrayed against himself all the 
Quaker interest in the Province, in consequence of construing a provision in the 
statute of 1 and 8 William III., "that no Quaker, by virtue thereof^ could be 

qualified or permitted to give evidence in any criminal case, or serve 

1716. on juries, or hold any place or office of profit in the government." 
This act had been made perpetual in Great Britain, and was extended 

to the colonies for five years by an act of Parliament of 1 George I. In the 
opinion of Gookin, the extension of this act to the Provinces repealed the 
provincial law, and disqualified the Quakers from giving testimony in criminal 
cases, from sitting on juries, and from holding any oflice. Notwithstanding the 
desertion of his Council, and the remonstrances of the Assembly, Gookin 
tenaciously adhered to his construction of the statute. His good genius had 
now entirely abandoned him, for he now charged Richard Hill, Speaker of the 
Assembly, Isaac Norris, and James Logan, with disloyalty to the King and 
devotion to the Pretender. These allegations were utterly unfounded, and 
the Assembly', whither the parties charged had carried their complaint, com- 
pletely exonerated them. Expostulation with Gookin having proved 

1717. A'ain, his Council unanimousl}^ joined in an address to William Penn, 
pra3'ing his recall. He met the Assembl}'^ for the last time in March, 

nn, and extorted from their compassion the sum of £200, a valedictor}' 
donation. 

Sir William Keith,* on the first of May, HIT, superseded Governor Gookin, 



* Sir William Keith, son of a Scottish baronet of the same name, was born in the 
North of Scotland about 1669. He long held a position under the royal government, and 
was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Pennsylvani i in 1717. One of the 
most successful of the Proprietary executives, on being superseded in 1726, he was imme- 
diately thereafter chosen to the Assembly. His course, however, in creating dissensions 
between the legislative and executive branches of the government, served to alienate his 
friends. He died in obscurity, in London, November 17, 1749. Lady Ann Keith had 
deceased in Philadelphia, July 31, 1740, at the age of sixty-five, and lies entombed at Christ 
Church graveyard. Governor Keith published a "History of the British Plantations" in 
America, Part I.," containing the History of Virginia, 1738; and "Collections of Papers 
and Tracts," 1749. 



QENEBAL HISTORY. 



65 




SIR WILLIAM KEITE. 



having held for some time the office of the King's surveyor of the customs 
for the Southern Provinces, and on his occasional visits to Philadelphia 
manifested much interest in the political dis- 
cussions of the Province, and acquired the 
good will of Logan, Norris, and other prominent 
inhabitants. He was strongly recommended for 
the position of Lieutenant-Governor by the Pro- 
vincial Council and chief inhabitants, by their 
friends in London, by William Penn, Jr., Mr. 
Logan, and others. Keith was the first Gover- 
nor who ventured to espouse the side of the 
popular party and to support its interests with 
the Proprietary and the Crown, on disputed 
subjects. He arrived at Philadelphia on the 
31st of May, and convened an Assembly on the 
19th of June. Having thoroughl}^ studied the 
errors of his predecessors, he sought to benefit 
b}^ their experience. 

Governor Keith displayed the policy he meant to pursue in his lirst address 
to the Assembly. The Assembly testified their satisfaction with his address, and 
his kind and conciliatory manners, by an immediate grant of five hundred and 
fifty pounds, payable from the first moneys received in the treasury, which they 
replenished by an additional bill of supply. In return, Keith framed an address 
to the Throne on the interesting subject of affirmation, which had the good for- 
tune to please the House in all respects, save that the plural number was used 
instead of the singular. 

On the 30th da}' of July, 1718, William Penn died at Rushcombe, near 
Twyford, in Buckinghamshire, England, aged seventy-four. As the 
1718. honorable Proprietary and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, 
his loss was a severe one to the Province. He discovered and adored 
the great truths, that happiness of society is the true object of civil power, and 
that freedom exists only '•'•where the laws rule, and the peojyle are parties to the 
laws.''^ On these foundations, says Gordon, was his Province erected. His 
merit will be the more justly appreciated by adverting to the state of the 
American colonies planted antecedently to the year 1680. These were Massa- 
chusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 
Maryland, Yirginia, and South Carolina. The New England colonies sprang 
from the natural and selfish desires of their founders to withdraAV themselves 
from power and oppression. Religious toleration and civil liberty were not 
appreciated by them as rights essential to the happiness of the human race. 
The rights of conscience the Puritans of those Provinces demanded, were such as 
protected themselves from the gibbet and lash, which they applied to force the 
consciences of others. Their civil rights they regarded as exclusive property, 
acquired by purchase, the evidence of which was in their charter. Whilst Penn 
was offering to the world a communion of religious and civil freedom, the saints 
of Massachusetts excluded from the benefits of their government all who were 
not members of their church, and piously flagellated or hanged those who were 

E 



66 HIS ro RY OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

not convinced of its infallibility. Roger Williams, proscribed and expelled for 
his own opinions, was the first to teach that the civil magistrate might not 
interfere in religious matters, and that to punish men for opinion was persecu- 
tion. New York, without a charter or an Assembly, was subject to the caprice 
of its governors, in civil as in ecclesiastical matters. New Jersey had a free, a 
liberal, but an impracticable constitution. The attempt to establish in that 
Province the basis of a free government, though unsuccessful, and throwing the 
administration into the hands of the Crown, was not useless. The people were 
introduced to the knowledge of sound political principles, which were never 
altogether abandoned. Marjdand, possessing the most liberal and the best 
digested constitution that had emanated from a British monarch, and the most 
independent of the royal power, had been involved in civil war and religious 
persecutions during the Revolution, and was then reduced to order and good 
government, by the resumption of executive power by the Calverts. But the 
Roman Catholic faith of its governors and principal inhabitants rendered its 
policy suspected by Protestants. Carolina was the subject of a most fanciful 
experiment of the renowned Locke, who framed for it an aristocratical constitu- 
tion, totally inconsistent with the light of the age in which he lived; establishing 
an hereditary nobility, with large and unalienable landed estates, and the Church 
of England as the religion of the State. Penn wisely modelled the royal charter 
for his Province as closely as possible upon the Maryland grant ; and, though at 
the first institution of the government, he was doubtful of the propriety of giving 
the Assembly the power to originate laws, experience soon taught him the 
wisdom of this measure. His government secured the blessings of propert}^ and 
personal freedom alike to Christian and to infidel ; placed all persons on an 
equality before the laws, and admitted Christians of every denomination to a 
full participation of political rights. The experience of almost two hundred 
years, during which political science has been widely extended, has added 
nothing essential to human happiness which his sj'stem had not provided ; unless 
it be found in those constitutions which make no discrimination in the religious 
faith of the citizens. 




PENN'S BOOK PLATE. 




CHAPTER IV. 

PROPRIETARY RULE. ADMINISTRATIONS OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR KEITH, GORDON, 
LOGAN, THOMAS, PALMER, AND HAMILTON. 1718-1754. 

|ECUNIARILY involved at his death, the Province was encumbered 
by the Proprietary's mortgage of 1708 and his contract Avitli tlie Crown 
for the sale of the government, llis will, dated 1712, was made antc- 
^ cedently to, but in contemplation of, this contract, lie provided for 
the issue of his first marriage by the devise of his English and Irish estates ; 
which, producing fifteen hundred pounds sterling per annum, were estimated of 
greater value than his American possessions. From the latter he made provision 
for the pa3'ment of his debts, and for his widow and her children. The govern- 
ment of the Province and territories he devised to the Earls of Oxford, Morti- 
mer, and Pawlet, in trust, to sell to the Queen, or any other person. His estate 
in the soil he devised to other trustees, in trust, to sell so much as should be 
necessary for the payment of his debts ; to assign to his daughter Letitia, and the 
three children of his son William, ten thousand acres each, and to convey the 
remainder, at the discretion of his widow, to her children, subject to an annuity 
to herself of three hundred pounds sterling per annum. He appointed her sole 
executrix and legatee of his personal estate. 

Three questions arose on his devise of the government: 1, Whether it was 
valid against the heir-at-law, who claimed b}^ descent ? 2, Whether the object of 
the trust had not been already effected, by the contract of the Proprietary with 
the Queen ? 3, Whether, by consequence, his interest was not converted into 
personality ? In which case it passed in absolute property to the widow. From 
their doubts on these points, the trustees refused to act, unless under a decree 
of the Court of Chancery, whose interposition was also required by the commis- 
sioners of the treasur^^, before payment of the balance due on the purchase, to the 
executrix. A suit in this court was accordingly instituted, which kept the 
family property in a state of great uncertainty for many years ; during which 
Mrs. Penn, as executrix and trustee, assumed the superintendence of provincial 
affairs. In the year 1727, the family disputes, the Proprietary's will having been 
established in the Exchequer, were compromised ; and the crown lawyers and 
ministry concurring in opinion, tliat the Proprietary's agreement was void, from 
his inability to make a proper surrender of the government, it devolved, on the 
death of William Penn the younger, and his son Springett, to John, Thomas, and 
Richard Penn. 

The almost unbounded confidence of the Province in Keith enabled him, m 
1720, to establish two measures hitherto repugnant to the Assembly, an 
1720. equity court, dependent on the Governor's will, of which he was chan- 
cellor, and a militia organized by like authority. 
The great influx of foreigners alarmed the Assembly, who dreaded their settlc- 

61 



68 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

ment on the frontier. Attempts to naturalize them were treated with coldness. 
Even the Germans, whose industry and utility were proverbial, could not 
remove the prevailing jealousy. Many Palatines, long resident in the Province, 
applied for naturalization in 1121, but not until 1724 was leave granted to bring 
in a bill, provided they should individually obtain from a justice of the peace a 
certificate of the value of their property and nature of their religious faith. A 
bill to that effect, presented to the Governor in the following year, was forthwith 
returned by him on the ground that in a country Avhere English liberty and law 
prevailed, a scrutiny into the private conversation and faith of the citizens, and 
particularl}'' into their estates, was unjust and dangerous in precedent. The 
House yielded to the force of his reasons, and did not insist upon their bill, but 
it was not until some time afterwards that the privileges of subjects were granted 
to the Palatines. Indeed, the timidity of the Assembly induced them to check 
the importation of foreigners by a duty on all coming to reside in the Province. 
A disagreement relating to hunting-grounds, between the Southern and Pemi- 
sjdvania Indians, threatened to disturb the peace of the Province. To avert 
this, says Proud, Keith paid a visit to the Governor of Virginia, with 
1721. whom he framed a convention, confining the Indians on the north and 
south of the Potomac to their respective sides of that river; which the 
Pennsylvania and Fi^e Nation Indians, at a general conference, held at Cones- 
toga, on the 6th of July, 1721, fully ratified. This visit was made with much 
state. Keith was attended by a suit of seventy horsemen, many of them well 
armed, and was welcomed on his return, at the upper ferry on the Schuylkill, by 
the ma3for and aldermen of Philadelphia, accompanied by two hundred of the 
most respectable citizens. 

The Governor of Maryland proposed at this time to make surveys on the 
Susquehanna, Avithin the bounds claimed by Pennsylvania, and within the 
present county of York. Keith resolved to resist this attempt by force, and 
ordered out a militia company from New Castle. His Council, however, dis- 
couraged ever}^ resort to violence, even should the Marylanders employ force to 
effect their object. The Indians became alarmed at the proposed encroachment 
from Maryland, and after much hesitation, consented to convey to Keith, that he 
might have a better title to resist the Marylanders, a large tract of land for the 
use of Springett Penn, the grandson of William Penn, afterwards known by the 
name of Springettsbury Manor. 

The fears of the Province were soon after again awakened by a quarrel 
between two brothers named Cartlidge and an Indian near Conestoga, in which 
the latter was killed, with many circumstances of cruelty. The known princi- 
ples of revenge professed l)y the Indians gave reason to apprehend severe 
retaliation. Policy an 1 justice required a rigid inquiry-, and the infliction of 
exemplar}' punishment on the murderers. The Assembly commanded a coro- 
ner's inquest to be holden on the body, though two months buried in the 
interior of the country, and the arrest of the accused. Messengers Avere 
dispatched to the Five Nations to deprecate hostilities, and, to prevent further 
irregularities, the prohibition of the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians Avas 
re-enacted, Avith additional penalties. The Indians iuA-ited Keith to meet them, 
with the Governors of Virginia, New York, and the NcaV England Colonies, in 



GENERAL HISTORY. Cii 

council at Albaii}^, where, with great magnanimity, they pardoned the offence of 
the Cartlidges, and requested they might be discharged without further punish- 
ment. The address of the King merits a place here : " The great King of the 
Five Nations," said the reporter, "is sorry for the death of the Indian that was 
killed, for he was of his own flesh and blood; he believes the Governor is also 
sorry; but, now that it is done, there is no help for it, and he desires that 
Cartlidge ma}^ not be put to death, nor that he should be spared for a time and 
afterwards executed ; one life is enough to be lost ; there should not two die. 
The King's heart is good to the Governor, and all the English." The Governor 
was attended on his journey to Albany by Messrs. Hill, Norris, and Hamilton, 
of his Council. 

A part of the emigration to the colonies was composed of servants, who were 
of two classes. The first and larger, poor and oppressed in the land of their 
nativity, sometimes the victims of political changes or religious intolerance, 
submitted to a temporary servitude, as the price of freedom, plenty, and peace. 
The second, vagrants and felons, the dregs of the British populace, were cast by 
the mother countr^^ upon her colonies, with the most selfish disregard of the 
feelings she outraged. From this moral pestilence the first settler shrunk with 
horror. In 1G82 the Pennsylvania Council proposed to prohibit the inti'oduc- 
tion of convicts, but the evil was then prospective to them only, and no law was 
enacted. But an act was now passed, which, though not prohibitory in. tenns, 
was such in effect, A duty of five pounds was imposed upon every convicted 
felon brought into the Province, and the importer was required to give surety 
for the good behavior of the convict for one j^ear; and to render these pro- 
visions effectual, the owner or master was bound, under a penalt}^ of twenty 
pounds, to render, on oath or affirmation, within twenty-four hours after tlie 
arrival of the vessel, an account to the collector of the names of the servants 
and passengers. But such account was not required when bond was given con- 
ditioned for the re-exportation of such servants within six months. 

In the 3'-ear 1722, owing to various circumstances, but chiefly by a deficiency 
in the circulating medium, commercial embarrassments ensued. 

1722. Governor Keith proposed to overcome this difficult}^ by the intro- 
duction of paper money. The Assembly proceeded, with the utmost 

caution and circumspection, in this important aflair, for, Avith full knowledge of 
the examples and mistakes of the other colonies, they felt it chiefly incumuent 
upon them to prevent the depreciation of their bills, "which nothing could so 
much effect as an over-quantity, defect of solid security, and of proper provisions 
to recall and cancel them," so hi this, their first experiment of the kinti, they 
only issued £15,000 on such terms as appeared most likely to be effectual to 
keep up their credit, and gradually to reduce and sink them. For which 
purpose the act, among several others, was passed by the Governor en the 
second of March following. But from the advantage which was 

1723. soon experienced by this emission, together with the insulliciency of 
the sum, the government was induced, in the latter end of the same 

year, to emit £30,000 more on the same terms. 

Governor Keith, in espousing the popular cause, secured the approbation and 
confidence of the Assembly, but unfortunately incurred the displeasure of the 



70 



HIS TOE T O:^ PENNS YL VANIA . 



Proprietary party and its leader, James Logan. Complications arose, which 
eventuated in the triumph of the latter and the deposition of the former, who 
was decidedly the best of the Proprietary deputies. "Differing," wrote Franklin, 
" from the great body of the people whom he governed, in religion and manners, 
he acquired their esteem and confidence. If he sought popularity, he promoted 
the public happiness ; and his courage in resisting the demands of the family 
may be ascribed to a higher motive than private interest. The conduct of the 
Assembly towards him was neither honorable nor politic ; for his sins against 
ills principals were virtues to the people, with whom he was deservedly a favor- 
ite ; and the House should have given him such substantial marks of their 
gratitude as would have tempted his successors to walk in his steps. But fear 
of further offence to the Proprietary family, the influence of Logan, and a 
quarrel between the Governor and Lloyd, turned their attention from him to his 
successor." After his removal. Sir William Keith resided some time in the 
Province, and was elected to the Assembly. He shortly afterwards returned to 
England, where he died. 

Patrick Gordon* was appointed successor of Governor Keith by the family, 

and formally proposed to the Crown, by 
1726. Springett Penn, their heir-at-law. He 
seems to have first met the Assembly 
in the beginning of the 6th month, 1726, though 
he arrived in the Province, with his family, 
some time before. 

The increase of foreigners, particularly of 
Germans, from the Palatinate, again produced 
serious apprehensions in the Province, even the 
mother country fearing that Pennsylvania was 
about to become a colony of aliens. Under 
instructions from the ministry, the Assembly 
passed "an impolitic act," imposing a duty of 
forty shillings per head on all foreigners. The 
rapid immigration, however, of the Scotch- 
Irish, changed the course of the Quaker opposition to the Swiss 
and Germans, for the interests and dispositions of the former being 
ever antagonistic to the Friends, the " foreigners " were more cajoled, 
and the odious law repealed. By this stroke of policy the Quakers retained 
their supremacy in the legislative councils of the Province far longer, for we 
have it on the authority of Mr. Sj^pher, that prior to 1Y27 over fifty thousand 
persons, mostly Germans, had found new homes in Pennsylvania. 

In May, 1729, the county of Lancaster was set off from that of Chester. It 
was the first move towards that rapid division of the Province, which, 
1729. iu the present days of the Commonwealth, comprises sixty-seven coun- 
ties. Although the population of the new county was nearly as great as 

* Patbick Gordon, born in England in 1664, was bred to arms, and served from his 
youth to near the close of Queen Anne's reign, with a high reputation. He was Lieutenant- 
Governor under tlie Proprietaries, from 1726 to 1736. He died at Philadelphia, August 5, 
1736. He pubJished " Two Indian Treaties at Conestogoe," 1728. 




PATRICK GORDON. 



1727. 



GENERAL HISTOJiY. 



71 



Bucks or Chester, it was allowed one-half the number of representatives in the 
Assembly. During this year the old State House, or Independence Hall, waa 
commenced, although not completed before 1734. 




THE OLD PROVINCIAL STATE HOUSU. 

The enterprising public spirit of Benjamin Franklin, says Sherman Day, now 
began to display itself, by founding one of those monuments which will perpetu- 
ate his memory long after the plain marble slab that covers his grave shall have 
decayed. The promotion of literature had been little attended to in Pcnnsyl- 
vai ia. Most of the inhabitants were too much immersed in business to 

1731. think of scientific pursuits ; and tJiose few whose inclinations led them 
to study, found it difficult to gratify them, for the want of libraries 

sufficiently large. The establishment of a public library was an important 
event. This was first set on foot by Franklin, about the year 1731. Fifty per- 
sons subscribed forty shillings each, and agreed to pay ten shillings annually. 
The number increased, and in 1742 the company was incorporated by the name 
of the Library Company of Philadelphia. The Penn family distinguished them- 
selves by donations to it. 

In 1732 Thomas Penn, and in 1734 John Penn, his elder brother, both Pro- 
prietaries, arrived in the Province, and received from the colonists and 

1732. the Assembly those marks of I'espect due to their station, and to the 
sons of the illustrious founder. John Penn returned to England in 

1735, to oppose the pretensions of Lord Baltimore; but Thomas Penn remained 
for some years in the Province, spending his time much after the manner of an 
English country gentleman. He was cold and distant in his intercourse with 
society, and consequently unpopular. On his departure for Europe, in 1741, the 
Assembly presented him with an affectionate address, for which he returned 
them his warmest thanks. 

This year, 1733, the Provincial government first became apprehensive of the 
designs of the French in the western country, by establishing trading 

1733. posts on the head waters of the Allegheny and Ohio, claiming, b}' virtue 
of some treaty, all the lands lying on those rivers. With a view to 

frustrate their designs, which obviously tended to alienate the Indians from the 



7 2 SIS TORY Of PENNS YL VANIA . 

English, James Logan proposed that a treaty should be holden with the Shaw 
anese and other tribes, and that they should be invited to remove nearer the 
English settlements. According to his suggestion a treaty was held at Phila- 
delphia with the Six Nations, who confirmed the designs of the French, and 
promised perpetual friendship with the English. 

In the minutes of the Provincial Council we find the following record of vio- 
lent transactions on the Maryland frontier west of the Susquehanna: 

" At a council, held at Philadelphia, May, 14, 1734, the Proprietarj' (Thomas 
Pcnn) informed the Board of some very unneighborly proceedings of 
1734. the Province of Maryland in not only harassing some of the inhabitants 
of this Province who live on the borders, but likewise in extending 
their claims much farther than had ever heretofore been pretended to by Mary- 
land, and carrying oflT several persons and imprisoning them ; that some time 
since they carried oflf John Hendricks and Joshua Minshall from their settle- 
ments on Susquehanna, and still detain them in the Goal of Annapolis ; tkat of 
late two others have been taken from the borders of New Castle Countj?^, and 
carried likewise to Annapolis ; that as these men will probably be brought to a 
trial at the ensuing Provincial Court of Maryland, he had spoke to Andrew 
Hamilton, Esq., to appear for them, but as these violent proceedings tend 
manifestly to the breach of his Majesty's peace, and rendering all the borderers 
insecure, both in their persons and estates, he was now to advise with the 
Council on such measures as are most fit to be proposed, for maintaining peace 
between his Majesty's subjects of both Provinces. 

" Then was read a letter from the Lieutenant-Governor of Maryland to the 
Lieutenant-Governor of this Province, dated the 24th of Februar}^ last, with an 
answer of the latter thereto, dated the 8th of March following, on which some 
observations being made, the Proprietor said that he intended to make use of 
the opportunity of Mr. Hamilton's going to Annapolis, to press the Lieutenant- 
Governor of Maryland to enter into such measures as should be most advisable, 
for preventing such irregular proceedings for the future, and as he designed that 
his secretary, Mr. Georges, should accompany Mr. Hamilton, he had drawn up 
instructions for them, which being laid before the Board, were read, as was 
likewise a draught of a letter from the Lieutenant-Governor of this Province to 
the Lieutenant-Governor of Maryland. On consideration thereof had, the 
Board are of opinion that the proposed measures are absolutely necessary at 
this time, for securing the peace of his Majesty's subjects, and the said instruc- 
tions, together with the foregoing draught, being approved and ordered to be en- 
tered on the Records of Council, the Governor is desired to grant such creden- 
tials to the persons entrusted with the negotiations, as may show them full}'^ autho- 
rized ])y this government for the purposes in the said instructions contained." 

Messrs. Hamilton and Georges, the persons named in the preceding para- 
graph, having been appointed commissioners for the Proprietaries to execute 
certain articles of agreement concluded between the said Proprietaries and Lord 
Baltimore, bearing date May 10, 1732, for the running, marking, and laying 
out tlie lines, limits, and boundari^ between the two Provinces, visited Anna- 
polis, and on their return presented the report of their negotiations, which was 
far from satisfactory. Thereupon, in consequence of a representation addressed 



GEKERAi: HISTORY. 73 

to him by the Assembly, the Governor, under date August 19th, 1734, wrote to 
the justices of the counties of Ciiester, Lancaster, and of New Castle, Kent, and 
Sussex, on Delaware, as follows : " You are not, I believe, insensible how much 
the whole country has been disappointed in the just hopes which had been 
entertained of seeing a final period put to those long depending disputes 
between this government and that of Maryland, touching their respective 
boundaries, by the execution of the solemn agreement concluded between the 
Proprietaries of each. It is, however, no small satisfaction to me, that I can 
now acquaint you that this agreement, with the proceedings of the commis- 
sioners thereon, having been laid before his Majesty's attorney and solicitor 
general, we have had the pleasure of lately receiving their opinion, that the 
agreement still remains valid and binding on both Proprietaries, although their 
commissioners, by reason of difference in sentim.ents, have not carried it into 
execution. Mow, as the northern bounds, formerly set by the Lord Baltimore to 
himself, differ not much from those lately agreed upon, I know not how we can 
judge better or with more certainty, of any bounds by which we can limit our 
present jurisdiction, than near the place where it is known they will fall when 
the lines shall be actually run. 

" In the meantime, that a stop may be put to any further insults on the 
people of this government, and encroachments on lands within the bounds of 
the same, I am again to renew to 3'ou those pressing instances I have repeatedly 
made, that agreeable to the duty of' your stations, you exert your utmost 
endeavors for presei'ving peace throughout your county, and protecting all the 
inhabitants in their just and right possessions, in the legal and necessary defence 
of which every person ought to be encouraged to appear with boldness, and to 
be assured of receiving all the countenance that lawful authority can give. And 
as the late disturbances have been in a great measure owing to the unjust 
attempts of those who, pretending right to, or claiming disputed lands, under 
that pretence, have come many miles into this Province, and with force pos- 
sessed themselves of lands for which they can have no lawful grant from any 
other persons but our Honorable Proprietors only, and have likewise committed 
very great violences upon sundry of our inhabitants, you are to give strict orders 
for appi'ehending and securing all such who have been principals or accessories 
therein, as well as those who hereafter shall presume to offer any injury to the 
persons or professions of his Majesty's peiceable subjects, or encroach on any 
lands within the known and reputed limits of your count}', that they may be 
brought to condign punishment. But as in the year 1124, it was agreed 'that 
Vor avoidinof all manner of contention or difference between the inhabitants of 
«he two Provinces, no person or persons should be disturbed or molested in their 
possessions they then held on either side,' you are desired still to have a par- 
ticular regard to those entitled to the benefit of that agreement, while they 
behave themselves peaceably. 

"And to the end that these directions be punctually observed and complied 
with, you are to order the sheriff of the county, with his officers, frequently to 
visit your borders, and those parts where either late disturbances haA'e happened, 
or anything to the prejudice of the people is lie to be attempted, giving all 
needful assistance wherever it may be requisite. I should likewise promise my- 



74 HISTOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA . 

self much good from some of your number making a progress through these 
parts, when your conveniency would admit, or any exigency may require it, 
depending on your prudence that whatever measures you shall take for the 
defence of the inhabitants, and for seizing and securing offenders, will be such as 
that we may be at no loss whenever called upon to justify them." 

The intercourse with the Indians at this period continued to be of an amicable 
nature, notwithstanding occasional disturbances, almost uniformly caused by the 
too liberal distribution of rum. A specimen of the kindliness with which the chil- 
dren of the forest turned to the white man is furnished in the following extract from 
a speech of Hetaquantagechty : " That he comes hither from the Six Nations, on 
l)usiness relating to the last Treaty held between them and this Government; that 
on his road hither he heard the melancholy news of the Governor's loss, by the death 
of his spouse; that he once resolved to turn back lest the Governor's affliction 
should prevent him firom attending to business, but thinking it better to proceed 
forward, he is pleased to find the Governor present with them ; that he takes 
part in his grief, and if he had a handkerchief good and fine enough to present 
to the Governor, he would give it to wipe away his tears ;" then presenting some 
strings of wampum to the Governor, he desired that the Governor would " lay 
aside his grief and turn his thoughts to business, as he had done before." 

B}^ the death of Springett Penn and Mrs. Hannah Penn, the Assem- 

1735. blj^ conceived that Governor Gordon's authority was terminated, and 
accordingl}' refused to act upon a message which he had sent them, and 

adjourned themselves to the last da}^ of their term. But a new commission, 
signed by John, Thomas, and Richard Penn, in whom the government was now 
vested, was received in October. In the approbation given to this appointment 
by the King there is an express reservation of the right of the Crown to the 
government of the Lower Counties on the Delawai'e. 

In August, 1736, Governor Gordon died. " Ilis administration," 

1736. says Gordon, " was in all respects a happy one. No circumstance oc- 
curred requiring him to weigh in opposite scales his duty to the people 

and to the Proprietaries. The unanimity of the Assembly, the Council, and the 
Governor, gave an uninterrupted course to the prosperity of the Province. The 
wisdom which guided her counsels was strongly portrayed in her internal peace, 
increased population, improved morals, and thriving commerce." 

On the 19th of September, 1737, the famous " Indian Walk" was 

1737. performed by Edward Marshall, an account of which is given in the 
sketch of Bucks county. This walk, according to Charles Thomson, 

was the cause of jealousies and heart-burnings among the Indians, which eventu- 
ally broke out in loud complaints of injustice and atrocious acts of savage ven- 
geance. The very first murder committed by them after this transaction was 
on the very land they believed themselves cheated out of. The Indians always 
contended, says Mr. Buck, that the walk should be up the river by the nearest 
path, as was done in the first day and a half's walk by William Penn, and not 
by the compass across the country, as was done in this instance. 

On the death of Governor Gordon, the administration of the govern. 

1738. ment devolved on the Council, of which James Logan was president, 
which he held until August, 1738, when George Thomas, a planter of 



GENERAL HISTORY. 75 

Antigua, was appointed by the Proprietaries.* Difficulties still ensuing between 
the people of Maryland an:l of Pennsylvania, consequent on the unsettled state 
of the boundary, Governor Thomas at once gave his attention to the question 
of jurisdiction over the disputed territory. It was mutually agreed, therefore, 
"that the respective Proprietaries should hold and exercise jurisdiction over the 
lands occupied by themselves and tenants at the date of the agreement, thouo-h 
such lands were beyond the limits thereinafter prescribed, until the final settle- 
ment of the boundary lines, and that the tenants of the one should not interfere 
with the other." 

The Proprietary land office having been closed from 1718 to the year 1732, 
during the minorities of Richard and Thomas Penn, emigrants seated themselves 
without title on such vacant lands as they found convenient. The number of 
settlers of this kind entitled them to great consideration. Their rights accruing 
by priority of settlement, were recognized by the public, and passed, with their 
improvements, through many hands, in confidence that they would receive the 
Proprietary sanction. Much agitation was produced when the Provincial pro- 
clamation required all who had not obtained and paid for warrants, to pay to the 
receiver-general, within four months, the suras due for their lauds, under penalty 
of ejectment. As a consequence, great difficulties arose ; the Assembly sought 
to compromise the matter, payment of the purchase money being postponed for 
several years longer. 

On the 23d of October, 1739, war was declared between Great Britain and 
Spain. Prior to this, Governor Thomas endeavored to stimulate his peo- 

1739. pie to active measures of defence. To the solicitations of the Governor 
the Assembly " pleaded their charter and their consciences." Unfortu- 
nately, he ran a tilt with the religious opinions of a people who measured their 
merit by the extent of suflfering for conscience sake. The communications which 
passed between the Governor and the Assembly show neither a forbearing spirit 
on one side, nor an even-tempered one on the other. At length the demand of 
the home government for troops compelled the Executive to raise by his own 
exertions the number of men required. Four hundred men was the entire quota, 
and these were raised in the space of three months, many of the recruits, how- 
ever, being bond-servants, willing to exchange their service and freedom dues, 
for nominal liberty and soldier's pay. 

The year 1740 is remarkable in the annals of Pennsylvania, by the labors of 
the renowned Whitfield. He landed at Lewes, early in November, 1739, 

1740. and came thence to Philadelphia. His arri\^l, says Gordon, disturbed 
the religious harmony which liad prevailed for so many years. He 

drew to himself many followers from all denominations, who, influenced b}' the 
enero-y of his manner, the thunder of his voice, and his flowing eloquence, were 
ready to subscribe his unnatural and incomprehensible faith. Especially in the 
Scotch-Irish sections of the Province, between the Delaware and the Susquehanna, 



* Sir Georgk Thomas, the son of a wealthy planter, was born at Antigua, about 1700. 
He was a member of the Council of that island at the time of his appointment of Governor 
of the Province of Pennsylvania, a position he held from 1738 to 1747. From 1752 to 1766, be 
was governor of tlie Leeward and Carribee Islands. In 1766, he was created a baronet. 
He died in London, January 11, 1775, 



76 



HISTOEF OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



were the numbers of his hearers immense. At Pagg's Manor, it is stated that 
twelve thousand people were congregated at one time to listen to this great revi- 
valist of the eighteenth centur3\ For a while, no one opposed the wild extrava- 
gance of Whitfield and his converts, until at the location named, the Rev. John 
Roan boldly stood up and controverted the doctrines of the enthusiasts. 

In March, 1744. hostilities were openly declared between France and Great 

Britain. The peaceful era of Pennsylvania was now at an end, and 

1744. the dark cloud of savage warfare began to gather on the western 

frontier. The lands acquired by the Indian walk, and by purchasing 

the Shawanese lands without their consent, were now to be paid for by the blood 

of the colonists. The Delawares refused to leave the Forks of Delaware. The 

Six Nations were called on to order them off, which they did, in the overbearing 

tone of conquerors and masters. They retired to Wyoming, with the repeated 

wrono-s rankling in their breasts. 

Benjamin Franklin now became prominent as a public man, and published 
His " Plain Truth," to endeavor to conciliate the Executive and Assembly, and 

awaken them both to the importance of 
military preparations. He was appointed a 
colonel, but declined ; he preferred to wield the 
pen. James Logan,* too, who justified defen- 




sive war, assisted the cause with his means. 



A battery was erected below the city of 
Philadelphia, from funds raised by lottery, in 
which many of the Quakers were adventurers. 
" These military preparations were necessary to 
intimidate a foreign enemy, and to curb the 
hostile disposition of the Indians. On the eve 
of a war with France, the alienation of the 
natives was greatly to be dreaded. Governor 
Thomas dispatched a messenger to Conrad 
Weiser, the Provincial interpreter, directing 
him to proceed to Shamokin, to renew the assurances of friendship, and to pro- 
pose his mediation between the Indians and ' the government of Virginia, 
occasioned by an unpleasant rencontre between sonie Onondagas and Oneidas 
with the English, while on an excursion against the Tallapoosas, resident in 



JAMES LOGAN. 



* James Logan was born at Lurgan, Ireland, October 20, 1674, of Scottish parentage. At 
the age of thirteen he had acquired Latin, Greek, and some Hebrew, and afterwards mas- 
tered mathematics, and the French, Spanish, and Italian languages. While engaged in trade 
between Dublin and Bristol, William Penn made proposals to him to accompany him tn 
America as his secretary, which he accepted, and landed at Philadelphia in December, 
1699. By Penn he was invested with many important trusts, which he discharged with 
fidelity. Although he never received the appointment of governor of the Province, on 
several occasions he assumed the executive functions. He tilled the offices of provincial 
secretary, commissioner of propertj', and chief justice. He was t'ae warm friend of the 
Indians, possessed uncommon abilities, great wisdom, and moderation. He died at his 
country seat, near Philadelphia, October 31, 1751. He was the author of •' Exptulmentfe 
Meletematije Plantarum Generatione," 1739 ; of two other Latin treatises of a scientific char- 
acter, published in Holland; of an English translation of Cicero's <'De Seuectute," 1741; 
and of Cato's " Distichs," besides a variety of papers on ethics. 



G EN ERA L HIS TOIi Y. 77 

that colony. Happily this attention induced them to hold a treaty the 
ensuing spring, and to refrain from hostility in the meantime. 

A conference was held with the Deputies of the Six Nations at Lancaster, 
commencing on the 22d of June, 1744, and ending on the 4th of July following, 
which was attended by Governor Thomas in person, and by the Commissioners 
of Virginia and Maryland. All matters of dispute were satisfactorily settled, 
and the Iroquois engaged to prevent the French and their Indian allies from 
marching through their countr^y to attack the English settlements. 

This conference, however, did not remove causes of future disquiet. These 
lay in the encroachments of the settlers and in the conduct of the traders. 

The attempt of Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, to enlist the other 
colonies in a design for attacking the French settlements at Cape Breton, found 
no favor in Pennsylvania, the Assembly refusing assistance, upon the specious 
plea that they had not been consulted. The plan, however, having been 
approved by the British Ministry, directions were sent to the Provincial 
authorities to furnish men, provisions, and shipping for the expedition. The 
Assembly acting upon the matter, resolved to grant the sum of four thousand 
pounds to be expended in the purchase of bread, beef, pork, flour, wheat, or 
other grain. The enterprise against Louisburg terminated honorably for those 
who had projected and executed it. 

The Shawanese Indians on the Ohio, who had long shown symptoms of 
disaffection to the English, and subserviency to the French cause, now 

1745. openly assumed a hostile character. The policy of the French had 
been long directed to seduce all the Indian tribes from the Eno-Hsh 

interest, and their efforts at this juncture upon the Six Nations produced great 
alarm in Pennsylvania. Commissioners were dispatched to a convention at 
Albany, held in October, 1745, by the Governor of New York, and commis- 
sioners from the Province of Pennsylvania and Colonies of Massachusetts and 
Connecticut, witli the Indians of the Six Nations, to induce the latter, if possible, 
to take up the hatchet against the French and become parties in the war. The 
Six Nations showed no disposition to enter the contest, and the result of the 
conference was far from satisfactory. 

In May. 1746, instructions were forwarded to the Provincial Government to 
raise forces to attempt the conquest of Canada. Governor Thomas 

1746. forthwith summoned the Assembly, who, after considerable delay, voted 
five thousand pounds. The Governor raised four companies of over 

one hundred men each, commanded by Captains William Trent, John Shannon, 
Samuel Perry, and John Deimer, which were forwarded at once to Albany. 
Though the attempt on Canada was abandoned, the troops were retained nearly 
eighteen months on the Hudson River, with the view of over-awing the Indians. 
On the 5th of May, 1747, the Governor communicated to the 

1747. Assembly the death of John Penn, one of the Proprietaries, and his 
own resolution, on account of ill-health, to resign the government. 

On the departure of Governor Thomas, the executive administration devolved 
on tlie Council, of which Anthony Palmer was president, until the 
1749. arrival of James Hamilton, son of Andrew Hamilton, former Speaker 
of the Assembly, as Lieutenant-Governor, November 23, 1749. 



7 8 HIS TOR Y OF PFNNS YL VANIA. 

The cereal crops were very abundant in 1751 and 1752. An extract, 
translated from the German in the Chron. Ephrat., 190, is quite a curiosity: 
"The years 1751 and 1752 have been so fruitful in wheat and other grain, that 
men in wanton carelessness sought to waste the supply ; for the precious wheat, 
which might have supported many poor, they used to fatten hogs, which 
afterwards they consumed in their sumptuousness. Besides, distilleries were 
erected everywhere, and thus this great blessing was turned into strong drink, 
which gave rise to much disorder." 

These years of plenty were followed by a season of scarceness, covering the 
years 1753-1755, and on the heels of it came Indian hostilities. 

The progress of the white population, says Gordon, towards the west 
continued to alai'm and irritate the Indians. The new settlers, impatient of the 
delays of the land office, or unable or unwilling to pay for their lands, or in 
search of richer soils, sought homes in districts to which the Indian title had 
not been extinguished. Especially was this the case with the Scotch-Irish, who 
seated themselves on the west of the Susquehanna, on the Juniata and its 
tributary streams, in the Tuscarora Valley, in the Great and Little Coves 
formed by the Kittatinny and the Tuscarora hills, and at the Big and Little 
Connollowavs. Some of these settlements were commenced prior to 1740, and 
rapidly increased, in despite of the complaints of the Indians, the laws of the 
Province, or the proclamations of the Governor. 

An alarming crisis was at hand. The French, now hovering around the 
great lakes, sedulously applied themselves to seduce the Indians from their 
alleo-iance to the English. The Shawanese had already joined them ; the Dela- 
wares waited only for an opportunity to revenge their wrongs ; and of the Six 
Nations, the Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, were wavering. To keep the 
Indians in favor of the Province required much cunning diplomacy and expensive 
presents. In this alarming juncture the old flame of civil dissension burst out 
with increased force. The presents to the Indians, with the erection of a line of 
forts along the frontier, and the maintenance of a military force, drew heavily 
upon the provincial purse. The Assembl}', the popular branch, urged that the 
Proprietary estates should be taxed, as well as those of humble individuals. 
The Proprietaries, through their deputies, refused, and pleaded prerogative, 
charter, and law ; the Assembly in turn pleaded equity, common danger, and 
common benefit, requiring a common expense. The Proprietaries offered 
bounties in lands yet to be conquered from the Indians, and the privilege 
of issuing more paper money ; the Assembly wanted something more tangible. 
The Assembly passed laws, laying taxes, and granting supplies, but annexing 
conditions ; the Governors opposed the conditions, but were willing to aid the 
Assembly in taxing the people, but not the Proprietaries. Here were the 
o-erms of revolution, not fully matured until twenty 3^ears later. In the mean- 
time, the frontiers were left exposed, while these frivolous disputes continued. 
The pacific principles, too, of the Quakers, and Dunkards, and Mennonists, and 
Schwenckfelders, came in to complicate the strife ; but as the danger increased, 
they prudently kept aloof from public office, leaving the management of the 
war to sects less scrupulous. The pulpit and the press, says Armor, were 
deeply involved in the discussion, and the population was divided into opposing 
factions upon this question. 



GENERAL HISTORY. ^y 

The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was scarcely regarded more than a truce by 
the Frencli in America. Eager to extend their territories, and to connect their 
northern possessions with Louisiana, they had projected a line of forts and 
military posts from the one to the other along the Mississippi and the Ohio. 
They explored and occupied the land upon the latter stream, buried in many 
places leaden plates with inscriptions declaratory of their claims to that river 
and the lands adjacent thereto. 

Establishing themselves at Presqu'Isle, the French proceeded southward, 

erected a fort at Au Boeuf, and one at the mouth of French Creek, known as 

Fort Machault. This intention being communicated to Governor Dinwiddle, of 

Virginia, he dispatched George Washington, in the autumn of 1753, 

1753. to inquire by what right these encroachments were made. Having 
performed his journey, which took about two months to accomplish, he 

reported the answer of Legardeau St. Pierre, the commandant upon the Ohio, 
dated at the fort on Le Boeuf River, which was evasive. 

The English government having learned the designs and operations of the 
French, who pretended they derived their claims to the Ohio River and its 
appurtenances from the discovery of La Salle sixty years previous, remonstrated 
with the Court of Versailles, but to no purpose. Deceived, they resolved to 
oppose force with force. 

Accordingly, to combine the efforts of the colonies, if possible, a conference 
was ordered by the ministry at Albany, in July, 1754, to which the Six 

1754. Nations were invited. Governor Hamilton, unable to be present, com- 
missioned Messi-s. John Penn and Richard Peters, of the Council, and 

Isaac Norris and Benjamin Franklin, of the Assembly, who carried with them 
£500 as the Provincial present to the Indians. 

Although not satisfactory in its results to the confederated council, the 
Pennsylvania commissioners secured a gi-eat part of the land in the Province, to 
which the Indian title was not extinct, comprehending the lands lying southwest 
of a line beginning one mile above the mouth of Penn's Creek, and running 
northwest by west " to the western boundary of the State." So far, however, 
from striking the western, it struck the northern boundary a little west of 
Conewingo Creek. The Shawanese, Delawares, and Monseys, on the Susque- 
hanna, Juniata, Allegheny, and Ohio rivers, thus found their lands " sold from 
under their feet," which the Six Nations had guaranteed to them on their 
removal from the eastern waters. It was highly dissatisfactory to these tribes, 
and was a partial cause of their alienation from the English interest. 

In this convention, however, a plan was proposed for a political union, and 
adopted on tlie 4th of July. It was subsequentl}'- submitted to the home 
government and the Provincial Assemblies. The former condemned it, says 
Franklin, as too democratic ; the latter rejected it, as containing too much 
prerogative. In Pennsylvania it was negatived without discussion. 




CHAPTER V. 

PROPRIETARY RULE. FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. BRADDOCK'S EXPEDITION. 
INDIAN RAVAGES ON THE FRONTIER. 1754-1156. 

NSIGN WARD, while engaged in completing a stockade at the forks 
of the Ohio, was surprised by tiie appearance of a large French force, 
under Contrecoeur. The Ensign was obliged to surrender his position 
and retreat. The driving of the Virginia troops from the Ohio and the 
erection of Fort Duquesne by the French force, aroused the Virginia authorities, 
and Governor Hamilton strongly urged the Pennsylvania Assembly to organize 
the militia in aid of Governor Dinwiddle's preparations against the French. This 
bod}', always factious, evaded the subject, by questioning the invasion of the 
Province, declaring the action of the Governor as imprudent, and adjourned. 

Virsfinia, however, raised a force of three hundred men, under command of 
Colonel Fry and Lieutenant-Colonel Washington, and near the Great Meadows, a 
detachment of the French force, under Jumonville, sent to intercept the Virgi- 
nians, was defeated, and their commander killed. Near that point Fort Necessity 
was erected by Colonel Washington, who succeeded to the command by the death 
of Colonel Fry, being reinforced by two companies of regulars. Marching out 
with his little band to dislodge the French from Fort Duquesne, recently erected 
by them, the advance of a large force of the enemy compelled the young comman- 
der to fall back to his stockade, which they immediately prepared to strengthen. 
Before it was completed they were attacked by the French under M. de Villier. 
Notwithstanding an obstinate defence, Washington was obliged to capitulate. 
His courage and conduct, however, were greatly applauded. 

On receiving the news of Washington's defeat, Governor Hamilton convened 
the Assembly in special session on the 6th of August, but unpleasant altercations 
between the executive and legislative were produced, "and their labors were 
nugatory." 

Robert Hunter Morris* succeeded Governor Hamilton in October, the latter 
having requested to be relieved from his duties. A new Assembl}' had been elected 
about the time of his arrival. At its session in December, the Governor com- 
municated to it the royal order for a concert with the other colonies, commanding 
them not only to act vigorously in defence of their own government, but to aid 
the other colonies to repel every hostile attempt. This body were well aware of 
the progress of the French, of their completion of Fort Duquesne, and their pre- 
parations to occupy the country of the Twightwees with numerous settlers. The 

* Robert Hunter Morris was the eldest son of Lewis Morris, Chief Justice of New 
York and New Jersey, born about 1699. On the appointment of his iather to the governor- 
ship of New Jersey, in 1731, the son succeeded him as Chief Justice of that State, a position 
he held until 1757, when he resigned the office. He was Lieutenant-Governor of the Pro- 
vince of Pennsylvania from 1754 to 1756. He died the 20th of February, 1764. 

80 



GENERAL HISTOllY. 81 

Six Nation Indians, now more numerous on the western waters than in their 
ancient seats, cold to the English cause, and divided among themselves, barely 
maintained their neutrality. The small body of English troops, collected on tho 
frontiers, was weakened by desertion and corrupted by insubordination. The 
Indians who still adhered to the Province, and had retired before the French, 
were seated at Aughwick. They admired the courage of the enem}', contemned 
the pacific temper of the Assembly, and were scarcely kept in quiet by the liber- 
ality of the Province to their families, and its forbearance towards the license of 
their chiefs. 

The Assembly prepared a bill for the issue of forty thousand pounds currency, 
appropriating twenty thousand pounds to the use of the King, redeemable by 
the excise in twelve 3'ears, and the balance to supply the torn and defaced bills 
of former issues. But the Governor objected the royal instructions, so often 
urged by his predecessor, yet conceded, that, as he might dispense with the 
suspending clause in extraordinary cases, he would venture to sanction the bill 
if the sum granted to the King were made redeemable within five years. This 
proposition was unhesitatingly rejected. 

The government of Great Britain had at length determined to oppose 
energetically the growing power of the French in America. Two regiments of 
foot from Ireland, under the command of Colonels Dunbar and Ilalkett, were 
ordered to Virginia, to be there reinforced ; and Governor Shirley and Sir 
William Pepperell were directed to raise two regiments of a thousand men each, 
to be ollicered from New England, and commanded by themselves. Pennsyl- 
vania was required to collect three thousand men for enlistment, to be placed at 
the disposal of a commaiider-in-chief of rank and capacity, who would be 
appointed to command all the King's forces in America; to supply the troops on 
their arrival with provisions, and to furnish all necessaries for the soldiers landed 
or raised within the Province ; to provide the officers with means for traveling; 
for impressing carriages, and quartering troops. And, as these were "local 
matters, arising entirely within her government, his Majesty expected the 
charges thereof to be borne by his subjects within the Province ; whilst articles 
of more general concern would be charged upon a common fund, to be raised 
from all the colonies of North America." Toward this fund the Governor was 
directed to urge the Assembly to contribute liberal!}', until a union of the 
northern colonies for general defence could be effected. 

In answer to a message of the Governor, based on these requisitions, the 
House referred him to the money bill they had sent him ; and, after a reca.pitnla- 
tion of their arguments against his objections, they intimated an opinion, that 
his refusal to pass the bill was occasioned by the Proprietary instructions, which 
they requested might be shown to them. He evaded a direct answer to this 
request, but assured them that his instriiouions were designed to promote the 
real happiness of the inhabitants, and contained nothing which his dut}^ would 
not have required had they never been given. And, though it was indecorous 
and unprecedented for the House to demand their exhibition, still he would com- 
municate them when necessary for the public service ; it vras sufficient now, to 
say that he was instructed by the Proprietaries earnestly to recommend to them 
the defence of the Province, not only by the grant of money to the King, but by 

F 



82 lUSTOUY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

the establishment of a regular militia, the purchase of arms and military stores, 
and the erection of magazines. He would add, he said, to his former reasons for 
negativing their bill, the present state of the treasury, which did, or ought to, 
contain fifteen thousand pounds, and had an annual revenue of seven thousand 
per annum. With these resources, and a rich and numerous population, he 
deemed it unpardonable to disobey the royal instructions. 

The Assembly now seized on the Governor's denial of a precedent to the call 
for Proprietary instructions. The}' adverted to the right of Parliament to ask 
from the Crown such information as they deemed necessary, and thence inferred 
their own right to inspect his instructions, which they supported by examples 
from the administrations of Sir William Keith and Colonel Thomas. Then, 
assuming his instructions to be inconsistent with their views, they declined to 
proceed further in their public labors until, by a knowledge of the Proprietary 
designs, they might be enabled to labor successfully. The public service now 
required this ; and, as they were about to address the King in support of their 
civil and religious liberties, the Proprietary instructions, their force, and 
validity, would form the great burden of their petition, unless satisfied by the 
Governor that remonstrance on that subject was unnecessary. But this threat 
availed not. Mr. Morris denied their right, and persisted in his refusal. 

The pertinacity of the Governor, saj^s Gordon, produced from the House a 
long address, in which they reviewed all the objections that had been made to 
their money bills, and dwelt with much earnestness upon the injustice and 
tyranny of administering the government by Proprietary instructions, kept 
secret from the people, instead of their constitution. " These instructions," 
they said, " as they have occasionally been made a part of the public records, 
have been judged by Governor, council, and representatives, either — 1, Inconsist- 
ent with the legal prerogative of the Crown, settled by act of Parliament ; 2, or a 
positive breach of the charter of privileges to the people ; 3, or absurd in their 
conclusions, and, therefore, impracticable; 4, or void in themselves: therefore, 
if, after exhibition of his instructions, the Governor, finding them to be such as 
had heretofore been given, should find reason, notwithstanding the bonds he may 
have given to follow them, to disobey them, they would cheerfully grant such 
further sums for the King's use as the circumstances of the country would bear, 
and in a manner least burdensome to the inhabitants." « 

But that no doubt might exist of their disposition to obey the orders of the 
Crown in all things not forbidden by their consciences, the Assembly unanimously 
resolved to borrow, on the credit of the House, the sum of £5,000, to be 
expended in the purchase of fresh provisions, for the use of the King's troops 
on their arrivr.l, and appointed a committee to negotiate the loan. 

A series of long a:'!d angry messages and replies resulted in a determination 
on the part of the Assembly to address the King, in testimony of their loyalty 
and affection, and to represent to him the difficulties produced by Proprietary 
instructions. 

On the 14th of January, Major-General Edward Braddock, Sir John St. Clair. 

Adjutant-General, and the regiments of Dunbar and Halkett sailed 

1755. from Cork; and they arrived early in March at Alexandria, in Virginia, 

■whence they marched to Fredericktown, in Maryland. The place of 



\. 



GENERAL HISTORY. 83 

debarkation ^as selected with that ignorance and want of judgment which 
distinguished the British ministry. The country could furnish neither provi- 
sions nor carriages for the army ; while Pennsylvania, rich in grain, and well 
stocked with wagons, could readily supply food, and the means to transport the 
army to any point. The Assembly, apprehending the General to be prejudiced 
against them, sent Mr. Franklin to undeceive him, with instructions, however, 
not to assume the character of their agent, but to present himself as Postmaster- 
General, disposed to make his office subservient to the General's plans. While 
Franklin was with the army the return of the wagons obtainable was made, 
from which it appeared that there were not more than twenty -five, and not all of 
those serviceable. Braddock, says Gordon, was surprised, declared the expedi- 
tion at an end, and exclaimed against the ministers for having sent them into a 
country destitute of the means of transportation. On Franklin expressing his 
regret that the army had not been landed in Pennsylvania, where such means 
abounded, Braddock seized eagerly on his words, and commissioned him, on 
liberal terms, to procure one hundred and fift3' wagons, and fifteen hundred pack- 
horses. Franklin, on his return, circulated advertisements through the counties 
of York, Lancaster, and Cumberland, and by an artful address obtained, in two 
weeks, all the wagons, two hundred and fifty pack-horses, and much popularity 
for himself. 

He stated in his address that he found the General incensed at the delay of the 
horses and carriages he had expected from Philadelphia, and disposed to send 
an armed force to seize the carriages, horses, and drivers necessary for the 
service. But that he, apprehending the visit of British soldiers, in their present 
temper, would be very inconvenient to the inhabitants, was desirous to try what 
might be done by fair and equitable means ; and that an opportunity was now 
presented of obtaining £30,000 in silver and gold, which would suppl}- the 
deficiency of the Provincial currency'. He expended £800 received from 
the General, advanced £200 himself, and gave his bonds for the payment of 
the value of such horses as should be lost in the service, the owners refusing to 
rely upon Braddock's promise, alleging that he was unknown to them. The 
claims made against him in consequence of this engagement amounted to £20,000, 
and were not settled by the government until after much delay and trouble. 

The Adjutant-General, immediately on the arrival of the troops, required of 
Governor Morris that roads should be cut to facilitate their march and the 
supply of provisions. General Braddock demanded the establishment of a post 
between Philadelphia and Winchester, the Pennsylvania quota of men, and her 
portion of the general fund directed to be raised for the public service. 

The Assembly, specially summoned, met on the Hth of March, and imme- 
diately provided for the expense of a mail and the opening of the roads ; and 
though they gave no direct encouragement to the raising of troops, they applied 
themselves assiduously to establish the necessarj^ funds. 

As the French drew^ a considerable portion of their supplies from the English 
colonies, it became expedient to prohibit the export of provisions to French 
ports. This measure was adopted by the Assembly of Pennsylvania with great 
cheerfulness. 

A council of the Governors of New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, 



84 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Maryland, Virginia, and Nortli Carolina, was held at the Camp at Alexandria, 
in Virginia, on the i4th of April, 1755, to settle with General Braddock a plan 
of military operations. Three expeditions were resolved on. The first, against 
Fort Duqucsne, under the command of General Braddock in person, with the 
British troops, and such aid as he couid draw from Maryland and Virginia ; the 
second, against Niagara and Fort Frontignac, under General Shirley, with his 
own and Pcpperell's regiments ; and the third, originally proposed by Massachu- 
setts, against Crown Point, to be executed altogether with colonial troops from 
New England and New York, under Major-General William Johnson of New 
York. 

General Braddock removed his army to a post on Wills' Creek, since called 




bhaddock's koute. 



Fort Cumberland, where he awaited the wagons and other necessaiy supplies 
from Pennsylvania. From this place, confident of success, he informed the 
Governors of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, that, should he take Fort 
Duquesne in its ])resent condition, he would, after some additions, garrison it, 
and leave there the guns, ammunition, and stores he should find in it. But, 
sliould the enemy abandon and destroy the fortifications, as he apprehended, he 
would repair the fort, or construct another. In the latter case he required the 
necessary means of defence to be furnished b}- the colonies, and to be forwarded 
immediately, that he might not be delayed in his progress to Forts Niagara and 
Frontignac ; he also gave information of the enem3''s intention to attack the 
frontier settlements as soon as he should have marched be3'ond them. 

On the 8th of June General Braddock left Fort Cumberland. Scaroodaj^a, 



GENERAL HISTOHY. y5 

successor to the Half-King of the Senecas, and Monacatootha, whose acquain- 
tance Washington had made on the Ohio on his mission to LeBoeuf, with about 
one hundred and fifty Indians, Senecas and Delawares, accompanied him. 
George Croghan, the Indian agent of Pennsylvania, and a frontiersman of 
great value called the "Wild Hunter" or Captain Jack, wore also with him. 
The first brigade, under Sir Peter Ilalkett, led the way, and on the 9th the 
main body followed. They spent the third night only five miles from tlie first. 
A large spring, bearing Braddock's name, marks the place of encampment at the 
present day. The route continued up Braddock's run to the forks of the stream 
nine miles from Cumberland, when it turned to the left in order to reach a point 
on the ridge favorable to an easy descent into the valley of George's Creek. " It 
is surprising," says Mr. Atkinson, who faithfully surveyed the route trodden by 
that unfortunate army, " that having reached this high ground, the favorable 
spur by which the national road accomplishes the ascent of the Great Savage 
Mountain, did not strike the attention of Braddock's engineers, as the lat)or 
necessary to surmount the barrier from the deep valley of George's Creek must 
have contributed greatly to those bitter complaints which the General made 
against the Provincial government of Pennsylvania in particular, for their failure 
to assist him more effectively in the transportation department." 

Passing a mile to the south of Frostburg, the road approaches the east foot 
of Savage Mountain, which it crosses about one mile south of the national road, 
and thence by very favorable ground, through the dense forests of white pine 
peculiar to that region, it got to the north of the national road, near the gloomy 
tract called the Shades of Death. This was the 15th of June, when the gloom 
of the summer woods and the favorable slielter which these enormous pines 
would give an Indian enemy, must have made a most sensible impi'ession on the 
minds of that devoted army of the insecurit}'^ of their mode of advance. This, 
doubtless, had its share in causing the council of war held at the Little Meadows 
on the dajf following. To this place, distant only twenty miles from Cumber- 
land, Sir John St. Clair and Major Chapman had been dispatched on the 27th 
of May to build a fort. 

The conclusion of the council was to push on with a picked force of 1,200 
men and twelve pieces of cannon, and the line of march, now more compact, was 
resumed on the 19th. Passing over ground to the south of the Little Crossings, 
the army spent the night of the 21st at the Bear Camp, supposed to be about 
midwa}- to the Great Crossings, which it reached on the 23d. The route thence 
to the Great Meadows, or Fort Necessity, was well chosen, though over a 
mountainous tract, conforming very nearly to the ground now occupied by 
the national road, and keeping on the dividing ridge between the waters flowing 
into the Youghiogheny on tlie one hand and the Cheat River on the other. 
On the 30th of June, the army forded the former river at Stewart's Crossings, 
and thence passed a rough road over a mountain. A few miles onward they 
came to a great swamp, which detained them part of a day in clearing a road. 
They next advanced to Salt Lick Creek, now called Jacob's Creek, where a 
council of war was held, on the 3d of July, to consider a suggestion of Sir 
John St. Clair, that Colonel Dunbar's detachment should be ordered to join 
the main body. This proposal was rejected, on the ground that Dunbar could 



86 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

not join them in less than thirteen days ; that this would cause such a consump. 
tiou of provisions as to render it necessary to bring forward another convoy 
from Fort Cumberland ; and that in the meantime the French might be 
strengthened by a reinforcement which was daily expected at Fort Duquesne, 
and moreover, the two divisions could not move together after their junction. 

On the 4th the army again marched, and advanced to Turtle Creek, about 
twelve miles from its mouth, where they arrived on the 7th. This was the 
name of the eastern branch of Bushy Run, and the place of encampment was 
a short distance northerly of the present village of Stewartsville, Westmoreland 
County. It was General Braddock's intention to cross Turtle Creek, and 
approach Fort Duquesne, on the other side ; but the banks were so precipitous, 
and presented such obstacles to crossing with his artillery and heavy baggage, 
that he hesitated, and Sir John St. Clair went out with a party to reconnoitre. 
On his return before night, he reported that he had found the ridge which led to 
Fort Duquesne, but that considerable work would be necessary to prepare a 
road for crossing Turtle Creek. This route was finally abandoned, and on the 
8th the army marched eight miles, and encamped not far from the Monongahela, 
west of the Youghiogheny, and near what is called, on Scull's map, " Sugar 
Run." When Braddock reached this place, it was^his design to pass through 
the narrows, but he was informed by the guide, who had been sent out to 
explore, that the passage was very difficult, about two miles in length, with a 
river on the left, and a high mountain on the right, and that much work must 
be done to make it passable for carriages. At the same time he was told that 
there were two good fords across the Monongahela, where the water was 
shallow, and the banks not steep. With these views of the case, he determined 
to cross the ford the next morning. The order of march was given out, and all 
the arrangements were made for an early movement. 

About eight o'clock on the morning of the 9th, the advanced division, under 
Colonel Gage, crossed the ford and pushed forward. After the whole army 
had crossed and marched about a mile, Braddock received a note from Colonel 
Gage, giving notice that he had passed the second ford without difficulty. A 
little before two o'clock the whole army had crossed this ford, and was arranged 
in the order of march on the river plateau. Colonel Gage, with the advanced 
party, was then ordered to march, and while the main body was 3'et standing on 
the plain, the action began near the river. Not a single man of the enemy had 
before been seen. 

To the brave grenadiers, says Patterson, who had stood firm on the plains 
of Europe, amid tempests of cannon balls cutting down whole platoons of their 
comrades, this new species of warfare was perfectly appalling, and unable longer 
to breast the girdle of fire which enveloped them, they gave wa}- in confusion, 
involving the whole army in distress, dismay, and disorder. 

In such a dilemma, with hundreds of his men falling at every discharge, his 
ranks converted into a wild and reckless multitude, unable to rail}' and too 
proud to retreat, Braddock obstinately refused to allow the provincial troops, 
according to Watson, to fight the Indians in their own waj^, but with a madness 
incomprehensible, did his utmost to form the men into platoons and wheel them 
into close columns. The result was horrible, and the sacrifice of life without a 



GENERAL HJSroBY. 



87 



parallel at that time, in Indian warfare. The Provincial regiments, unable to 
keep together, spread through the surrounding wood , and by this means did all 
tlie execution that was effected. Every man fought for himself, and rushing to 




BRADDOCK'S POUCES surprised by AN" AMBUSCADE. 

the trees from behind which gleamed the flash of the rifle, the brave frontiers- 
men often bayoneted the savage at liis post. This perilous enterprise, however, 
was attended with a terrible sacrifice. Out of three full companies of Virgjjiia 
troops, but thirty men were left. 



88 -tilS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

This appalling scene lasted three hours, during which the army stood exposed 
to the steady fire of a concealed but most deadly foe, and men fell on every side 
like grass before the sweep of the sickle. Finally, General Braddock, after 
having five horses killed under him, fell mortallj^ wounded by the hand of an 
outraged American named Faucett. At his fall all order gave way, and what 
remained of that so lately proud army, rushed heedlessly into the river, abandon- 
ing all to the fury of the savages and French. Artillery, ammunition, baggage, 
including the camp chest of General Braddock, all fell into the hands of the 
victorious enemy. 

The retreating army rushed wildly forward, and did not stop until coming up 
to the rear division. So appalled were the latter at the terrible disaster, that the 
entire army retreated with disgraceful precipitancy to Fort Cumberland. This, 
according to Smollett, " was the most extraordinary victory ever obtained, and 
the farthest flight ever made." 

It was the most disastrous defeat ever sustained by any European army in 
America. Sixty-three officers and seven hundred and fourteen privates were 
killed or dangerously wounded. There is, perhaps, no instance upon record, 
where so great a proportion of officers were killed. Out of the eighty-six com- 
posing the regiment, but twenty-three escaped unhurt. Their brilliant uniform 
seemed sure marks for the deadlj^ aim of the savage. 

On that disastrous day the military genius of Washington shone forth with 
much of that splendor which afterwards made him so illustrious. His courage, 
energy, bravery, and skill displayed on this occasion marked him as possessed of 
the highest order of military talents. After the fall of Braddock with his Provin- 
cial troops, he covered the retreat, and saved the remnant of the army from 
annihilation. 

General Braddock was taken to Dunbar's Camp, on the summit of Laurel 
Hill, where he breathed his last, on the third night after the battle. His body 
was interred in the centre of the road, and the entire army marched over the spot 
in order that the remains of the unfortunate General might not be desecrated by 
savage hands. 

In 1804, according to the Hon. Andrew Stewart, while repairing the old 
military road, the remains of General Braddock were re-interred at the foot of a 
large white oak tree, except a few which found their way into the possession of 
Mr. Feale, of Philadelphia, and in the conflagration of his museum were finally 
destroj'cd. 

In the correspondence of General Braddock with his government, from the 
time of his arrival in Virginia to his defeat, he complains that Penns^'lvania and 
Virginia would not give the aid he demanded. The disputes at that period in 
the Proprietary government, says Duponceau, account in some degree but not 
sufficiently for these results. The Quaker spirit in Pennsylvania may be sup- 
posed to have produced them, but it was used as a means instead of a primary 
cause. It is certain that at that time a leading Quaker, who was speaker of the 
Assembly, said in debate : " I had rather see Philadelphia sacked three times by 
the Fi'cnch than A'ote a single copper for the war." It is easy to see from this 
the difficulties Braddock had to contend with. Had he received the earnest 
support of the Province, his success would have been assured. The Scotch- 



GENERAL niSTORY. 89 

[rish, who settled on the frontiers, were busy protecting their own homes, and 
although several companies offered their services to General Braddock, he did 
not accept them, not from the motives ascribed to him by most historians, but 
from the fact that they were actually requii-ed at their own firesides, which had 
already been invaded by the savage foe. 

After the retreat of the army, the savages, unwilling to follow the French in 
pursuit, fell upon the field and preyed on the rich plunder which lay before 
them Three years after [1758], by direction of General Forbes, the remains of 
many of the slain in Braddock's army were gathered up and buried. 

The number of French and Indians engaged in this affair has never been 
fully ascertained, but variously estimated at from four to eight hundred. The 
commander of the French-Indian force was Captain Beaujeu. Contrecoeur has 
generall3' been credited with the victory, but among the records of baptisms and 
deaths at Fort Duquesne during tlie j^ears 1754 and '55, is this entry: " L'an 
mille sept cinquante cinq le neuf de Julliet a estc tue au combat donne contre j^^^*. /d/ 
les Anglois et le mesrae jour que dessus, Mr. Leonard Daniel, escuyer, Sieur de 
Beaujeux capitaine d'infenteric commandant du Fort Duquesne et de L'armde, 
lequel estoit age d'environt de quarente cinq ans aj-ant este en confesse et fait 
ses devotions le raesme jour, son corps a este inhume le douze du mesme mois 
dans le cimitiere du Fort Duquesne sous Ic titre de i'Assomption de la Ste 
Yierge a la belle Riviere et cela avec les ceremonies ordinaires par nous pre 
Recolet soussigne aumonier du Roy au susdit fort en foy de quoy avons signe."* 

Reallj- it matters little to us at the present who was in command of the 
French and Indians, but in the light of history, " honor be to him to whom 
honor is due." 

Dunbar proposed to return with his army, yet strong enough to meet the 
enemy, to Philadelphia ; but consented, on the remonstrance of the Assembly of 
Pennsylvania, to keep on the frontiers, lie requested a conference with Governor 
Morris, at Shippensburg ; but Governor Shirk'}- having succeeded to the chief 
command of the forces in America, though at first he directed Dunbar to renew 
the enterprise on Fort Duquesne, and to draw upon the neighboring Provinces 
for men and munitions, changed his mind, and determined to employ his troops 
elsewhere, leaving to the populous Provinces of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and 
Virginia, the care of their own defence. 

The consternation at Braddock's defeat was very great in Pennsylvania. 
The retreat of Dunbar left the whole frontier uncovered ; whilst the inhabitants, 
unarmed and undisciplined, were compelled hastily to seek the means of defence 
or of flight. In describing the exposed state of the Province, and the miseries 
which threatened it, the Governor had occasion to be entirely satisfied with his 
own eloquence ; and had his resolution to defend it equalled the earnestness of 
his appeal to the Assemblj^, the people might have been spared much suffering. 



* Translation.—''^ M. Leonard Daniel, Esqr., Sieur de Eeaujeux, captain of infantry, com- 
mander of the Fort Duquesne, and of the army, on the 9th day of July, in the year 1755, 
and in the forty-fifth year of his age. The same day, after having confessed and said hi3 
devotions, he was killed in battle with the English. His body was interred on the twelfth 
of the same month, in the cemetery of the Fort Duquesne, at the Beautiful River." 



90 HIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Tlie Assembly immediatel}^ voted fifty thousand pounds to the King's use, to 
be raised by a tax of twelve pence per pound, and twenty shillings per head, 
yearly, for two jears, on all estates, real and personal, throughout the Province, 
the Proprietary estate not excepted. This was not in accordance with the 
Proprietary instructions, and therefore returned by the Governor, In the long 
discussions which ensued between the two branches of government, the people 
began to become alarmed, as they beheld with dread the procrastination of the 
measures for defence, and earnestly demanded arms and ammunition. 

The enemy, long restrained by fear of another attack, and scarce' crediting 
his senses when he discovered the defenceless state of the frontiers, now roamed 
unmolested and fearlessly along the western lines of Virginia, Maryland, and 
Pennsylvania, committing the most appalling outrages and wanton cruelties 
which the cupidity and ferocity of the savage could dictate. The first inroads 
into Pennsylvania were into Cumberland county, whence they were soon 
extended to the Susquehanna. The inhabitants, dwelling at the distance of 
from one to three miles apart, fell unresistingly, were captured, or fled in terror 
to the interior settlements. The main body of the enemy encamped on the 
Susquehanna, thirty miles above Harris' Ferry, whence they extended them- 
selves on both sides the river, below the Kittatinny Mountains. The settle- 
ments at the Great Cove in Cumberland county, now Fulton, were dcstroj'^ed, 
and many of the inhabitants slaughtered or made captives, and the same fate 
fell upon Tulpehocken, upon Mahanoy, and Gnadenhutten. 

Under date of October 29, John Harris wrote to the Governor : " We expect 
the enem}^ upon us every day, and the inhabitants are abandoning their planta- 
tions, being greatly discouraged at the approach of such a number of cruel 
savages, and no sign of assistance. The Indians are cutting us off every day, 
and I had a certain account of about fifteen hundred Indians, besides French, 
being on their march against us and Virginia, and now close on our borders, 
their scouts scalping our families on our frontiei's daily. Andrew Montour and 
others at Sharaokin desired me to take care ; that there was forty Indians out 
many days, and intended to burn my house and destroy myself and family. I 
have this day cut holes in my house, and is determined to hold out to the last 
extremity if I can get some men to stand by me, few of w^hich I j'et can at 
present, every one being in fear of their own families being cut off every hour 
(such is our situation). I am informed that a French ofllcer was expected at 
Shamokin this week with a party of Delawares and Shawanese, no doubt to 
take possession of our river; and, as to the state of the Susquehanna Indians, 
a great part of them are actually in the French interest ; but if we should raise 
a number of men immediately as will be able to take possession of some con- 
venient place up Susquehanna, and build a strong fort in spite of French or 
Indians, perhaps some Indians may join us, but it is trusting to uncertainty to 
depend upon them in m}'' opinion. We ought to insist on the Indians declaring 
either for or against us. As soon as we are prepared for them, we must bid up 
for scalps and keep the woods full of our people hunting them, or they will ruin 
our Province, for they are a dreadful enemy. We impatiently look for assis- 
tance. I have sent out two Indian spies to Shamokin, they ai'e Mohawks, and I 
expect they will return in a da^yor two. Consider our situation, and rouse j'^our 



GENERAL HISTORY. (jl 

people downwards, and not let about fifteen hundred villains distress such a 
number of inhabitants as is in Pennsylvania, which actually they will, if they 
possess our provisions and frontiers long, as they now have many thousands of 
bushels of our corn and wheat in possession already, for .the inhabitantife goes off 
and leaves all." 

In consequence of these melancholy tidings, the Governor summoned the 
Assembly for the 3d of November, when he laid before them an account of the 
proceedings of the enemy, and demanded money and a militia law. Tetitions 
were poured in from all parts of the Province ; from the frontier counties, praying 
for arms and munitions ; from the middle counties, deprecating further resistance 
to the views of the Governor, and requiring, if it were necessary, a partial sacri- 
fice of the property of the citizens for the defence of their lives; and that the 
religious scruples of the members of the Assembly might no longer prevent the 
defence of the countrj^ 

By the middle of the month, the savages had "entered the passes o^ the 
Blue Mountains, broke into the counties of Lancaster, Berks, and Northampton, 
committing murder, devastations, and other kind of horrid mischief," to use the 
language of Governor Morris, and yet the Assembly delayed the measures of 
defence required of them. The Governor, astonished at the obstinacy of the 
Assembl}^, for such he characterized it, again sent a message requesting that body 
to strengthen his hands and afi"ord assistance to the back inhabitants, but tl^ey 
pled in excuse tha.t they feared the alienating the affections of the Indians, and 
in a measure refused to grant the means necessary for the protection of the 
frontiers. 

In the meantime, the Proprietaries, alarmed by Braddock's defeat, now came 
forward and offered a donation for defence of £5,000, to be collected from 
arrears of quit-rents ; but they refused to grant it on any other ground than as 
a free gift. The Assembl}^ waived their rights for a time, in consideration of the 
distressed state of the Province, and passed a bill to strike £30,000 in bills of 
credit, based upon the excise. This was approved by the Governor. 

The cold indifference of the Assembly at such a crisis awoke the deepest 
indignation throughout the Province. Public meetings were held in various parts 
of Lancaster and in the frontier counties, at which it was resolved that they 
would "repair to Philadelphia and compel the provincial authorities to pass 
proper laws to defend the country and oppose the enem3^" In addition, the 
dead bodies of some of the murdered and mangled were sent to that city and 
hauled about the streets, with placards announcing that these were victims of the 
Quaker policy of non-resistance. A large and threatening mob surrounded the 
House of Assembly^ placed the dead bodies in the dodrway, and demanded imme- 
diate relief for the people of the frontiers. Such indeed Avere the desperate 
measures resorted to for self-defence. 

To guard against the Indian devastations, a chain of forts and block-houses 
were erected at an expense of eightj^-five thousand pounds, by the Province of 
Pennsylvania, along the Kittatinny hills, from the river Delaware to the Mary- 
land line, commanding the principal passes of the mountains, garrisoned v/ith 
from twentj^ to seventy -five provincials, as the situation and imjiortance of the 
places respectively required. The Moravians of Bethlehem cheerfully fortified 



92 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



their town and took up arms in self-defence. Franklin took up the sword, and, 
with his son William, raised without difRculty over five hundred men, proceeded 
to the frontiei-, and assisted in erecting and garrisoning the line of forts. 




KARLY MAP OK THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

(From Huuixilirej'8 Account of the Missions.) 




CHAPTEE YI. 

REWARD FOR INDIAN SCALPS, DESTRUCTION OF KITTANNINQ. EXrEDITION OP 
GENERAL FORBES. PONTIAC's CONSPIRACY. BOUQUET'S EXPEDITION. 1756-1763. 

aggravating had the enemy's conduct become, so terribly desolated 
the homes of the frontiersmen, that Governor Morris issued a pro- 
clamation on the 14th of April, offering the following bounties, hoping 
thereby to incite not only the energies of the soldiers, but to alarm 
those Indians who were still friendly: "For every male Indian enemy above 
twelve years old who shall be taken prisoner and delivered at any forts, 
1756. garrisoned by the troops in pay of this Province, or at any of the county 
towns to the keepers of the common jails there, the sum of one hun- 
dred and fifty Spanish dollars or pieces of eight; for the scalp of every male 
Indian enemy above the age of twelve years, produced as evidence of their being 
killed, the sum of one hundred and thirty pieces of eight; for every female 
Indian taken prisoner and brought in as aforesaid, and for ever^- male Indian 
prisoner under the age of twelve years, taken and brought in as aforesaid, one 
hundred and thirty pieces of eight; for the scalp of every Indian woman, pro- 
duced as evidence of their being killed, the sum of fifty pieces of eight; and for 
every English subject that has been taken and carried from this Province into 
captivit}^ that shall be recovered and brought in and delivered at the city of 
Philadelphia to the Governor of this Province, the sum of one hundred and 
fifty pieces of eight, but nothing for their scalps ; and that there shall be paid 
to every officer or soldier as are or shall be in the pay of this Province who 
shall redeem and deliver any English subject carried into captivity as aforesaid, 
or shall take, bring in, and produce any enemy prisoner, or scalp as aforesaid, 
one-half of the said several and respective premiums and bounties." 

This proclamation gave great offence to the Assembly, but the times were 
perilous, and the bounties were absolutely necessary to secure the protection of 
the borders. To the credit of the hardy pioneers of Pennsylvania be it said, no 
Indian was wantonly killed for the sake of the reward. 

On the 20th of August, William Denny* arrived in the Province, superseding 
Governor Morris. He Avas hailed with joy by the Assembly, who flattered them- 
selves that with a change of government there would be a change of measures. 
Upon making known the Proprietary instructions, to which he stated he was 
compelled to adhere, all friendly feeling was at an end, and there was a rencAval 
of the old discord. 

Before Governor Morris was superseded, he concerted with Colonel John 



* William Denny, a native of England, born September, 1718, was well educated 
and in high lavor at Court. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania from August, 
1756, to October, 1759. Keturning to England on bis removal from office, he spent tbe 
remainder of his days in retirement on an annuity from tbe Crown. He died previous to 
the War of ludependeuce. • 

93 



94 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Armstrong an expedition against the Indian town of Kittanning, on the Alle- 
gheny, the stronghold of Captains Jacobs and Shingas, the most active Indian 
chiefs, and from whence they distributed their war parties along the frontier. 
On the arrival of Governor Denny, Morris communicated the plan of his enter- 
prise to him and his Council. 

Colonel Armstrong marched trora Fort Shirley on the 30th of August, with 
tliree hundred men, having with him, besides other officers. Captains Hamilton, 
Mercer, Ward, and Potter. On the 2d of September he joined an advance party 
at the Beaver dams, near Franlistown. On the 7th, in the evening, within six 
miles of Kittanning, the scouts discovered a fire in the road, and around it, as 
they reported, three, or at most, four, Indians. It was deemed prudent not to 
attack this party ; but lest some of them should escape and alarm the town, 
Lieutenant HoffSi' and twelve men were left to watch them, with orders to fall 
upon them at day-break. The main body, making a circuit, proceeded to the 
village. Guided by the whooping of the Indians at a dance, the army approached 
the place by the river, about one hundred perches below the town, at three 
o'clock in the morning, near a cornfield, in which a number of the enemy were 
lodo-ed, out of their cabins, on account of tlie heat of the weather. As soon as 
the dawn of day made the town visible the troops attacked it through the corn- 
field, killing several of the enemy. Captain Jacobs, their principal chief, sounded 
the war-whoop, and defended his house bravely through loop-holes in the logs ; 
and the Indians generally refused quarter, which was offered them, declaring 
that they weie men, and would not be prisoners. Colonel Armstrong, who had 
received a musket ball in his shoulder, ordered their houses to be set on fire 
over their heads. Again the Indians were required to surrender, and again 
refused, one of them declaring that he did not care for death, as he could kill 
four or five before he died, and as the heat approached some of them began to 
sing. Others burst from their houses and attempted to reach the river, but were 
instantly shot xlown. Captain Jacobs, in getting out of a window, was shot, as 

' also a squaw, and a lad called the king's son. The Indians had a number of 
small arms in their houses, loaded, which went off in quick succession as the fire 
came to them ; and quantities of gunpowder, which were stored in every house, 

* blew up from time to time, throwing some of the bodies of the enemy a great 
heioht in the air. A party of Indians on the opposite side of the river fired on 
the troops, and were seen to cross the river at a distance, as if to surround 
them ; but they contented themselves Avith collecting some horses which were 
near the town to cdYvy off their wounded, and then retreated without attempting 
to take from the cornfield those who were killed there in the beginning of the 
action. Several of the enemy Avere killed in the river as they attempted to 
escape by fording it, and between thirty and forty in the whole were destroyed. 
Eleven English prisoners were released, who informed that, besides the powder, 
of which the Indians boasted they had enough for ten years' war with the 
English, there was a great quantity of goods burned, which the French had pre- 
sented to them but ten days before; that two batteaux of French Indians were 
to join Captain Jacobs to make an attack upon Fort Shirley, and that twenty- 
four warriors had set out before them on the preceding evening. These proved 
to bo the party discovered around the fire, as the troops approached Kittanning. 



GENERAL lUt^TORY. 



95 



Pursuant to his orders, and relying upon the report made by the scouts, Lieu- 
tenant Hogg had attacked them, and killed three at the first fire. He, however, 
found them too strong for his force, and having lost some of his best men, the 
others fled, leaving him wounded, overlooked by the enemy in their pursuit of 
the fugitives. He was saved by the army on their return. Captain, afterwards 
General, Mercer was wounded in the action at Kittanning, but was carried off 
safely by his men. 

The corporation of Philadelphia, on occasion of this victory, on the 5th of 
January following, addressed a complimentary letter to Colonel Armstrong, 
thanking him and his otlicers for their gallant conduct, and presented him with 
a piece of plate. A medal was also struck, having for device an officer followed 
by two soldiers, the officer pointing to a soldier shooting from behind a tree, and 
an Indian prostrate before him; in tlie back-ground Indian houses in flames. 
Legend: Kittanning destroyed by Colonel Armstrong, September the 8th, 1756. 
Beverse Device : The arms of the corporation. Legend: The gift of the corpo- 
ration of Philadelphia. 

The destruction of the town of Kittanning, and the Indian families there, 
was a severe stroke on the savages. Hitherto the English had not assailed them 
in their towns, and they fancied that the^^ would not venture to approach them. 
But now, though urged by an unquenchable thirst of vengeance to retaliate the 
blow the}' had received, they dreaded that in their absence on war parties, their 
wigwams might be reduced to ashes. Such of them as belonged to Kittanning, 
and had escaped the carnage, refused to settle again on the east of P'ort Du- 
quesne, and resolved to place that fortress and the French garrison between 
them and the English. , 

On the 8th of November, 1756, began the Grand Council at Easton, between 
Governor Denny and the Delaware King Teedyuscung and other chiefs and 
warriors. Teedyuscung was the chief speaker on this occasion, and witli an 
eloquence unsurpassed by any Indian chieftain, supported the rights of his 
nation with great dignity and spirit. Unfortunately he was not correctly 
reported, the Commissioners of the Council and Assembly striking out so much 
of his address as reflected upon certain transactions of the Provincial Govern- 
ment of Pennsylvania. The conference lasted nine days. All matters of 
difference were inquired into, particularly in relation to the " Indian Walk," and 
the purchase of lands on the West Branch and Penn's Creek at the Treaty of 
Albany in 1754. 

The necessity of a militia law was, in a great measure, obviated by the forces 
raised by the Governor and Provincial Commissioners. They consisted of 
twent3'-five companies, amounting to fourteen hundred men. Eight companies, 
under the command of Mnjor James Burd, called the Augusta regiment, were 
stationed at Fort Augusta; eight companies on the west side of the Susque- 
hanna, commanded by Lieutenant- Colonel Armstrong, called the second 
battalion of the Pennsylvania regiment, were thus divided : Two companies at 
Fort Lyttleton, on Aughwick Creek, which empties into the Juniata Piver; two 
companies on Conococheague Creek, which communicates with the Potomac; 
two companies at Fort Morris, in Shippensburg, and two companies at Carlisle. 
Nine companies, called the second battalion of the Pennsylvania regiment, 



96 lUdTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA . 

commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Conrad Weiser, were thus distributed : One 
company at Fort Augusta ; one at Hunter's mill, seven miles above Harris' 
Ferry, on the Susquehanna ; one-half company on the Swatara, at the foot of 
the North Mountain ; one company and a half at Fort Henry, close to the gap 
of the mountain called the Tolihea Gap ; one company at Fort William, near 
the forks of the Schuylkill River, six miles beyond the mountain ; one company 
at Fort Allen, near Gnadeuhutten, on the Lehigh ; the other three companies were 
scattered between the rivers Lehigh and Delaware, at the disposition of the captains, 
some at farm houses, others at mills, from three to twenty in a place. 

In May of the following 3'ear, a conference was held at Lancaster, 
1757. with deputies from the Six Nations, at which were present Governor 
Denny, Colonel Stanwix, and quite a number of the Council and 
Assembly. 

The negotiations for peace, which had been commenced with Teedyuscung, 
were not accelerated by this recent council, and the Province was still exposed to 
continued devastation from the French and the western Indians, who roamed in 
small parties over the countrj^, avoiding or attacking the forts and armed 
provincialists as the}^ judged most safe. The counties of Cumberland, Berks, 
Northampton, and Lancaster, were, during the spring and summer months of 
1757, kept in continual alarm, and some of the savage scalping parties were 
pushed on to within thirty miles of Philadelphia. Manj^ of these wretches paid, 
with their lives, the just penalty of their temerity. But their sufferings bore no 
comparison with those of the unfortunate inhabitants. Incessant anxiety 
pervaded eveiy family in the counties we have mentioned ; their slumbers were 
brolvcn by the jqW of demons, or by the dread of an attack, scarce less horrid than 
their actual presence. The ground was plowed, the seed sown, and the harvest 
gathered, under the fear of the tomahawk and rifle. Scarce any outdoor labor 
was safely executed, unless protected by arms in the hands of the laborers, of 
by Provincial troops. Women visiting their sick neighbors were shot or captured ; 
children driving home cattle from the field were killed and scalped ; whilst the 
enemy, dastardly as cruel, shrunk from every equality of force. Many of the 
richest neighborhoods were deserted, and property of every kind given up to the 
foe. Many instances of heroism were displayed by men, women, and children 
in the defence of themselves and their homes, and in pursuing and combating 
the enem}^ According to Gordon there was certainly a great want of ability 
and energy in the constituted authorities and the people of the Province.. 
United councils and well-directed efforts might have driven the barbarians to 
their savage haunts, and repeated the chastisement they received at Kittan- 
ning, until they sued for peace. But imbecility distinguished the British 
ministers and officers, and discord paralyzed the efforts of the Provinces, 
especially that of Pennsylvania. 

Despite the warlike attitude of England, nothing was done to annoy the 

French or to check the depredations of the savages, until a change of 
1758. ministry, when William Pitt, subsequently the Earl of Chatham, assumed 

control of government. Endowed with a high order of intellect, 
eloquent, profound, and patriotic, it seemed as though the "heavens began to 
brighten and the storm to lose its power," the moment his mighty hand laid 



(JENERAL HISTOItY. 97 

hold of the lielm of state. He seemed to possess in an eminent degree the full 
confidence of the nation and the command of all its resources. His plans of 
operacions were grand, his policy bold, liberal, and enlightened, all which seemed 
greatly to animate the colonists and inspire them with renewed hopes. They 
resolved to make every effort and sacrifice which the occasion might require. A 
circular from the Premier assured the colonial governments that he was deter- 
mined to repair past losses, and would immediately send to America a force suf- 
ficient to accomplish the purpose. He called upon the difl:'erent governments to 
raise as many men as possible, promising to send over all the necessary muni- 
tions of war, and pledging himself to pay liberally all soldiers who enlisted. 

Pennsylvania equipped two thousand seven hundred men, while the neigh- 
boring Provinces contributed large quotas. Three expeditions were determined 
upon, and the most active measures taken to bring them to the field. 

The Western expedition, more properly connected with the history of Penn- 
sylvania, is the only one to which we sliall refer. It was placed under the com- 
mc'ind of General John Forbes, an officer of great skill, energy, and resolution. 
His army consisted of nearly nine thousand men, embracing British regulars, 
and provincials from Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties, Virginia, Maryland, 
and North Carolina. The troops from the latter governments rendezvoused at 
Winchester, while the Pennsylvanians, under Colonel Bouquet, assembled at 
Raystown. The Commander-in-Chief, with the regulai's, marched from Phila- 
delphia to effect a junction with the force at Raystown, but in consequence of 
severe indisposition, General Forbes did not get fiirther than Carlisle, when he 
was compelled to stop. He marched to Bedford about the middle of September 
(1768), where he met the provincial troops under Colonel Washington. At the 
suggestion of Bouquet and the Pennsylvania ofHcers, a new road was cut direct 
from Raystown to Loyal-hanna, a distance of fort3'-five miles, wlierc Colonel 
Bouquet erected a fort. From this point Major Grant, with a select body of 
eight hundred men, was sent forward to ascertain the situation of affairs at the 
Forks, and to gain information as to the best mode of attack. Durins: the nio-ht 
of the 20th of September he reached the hill near the junction of the two rivers 
now known by his name, and, at earl}^ dawn on the 21st, marched towards the 
fort. Presently, the French and Indians outrushed in great numbers, and ere 
the commander had time to press his men to the conflict, or even before they 
could bring their guns to bear, the foe were upon them, dealing death at ever}' 
])low. Mnjor Lewis, with his detachment of the rear guard, hearing the sound 
of battle, hurried to the relief of Major Grant, but this accession of strength was 
insufficient to check the headlong rush of the enemy, and both officers were taken 
prisoners. But a handful escaped to the camp of Colonel Bouquet. 

On the 1st of November, General Forbes reached Loyal-hanna, and witli as 
little delay as possible pushed on toward Fort Duquesne. Vvhen within a few 
miles of the fort, the General was chagrined to learn that the French, becoming 
alarmed at the augmented force of the English, and having lost most of their 
Indian allies, determined to abandon their position. Unwilling to leave to 
their successors anything to rejoice over, the former fired all the buildings and 
placed a slow-match to their magazine, Tlie whole party then descended the 
Ohio by water. About midnight, as the army of Forbes lay at Turtle Creek, 

G 



98 



HIS TOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 




PLAN OF FOUT PITT. 



"a tremendous explosion," says Ormsby in his narrative, "was heard from the 
westward, upon which the old General swore that the French magazine was blown 
up, either by accident or design." On the 25th of November the army took 
peaceable possession of the place, the blackened walls and charred out-posts 
alone remaining of that once proud fortress. On its ruins rose Fort Pitt. 

With the fall of Fort Duquesne 
terminated the struggle between 
France and England in the vallej^ of 
the Ohio. The posts on French 
Creek still remained, but it was 
deemed unnecessar}' to proceed 
against them, as the character of the 
war in the North left very little 
doubt that the contest would soon 
cease, ])y the complete overthrow of 
the French. In 1759, Ticonderoga;, 
Crown Point, Niagara, and Quebec, 
yielded to the British arms, and on 
the 8th of September of the follow- 
ing year (HGO), Montreal, Detroit, 
and all of Canada were surrendered by the French. The Treaty of Fontaiu- 
bleau, iji November, 1102, put an end to the war. 

Another council was held in Easton, in October, 1758, at which the chiefs, 
botli of the Six Nations and the Delawares, were present, and met the agents of 
Pennsylvania and New Jersc}', and George Croghan, the agent of Sir William 
Johnson. The causes of the late war were fully discussed, complaints of the 
Indians concerning land were listened to, and all differences amicably adjusted ; 
and a message was sent by the SLk Nations ordering the Shawanese and Twigt- 
wees, on the Ohio, to desist from their hostilities, on penalty of being attacked 
by them. Teedyuscung, at this treaty, received one of those insulting taunts 
from the Six Nations by which they too often exhibited their national supe- 
riority ; taunts, however, Avhich were deepl}^ revenged upon the whites in after 
years, when the Delawares had thrown off the galling 3-oke. Teedyuscung 
supported his st-ation Avith dignit}'' and firmness, and refused to succumb ; 
and the different Indian tribes at length became reconciled to each other. 

The capture of Quebec in 1759, by the force under the command of 

1759, the lamented General Wolfe, created, not only in England, but in the 

Provinces, "a delirium of joy." 

Franklin, who was in England as the agent of Pennsylvania, amidst the 

excitement occasioned by the victory for the British arms, was necessitated to 

correct the misrepresentation of the motives and conduct of the Assembly and 

inhabitants of Pennsylvania. While there he published an " Historical Review of 

l^ennsylvania," but, written for party purposes, it contains party views, and, of 

consequence, violations of truth. 

In October, 1759, Governor Denn^^ was superseded by James Hamilton. 
The removal of the former was in consequence of yielding to the demands of 
tlQ Assembly and passing their money bill. 



I 



OENEBAL HISTORY 



99 



The results of the late campaign, whilst they inspirited the Provinees to new 
exertions, brought peace and security to the middle colonies. The 
1760. impoverished and exiled agriculturists, to the number of four thou- 
sand, returned to their labors, which, prosecuted in security, brought 

contentment and competence, whilst the merchant again found sources of wealth 

in the Indian trade. Pennsylvania, oppressed 

b}' taxes, and largely- indebted to the soldierj^, 

gladly seized the occasion to reduce her force 

to one hundred and fifty men, officers included, 

against the remonstrances of the Governor, and 

the Generals Amherst and Stanwix. But, on 

command of the Crown to furnish a like number 

of troops as for the last campaign, the Assem- 

bl}' voted twent^'-seven hundred men, and re- 
ported a bill, granting to his Majesty's use one 

hundred thousand pounds, for levying, paying, 

and clothing them. 

The town of Boston having been afflicted 

by a grievous conflagration, the Assembly of 

Pennsylvania, on the application of Governor 

Pownall, of Massachusetts, and at the instance of Governor Hamilton, * 




JAMES HAMILTOX. 



gene- 



rously granted to the sufferers the sum of fifteen hundred pounds. 

During the winter the French attempted to retrieve their ah'airs in Canada. 
A large force was concentrated at Montreal, but General Amherst, Commamler- 
in-Chief of the British forces in Amei'ica, had an army competent to tlie utter 
annihilation of the French, and too ambitious to etfect this object, moved simul- 
taneously the armies of Quebec, Lake Champlain, and Lake Ontario, on 
Montreal. AVith this corps, composed of ten thousand British and Provincials, 
and one thousand Indians under Sir AVilliam Johnson, resistance was in vain, and 
in September every French post had capitulated. Thus fell forever tlie great 
power of France in America. 

The whole of the forces raised by the Province of Pennsylvania had 
1761. been discharged at the close of the last campaign, except one hundred 
and fift}'' men, a part of whom were employed in transporting provisions 
from Niagara, and in garrison at Presqu'Isle and Le Boeuf. These were detained 
until they should be relieved by a detachment of the Royal Americans, but such 
was the weakness of that regiment that this had hitherto been impracticable. 
The remainder was in garrison at Forts Allen and Augusta. The latter, situated 
at the forks of the Susquehanna, commanded both branches of that rivei-, which 



* James Hamilton was the son of Andrew Hamilton, and a native of Pliihulfjlpliia, 
born ahont 1711. At the death of his father, in 1741, he was left in possession of a hand- 
some fortune, and in the appointment of prothonotary, tlien the most lucrative ollice in tlie 
Province. He was appointed Lieutenant Governor in 1748, serving to October, 17o4. Ho 
filled tlie same otli e from 1750 to 17(53. He held several other offices of distinction in the 
Province, and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the people, but his loyal lcelin<;js to 
the Crown caused him to be unfriendly to the Revolution. He died at New York, August 
14, 17S3. 



iOO 



HIS TO BY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



rendered its preservation highly important. The Governor urged the Assembly 
to provide means to pay the troops for the time they had remained in service 
beyoixd their contract, and to maintain Fort Augusta. To the latter the House 
assented after much debate, voting a guard of thirty men; but the former they 
promptly refused, referring the men for payment to the Crown, by which they 
Avere employed. 

Tiie Province of rcnns3'lvania now looked for the enjoyment of a long and 
undisturbed peace, since her mild and forbearing policy had conciliated the 
Indians, and their dangerous neighbors, the French, were removed. But the 
sources in which they sought for safety were fruitful of dangers. The unpro- 
tected state of the frontiers, consequent on the discharge of the forces of the 
middle and southern colonies, held forth irresistible temptations to the whetted 
appetite of the border savages for plunder. Their hostility had been rewarded 
rather than chastised by Pennsylvania; every treaty of peace was accompanied 
by rich presents, and their detention of the prisoners was overlooked upon 
slioht apologies, though obviously done to afford opportunities for new treaties 
and additional gifts. The mistaken and perverted humanity of the Quakers had 
softened down their offences, and its apologies gave them confidence in their 
allegations of injuries received from the whites. These reasons, however, are 
insufficient to account for the wide extension of the Indian confederacy, which 
was probably caused by motives of profound policy. The aborigines beheld the 
French driven out of their Avhole country, themselves threatened b}^ forts com- 
manding the great lakes and rivers, and they felt that an immediate and mighty 
eflbrt was necessary to restrain the tide, which now, unimpeded, would spread 
itself over the continent. 

AVar with Spain was declared on the 4ta of Januar}^, 1762. This 
1762. created a greater alarm for the safety of the Province, and especially 
for Philadelphia, than had previously existed, as Spain was then in 
possession of a powerful navy. 

The Governor forthwith convened the Assembl}^, and the members being 
sensible of the weakness of the Province, the House immediately appropriated 
£23 500, which appears to have been the parliamentary allotment for 1759. Five 
thousand pounds Avere also appropriated for the erection of a fort mounting 
twentj^ cannon, on Mud Island, near the mouth of the Schuylkill. The fortifica- 
tion hurriedl}^ erected during this period of alarm, and which bore tlie name of 
the island upon which it was erected, has been supplied by the respectable fort- 
ress known as Fort Mifllin, being so named in honor of Governor Thomas 
Mifflin. 

The laroe number of negroes imported about this time became alarming to the 
people. The Assembl}^ of Penns3'lvania had enacted a law imposing a prohibi- 
toiy duty on their introduction, which was repealed by the CroAvn. Other 
colonies, including Virginia and South Carolina, had enacted laws to restrain 
the importation of slaves, but the enactments failed to receive the ro^'al sanc- 
tion. Bancroft says, " never before had England pursued the tralHc in negroes 
with such eager avarice." Pitt resigned his position as head of the British 
Ministry, and was succeeded by the Earl of Egremont — a most unfortunate 
change for colonial independence. A treaty of peace between England and 



GENERAL HISTOBY. . lOi 

France was concluded towards the close of this year, but was not proclaimed in 
Philadelphia until the 26th of January, HCS. Teace with Spain soon followed, 
leaving- our ancestors none but Indian enemies to contend with. 

For boldness of attempt and depth of design, the Kiyasuta and Pontiac 

war, so named by the frontier inhabitants, was perhaps unsurpassed in 
1763. the annals of border warfare. Schemed by such renowned chiefs, 

Kiyasuta, head of the Senecas, and Pontiac^ of the Ottawas, the 
numerous tribes lying within the reach of their influence were easily com- 
manded for the prosecution of any new project. Not only in possession of 
these grand facilities to engage numerous warriors for the present purpose, they 
availed themselves still of additional means to secure a powerful confederacy, 
by calling in aid their eloquence to represent the necessity there was for defence 
of their own rights, in making a deadly repulse against the encroachments ot 
the English colonies, which they represented as having finally in view the hostile 
displacement or extermination of every western tribe from the region they now 
occupied. With such means to stimulate them to action, while the recompense 
of their services, by the acquisition of spoil and the more inviting reward, the 
renown of the warrior, were related to them in the most seductive colors, it may 
not be wondered that the plan of those cunning chieftains was immediately 
approved of, and a zealous interest manifested. 

The grand scheme projected by these Napoleons of the western wilderness 
seems to have been to arouse the tribes severally of the country, and all those 
they could reach by their eloquence, to join in striking a decisive blow on the 
frontiers, and, as it were, throw terror into the very heart of the colonies, and 
thereby effectually and for ever repulse them from encroachments into the valley 
of the West. A certain day was set apart, it seems, for making the general 
assault, while the scheme was to be kept in profound silence, that they might 
come upon their victims in an unguarded hour. All the forts were to be simulta- 
neously attacked as well as the settlements, and all individuals whom they 
could come upon, and with one bold sweep, as it were, raze to tlie earth 
everything bearing the mark of their doomed enemies. The season of harvest 
was chosen, that the attention of the people might at the time be drawn to 
their crops, as well as the work of havoc then be greater by their destruction 
of them. 

When the attack was made it was found not to be simultaneous. That on 
Fort Pitt and vicinity was made almost two or three days before the time agreed 
upon for the general attack, although it was done with the belief at the time that 
the day had arived. The misunderstanding was said to proceed from the offi- 
ciousness of a Delaware squaw, who was desirous that their plans might be 
deranged. At the grand council held by all the tribes for the appointment of 
tht! day for the general attack and making the necessary arrangements for it, a 
bundle of rods had been put into the hands of every tribe, each bundle contain- 
ing as many rods as there were days till the day when the general attack was to 
be made. One rod was to be drawn from the bundle every morning, and when a 
single one remained, it was the signal for the outbreak. The squaw spoken of 
had purposely extracted two or three rods unknowingly to the others, tliinking 
it mio-ht materially discor cert, if not defeat, their project. From tliis circnm- 



1 02 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

stance was said to aviso the untimely action of the Indians about Fort Pitt. 
But everywhere else tlie attack had been simultaneous, so correct and in such 
concert had tliey moved. 

The Shawancse and Delawares appear to have been the most active, and in 
pursuance of their bold and bloody project, the moment arriving for the general 
assault, the first intelligence their fated enemies had of the preconcerted work 
of death was a murderous attack made upon them without discrimination 
wherever met with. The frontier settlements of Pennsylvania, and the 
neighboring provinces of Marjdand and Virginia, were immediately overrun 
with scalping parties, "marking their wa}^ with blood and devastation wherever 
they went, and all the examples of savage cruelty which never fail to accompany 
an Indian war." 

Almost ever}' fort along the lakes and the Ohio was instantly attacked, and 
those that did not fall under the first assault were surrounded, and a resolute 
siege commenced. In a short time, so vigorous were the savages, that eight out 
of eleven forts were taken — Venango, Le Boeuf, Presqu'Isle, Avith the chain of 
stockades Avest of the Ohio; Fort Pitt, Detroit, and Niagara alone maintaining. 
These being better garrisoned, were prepared to withstand an attack with but 
little danger. 

After the first panic had passed awa}', the refugee settlers associated them- 
selves together, and, under the care of divisions of the regular troops and 
militia, succeeded in collecting and saving the remnant of their crops. 

In the latter end of August, a party of volunteers from Lancaster count}', 
one hundred and ten in number, intercepted at Muncey Creek Hill a number of 
Indians proceeding from Great Island, in the Susquehanna, to the frontier 
settlements of the Province. The Indians, who were about Mty in number, 
were compelled to fly, after a half hour's sharp firing. They renewed the attack, 
however, twice on the next day, but without success. In these skirmishes the 
Indians lost twelve killed, and many wounded ; the provincials, four killed, and 
as man}' wounded. 

Colonel Armstrong collected a force of about three hundred volunteers from 
the vicinity of Shippensburg, Bedford, and Carlisle, under Captains Laughlin, 
Patterson, Hamilton, Crawford, Sharp, and others, for the purpose of 
attacking the settlements of Munce}' and the Great Island, This little arm}' 
left Fort Shirley, on the Aughwick, on the 30th of September, in high hopes of 
surprising the enemy, and inflicting upon them a severe punishment. But on 
their arrival they discovered that the Indians had left their settlement some 
days before. Colonel Armstrong having learned that there was a small village 
called Myonaghquia, to which it was supposed the savages had retired, pushed 
on with a party of one hundred and fifty men, and traveled with such expedition 
and secrecy, that the enemy, a few only in number, were scarce able to escai^e, 
leaving their food hot upon their bark tables, which was prepared for dinner. 
The army destroyed at this village, and at Gx'eat Island, a large quantity of 
grain and other provisions. 

Durino[ this time Fort Pitt remained in the most hazardous condition. And 
what may have been its situation already, apprehensions for the worst were enter- 
tained, for no accounts from it had been received of late, and in fact nothing 



GENE HAL Ills TO R Y. \ 03 

definite since it hart been attacked, when it liad been surrounded by the Indians, 
and " all communication cut off from it even by message." Placed at so great 
a distance from the inhabited portions of the Province, and rendered still more 
inaccessible from the then almost impassible mountains that intercepted the way, 
it could not be conveniently heard from, nor could assistance be rendered it with- 
out great expense of labor and time ; and a considerable force being requisite for 
their own safety, to undertake a march so distant, some delay could not be 
avoided. Endeavors in the Province to raise men proving nearly abortive, 
although the Assembly at the first outbreak of the savages had ordered seven 
hundred men to be raised for the protection of the frontiers during harvest, yet 
all attempts now seemed to have little effect. The delay which had tlius been 
occasioned increased the alarm for those at Fort Pitt, from wliom no intelligence 
still was had, while the audacity of depredating parties was increased, as they 
discovered the settlers fleeing before them, and no very apparent effort being 
made to check them. 

All exertions proving fruitless to raise the requisite forces. General Amherst, 
Commander-in-Chief of the army in America, promptly dispatched Colonel Bou- 
quet to the relief of Fort Pitt. Gathering together "the shattered remnants of 
the Forty-second and Sevent^^-sccond Regiments, lately returned from the West 
Indies," comprising in all scarcely five hundred men, the gallant Bouquet set out 
for a long and tedious march through the forests. His little army were indeed 
invalids, "reinforced Avith the last man that could be removed from the hospi- 
tal," and many were so infirm that about sixty were conve^-ed in wagons ; but 
these had been brought along more with a view of being left as reinforcements 
at the small posts by the way. Accompan^-ing this little force, however, were 
six companies of rangers from Lancaster and Cumberland counties, amounting 
to two hundred, all that could possibly be spared from the Provincial volunteers, 
who wei'e guarding their own homes from the inroads of the enemy. 

Reaching Carlisle, Colonel Bouquet found nothing had been done to carry 
out the orders which had been given to prepare a convoy of provisions on the 
frontiers. All was terror and consternation ; the greatest part of Cumberland 
county, through which the army had to pass, was deserted ; and the roads were 
covered with distressed families, flying from their settlements, and destitute of 
all the necessaries of life. In the midst of this confusion, says Bouquet in his 
journal, the supplies required for the expedition became very precarious ; nor was 
it less difficult to procure horses and wagons for the use of the troops. However, 
in about two weeks after his arrival at Carlisle, by the prudent and active meas- 
ures pursued by the commander, joined to his knowledge of the country and 
thy diligence of those he employed, the requisite provisions and articles of con- 
veyance were procured, and the army proceeded. 

Considerable anxiety had been felt for the safety of Fort Ligonier. It had 
been surrounded and attacked by the savages, and fears were entertained of its 
falling into their hands. There being a large quantity of military stores within 
it, it became a matter of great moment to keep it from falling into the hands of 
the Indians. Captain Currie, who commanded at Fort Bedford, apprehensive of 
chis, had early sent twenty volunteers, good marksmen, to its aid. The perilous 
situation of Fort Ligonier coming to Colonel Bouquet's knowledge after he left 



104 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Carlisle, and fearing the savages might carry it, and thereby enabled, from the 
munitions of war that would fall into their hands, to make a more vigorous attack 
on Fort Pitt, and likely demolish it before he could reach it, he determined to 
send a small detachment ahead to its relief. A party of thirty men was dis- 
patched with proper guides, who, with skillful and forced marches, succeeded in 
making their way through the woods, undiscovered by the enemy till they came 
within sight of the Fort, where they were intercepted by the Indians, but by 
making a sally, reached the Fort amidst some random shots unhurt. 

Fort Bedford also, at this time, was in rather a ruinous condition and weakly 
garrisoned, aUhough it had been strengthened by the two small intermediate 
posts, Forts Loudoun and L3^ttleton, which had been abandoned for that purpose. 
The families for twenty and thirty miles around had collected themselves here 
for safety so soon as the alarm had reached them ; and many had not yet reached 
the Fort when they found themselves pursued by the merciless enemy, with whose 
hands some forty persons fell, those not being scalped and killed carried into 
hopeless captivity. Satisfied with their slaughter, they made no attack on the 
Fort, happily for those within it, for the attempt might have proved successful, 
there being but a few volunteers to defend it, until two companies of infantry 
detached from the approaching army had reached it. 

On the 25th of inXy the rear of the array reached Bedford, but nothing 
satisfactory could be gathered respecting the enemy nor the situation of Fort 

Pitt. The force moved forward with some diffi- 
culty across the mountains to Ligonier. Every- 
thing was yet in uncertainty, and the army again 
continued their route. Before them lay the Turtle 
Creek hills, a deep and dangerous defile. Colonel 
Bouquet concluded to pass these during the night, 
by a forced march, as an advantageous position 
there might be chosen by the savages to wayla}' 
the troops. Approaching these hills the 5th of 
August, after a march of seventeen miles, and 
it being yet early in the afternoon, it was determined to halt at Bushy 
Run, a short distance ahead, and there rest the troops till towards evening, 
and pass the Turtle Creek defile during the ensuing night ; but when 
within about a half-mile from the creek, the advanced guard of the army was 
suddenly surprised by an ambuscade of Indians opening a brisk fire of musketry 
upon them. Being speedily and firmly supported, by bringing up the rear, a 
charge of bayonets was ordered, which eftectually routed the savages, when they 
were pursued a short distance. But no sooner was the pursuit given up than 
they returned and renewed the attack with redoubled vigor, while at the same 
moment a most galling fire was opened by the parties who had been concealed 
on some high ground that skirted the flanks of the arm}^ A general charge 
with the whole line was now made, which proved effective, and the savages were 
obliged to give way ; but withal to no purpose, for no sooner was the pursuit 
again given up than the Indians renewed the attack with their wonted ferocity. 
The action continued without intermission the whole afternoon — a confused and 
Irregular attack by the forces of both parties. The enemy, routed from one 




BEDOUBT AT FOKT PITT, 1763. 



GEh^EBAL HISTORY. IO5 

skulking place, would retreat to another. But Colonel Bouquet made it an 
object as much as possible to keep his troops collected, that they might not be 
broken in upon and dispersed by the enemy. The battle ended with the day 
without any decided advantage to either. 

With the first dawn of morning the war-whoop was again raised, and in a 
moment there seemed a thousand startling yells to break in every direction 
around. At this signal a rush was made by the Indians on all sides, but the 
lines ready formed were not to be taken by surprise, and effectually repulsed the 
savages in every attempt. Betaking themselves to the trees, the Indians poured 
an incessant fire with great precision into the little army. Fatigued with the 
previous day's marcli and the battle of the preceding evening, combined with the 
exposure to a hot August sun, with no water within their reach, the troops 
began indeed to be dispirited. Attacked with a dogged determination, and fired 
upon without intercession, they could neither retreat nor proceed. It became 
obvious, therefore, that a desperate effort must be made to save the army from 
total destruction. The commander happily bethought himself of a stratagem 
that might prove successful, which, as the troops were still disposed in a circle 
from the previous night, consisted in making a manoeuvre of the appearance of a 
prccii)itate retreat from one side, so as to entrap the assailants in pursuit, who 
would rush as thoughtless within the enclosure of lines which lay in ambuscade. 

The snare was set in direction of the enemy's deadliest fire, and most happily 
succeeded in enticing them from their places of concealment. Before aware, 
they were under a most destructive fire of the troops; and ere they could retreat, 
they received so deadly a charge from the regulars, that they fled with the 
utmost precipitation. This secured the victory. The woods around were 
immediateh'^ abandoned by the others, and the conflict ceased. 

This had been the whole Indian force from Fort Pitt, remarks Patterson in 
his " Backwoods," who, after lying around that place for three months, keeping 
up a vigorous siege, and being on the alert for a force to come against them from 
the settlements, early became apprised of the approach of Colonel Bouquet, 
and informed duly by their spies of the movement of the enem}-, the}"^ deter- 
mined, as was expected, to await tiiem on the most advantageous ground, aware 
that if they succeeded in defeating the troops, the extent of country they had 
already gained sway over, by their sudden and bold movements, would not only 
be maintained, but a probability follow that they migitt strike consternation into 
the very heart of the settlements. It is indeed impossible to say what influence 
might have been exerted over the settlements of Pennsjdvania in particular, had 
this little army been cut off. It is certain, possession of tlie country might not 
have been regained till the work of destruction had been completed west of the 
mountains. But so stunning were the results of this battle to the savages, dis- 
may at once siezed them and confidence was lost. Though looked upon as a 
small engagement, there doubtless hung upon it results nigh as important to the 
colonies as the issue of the more renowned battle on the Plains of Abraham, 
when a Wolfe and a Montcalm met to decide the destinies of their respective 
nations. 

The little battle of Bushy Run was the means of disheartening the Indians 
and causing them to abandon designs which, if they had continued to execute 



lOG 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



with the same rigor that had characterized them for a little more than three 
months since they had commenced the assault, might have effected much that 
would be fearful to relate. 

In this engagement Colonel Bouquet lost about fifty men, and had sixty 
wounded, the savages about sixty of their best warriors and many of their most 
distinguished chiefs. Their forces were made up with warriors from the Dela- 
ware, Shawanese, Mingo, Wyandot, Mohickan, Miami, and Ottawa tribes, and 
doubtless the flower of their nations, for the importance of the issue of the first 
decisive engagement had most likely been well weighed by them, and tlicrefore 
an effort made for the victory. 

The army again pursued their route, and in four days reached Fort I'itt, with 
but little interruption except " a few scattering shots from a disheartened and 
flying enemy." The Indians immediately withdrew and retired beyond the 
Ohio. Fort Pitt relieved, found its little group of inhabitants again breathing 
the open air, after a constant siege of more than three months. 




THE OLD PENN CHAIB. 




CHAPTER YIL 

INDIAN DEPREDATIONS ON THE FRONTIERS. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIANS 
AT CONESTOGA. THE SO-CALLED INSURRECTION OF THE PAXTANG BOYS. BOU- 
QUET'S EXPEDITION TO THE MUSKINGUM. 1TG3-1764. 

TIE expedition of Bouquet served, in a great measure, to eheclv tlie 
depredations of tlie Indians, and for a few months the frontiers of 
Pennsylvania were quiet. Had the Assembly acted prompt]}' in the 
matter, an effectual defence could have been provided. 
As tlie winter approached, and the dread of the regular forces subsided, the 
savages commenced and prosecuted their outrages on the northern and western 
frontier, and, occasionally, penetrated the interior counties. Tliey seldom 
appeared in force, and when they did, were uniformly defeated and routeil by the 
rangers, or parties of the inhabitants ; but in small squads, stealing through the 
woods, they attacked the settlers in their homes in the dead of the night, or 
whilst engaged in their occupations in the fields, burning houses and barns, and 
slaughtering men, women, and children. Sometimes these parties were disco- 
vered and pursued, and, when overtaken, shot and bayoneted without mercy. 

The road to Fort Pitt was again interrupted. A supply of provisions, under 
a convoy of sixty men, was forwarded from Bedford to Fort Pitt, but, on gain- 
ing the foot of the Allegheny mountains, was compelled to i-eturn, having learned 
that the passages were occupied by the savages. Some fragments of the Dela- 
ware and Six Nation tribes remained at their settlements in the interior, refusing 
to join their brethren in arras, professing affection to the colonists, and avowing a 
determination to continue neutral. But the neutrality of a part, at least, of these 
Indians, was ver^^ doubtful. Many outrages were committed in consequence, as 
was generally believed, of the information and advice they gave to the invaders ; 
and some murders were perpetrated, which the public voice ascribed to a party 
under the protection of the Moravian Brethren. The situation of the frontiers 
was truly deplorable, principally owing to the supineness of the Provincial 
authorities, for the Quakers, who controlled the government, were, to use the 
language of Lazarus Stewart, "more solicitous for the welfare of the blood- 
thirsty Indian than for the lives of the frontiersmen." In their blind partiality, 
bigotry, and political prejudice, they would not readily accede to the demands of 
those of a different religious faith. To them, therefore, was greatly attributable 
the reign of horror and devastation in the border counties. The government 
was deaf to all entreaties, and General Amherst, commander of the British 
forces in America, did not hesitate to give his feelings an emphatic expression. 
" The conduct of the Pennsylvania Assembly,'' he wrote, "w altogether so infatu- 
ated and stujndly obstinate, that I want xcords to express my indignation thereat." 
Nevertheless, the sturdy Scotch-Irish and Germans of the frontiers rallied for 

107 



108 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



their own defence, and the entire force of Col. Bouquet was composed of them. 
The Inhabitants of Paxtang, then Lancaster, now Dauphin, at the outset of 
•' Pontiac's conspiracy," enrolled themselves into several companies, the Rev. 




INDIAN DEPREDATIONS ON THE FRONTIERS. 



John Elder being their colonel Lazarus Stewart, Matthew Smith, and Asher 
Clayton, men of acknowledged military ability and prowess, commanded distinct 
companies of "rangers." These brave men were ever on the alert, watching 



GENERAL HISTORY. 109 

with eagle eye the Indian marauders, who, during Pontiac's war, swooped down 
upon the defenceless frontiers of Cumberland and Lancaster counties. "High 
mountains, swollen rivers, or great distances never deterred or appalled them. 
Their courage and fortitude were equal to every undertaking, and woe betide the 
red men when their blood-stained tracks once met their eyes." The Paxtang 
rangers were truly the terror of the Indians; swift on foot, excellent horse- 
men, good shots, skillful in pursuit or in escape, dexterous as scouts, and 
expert in manoeuvring 

On the 4tL of August, 1763, Col. Elder wrote to the Governor : "The service 
your honor was pleased to appoint me to I have performed to the best of my 
power, though not with success equal to my desires. However, both companies 
will, I imagine, be complete in a few days. There are now upwards of thirty 
men in each, exclusive of officers, who are now and have been employed since 
their enlistment in such service as is thought most safe and encourasfinjr to the 
frontier inhabitants, who are, here and everywhere else in the back counties, 
quite sunk and dispirited, so that it 's to be feared that at any attack of the 
enemy a considerable part of the country will be evacuated, as all seem inclin- 
able to seek safety rather in flight tlian in opposing the savage foe." 

On the yth of September, 1763, a few of the rangers who had encamped in 
Berks county were apprised of the approach of the Indians by their out-scouts. 
The Indians advanced cautiously, to take them by surprise. When near, with 
savage 3'ells, they rushed forward ; but the rangers, springing to their feet, shot 
the three in front. The rest fled into a thicket and escaped. The Indians were 
armed with guns and provided with ammunition. These Indians were on their 
way from the Moravian Indians, in Northampton county, to the Big Island. 
Runners were sent to the different parties of rangers with information, and 
others set out in pursuit of those who fled. The rangers who started in pursuit 
were ])attled by the superior skill and artifice of t!ie Indians. That they went 
to the Big Island Avaj beyond a doubt. Tiie Paxtang band were now deter- 
mined to watch, with scrutinizing eyes, the Indians who visited Conestoga, and 
Nain, and AVechquetunk, and ascertain the treacherous. 

The Provincial commissioners, on being informed of the above particu- 
lars, subsequentl3^ in ,uircd into the facts with the Governor, and reported 
the result to the Assembly on the 21st of October: " Upon inquiry made before 
the Governor into the late conduct of the Moravians and their Indians at Nain 
and Wichetunk, it Avas their opinion that the said Indians have been, and still 
are, secretly supplied by the Brethren with arms and ammuni'.ion, which, they, 
the said Indians, havina: an intercourse with our enemies on the frontiers, do 
barter and exchange with them, to the great danger of the neighboring inhabi- 
tants, and that there is much reason to suspect the said Moravian Indians have 
also been principally concerned in the late murders committed near Bethlehem, 
in the county of Northampton, which renders it absolutely necessary to remove 
them into the interior parts of the Province, where their behavior may be more 
closely observed. It was ordered by the House of Assembly that the Indians 
be invited down and lodged at some convenient place, and supported at the 
public expense. Some were placed in the barracks, others on Province Island." 
About the middle of Octobei-, when the murder of the Stinson family and 



1 10 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

others reached the ears of the Paxtang men, they solicited their colonel, the 
Rev. Mr. Elder, to obtain permission of the Governor to allow them to make an 
excursion against the enemy. Another object had in view was "to destroy the 
immense quantities of corn left hy the New England men at W^'oming, which if 
not consumed, would be a considerable magazine to the enemy, and (.nable them 
with more ease to distress the inhabitants." At the most earnest solicitation, 
therefore, of his men, Colonel Elder allowed the companies of Captains Stewart 
and Clayton to proceed to W3'oming. They marched in three days and a half 
one hundred and ten miles on foot. When thc3' reached Wyoming they learned 
that the bloodthirsty savage had preceded them, entering the valley from the 
direction of Northampton countj--, and then taken their departure up the river, 
murdering all the settlers. Colonel Elder, in his letter to Governor Hamilton, 
was under the impression that owing to the exposed condition of that region of 
countr}', the New England men had fled from the valle3^ Dispirited anc\ 
shocked at the Indian atrocities, the rangers, after burying the massacred, 
burned the Indian houses and a quantity of corn left standing, and returned to 
their homes. Such scenes as these frontiersmen beheld were calculated to rouse 
resentment in their breasts against all of the name of Indian, and we who 
live perfectly secure in this 3'ear of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
seventy-six cannot form an adequate conception of the perils which encom- 
passed the hearths and homes of our ancestors. One need not wonder at the 
desperation to which they were driven, when through the neglect of the 
Provincial authorities, the depredations of the savages grew more frequent. 
Governor Hamilton, it is true, called the attention of the Assembly to the sad 
condition of the settlers on the frontiers, of the houses destroyed, farms laid 
waste, barns, grain, fences, etc., burned to ashes, and numberless murders, but 
all to no purpose. 

The murders in and around Paxtang, notwithstanding the vigilance of the 
rangers, became numerous, and man}^ a family mourned for some of their number 
shot by the secret foe or carried away captive. The frontiersmen took their 
rifles with them to the fleld and to the sanctuary. Their colonel and pastor 
placed his trusty piece beside him in the pulpit. It is stated that at one time 
the meeting-house was surrounded while he was preaching; but their spies hav- 
ing counted the rifles, the Indians retired from their ambuscade without making 
an attack. Deed after deed was perpetrated by the savage Indians — but where 
these came from was a mystery. 

Indians had been traced by the scouts to the wigwams of the friendly Indians 
at Conestoga and to those of the Moravian Indians in Northampton county. 
Suspicion was awakened; the questions, "Are these Christian Indians treache- 
rous ? Are their wigwams the harbors of our deadly foe ? Do they conceal the 
nio-htly prowling assassin of the forest — the villain, who, with savage ferocity, 
tore the innocent babe from the bosom of its mother where it had been quietly 
reposing, and hurled it in the fire ? The mangled bodies of our friends cry aloud 
for vengeance." Such were the questions, surmises, and expressions of the 
exasperated people. The Paxtang rangers were active in endeavoring to dis- 
cover the perpetrators of those acts of violence. 

The Quakers who controlled the government, as heretofore remarked, "seemed 



GENEEAL HISTORY. 



Ill 



resolved," says Parkmaii, "that they would neither defend the people of the 
frontier nor allow them to defend themselves, vehemently inveighed against all 
expeditions to cut off the Indian marauders. Their security was owing to tlieir 
local situation, being confined to the eastern part of the Province." That such 
was the case, rather than to the kind feelings of the Indian towards them, is 
shown by the fact that of the very few living in exposed positions several were 
killed. 

The people declared openly they no longer confided in the professions of the 
Governor or his advisers; numbers of volunteers joined the rangers of Northamp- 
ton, Berks, Lancaster, York, and Cumberland, wlio were engaged in traciu"- tlie 
midnight assassins. On the Manor, a portion of land surveyed for the Proprie- 
taries, situated in Lancaster county near where the borough of Columbia is 
located, was settled a band of squalid, miserable Indians— the refuse of sundry 
tribes. Time and again they were suspected of murder and thievery, and their 
movements at this crisis were closely watched. 
Strange Indians Avere constantly coming and 
going. 

Colonel Elder, under date of September 
13,1763, thus wi'otc to Governor IIa.milton: 
" I suggest to you the propriety ol" an imme- 
diate removal of the Indians from Conestoga, 
and placing a garrison in their room. In case 
Uiis is done, I pledge myself for the future 
securUy of the frontiers^ 

Subsequently, on taking charge of the ex- 
ecutive affairs of the Province, in October, 
Governor John Pcnn* replied as follows : 
"The Indians of Conestoga have been repre- 
sented as innocent, helpless, and dependent on 
this government for support. The faith of this government is pledged for their 
protection. I cannot remove them without adequate cause. The contract made 
with William Penn was a private agreement, afterwards confirmed by several 
treaties. Care has been taken by tlie provincial committee that no Indians but 
our own visit Conestoga. Whatever can be faithfully executed under the laws, 
shall be as faithfully performed." 

John Harris had previousl}' made a similar request : " The Indians here I 
hope 3'our honor will be pleased to cause to be removed to some other place, as 
I don'' I like iJieir company.^' 

The rangers, finding appeals to the authorities useless, resolved on taking the 
law into their own hands. Several Indian murderers had been traced to Cones- 
toga, and it was determined to take them prisoners. Captain Stewart, whose men 




•••• John Penn, the son of Ricluml and grandson of William Penn, was born in Philadelpliia, in 
1728, from which circumstance he was called the " American Penn." He was Governor of tiic Prov- 
ince from 17G3 to 1771, and also from 1773 to the end of the Proprietary government in 177G. He 
continued in the country during the Revolution. In 1777, having refused to sign a parole, he was 
confined by the Whigs at Fredericksburg, Va. Governor Penn died at the country sear of Andrew 
Allen, in Berks county, February [), 17^5. 



] 1 2 HIS TOBY OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

ascertained this fact, acquainted his colonel of the object, who seemed rather to 
encourage his command to make the trial, as an example was necessary to be 
made for the safety of the frontier inhabitants. The destruction of the Conesto- 
gas was not then projected. That was the result of the attempted capture. 
Farkman and Webster, following llupp, state that Colonel Elder, learning of an 
intent to destroy the entire tribe, as they were about to set olT, rode after them 
commanding them to desist; that Stewart threatened to shoot his horse, aud 
much more. Such was not the case. From a letter dated Paxtang, December 
16, 1763, written to Governor Penn, he says: "On receiving intelligence, the 
13th inst., that a number of persons were assembled on purpose to go and cut 
off the Conestoga Indians, in concert with Mr. Foster, the neighboring magis- 
trate, I hurried off an express with a luriUen message to that party, ' entreating 
them to desist from such an undertaking, representing to them the unlawfulness 
and barbarity of such an action, that it 's cruel and unchristian in its nature, and 
would be fatal in its consequences to themselves and families ; that private 
persons have no riglit to take the lives of any under the protection of the legisla- 
ture ; that they must, if they proceeded in that affair, lay their accounts to meet 
with a severe prosecution, and become liable even to capital punishment ; that 
they need not expect that the country would endeavor to conceal or screen them 
from punishment, but that they would be detected and given up to the resent- 
ment of the government.' These things I urged in the warmest terms in oi'der 
to pi-evail with them to drop the enterprise, but to no purpose." 

Not to be deterred, the rangers reached the Indian settlement before day- 
Ijo-ht. The barking of some dogs discovered them, and a number of strange 
Indians rushed from their wigwams, brandishing their tomahawks. This show of 
resistance was sufficient inducement for the rangers to make use of their arms. 
In a few moments every Indian present fell before the unerring fire of the brave 
frontiersmen. The act accomplished, they mounted their horses and returned 
severally to their homes. Unfortunately a number of the Indians were absent 
from Conestoga, prowling about the neighboring settlements, doubtless on pre- 
datory incursions. The destruction at the Manor becoming known, they were 
placed in the Lancaster work-house for protection. Among these vagabonds 
were two well known to Parson Elder's scouts. 

An express being sent to Philadelphia with the news, great excitement ensued, 
and Governor Penn issued a proclamation relative thereto. Notwithstanding its 
fine array of words, it fell upon the Province harmless. Outside of the Quaker 
settlements every one heartily approved of the measures taken by the Paxtang 
rangers. 

The presence of the remaining Indians at Lancaster soon became a cause of 
great uneasiness to the magistrates and people, for as previously remarked, two 
or three were notorious scoundrels. It may be here related that several of the 
strange Indians harbored at Conestoga, who were also absent at the destruction 
of the village, made their escape and reached Philadelphia, where they joined 
the Moravian Indians from Nain and Wichetunk, and there secreted. 

The removal of the Conestoga Indians from Lancaster was requested by the 
chief magistrate, Edward Shippen. Governor Penn proved very tard}-, and we 
are of the opinion he cared little about them, or he would have acted promptly 



QENEItAL HIS TOR F. 113 

Day after day passed by, and the excitement throughout the frontiers became 
greater. The rangers, who found that their work had been only half done, 
consulted as to what measures should be further proceeded with. Captain 
Stewart proposed to capture the principal Indian outlaw, who was confined in 
the Lancaster work-house, and take him to Carlisle jail, where he could be held 
for trial. This was heartily approved of, and accordingly a detachment of the 
rangers, variously estimated at from twenty to fifty, proceeded to Lancaster on 
the 27th of December, broke into the work-house, and but for the show of 
resistance would have effected their purpose. But the younger portion of the 
rangers, to whom was confided this work, were so enraged at the defiance of 
the Indians, that before their resentment could be repressed by Captain Stewart, 
the unerring rifle was employed, and the last of the so-called Conestogas had 
yielded up his life. In a few minutes thereafter, mounting their horses, the 
daring rangers were safe from pursuit. George Gibson, who, from his acquain- 
tance with the principal frontiersmen of liis time, in a letter written some years 
after, gives the most plausible account of this transaction, which bore such an 
important part in tlie early history of the Province. He says : " Xo murder has 
been committed since the removal of the friendly Indians and the destruction of 
Conestoga — a strong proof that the murders were committed under the cloak of 
the Moravian Indians. ... A description of an Indian who had, with great 
barbarity, murdered a family on the Susquehanna, near Paxtang, was sent to 
Lazarus Stewart at Lancaster. This Indian had been traced to Conestoga. On 
the day of its destruction he was on a hunting expedition. When he heard 
that the rangers were in pursuit of him, he fled to Philadelphia. . . . The 
three or four who entered the work-house at Lancaster were directed by Stewart 
to seize on the murderer, and give him to his charge. When those outside 
heard the report of the guns within, several of the rangers alighted, thinking 
their friends in danger, and hastened to the door. The more active of the 
Indians, endeavoring to make their escape, were met by them and shot. No 
children were killed by the Paxtang boys. No act of savage butchery was 
committed," 

If the excitement throughout the Province was great after the aftair at Cones- 
toga, this last transaction set everything in a ferment. " No language," says 
Rev. Dr. Wallace, '■ can describe the outcry which arose from the Quakers in 
Philadelphia, or the excitement which swayed to and fro in the frontiers and in 
the city." The Quakers blamed the Governor, the Governor the Assembl}', and 
the latter censured everybody except their own inaction. Two proclamations 
were issued by the Provincial authorities offering rewards for the seizure of those 
concerned in the destruction of the Indians, but this was impossible, owing to the 
exasperation of the frontiersmen, who heartily approved of the action of the 



rangers. 



On the 27th of December, the Rev. Mr. Elder hurriedly wrote to Governor 
Penn : " The storm, which had been so long gathering, has at length exploded. 
Had government removed the Indians from Conestoga, as was frequently urged 
without success, this painful catastrophy might have been avoided. What could 
I do with men heated to madness ? All that I could do was done. I expos- 
tulated, but life and reason were set at defiance, and yet the men, in private life, 

H 



1 1 4 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

were virtuous and respectable — not cruel, but mild and merciful. . . . The 
time will arrive when each palliating circumstance will be calmly weighed. 
This deed, magnified into the blackest of crimes, shall be considered one of 
those youthful ebullitions of wrath caused by momentary excitement, to which 
human infirmit}'- is subjected." 

To this extenuating and warm-hearted letter, came a reply, under date of 
December 29, 1163, from the Governor: "As it is absolutely necessary, for the 
preservation of peace and good order in the government, that an immediate stop 
be put to such riotous proceedings, I beg you will continue to use your best 
endeavors to discourage and suppress all insurrections that may appear among 
any of the people over whom you have an influence, and that you will be pleased 
to take all the pains in your power to learn the names of the ringleaders and 
perpetrators of those barbarities, and to acquaint me with everything you can 
discover concerning them. The Commissioners, not thinking it necessary any 
longer to keep in pay more than one person to command the troops on the east 
side of the Susquehanna, came yesterday to a resolution to discontinue the pay 
of yourself and Mr. Seeley as commanders of the companies in Lancaster and 
Berks counties, which are for the future to be put under the direction of Major 
Clayton, as well as those in Northampton. I, therefore, desire you will deliver 
over to him all the Provincial arms, accoutrements, ammunition, and other 
military stores remaining in your possession, with an exact account of those you 
have distributed among the two companies. I return you thanks for the good 
services you have performed, and for the care and prudence with which you 
have conducted your military command from the beginning." 

Prom the foregoing letter of Governor John Penn, it is evident that the 

commissioners, or rather the Provincial Council, intended to punish 

1764. both the frontier commanders, or that with the destruction of the 

Conestogas, there was little or no danger of Indian atrocities. The 

latter proved to be the case, but the authorities were cognizant of the fact that 

the Paxtang boys were correct in their surmisings, and that peace would follow 

the removal of the friendly Indians. It shows, also, that believing thus, the 

Provincial authorities were culpable, to a great degree, in allowing the Indians 

to remain on the Manor, despite the representations of Colonel Elder, John 

Harris, and Edward Shippen. The Reverend Mr. Elder quietly laid by his 

sword, feeling confident that time would vindicate his course, whate-s^er that may 

have been. 

The difi"erent proclamations of Governor Penn, and the action of the 
Assembly relative to this transaction, created immense excitement on the 
frontiers of Lancaster, Berks, and Northampton, and meetings were held, at 
which the Provincial authorities were severely condemned. Representatives 
were appointed to proceed to Philadelphia and demand redress and protection. 
Accompanjdng these were large delegations from the "back inhabitants." 

The Moravian Indians who had been confined in the barracks at Philadelphia 
since November, were removed to Province Island, at the reported march of " a 
large body of rioters (?), Avho were bent on destroying them also." This has 
been always denied, as merely a wild rumor, which, like man^^ other reports, 
spread consternation and alarm in the cit}-. The Assembly resolved to resist 



GENERAL HISTORY. 115 

any attempt to destroy the Indians, but the hitter, frightened at the reports of 
their threatened destruction, petitioned the authorities to send them, a hundred 
and fifty in number, with their two ministers, to England. But this being 
impracticable, the Governor furnished them an escort, to proceed through New 
Jersey and New York, to Sir William Johnson, under whose protection they 
were desirous to place themselves. William Franklin, then Governor of New 
Jersey, granted them a passport ; but Governor Golden, of New York, by 
advice of his Council, refused to admit them within his Province. The Council 
of New York were offended by Governor Penn sending so large a body of 
Indians into their colony without their consent ; and professed themselves more 
disposed to punish than to protect the Indians from the east side of the Susque- 
hanna, whom they considered as their worst enemies, composed of the rogues, 
thieves, and runaways from other Indian nations. They also condemned the 
policy which returned these men to strengthen their nation. The progress of 
the Indians being thus obstructed. General Gage, who had succeeded General 
Amherst in the chief command of the English forces in America, directed two 
companies of the Royal Americans to re-escort them to Philadelphia, where 
they were secured in the barracks. 

The approach of the frontiersmen, about the time of the return of the 
Indians, renewed the excitement. The force of the former Avas magnified to 
many thousands, and six companies of foot, one of artillery, and two troops of 
horse, were formed to oppose them ; and some thousands of the inhabitants, 
iocluding many Quakers, were prepared to render assistance, in case an attempt 
should be made upon the town. The barracks, also, where the Indians were 
lodged, under the protection of the regular troops, were fortified, several works 
being thrown up about them, and eight pieces of cannon mounted. But the 
Governor would not venture to command his forces to attack the insurgents 
until he obtained indemnit}' for himself and them, by the extension to the 
Province of the English Riot Act. The bill extending it was passed very hastily 
through the House, 

On arriving at Germantown, the Paxtang men were met by commissioners, to 
whom the}' made known their intentions, and Colonel Matthew Smith and 
James Gibson accompanied the former to Philadelphia, where the}' met the 
Governor and the Assembly presenting their grievances, which we here give in 
full, as a clear and candid statement of affairs at that period. In the meantime, 
with a few exceptions, the party who accompanied them returned to their homes 
— the inhabitants of the city to their peaceful avocations. 

" We, Matthew Smith and James Gibson, in behalf of ourselves and his 
Majesty's faithful and lo3'al subjects, the inhabitants of the frontier counties of 
Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Berks, and Northampton, humbl}' beg leave to 
remonstrate and la_y before you the following grievances, which we submit to 
3'^our wisdom for redress. 

"First. We apprehend that as Freemen and English subjects, we have an 
indisputable title to the same privileges and immunities with his Majesty's 
other subjects who reside in the interior counties of Philadelphia, Chester, and 
Bucks, and, therefore, ought not to be excluded from an equal share with them, 
in the ver}^ important privilege of legislation ; nevertheless, contrary' to the 



1 16 HISTOB Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

Proprietor's charter and the acknowledged principles of common justice and 
equity, our five counties are restrained from electing more than ten Represen- 
tatives, viz., four for Lancaster, two for York, two for Cumberland, one for 
Berks, and one for Northampton, while the three counties and City of Philadel. 
phia, Chester, and Bucks, elect twenty-six. This we humbly conceive is 
oppressive, unequal, and unjust, the cause of many of our grievances, and an 
infringement of our natural privileges of Freedom and equality ; wherefore, we 
humbly pray that we may be no longer deprived of an equal number with the 
three aforesaid counties, to represent us in Assembly. 

" Secondly. We understand that a bill is now before the House of Assembly, 
wherein it is provided that such persons as shall be charged with killing any 
Indians in Lancaster county, shall not be tried in the county where the fact was 
committed, but in the counties of Philadelphia, Chester, or Bucks. This is mani- 
festly to deprive British subjects of their known privileges, to cast an eternal 
reproach upon whole counties, as if they were unfit to serve their country in the 
quality of jur^anen, and to contradict the well-known laws of the British nation in 
a point whereon life, liberty, and security essentially depend, namely, that of being 
tried by their equals in the neighborhood where their own, their accusers, and 
the witnesses' character and credit, with the circumstances of the fact, are best 
known, and instead thereof putting their lives in the hands of strangei's, who 
may as justly be suspected of partiality to as the frontier counties can be of 
prejudices against Indians; and this, too, in favor of Indians only, against his 
Majesty's faithful and loyal subjects. Besides, it is well known that the design 
of it is to comprehend a fact committed before such a law was thought of. And 
if such practices were tolerated, no man could be secure in his most valuable 
interest. We are also informed, to our great surprise, that this bill has actuall}^ 
received the assent of a majority of the House, which we are persuaded 
could not have been the case, had our frontier counties been equally 
represented in Assembly. However, we hope that the Legislature of this 
Province will never enact a law of so dangerous a tendency, or take away 
from his Majesty's good subjects a privilege so long esteemed sacred by 
Englis-fimen. 

" Thirdly. During the late and present Indian War, the frontiers of this 
Province have been repeatedly attacked and ravaged by skulking parties of the 
Indians, who have with the most savage cruelty murdered men, women, and 
children, without distinction, and have reduced near a thousand families to the 
most extreme distress. It grieves us to the very heart to see such of our 
frontier inhabitants as have escaped savage fury with the loss of their parents, 
their children, their wives, or relatives, left destitute by the public, and exposed 
to the most cruel poverty and wretchedness, while upwards of an hundred and 
twenty of these savages, who are with great reason suspected of being guilty of 
these horrid barbarities, under the mask of friendship, have procured themselves 
to be taken under the protection of the Government, with a view to elude the 
fury of the brave relatives of the murdered, and are now maintained at the 
public expense. Some of these Indians, now in the barracks of Philadelphia, 
are confessedly a part of the Wyalusing Indians, which tribe is now at war 
with us, and the others are the Moravian Indians, who, living with us under the 



GENERAL HISTOHT. II7 

cloak of friendship, carried on a correspondence with onr known enemies on the 
Great IsLand. We cannot but observe, with sorrow and indignation, that some 
persons in this Province are at pains to extenuate the barbarous cruelties 
practised by these savages on our murdered brethren and relatives, which are 
shocking to human nature, and must pierce every heart but that of the hardened 
perpetrators or their abettors ; nor is it less distressing to hear others pleading 
that although the Wyalusing tribe is at war with us, yet that part of it 
which is under the protection of the Government, maj^ be friendly to the 
English, and innocent. In what nation under the sun was it ever the custom 
that when a neighboring nation took up arms, not an individual should be 
touched but only the persons that offered hostilities ? Who ever proclaimed 
war with a part of a nation, and not with the whole ? Had these Indians 
disapproved of the perfidy of their tribe, and been willing to cultivate and 
preserve friendship with us, whj' did the}' not give notice of the war before 
it happened, as it is known to be the result of long deliberations, and a 
preconcerted combination among them ? Wh}^ did they not leave their tribe 
immediately, and come among us before there was ground to suspect them, or 
war was acti;ally waged with their tribe ? No, they stayed amongst them, 
were privy to their murders and revenges, until we had destroj^ed their pro- 
visions, and when they could no longer subsist at home, they come, not as 
deserters, but as friends, to be maintained through the winter, that they may be 
able to scalp and butcher us in the spring. 

" And as to the Moravian Indians, there are strong grounds at least to supect 
their friendship, as it is known they carried on a corresjjondence with our 
enemies on the Great Island. We killed three Indians going from Bethlehem to 
the Great Island with blankets, ammunition, and provisions, which is an 
undeniable proof that the Moravian Indians were in confederacy with our open 
enemies ; and we cannot but be filled with indignation to hear this action 
of ours painted in the most odious and detestable colors, as if we had inhu- 
manly murdered our guides, who preserved us from perishing in the woods, 
when we only killed three of our known enemies, who attempted to shoot 
us when we surprised them. And, besides all this, we understand that one 
of these very Indians is proved, by the oath of Stinson's widow, to be the very 
person that murdered her husband. How, then, comes it to pass that he alone, 
of all the Moravian Indians, should join the enemy to murder that family ? Or 
can it be supposed that any enemy Indians, contrary to their known custom 
of making war, should penetrate into the heart of a settled country to burn, 
plunder, and murder the inhabitants, and not molest any houses in their return, 
or ever be seen or heard of? Or how can we account for it, that no ravages 
have been committed in Northampton county since the removal of the 
Moravian Indians, when the Great Cove has been struck since? These 
things put it beyond doubt with us that the Indians now at Philadelphia 
are his Majesty's perfidious enemies, and, therefore, to protect and maintain 
them at the public expense, while our suffering brethren on the frontiers are 
almost destitute of the necessaries of life, and are neglected by the public, 
is sufficient to make us mad with rage, and tempt us to do what nothing but 
the most violent necessity can vindicate. We humbly and earnestlv pray, 



118 HISTOR Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

therefore, that those enemies of his Majesty may be removed as soon as 
possible out of the Province. 

" Fourthly. We humbly conceive that it is contrary to the maxims of good 
policy, and extremely dangerous to our frontiers, to suffer any Indians, of 
what tribe soever, to live within the inhabited parts of this Province while 
we are engaged in an Indian war, as experience has taught us that they are 
all perfidious, and their claim to freedom and independency puts it in their 
power to act as spies, to entertain and give intelligence to our enemies, and 
to furnish them with provisions and warlike stores. To this fatal intercourse 
between our pretended friends and open enemies, we must ascribe the greatest 
of the ravao-es and murders that have been committed in the course of this 
and the last Indian war. We, therefore, pray that this grievance be taken 
under consideration and remedied. 

"Fifthly. We cannot help lamenting that no provision has been hitherto 
made, that such of our frontier inhabitants as have been wounded in defence 
of the Province, their lives and liberties, may be taken care of, and cured of 
their wounds at the public expense. We, therefore, pray that this grievance 
may be redressed. 

"Sixthly. In the late Indian war, this Province, with others of his Majesty's 
colonies, gave rewards for Indian scalps, to encourage the seeking them in 
their own country, as the most likely means of destroying or reducing them 
to reason, but no such encouragement has been given in this war, which has 
damped the spirits of many brave men, who are willing to venture their lives in 
parties against the enemy. We, therefore, pray that public rewards may be 
proposed for Indian scalps, which may be adequate to the dangers attending 
enterprizes of this nature. 

" Seventhly. We daily lament that numbers of our nearest and dearest 
relatives are still in captivity among the savage heathen, to be trained up in 
all their ignorance and barbarity, or to be tortured to death with all the 
contrivances of Indian cruelty, for attempting to make their escape from 
bondage ; we see they pay no regard to the many solemn promises they have 
made to restore our friends who are in bondage amongst them. We, therefore , 
earnestly pray that no trade may hereafter be permitted to be carried on with 
them until oiir brethren and relatives are brought home to us. 

" Eighthl}^ We complain that a certain society of people in this Province, 
in the late Indian war, and at several treaties held by the King's representatives, 
openly loaded the Indians witli presents, and that J. P., a leader of the said 
society, in defiance of all government, not only abetted our Indian enemies, but 
kept up a private intelligence with them, and publicly received from them a 
belt of wampum, as if he had been our Governor, or authorized by the King to 
treat with his enemies. By this means the Indians have been taught to despise 
us as a weak and disunited people, and from this fatal source have arose 
many of our calamities under which Ave groan. We humbly pray, therefore, 
that this grievance may be redressed, and that no private subject be hereafter 
permitted to treat with, or carry on a correspondence with, our enemies. 

"Ninthly. We cannot but observe with sorrow, that Fort Augusta, which 
has been very expensive to this Province, has afforded us but little assistance 



GENEBAL HISTOBY. 119 

during this or the last war. The men that were stationed at that place neither 
helped our distressed inhabitants to save their crops, nor did they attack our 
enemies in their towns, or patrol on our frontiers. We humbly request that 
proper measures may be taken to make that garrison more serviceable to us in 
our distress, if it can be done. 

"• N. B. — We are far from intending any reflection against the commanding 
officer stationed at Augusta, as we presume his conduct was always directed by 
those from whom he received his orders. 

" Signed on behalf of ourselves, and by appointment of a great number of the 
frontier inhabitants. 

" Matthew Smith, 
"February 13th, 1764." "James Gibson. 

The memorial of Gibson and Smith was sustained by another, having fifteen 
hundred signatures. The Assembly sent these memorials to a committee, which 
recommended a conference with the representatives of the back inhabitants, 
in order to convince them and the people that their complaints were unfounded. 
The House invited the Governor to participate in this conference, but he 
declined the measure, as incompatible with the dignity and subversive of the 
order of the government. He recommended them to investigate the merits 
of the petitions, and should any bill grow out of the investigation, he promised 
to give it due attention. The Assembly took no further steps. The bill 
dii'ecting persons charged with murdering an Indian in Lancaster county to be 
tried in Philadelphia, Bucks, or Chester, became a law, but no conviction for 
that offence was ever had. 

Pamphlets, says Webster, without number, truth, or decency, poured like a 
torrent from the press. The Quakei's took the pen to hold up the deed to 
execration ; and many others seized the opportunity to defame the Irish 
Presbyterians as ignorant bigots and lawless marauders. A dialogue between 
Andrew Trueman and Thomas Zealot, speaks of " Saunders Kent, an elder these 
thirty years, that gaed to duty" just before the massacre, and while he "was 
saying grace till a pint of whiskey, a wild lad ran his gully (knife) through the 
wame of a heathen wean." This, and much more that is worse, lacks the first 
requisite of a good lie; it does not look like truth; it makes the Irish Presby- 
terians talk like English churchmen, to whom the phrase " saying grace " is 
peculiar. " Gaeing to duty " is a thrust at family worship in use among Presby- 
terians, but highly ridiculous to godless " sayers of grace." 

The Presbyterians replied that Teedyuscung confessed that he would not 
have complained of the new settlers if he had not been encouraged by prominent 
Quakers. They produced affidavits that the Indians who were killed were 
drunken, debauched, insolent, quarrelsome, and dangerous ; they refer to the 
Christian Indian, Renatus, as notoriously bad, and assert that the Indian who 
shot Stinson, in Allen township, while rising from his bed, was secured in 
Philadelphia from justice, and comforted in a good room, with a warm bed 
and stove. They also charged that the representation in the Assembly was 
unequal, and that Lancaster, with a larger population, was allowed fewer 
members than other counties. 



120 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Violent and bitter as were the attacks of the Quaker pamphleteers, Parson 
Elder was onl}- casually alluded to. With the exception of the following, 
written to Colonel Burd, he made no attempt to reply to any of these, leaving 
his cause with God and posterity : " Lazarus Stewart is still threatened by the 
Philadelphia party ; he and his friends talk of leaving. If they do, the Province 
will lose some of its best friends, and that by the faults of others, not their own ; 
for if any cruelty was practised on the Indians at Conestoga or at Lancaster, it 
was not by his or their hands. There is great reason to believe that much 
injustice has been done to all concerned. In the contrariness of accounts we 
must infer that much rests for support on the imagination or interest of the 
witnesses. The characters of Stewart and his friends were well established 
Ruffians, nor brutal, they were not; but humane, liberal, and moral, nay, 
relio-ious. It is evidently not the wish of the party to give Stewart a fair 
hearing. All he desires is to be put on trial at Lancaster, near the scenes of 
the horrible butcheries committed by the Indians at Tulpehocken, etc., where 
he can have the testimony of the scouts and rangers, men whose services can 
never be sufficiently rewarded. The pamphlet has been sent by my friends and 
enemies ; it failed to inflict a wound ; it is at least but a garbled statement ; it 
carries with it the seeds of its own dissolution. That the hatchet was used 
is denied, and is it not reasonable to suppose that men, accustomed to the 

use of guns, would make use of their favorite weapons ? 

The inference is plain, that the bodies of the Indians were thus mangled 
after death by certain persons, to excite a feeling against the Paxtang boys. 
This fact, Stewart says, he can and will establish in a fair trial at Lancaster, 
York, or Carlisle. At any rate we are all suffering at present by the secret 
influence of a faction — a faction who has shown their love to the Indians by not 
exposing themselves to its influence in the frontier settlements." 

The " pamphlet " alluded to in the foregoing was the notorious article written 
by Benjamin Franklin for political effect. He acknowledged, in a letter to Lord 
Kames, that his object was a political one. As such, its tissue of falsehoods 
caused his defeat for member of the Assembly, a position he had held for four- 
teen years. Fortunately for him, the Revolution brought him into prominence, 
and the past was forgotten. 

From several letters of Governor John Penn written during this period to 
his uncle Thomas Penn, we glean the following facts, which, when properly con- 
sidered, will in a great measure remove the odium which pi-ejudiced histo- 
rians have thrown upon this transaction. In one, of the date of Nov. 11, 1763, 
he says : " I have had petitions every day from the frontier inhabitants request- 
ing assistance against the Indians, who still continue their ravages in the most 
cruel manner." He alludes to the fact of the " Indians on the Manor " in Lancaster 
county being concerned in several murders in that county. In another : " It is 
beyond a doubt that many of the the Indians now in town [referring to the 
Moravian Indians confined in the Barracks] have also been concerned in com- 
mitting murder among the back settlers. Many of the people have had their 
wives and children murdered and scalped, their houses burnt to the ground, 
their cattle destroyed, and from an easy plentiful life, are now become beggars. 

" The Conestoga Indians, but also those that lived at Bethlehem and in other 



GENEEAL HISTORY. 121 

parts of the Province, were all perfidious— were in the French interest and in 
combination with our open enemies." These are some of the private views of 
the executive of the Province, who, to cajole the Assembly, like Franklin, deemed 
it policy to yield for a time to the popular clamor and misrepresentation, and 
publicly declare sentiments directly opposite to those he held and conceived. We 
have neither time nor inclination to give too much prominence to this affair; but 
desii-ing to palliate the transaction, we have presented our argument. In addi- 
tion to all we have said — it is well known that an investigation was had into the 
matter, by the magistrate (Shippen), at Lancaster, but the evidence against the 
Indians was so condemnatory that it was not only suppressed but destroyed. 
All efforts, therefore, to carry into effect the proclamation of the Governor was 
really suspended, so far as his authority went, in regard to which grave com- 
plaints were made by the Assembly, who seemed to bend all their energies to per- 
secute the offenders. 

The march to Philadelphia, we again reiterate, was not to destroy the Indians 
protected there. In a subsequent letter. Governor Penn says : " We expect a 
thousand of the back inhabitants in town, to insist upon the Assembly grantino' 
their request with regard to the increase of representatives, to put them upon an 
equality with the rest of the counties. They have from time to time presented 
several petitions for the purpose, which have been always disregarded by the 
House ; for which purpose they intend to come in person. I am of opinion thej^ 
[the Assembly] will never come into, as it will be the means of lessening the 
powej- of the Governing few in this Province." What more convincing proof is 
needed of the object of the Paxtang men in going to Philadelphia ? Their 
motives obviously misconstrued — their actions vilified — their principles malign- 
ed, and for one hundred and twenty years the}' have rested under the obloquy 
" of murderers and rioters." In the light of history-, through recent research, 
it is time that their conduct be justified, and the wrong done them be righted. 
" Truth is a Divine attribute," and history- is truth, but unfortunately too much 
prejudice tinctures the records of the past, and he who would write trul^^, must 
compare the internal with the external historj^ of every transaction. It is 011I3' 
by this means correct conclusions are arrived at, and impartial historj- written. 

This transaction gave rise to these among other questions, and the pamphlets 
on the popular side maj' truly be said to have sown the seeds of the Revolution : 
"Was the destruction of the Indians in Lancaster county justifiable on the plea 
of necessity ? " " Was the policy adopted by the Proprietar}- government in 
ti'eating with Indians, judicious? " 

Early in 1764, extensive measures were resolved upon for the reduction of 
the Indians. General Gage determined to attack them on two sides, and to force 
them from the frontiers by carrying the war into the heart of their own country. 
One corps was destined, under Colonel Bradstreet, to act against the Wyandots, 
Ottawas, CJiippewas, and other nations living upon or near the lakes; whilst 
another, under the command of Colonel Bouquet, should attack the Delawares, 
Shawanese, Mingoes, Mohickans, and other nations between the Ohio and the 
lakes. These corps were to act in concert, and as that of Colonel Bradstreet 
would be first ready, he was directed to proceed to Detroit, Michilimackinack, 
and other places, and on his return to encamp and remain at Sandusky, to awe 



1 22 niSTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA, 

from that position the numerous tribes of Western Indians, and prevent them 
from rendering aid to those on the Ohio, whilst Colonel Bouquet should attack 
the latter in the midst of their settlements. 

Part of the Forty-second and Sixtieth Regiments were allotted to Colonel 
Bouquet, to be joined with two hundred friendly Indians, and troops from Virginia 
and Pennsylvania. The Indians never came, and Virginia could spare but few 
men, having already organized seven hundred for the defence of her own frontier. 
The quota of Pennsylvania was one thousand, and the Assembly, with great alac- 
rity, resolved to raise this force, and to maintain it they voted fifty thousand pounds. 

Bouquet's expedition to the Muskingum, in the autumn of 1764, overawed the 
Indians, who sued for peace. The Delawares, Shawanese, and Senecas agreed to 
cease hostilities, and surrender a great number of prisoners taken during the 
recent wars. The return of these prisoners, many of whom were children, 
carried joy to many an anxious heart in Pennsylvania. Some of the prisoners 
had formed attachments among the Indians which they were loath to break. 

The first application to the Assembly for supplies revived the old controversy 
with the Proprietaries. Indeed, harmony was scarcely to be expected between 
one of the Proprietary family as Governor on one side, and the Assembly on the 
othei That the Proprietary estates were to be taxed, was a question settled ; 
but J ow, and upon what basis they were to be assessed, was a subject of contro- 
vers"^', and the Proprietaries, as usual, leaned strongly to their own interests. 
The (Assembly were compelled to yield to the necessities of the Province, and 
the 'upplies were granted ; but the conduct of the Governor so incensed the 
Ass 'mbly, that they determined, by a large majority, to petition the King to 
pui "base the jurisdiction of the Province from the Proprietaries, and vest the 
go ernment directly in the Crown. And among the important questions which 
a? tated and inflamed the public mind at this period was this: "Whether a 
P 'oprietary government or one with kingly powers was the government best 
a lapted to this Province? " 

To break down the feudal power, and bring the people and the Crown in 
direct communication, is in all countries the first great step towards popular 
freedom, and prepares the way for the next step, the direct conflict between the 
Crown and the people. It so happened, however, that in this case the avarice of 
the British ministry outran the anti-feudal propensities of the people, and 
brought the colonies at once to the last great struggle between the people and 
the Crown. There was much opposition from leading men in the Province 
against throwing off the Proprietary dominion. Isaac Norris, the venerable 
Speaker, John Dickinson, afterwards distinguished in the Revolution, and Rev. 
Gilbert Tennant, and Rev. Francis Allison, representing the Presbyterian 
interest, with William Allen, chief-justice, and afterwards father-in-law of Gov- 
ernor Penn, were strong in opposition to the measure. The Quakers, on the 
other hand, supported it, and were sustained by several successive assemblies. 
Benjamin Franklin was appointed provincial agent to urge the measure before 
the ministry in London. He sailed for England, November 1, IT 64, and found 
on his arrival that he had to contend with a power far stronger and more obsti- 
nate than the Proprietaries themselves, even with the very power whose protec- 
tion he had come to seek. 




CHAPTER YIII. 

RELATIONS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND THE COLONIES. MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 
THE OUTSET OF THE REVOLUTION. RESOLVES AND INSTRUCTIONS OP THE 
PROVINCIAL DEPUTIES. THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.* 11Q5-1115. 

RIENDLY as were the relations between the colonies and the mother 
country, they would doubtless have continued, had the foi-mer not 
seen fit to pursue a new policy towards the latter with respect to 
revenue and taxation. The colonies, until then, had been permitted 
to tax themselves. The first act of Parliament aiming at the drawing of a 
revenue from the colonies, was passed September 29, 1164, the preamble 
running thus : 

" Whereas, it is just and necessary that a revenue be raised in America for 
defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the same, we, the 
Commons," etc. This act imposed a duty on "clayed sugar, indigo, coffee, etc., 
etc., being the produce of a colony not under the dominion of his Majesty." 

On the subject of the right of the British Parliament to tax the colonies, it 
was asserted in the mother country " to be essential to the unity, and of course, 
to the prosperity of the empire, that the British Parliament should have a right 
of taxation over every part of the royal dominions." In the colonies it was 
contended " that taxation and representation were inseparable, and that they 
could not be safe, if their property might be taken from them, without their 
consent." This claim of the right of taxation on the one side, and the denial 
of it on the other, was the very hinge on which the Revolution turned. 

In accordance with the policy to be observed towards America, the next 

year, 1765, the famous Stamp Act passed both houses of Parliament. 

1765. This ordained that instruments of writing, such as deeds, bonds, notes, 

etc., among the colonies, should be null and void, unless executed on 

stamped paper, for which a duty should be paid to the Crown. 

The efforts of the American colonies to stay the mad career of the English 
ministry proved unavailing. The Stamp Act was passed with slight opposition 
by the Commons, and with unanimity by the Lords. Dr. Franklin labored 
earnestly to avert a measure which his sagacity and extensive acquaintance 
with the American people taught him was pregnant with danger to the British 
empire ; but he entertained not the idea that it would be forcibly resisted. He 
wrote to Mr. Charles Thomson, '■'•The mn of liberty is set, you must light up the 
candles of industry and economy.''^ To which Mr. Thomson replied, " he was 
apprehensive that other lights would be the consequence." To Mr. Ingersoll, 
Franklin said, " Go home and tell your people to get children as fast as they 
can," intimating that the period for successful opposition had not yet arrived. 
The opposition to the Stamp Act in America was so decided and universal 

123 



124 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

that Parliament had only the alternative to compel submission or to 

1766. repeal the act. It was repealed on 18th of March, 1166, but accom- 
panying it was one known as the Declaratory Act, more hostile to 

American rights than any of its predecessors. The act affirmed " that Parlia- 
ment have, and of right ought to have, power to bind the colonies in all cases 

whatsoever.'" 

The news of the repeal reached America in May following, and caused 

unbounded demonstrations of joy. Though the Quakers generally would not 

have violent!}^ resisted the execution of the law, they shared with others the 

joy produced by the tidings of the repeal. The French and Indian wars had 

been happil}' terminated, and the controversy with the mother country appeared 

now to be the only event that could again give rise to the " wars and fightings," 

which had already become a snare to many youthful members of the society. 

During the 3^ear lY6t was run the so-called Mason and Dixon's 

1767. line, and that every Pennsylvanian may know the interesting history 
relating thereto, we give this resume of that important transaction : 

In 1632 Charles the First granted to Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baron of 
Baltimore, " all that part of the peninsula, or Chersonese, lying in the parts 
of America between the ocean on the east and the bay of Chesapeake on the 
west, divided from the residue thereof by a right line drawn from the pro- 
montory or headland, called Watkin's point, situated upon the bay aforesaid, 
and near the river of Wighco [Wicomico ?] on tlie west, unto the main ocean 
on the east, and between that boundary' on the south, and that part of the 
bay of Delaware on the north, which lieth under the fortieth degree of latitude, 
where New England terminates." 

Under this grant. Lord Baltimore and his descendants claimed the whole 
Peninsula, from the above-mentioned " right line " to the 40th degree of latitude ; 
but his title, in strictness, onlj^ extended to that portion of it hitherto unsettled, 
or uncultivated (hactenus inculta) — and the Dutch and Swedes had previously 
settled on the western margin of the Delaware. The Duke of York subsequently 
conquered not only the Dutch settlements east of the Delaware (now parts of 
New York and New Jersey), but also those on the western shore, and exercised 
sovereignty over them until 1682 — when he transferred his claim on the western 
shore and bay of Delaware to William Penn, who had early perceived the 
importance of owning that side of the river all the way from his Province to the 
ocean; and hence the annexation of the "three Lower Counties on Delaware" 
now constituting the State of that name. 

The title being contested, and the late owner being now King James the 
Second, it was ordered by a decree of his Council, in 1685, "that for avoiding 
further differences, the tract of land lying between the bay of Delaware and the 
eastern sea on the one side, and the Chesapeake Bay on the other, be divided 
Into equal parts, by a line from the latitude of Cape Henlopen to the fortieth 
degree of north latitude, the southern boundary of Pennsylvania by charter— 
and that the one-half thereof lying toward the bay of Delaware and the eastern 
sea, be adjudged to belong to his Majesty, and the other half to the Lord Balti- 
more, as comprised in his chai'ter." 

The decrees of royalty not being as debatable, just then, as they have been 



GENERAL HISTORY. 125 

3ince, of course the recent conveyance of the eastern half of the Peninsula t( 
William Penn by His Majesty, while Duke of York, was regarded as entirely 
valid. This decree, however, did not remove the difficulty existing between the 
Proprietaries ; for the true situation of Cape Henlopen was still uncertain, and 
the middle of the Peninsula was yet to be ascertained. 

The occurrence of death among the parties, and the existence of a litigious 

spirit, protracted the dispute until the 10th of May, 1732 when an ao-reemenl 

was entered into by the sons of William Penn and Charles Lord Baltimore, 
great grandson of the original patentee of Maryland. They mutually agreed 
" that a semi-circle should be drawn at twelve English statute miles around New 
Castle, agreeably to the deed of the Duke of York to William Penn, in 1682; 
that an east and west line should be drawn, beginning at Cape Heailopen— 
which was admitted to be below Cape Cornelius — and running westward to the 
exact middle of the Peninsula; that from the exact middle of the Peninsula, 
between the two bays of Chesapeake and Delaware, and the end of the line inter- 
secting it in the latitude of Cape Henlopen, a line should be run northward, so 
as to form a tangent with the periphery of the semi-circle at New Castle, drawn 
with the radius of twelve English statute miles, whether such a line should take 
a due north course or not ; that after the said north^vardly line should touch the 
New Castle semi-circle, it should be run further northward until it reached the 
same latitude as fifteen English statute miles due south of the most southern 
jmrt of the city of Philadelphia ; that from the northern ijoint of such line, a due 
west line should be run, at least for the present, across the Susquehanna river, 
and twenty-five miles beyond it — and to the western limits of Pennsylvania, 
when occasion and the improvements of the country should require ; that that 
part of the due west line not actually run, though imaginary, should be consi- 
dered to be the true boundary of Maryland and Pennsylvania ; " . . . and 
"that the route should be well marked by trees and other natural objects, and 
designated by stone pillars, sculptured with the arms of the contracting parties, 
facing their respective possessions." 

This important document, though seemingly so free from ambiguity, was 
afterward the subject of much litigation; but was finally carried into complete 
eff'ect, in all its parts. It accounts for the remarkable boundaries of the " three 
Lower Counties" — which counties, however, would not stay annexed to Pennsyl- 
vania, and at the Revolution, became the valiant little State of Delaware. 

The quiet of the Provinces continuing to be interrupted by the conflicting 
claims of settlers along the border — both parties applied, in 1737, to the King's 
Council, for some order which should lessen or allay these ferments. An ami- 
cable temporary arrangement, however, was in the meantime effected by the 
parties ; and they agreed " that all the vacant land not now possessed by, or 
under either of them, on the east side of Susquehanna river down as far as fifteen 
miles and a quarter south of the latitude of the most southern part of the city 
of Philadelphia, and on the west side of Susquehanna, as far south as fourteen 
miles and three-quarters south of the latitude of the most southern part of the 
city of Philadelphia, should be subject to the temporary and provisional juris- 
diction of Pennsylvania ; and that all vacant land not possessed by or undei 
either, on both sides of the Susquehanna, south of the said temporary limits, 



1 2 6 SIS TOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA . 

should he subject to the jurisdiction of Maryland, until the boundaries were 
finally settled — but to be without prejudice to either part3^" And when this 
Convention was reported to the Council, His Majesty was pleased to order, "that 
the Proprietaries of the said respective Provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania 
do cause the said a2:reement to be carried into execution." 

The order was accordingly promulgated by proclamation in the Provinces, 
and commissioners were the following year appointed to run the temporary line : 
Richard Peters and Lawrence Growden, on the part of Pennsylvania, and 
Colonel Levi Gale and Samuel Chamberlain, on that of Maryland. These com- 
missioners commenced their active operations in the spring of 1139 (their place 
of beginning does not appear) — and after proceeding as far as the eastern bank 
of the Susquehanna, were interrupted by the departure of Colonel Gale, on 
account of death and sickness in his family, and the declaration of Mr. Chamber- 
lain, that he had no authority to continue operations without the attendance of 
his colleague. 

The Pennsylvania commissioners, deeming their power to proceed limited to 
a joint operation with those of Mar^dand, were thereupon instructed by Governor 
Thomas to proceed alone. They accordingly did so ; and ran the line westward 
of the Susquehanna, "to the most western of the Kittochtinny Hills," which now 
forms the western boundary of the county of Franklin. The course ran by these 
commissioners formed the famous " temporary line" — so well known to the 
lawyers and early settlers along the southern border of Penns3dvania. 

The controversy^, nevertheless, still continued ; the cause got into chanceiy, 
on the construction of the agreement of May 10, 1732, and was not decided 
until 1750. On the hearing, Lord Baltimore's counsel contended that it could 
not be carried into effect, by reason of its vagueness, uncertainty, &c. The 
Lord Chancellor (Hardwick), however, overcame all the objections— urged in a 
long-winded argument of five days duration — and decreed a performance of 
the articles of agreement. He directed that new commissioners should be 
appointed within three months after the decree, who should commence their 
operations in November following. He further ordered that the centre of the 
semi-circle should be fixed as near the centre of the town of New Castle as maj^ 

be that it should be described with a radius of twelve English statute miles, 

" so that no part of the town should be further than that distance from the i)eri- 
phery: and that Cape Henlopen should be taken to be situated as it was laid 
down in the chart accompanying the articles of agreement" (i. e. at Fenwick's 
Island, about fifteen miles southward of the present Cape Henlopen). 

The commissioners were appointed agreeably to the decree, and met at New 
Castle on the 15th of November, 1750. They fixed upon the court house in New 
Castle as the centre for drawing the semi-circle ; but Lord Baltimore's commis- 
sioners conjured up a new and unexpected difficult}^, hy insisting that the radii 
of the semi-circle should be measured superficially, without allowing for the 
inequalities of the ground — regardless of the absurd consequences resulting from 
such mode of measurement in creating inequality in the radii, and the conse- 
quent impossibility of describing any thing deserving the name of a semi-circle. 
Yet as the objection was persisted in, the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania were 
again under the necessity of a further application to chancery; and, in 1751, 
obtained a decision in favor of horizontal measurement. 



GENEJiAL HISTOlt Y. 127 

The commissioners again proceeded in their task. Having run the semi- 
circle in conformity with the Lord Chancellor's decree, and marked it on the 
ground, they commenced their operations at the point then known as Cape 
Henlopen. 

The fixing of the southern boundary of the "three Lower Counties" at Fen- 
wick's Island, requires explanation— inasmuch as the chart adopted by the 
Proprietaries in their agreement of 1732, gives to the cape opposite Cape May, 
at the mouth of the Delaware Bay, the name of Cape Cornelius (afterward, for 
a time, called Cape James), and to the point, or "false cape," at Fenwick's 
Island, the name of Cape Henlopen ; while the charts of the present day trans- 
pose that order. How, or why the names become thus transposed on the charts 
and maps of our time, seems not to be clearly understood ; but that they have 
changed positions since 1732, is an vmquestionable fact. 

As the Lord Chancellor had decided that Cape Henlopen should be taken to 
be where it had been agreed to be, nineteen years before — the ingenuity of the 
commissioners of Maryland could devise no further objections in that particular; 
and they proceeded, in conjunction with those of Pennsylvania, to run the line 
across the peninsula, and to ascertain "the exact middle," as a point from 
whence to run the northwardly line to form a tangent with the semi-circle at 
New Castle. 

The line between the two bays, in the latitude of the Cape Henlopen of that 
time, was then run; and after some further delay, and cavilling about the 
distance, by his commissioners, Frederick Lord Baltimore — weary of the contro- 
versy — entered into articles of agreement with Thomas and Richard Penn, Julj^ 
4, 1760, which at length effectually closed their tedious and irksome altercations. 
B3' this agreement it was covenanted that the semi-circle, as already run, should 
be adopted ; that the distance across the Peninsula, in the latitude of Cape 
Henlopen, should be taken to have been rightly run, at 69 miles and 298| 
perches from the stone pillar east of " the mulberry tree, at Fenwick's Island," 
marked with the arms of the contracting parties ; that the middle of such line 
should be ascertained, and a stone pillar should be fixed at that point ; that from 
such point a northwardly line should be run, whether the same should be due 
north or not, so as to form a tangent with the semi-circle at New Castle, 
drawn with a radius of twelve English statute horizontal miles from the court 
house in that place — and past the said point of contact further north till it 
reached the latitude of fifteen miles south of the most southern part of Phila- 
delphia ; that from said fifteen mile point, a line should be run due west — to the 
utmost longitude of Pennsylvania ; that all claim should be released to the terri- 
tor3' within those limits then to be ascertained, and that the Penns should 
appoint commissioners to run the lines as yet unfinished. 

"The Commissioners appointed under the deed of 1760 addressed them- 
selves, at once, to the completion of the peninsular east and west line, and to 
tracing the twelve mile circle — appointing to this end the best surveyors the} 
could obtain. The mode of proceeding was to measure with the common chain, 
holding it as nearly horizontal as they could, the direction being kept by 
lighting along poles, set up in what they called vistas, cut by them through the 
forest. . . . But the progress made was very slow ; and at the end of three 



128 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

vears, little more was accomplished than the peninsular line and the measure, 
ment of a radius." This left to be ascertained and established, "the tangent, 
from the middle point of the peninsular line to the tangent point — the meridian 
from thence to a point fifteen miles south of the most southern part of the city 
of Philadelphia — with the arc of the circle to the west of it — the fifteen miles 
distance — and the parallel of latitude westward from its termination." 

It remains now, as simply and succinctly as practicable, to relate, that on 
the 4th of August. 1163, the Penns, Thomas and Richard, and Frederick, Lord 
Baltimore, then being together in London, agreed with Charles Mason and 
Jeremiah Dixon, "two mathematicians and surveyors," "to mark, run out, 
settle, fix, and determine all such parts of the circle, marks, lines, and 
boundaries, as were mentioned in the several articles or commissions, and were 
not yet completed ;" that Messrs. Mason and Dixon arrived in Philadelphia, 
November 15, 1763, received their instructions from the commissioners of the 
two Provinces, December 9, 1763, and forthwith engaged in the work assigned 
to them ; that they ascertained the latitude of the southernmost part of the city 
of Philadelphia (viz.: 39° 56' 29.1" north — or more accurately, according to 
Colonel Graham, 39° 56' 37.4"), which was agreed to be in the north wall of the 
house then occupied by Thomas Plumstead and Joseph Huddle, on the south 
side of Cedar Street ; and then, in January and February, 1764, they measured 
thirty-one miles westward of the city (probably from the margin of the river 
Delaware), to the forks of the Brandywine, where they planted a quartzose 

stone known then, and to this day, in the vicinage, as " the Star-gazers' Stone," 

a short distance west of the Chester county alms-house, in the same latitude 
as the southernmost part of Philadelphia (which stone is 6 miles 264 perches 
west of the meridian of the court house in West Chester ; and a due east line 
from it intersects said meridian four hundred and forty-six and one-half perches, 
or nearly a mile and a half south of the court house ; that in the spring of 1764, 
after a satisfactory " star-gazing," in the forks of the Brandywine — they ran, from 
said stone, a due south line fifteen English statute miles (in the first mile crossing 
the West Brandywine three times), horizontally measured by levels each twenty 
feet in length and this was re-measured in like manner nearly three years after- 
wards), to a post marked West., ascertaining there, also, the latitude of the place 
(then compuced at 39° 43' 18", now more exactly calculated to ^e 39° 43' 26.3" 
north) ; that they then repaired to a post, marked Middle., at the middle point 
of the peninsular west line running from Cape Henlopen (Fenwick's Island) to 
Chesapeake Bay, and thence, during the summer of 1764, they ran, marked, and 
described the tangent line, agreed on by the Proprietaries. Then, in the 
autumn of 1764, from the post marked West, at fifteen miles south of Philadel- 
phia, they set ofi" and produced a parallel of latitude westward, as far as to the 
river Susquehanna ; theii the}'- went to the tangent point, and in 1764-5, ran 
thence a meridian line northward until it intersected the said parallel of latitude, 
at the distance of 5 miles, 1 chain, and 50 links, thus and there determining and 
fixino- the northeast corner of Maryland. Next, in 1765, they described such 
portion of the semicircle round New Castle, as fell westward of the said 
meridian or due north line from the tangent point. " This little bow or arc" — 
reachino- into Maryland — " is about a mile and a half long, and its middle width 



GENERAL HISTORY. 129 

one hundred and sixteen feet ; from its upper end, where the three States join 
to the fifteen mile point, where the great Mason and Dixon's line begins, is a 
little over three and a half miles ; and from the fifteen mile corner due east to 
the circle, is a little over three quarters of a mile — room enough for three or 
four good farms. This was the only part of the circle which Mason and 
Dixon ran." 

The survej^ors appear to have moved about considerably, and to have 
repeated their operations at several points, but finally they proceeded with 
the intention of continuing the west line beyond the Susquehanna, to the 
end of five degrees of longitude from the river Delaware, in the parallel of 
said west line; and in the years 1166-7 they extended the same to the 
distance of 230 miles, 18 chains, and 21 links, from the beginnino- of said 
line, at the northeast corner of Maryland (or 244 miles, 38 chains, and 36 
links, from the river Delaware), near to an Indian war-patb, t>n the borders 
of a stream called Dunkard creek ; but were there prevented, by the aborioinal 
Proprietaries, from continuing the said line to the end of five deo-rees of 
longitude (the Avestern limits of Pennsylvania), which, in the latitude of said 
line, they found — and the commissioners agreed — to be 267 miles, 58 chains, 
and 90 links, at the rate of 53 miles, 167.1 perches, to a degree. Colonel 
Graham, however, estimates the length of the southern boundary of Penn- 
S3'lvania at 266 miles, 24 chains, and 80 links. 

The line thus run was subsequently (November 9, 1768) certified by 
the commissioners to have been marked, described, and perpetuated, by 
setting up and erecting therein stones at the end of every mile, from the 
place of beginning to the distance of 132 miles, near the foot of a hill called 
and known by the name of Sideling Hill — every five mile-stone having on 
the side facing the north the arms of Thomas Penn and Richard Penn ofraved 
thereon, and on the south side the arms of Lord Baltimore. Those stones 
were imported from England, and were hewn from that variety of calcareous 
rock known as Oolite or Roe stone. 

The line thus marked is stated to have been measured horizontall}- — the 
hills and mountains with a sixteen and a half-foot level ; and the vista, cut 
through the forest, eight j-ards wide, was "seen about two miles, beautifully 
terminating to the eye in a point." 

The residue of the southern boundary line of Pennsylvania — something 
less than twenty-two miles — was afterward (in 1782) run by other sur- 
veyors; it was not, however, completed and permanently marked until 1784. 

The interference of the Indians having arrested the further proceedings 
of Mason and Dixon, those gentlemen returned to Philadelphia and reported 
the facts to the commissioners; when they received an honorable discharge 
on the 26th of December, 1767, having been engaged in the service about 
four years. 

They were allowed twentj'-one shillings each per day for one month, from 
June 21, of the last year, and the residue of the time, ten shillings and six 
pence each per day, for the expenses, etc., and no more until they embarked 
for England ; and then the allowance of ten shillings and six pence sterlmg 
per day was again to take place, and continue until their arrival in England. 
I 



130 RIBTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

The amount paid by the Penns, under those proceedings, from' 17G0 to 1768, 
was thirty-four thousand two hundred pounds, Penns3'lvania currency. 

Dr. Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal, in an introduction to the Observa- 
tions of Mason and Dixon, in the Philosophical Transactions, remarks : " In 
the course of this work they traced out and measured some lines lying in 
and near the meridian, and extended, in all, somewhat more than one hundred 
miles ; and, for this purpose, the country in these parts (i. e,, on the Peninsula) 
being all overgrown with trees, large openings were cut through the Avoods, 
in the direction of the lines, which formed the straightest and most regular, 
as well as extensive vistas that, perhaps, were ever made. Messrs. Mason and 
Dixon perceived that a most inviting opportunity' was here given for deter- 
miniug the length of a degree of latitude, from the measure of near a degree 
and a half. Moreover, one remarkable circumstance very much favored the 
undertaking, which was, that the country through which the lines run was, 
for the most part, as level as if it had been laid out by art." 

The astronomical observations for determining the length of a degree of 
latitude were begun on the 11th of October, 17G6, and continued to the 
16th of that month. The degree of latitude measured 363,763 feet, about 
68.9 miles. Colonel Graham sa3's, "their measurement for determining the 
length of a degree of latitude" was performed "in the j'ear 1768, under the 
auspices of the llo3'al Society of London, after they had finished the marking 
of the boundar}' between Mar^-land and Pennsylvania, and were discharged 
from the service of the Commissioners." The difference of latitude, of the 
stone planted in the forks of Brand^'wine, and the middle post, in the western 
Peninsular line — or the amplitude of the celestial arch, answering to the 
distance between the parallels of latitude passing through these points — has 
been found b}' sector to be 1*^ 28' 45". 

In 1767 a bill passed Parliament, imposing certain duties on tea, glass, 
paper, and painters' colors, imported into the colonies from Great Britain. 
This act, with several others, re-kindled the opposition of the colonies. Again 
associations were formed to prevent the importation of British goods, and 
meetings called to resolve, petition, and remonstrate. The British ministers, 
deluded into the belief that a reduction of the tax woxild restore tranquilit}', 
promised that five-sixths of the taxes imposed in 1767 should be repealed; and 
in 1770 all were abolished, save three pence per pound on tea. In Philadelphia 
the non-importation resolutions were signed by all of the principal merchants 
and business men of that cit}-. 

The lawless white men on the frontiers continued to encroach upon the 
Indian lands, and to provoke hostilities by atrocious murders of inoffensive 
Indians. Another savage war menaced tlie Province in 1767-'68, l)ut was 
prevented b}^ the timely intervention of Sir William Johnson. At his sug- 
gestion a great council was held at Fort Stanwix, in New York, at which 
all grievances were adjusted ; and a treat}' was made, November 5, 
1768. 1768, with the Six Nations, which ccnvoyed to the Proprietaries all the 
land within a boundary extending from the New York line on the 
Susquehanna, past Towanda and Tyadaghton creek, up the West Brancli, over to 
Kittannino', and thence down the Ohio. This was then called the New Purchase, 



GENEBAL HISTOBY. 



131 



and opened a wide field of adventure to the hardy pioneers of Pennsylvania It 
was a vast school too, in which some of the bravest soldiers of the subsequent 
wars were reared. 

Tn 1769 both houses of Parliament, in an address to the King, requested him 
to order tlie Governor of Massachusetts to take notice of such as might be 
guilty of treason, that they might be sent to England and tried there. 

In UTl, John Penn having returned to England, Mr. James Ilamil- 
1771. ton administered for a short time as president of the council, until the 
arrival of Richard Penn,* younger brother of John, as lieutenant-gover- 
nor, in the autumn of the same year. Richard Penn's administration only con- 
tinued until the return of his brother John, in 
September, 1773 ; but he appears during that 
short term to have won the sincere affections 
of his fellow-citizens. 

The recommendations of meetinors 
1773. and associations to suspend the impor- 
tation of tea had been so strictly com- 
plied with, that but little had been brought into 
the country. The consequence was, that vast 
quantities, seventeen millions of pounds, had 
accumulated on the hands of the East India 
Company. For their relief, Parliament now 
authorized them to export this tea to an^- part 
of the world, free of duty. Confident of now 
finding a market for their tea in America, the 
East India Company freighted several ships with that article for the different 
colonics, and appointed agents to dispose of it. The colonists resolved to 
obstruct the sale of that tea and to refuse the pa3'ment of even three pence by 
way of dutj'. 

On the approach of the tea ships destined for Philadelphia, the pilots 
1774. in the river Delaware were warned not to conduct them into harbor; 
and their cnptains, apprised of the foregoing resolutions, deeming it 
unsafe to land their cargoes, consented to return without making an entiy at the 
custom house, the owners of goods ordered from England, on board these 
vessels, ciieerfull\- submitting to the inconvenience of having their merchandise 
returned to Great Britain. It is stated that a huge quantity of tea was 
destroyed on the Cohansey. The captains of vessels addressed to New York 
wisely adopted the same resolu'.ion. The tea sent to Charleston was landed and 
stored, but not offered for sale ; and having been placed in damp cellars, became 
rotten, and was entirely lost. The ships designed for Boston entered that port. 




RICIIAKD I'KNN. 



* Richard Penx was born in England, in 1734. He was brother of Jolin Penn, and was a mem- 
ber of the Provincial Council, and naval officer during the latter's administration. He married Mis3 
Mary Masters, of Philadelphia. He was governor of the Province from 1771 to 1773, and such was 
the confidence in him that, in 1775, when he embarked for England, he was entrusted with the sec- 
ond ])etition of Congress to the King. On his arrival in London, he was examined in the House of 
Lords as to American affairs. He subsequently became a member of Parliament. He died in Eng- 
land, May 27, ISll. 



132 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VAl^IA. 

and the energy of Governor Hutchinson prevented their return ; but before the 
tea could be landed, a number of colonists, pursuant to a concerted plan, 
dressed in Indian costume, entered the vessels, and, without doing other 
damage, broke open three hundred and forty-two chests of tea, and emptied 
their contents into the water. Such was the union of sentiment among the 
people, and so systematic their opposition, that not a single chest of the cargoes 
sent out by the East India Company was sold for its benefit. 

These proceedings were communicated by the King to Parliament on March 
Tth, 1174, and measures were speedily adopted contemplating the submission of 
the rebellious colonists. An act was passed called the " Boston Port Bill," 
by which the port of Boston was closed and the custom house transferred to 
Salem ; bv another act the charter of Massachusetts was subverted, the nomina 
tion of councillors, magistrates, and other officers being vested in the Crown 
during the royal pleasure; by a third act the Governor of that colony 
was directed and authorized to send persons indicted for murder or any 
other capital offence, to any other colony, or to Great Britain, for trial. A bill 
was also passed for quartering soldiers upon the inhabitants. 

The inhabitants of Boston had foreseen the present crisis, and they met it 
with undaunted spirit. Information of the passage of the Port Act was received 
on the tenth of May, and on the thirteenth, the town resolved "that, if 
the other colonies would unite with them to stop all importations from Great 
Britain and the West Indies until that act should be repealed, it would prove the 
salvation of North America and her liberties; but should they continue 
their exports and imports, there was reason to fear that fraud, power, and the 
most odious oppression would triumph over justice, right, social happiness, and 
freedom." A copy of this resolution was transmitted to the other colonies, the 
inhabitants of which expressed deep sympathy in the sufferings of their 
brethren in Boston, enslured in the common cause ; and concuning in opinion 
with them on the propriety of convening a Provincial Congress, delegates for 
that purpose were generally chosen. 

Throughout the continent, the first of June, the day on which the Boston Port 
Act was to take effect, on the resolution of the Assembly'- of Virginia, was 
adopted " as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, to implore the Divine 
interposition to avert the heavy calamity which threatened destruction to their 
civil rio-hts, and the evils of civil war, and to give one heart and one mind to the 
people, firmly to oppose every invasion of their liberties." 

The terms " Whigs " and " Tories " were introduced at this time — the 
former to describe those in sympathy with the cause of Boston, and arraj'ed on 
the side of the colonies against Parliament; the latter to designate those 
whose sympathies were with Great Britain against the colonies. Throughout the 
countr}', and especially' in Pennsylvania, the warmest interest and most cordial 
sympathy were manifested for the people of Boston. 

The committee of correspondence for the city of Philadelphia, earlv in 
June sent a circular to the principal citizens of the different counties, in 
which they say: "The Governor declining to call the Assembly, renders 
it necessary to take the sentiments of the inhabitants ; and for that purpose it is 
ao-reed to call a meeting of the inhabitants of this city and the county at 



GENERAL IIISTOBY. I33 

tbe State House, on Wednesday, the 15th instant. And as we would wish to 
have the sentiments and concurrence of our brethren in the several counties, who 
are equally interested with us in the general cause, we earnestly desire you to 
call together the principal inhabitants of your county and take their sentiments. 
We shall forward to you by eveiy occasion, any matters of consequence 
that come to our knowledge, and we should be glad you would choose and 
appoint a committee to correspond with us." 

' This was signed by Charles Thomson, the clerk of the first Continental Con- 
gress. In pursuance of these suggestions, meetings were held in every part of the 
State, especially in the middle and western counties, where the Scotch-Irish 
took the lead. Deputies were chosen from every district in the Province who 
assembled at Philadelphia on the 15th of July. There were present, for the city 
and county of Philadelphia: Thomas Willing, John Dickinson, Peter Chevalier 
Edward Pennington, Thomas Wharton, John Cox, Joseph Reed, Thomas Whar- 
ton, Jun., Samuel Erwin, Thomas Fitzsimons, Doctor William Smith, Isaac 
Howell, Adam Hubley, George Schlosser, Samuel Miles, Thomas Mifflin,' Chris- 
topher Ludwick, Joseph Moulder, Anthony Morris, Jun., George Gray John 
Nixon, Jacob Barge, Thomas Penrose, John M. Nesbitt, Jonathan B. Smith 
James Mease, Thomas Barclay, Benjamin Marshall, Samuel Howell, William 
Moulder, John Roberts, John Bayard, William Rush, and Charles Thomson. 

Bucks— John Kidd, Henry Wynkoop, Joseph Kirkbride, John Wilkinson, and 
James Wallace. 

Chester— Francis Richardson, Elisha Price, John Hart, Anthony Wayne 
Hugh Lloyd, John Sellers, Francis Johnston, and Richard Reiley. 

Lancaster— George Ross, James Webb, Joseph Ferree, Matthias Slough, 
Emanuel Carpenter, William Atlee, Alexander Lowrey, and Moses Irwin. 

York — James Smith, Joseph Donaldson, and Thomas Hartley. 

Cumberland — James Wilson, Robert Magaw, and William Irvine. 

Berks — Edward ]5iddle, Daniel Brodhead, Jonathan Potts, Thomas Dundas 
and Christopher Schultz. 

Northampton — William Edmonds, Peter Kichline, John Oakley, and Jacob 
Arndt. 

Northumberland — William Scull and Samuel Hunter. 

Bedford — George Woods. 

Westmoreland — Robert Hannah, James Cavett. Thomas Willing was chosen 
chairman, and Charles Thomson, clerk. 

It was agreed that, in case of an\' difference in sentiment, the question be 
determined by the Deputies voting by counties. 

The letters from Boston of the 18th of May were then read, and a short 
account given of the steps taken in consequence thereof, and the measures 
now pursuing in this and the neighboring provinces ; after which the following 
resolves were passed : 

" Unan. 1. That we acknowledge ourselves and the inhabitants of this Province, 
liege subjects of his Majesty King George the Third, to whom the}- and we owe 
and will bear true and faithful allegiance. 

" Unan. II. That as the idea of an unconstitutional independence on the parent 
state is utterly abhorent to our principles, we view the unhapp}- differences be- 



134 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

tween Great Bi-itain and the Colonies with the deepest distress and anxiety of 
mind, as fruitless to her, grievous to us, and destructive of the best interests of 
both. 

" Unan. III. That it is therefore our ardent desire that our ancient harmony 
with the mother country should be restored, and a perpetual love and union 
subsist between us, on the principles of the constitution, and an interchange of 
good offices, without the least infraction of our mutual rights. 

" Unan. IV. That the inhabitants of these colonies are entitled to the same 
rights and liberties within these colonies, that the subjects born in England are 
entitled to within that realm. 

" Unan. V. That the power assumed by the Parliament of Great Britain to bind 
the people of these Colonies, by statutes, 'in all cases whatsoever,' is uncon- 
stitutional ; and therefore the source of these unhappy differences. 

" Unan. VI. That the act of Parliament for shutting up the port of Boston is 
unconstitutional ; oppressive to the inhabitants of tliat town ; dangerous to the 
liberties of the British Colonies ; and therefore, that we consider our brethren at 
Boston as sufferino- in the common cause of these Colonics. 

" Unan. VII. That the bill for altering the administration of justice in certain 
criminal cases within the province of Massachusetts Bay, if passed into an act 
of Parliament, will be as unconstitutional, oppressive, and dangerous as the act 
above mentioned. 

" Unan. VII. That the bill for changing the constitution of the province of 
Massachusetts Bay, established by charter, and enjoyed since the grant of that 
charter, if passed into an act of Parliament, will be unconstitutional and dan- 
gerous in its consequences to the American colonies. 

" Unan. IX. That there is an absolute necessity that a Congi'ess of Deputies 
from the several Colonies be immediately assembled, to consult together, and 
form a general plan of conduct to be observed by all the Colonies, for the pur- 
poses of procuring relief for our grievances, preventing future dissensions, firmly 
establishing our rights, and restoring harmony between Great Britain and her 
colonies, on a constitutional foundation. 

" Unan. X. That, although a suspension of the commerce of this large trading- 
province with Great Britain would greatl}' distress multitudes of our industrious 
inhabitants, yet that sacrifice, and a much greater, we are ready to offer for the 
preservation of our liberties ; but, in tenderness to the people of Great Britain, 
as well as this country, and in hopes that our just remonstrances will at length 
reach the eai's of our gracious Sovereign, and be no longer treated with contempt 
by any of our fellow-subjects in England, it is our earnest desire that the Con- 
gress should first try the gentler mode of stating our grievances, and making a 
firm and decent claim of redress. 

" XI. Resolved, by a great majority, That yet notwithstanding, as an unanimity 
of councils and measures is indispensably necessary for the common welfare, if 
the Congress shall judge agreements of non-importation and non-exportation 
expedient, the people of this Province will join with the otlier Principal and 
neio-hborins: colonies in such an association of non-importation from and non- 
exportation to Great Britain, as shall be agreed on at the Congress. 

" XII. Resolved, by a majority. That if any proceedings of the Parliament, of 



GENERAL BISTOBY, I35 

which notice shall be received on this continent, before or at the general Con- 
gress, shall render it necessary in the opinion of that Congress, for the Colonies 
to take farther steps than are mentioned in the eleventh resolve ; in such case 
the inhabitants of this Trovince shall adopt such farther steps, and do all in 
their power to carry them into execution. 

" Unan. XIII. Tliat tlie venders of merchandise of every kind within this Pro- 
vince ought not to take advantage of the resolves relating to non-importation in 
this Province or elsewhere ; but that they ought to sell their merchandise, which 
they now have or may hereafter import, at the same rates they have been 
accustomed to do within three months last past. 

"Unan. XI Y. That the people of this Province will break off all trade, com- 
merce, or dealing of any kind with any coldliy on this continent, or with any 
city or town in such colon}^, or with any individual in any such colony, city, or 
town, which shall refuse, decline, or neglect to adopt and carry into execution, 
such general plan as shall be agreed in the Congress. 

" Unan. XY. That it is the duty of every member of this committee to promote, 
as much as he can, the subscription set on foot in the several counties of this 
Province, for the relief of the distressed inhabitants of Boston. 

"Unan. XYl. That this committee give instructions on the present situation 
of public affairs to their representatives, who are to meet next week in Assembly, 
and request them to appoint a proper number of persons to attend a Con^rress of 
Deputies from the several Colonies, at such time and place as may be agreed on, 
to effect one general plan of condr.ct, for attaining the ninth resolve. 

"That John Dickinson, Doctor William Smith, Joseph Reed, John Kidd, 
Elisha Price, William Atlee, James Smith, James Wilson, Daniel Brodhead, 
John Oakley, and William Scull, be appointed to prepare and bring in a draught 
of instructions." 

Tlie author of these instructions was John Dickinson, the chairman of the 
committee ; and as important to a proper understanding of the principles that 
actuated our ancestors in adopting measures which eventually resulted in the 
revolt of the Colonics, and as a valuable chapter in the history of the State, we 
give the address in full. 

" Gentlemen : The dissensions between Great Britain and her Colonies on this 
continent, commencing about ten years ago, since continuall}' increasing, and at 
length grown to such an excess as to involve the latter in deep distress and dan- 
ger, have excited the good people of this Province to take into their serious 
consideration the present situation of public affairs. 

"The inhabitants of the several counties qualified to vote at elections, being 
assembled on due notice, have appointed us their deputies; and in consequence 
thereof, we being in Provincial Committee met, esteem it our indispensable duty, 
in pursuance of the trust reposed in us, to give you such instruction, as at this 
important period appear to us to be proper. 

"We, speakingin their names and our own, acknowledge ourselves liege sub- 
jects to his Majesty King George the Third, to whom 'we will be faithful 
and bear true allegiance.' 

"Our judgments and affections attach us, with inviolable loyalty, to his Ma- 
jesty's person, family, and government. 



136 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

" We acknowledge the prerogatives of the Sovereign, among which are included 
the great powers of making peace and war, treaties, leagues, and alliances bind- 
ing us — of appointing all officers, except in cases where other provision is made, 
by grants from the Crown, or laws approved by the Crown — of confirming or 
annulling every act of our Assembly within the allowed time — and of hearing 
and determining finally, in council, appeals from our courts of justice. 'The 
prerogatives are limited,' as a learned judge observes, 'by bounds so certain 
and notorious, that it is impossible to exceed them, without the consent of the 
people on the one hand, or without, on the other, a violation of that original 
contract, which, in all states implicity, and in ours most expressly, subsists be- 
tween the Trince and subject — for these prerogatives are vested in the Crown 
for the support of society, and do not intrench any farther on our natural liber- 
ties, than is expedient for the maintenance of our civil.' 

"But it is our misfortune, that we are compelled loudly to call your attention 
to the consideration of another power, totally different in kind — limited, as it is 
alleo-ed, by no 'bounds,' and 'wearing a most dreadful aspect' with regard to 
America. We mean the power claimed by Parliament, of right to bind the peo- 
ple of these Colonies by statutes, 'in all cases whatsoever' — a" power, as we 
are not, and, from local circumstances cannot, be represented there, utterly sub- 
versive of our natural and civil liberties — past events and reason convincing us 
that there never existed, and never can exist, a state thus subordinate to another, 
and yet retaining the slightest portion of freedom or happiness. 

"The import of the words above quoted needs no descant ; for the wit of man, 
as we apprehend, cannot possibly form a more clear, concise, and comprehensive 
definition and sentence of slavery, than these expressions contain. 

" This power claimed by Great Britain, and the late attempts to exercise it 
over these Colonies, present to our view two events, one of which must inevita- 
bly take place, if she shall continue to insist on her pretensions. Either, the 
colonists will sink from the rank of freemen into the class of slaves, over- 
whelmed with all the miseries and vices, proved by the history of mankind to 
be inseperably annexed to that deplorable condition: Or, if they have sense and 
virtue enough to exert themselves in striving to avoid this perdition, they must 
be involved in an opposition dreadful even in contemplation. 

" Honor, justice, and humanity call upon us to hold, and to transmit to our pos- 
terity, that liberty, which we received from our ancestors. It is not our duty 
to leave wealth to our children: But it is our duty to leave liberty to them. 
No infamy, ini juity, or cruelty can exceed our own, if we, born and educated in 
a country of freedom, entitled to its blessings, and knowing their value, pusil 
lanimously deserting the post assigned us by Divine Providence, surrender suc- 
ceeding generations to a condition of wretchedness from which no human efforts, 
in all probability, will be sufficient to extricate them ; the experience of all states 
mournfully demonstrating to us, that when arbitrary power has been established 
over them, even the wisest and bravest nations that ever flourished have, in a 
few years, degenerated into abject and wretched vassals. 

" So alarming are the measures already taken for laying the foundations of a 
despotic authority of Great Britain over us, and with such artful and incessant 
vigilance is the plan prosecuted, that unless the present generation can interrupt 



GENERAL JIIi^TVUY. 13Y 

the work, while it is going forward, cau it be imagined that our children, debili- 
tated by our imprudence and supineness, will be able to overthrow it, when 
completed ? Populous and powerful as these Colonies may grow, they will still 
find arbitrary domination not only strengthening with strength, but exceeding 
in the swiftness of its progression, as it ever has done, all the artless advantages 
that can accrue to the governed. These advance with a regularity, which the 
Pivine Author of our existence has impressed on the laudable pursuits of his 
creatures: But despotism, unchecked and unbounded by any laws — never satis- 
fied with what has been done, while anything remains to be done for the accom- 
plishment of its purposes — confiding, and capable of confiding, only in the an- 
nihilation of all opposition — holds its course with such unabating and destruc- 
tive rapidity, that the world has become its prey, and at this day, Great Britain 
and her dominions excepted, there is scarce a spot on the globe inhabited by 
civilized nations where the vestiges of freedom are to be observed. 

"To us, therefore, it appears, at this alarming period, our duty to God, to our 
country, to ourselves, and to our posterity, to exert our utmost ability, in pro- 
moting and establishing harmony between Great Britain and these Colonies, ox 

A CONSTITUTIONAL FOUNDATION. 

"For attaining this great and desirable end, we request 3'ou to appoint a pro- 
per number of persons to attend a Congress of Deputies from the several Colo- 
nies, appointed, or to be appointed, by the representatives of the people of the 
Colonies respectively, in assembly or convention, or by delegates chosen by the 
counties generally in the respective Colonies and met in Provincial Commitee, at 
such time and place as shall be generally agreed on : And that the Deputies from 
this Province may be induced and encouraged to concur in such measures as 
may be devised for the common welfare, we think it proper, particularly to in- 
form, how far, we apprehend, they will be supported in their conduct by their 
constituents. 

"The assumed parliamentary power of internal legislation, and the power of 
regulating trade, as of late exercised, and designed to be exercised, we are 
thoroughly convinced, will prove unfailing and plentiful sources of dissensions 
to the mother country and these Colonies, unless some expedients can be 
adopted to render her secure of receiving from us every emolument, that can in 
justice and reason be expected, and us secure in our lives, liberties, properties, 
and an equitable share of commerce. 

"Mournfully revolving in our minds the calamities that, arising from these 
dissensions, will most probably fall on us or our children, we will now lay before 
you the particular points we request of you to procure, if possible, to be finally 
decided : and the measures that appear to us most likely to produce such a 
desirable period of our distresses and dangers. We therefore desire of you — 

" First — that the Deputies you may appoint may be instructed by you strenu- 
ously to exert themselves, at the ensuing Congress, to obtain a renunciation on 
the part of Great Britain, of all powers under the statute of the 35th Henry the 
Eighth, chapter the 2d. Of all powers of internal legislation— of imposing taxes 
or duties internal or external — and of regulating trade, except with respect to 
any new articles of commerce, which the Colonies may hereafter raise, as silk, 
wine, etc., reserving a right to carry these from one colony to another — a repeal 



138 HISTOB Y OF PJENNS YL VANIA. 

of all statutes for quartering troops in the Colonies, or subjecting them to any 
expense on account of such troops — of all statutes imposing duties to be paid 
in the Colonies, that were passed at the accession of his present Majesty, or 
before this time; whichever period shall be judged most advisable — of the stat- 
utes giving the Courts of Admiralty in the Colonies greater power than Courts 
of Admiralty have in England — of the statutes of the 5th of George the Second, 
chapter the 22d, and of the 23d of George the Second, chapter the 29th — of the 
statute for shutting up the port of Boston — and of every other statute particu- 
larly affecting the province of Massachusetts Bay, passed in the last session of 
Parliament. 

" In case of obtaining these terms, it is our opinion, that it will be reasonable 
for the Colonies to engage their obedience to the acts of Parliament declared to 
have force, at this time, in these Colonies, other than those above-mentioned, and 
to confirm such statutes by acts of the several assemblies. It is also our opinion, 
that taking example from our mother country, in abolishing the 'Courts of 
Wards and Liveries, Tenures in capite, and by Knights service and purveyance,' 
it will be reasonable for the Colonies, in case of obtaining the terms before men- 
tioned, to settle a certain annual revenue on his Majesty, his heirs and successors, 
subject to the control of Parliament, and to satisfy all damages done to the East 
India Company. 

" This our idea of settling a revenue, aiMses from a sense of duty to our Sov- 
ereign, and of esteem for our mother country. We know and have felt the 
benefits of a subordinate connection with her. We neither arc so stupid as to 
be ignorant of them, nor so nnjust as to deny them. We have also experienced 
the pleasures of gratitude and love, as well as advantages from that connexion. 
The impressions are not yet erased. We consider her circumstances with ten- 
der concern. We have not been wanting, when constitutionally called upon, to 
assist her to the utmost of our abilities; insomuch that she has judged it rea- 
sonable to make us recompenses for our overstrained exertions : And we now 
think we ouo;lit to contribute more than we do to the alleviation of her bur- 
thens. 

"Whatever may be said of these proposals on either side of the Atlantic, this 
is not a time either for timidity or rashness. We perfectly know, that the great 
cause now agitated is to be conducted to a happy conclusion only by that well 
tempered composition of counsels, which firmness, prudence, loj^alty to our 
Sovereign, respect to our parent State, and affection to our native country, united 
must form. 

"By such a compact, Great Britain will secure every benefit that the Parlia 
mentar}^ wisdom of ages has thought proper to attach to her. From her alone 
we shall continue to receive manufactures. To her alone we shall continue to 
carry the vast multitude of enumerated articles of commerce, the exportation 
of which her policy has thought fit to confine to herself. With such parts of 
the world only as she has appointed us to deal, we shall continue to' deal; and 
such commodities only as she has permitted us to bring from them, we shall con- 
tinue to bring. The executive and controling powers of the Crown will retain 
their present full force and operation. We shall contentedly labor for her as 
affectionate friends, in time of tranquility ; and cheerfully spend for her, as 



QENEEAL HISTOBY. jgg 

dutiful children, our treasure and our blood, in time of war. She will receive a 
certain income from us, without the trouble or expense of collecting it— without 
being constantly disturbed by complaints of grievances which she cannot justify 
and will not redress. In case of war, or any emergency of distress to her, we 
shall also be ready and willing to contribute all aids within our power: And we 
solemnly declare, that on such occasions, if we or our posterity shall refuse 
neglect, or decline thus to contribute, it will be a mean and manifest violation 
of a plain duty, and a weak and wicked desertion of the true interests of this 
Province, which ever have been and must be bound up in the prosperity of our 
mother country. Our union, founded on mutual compacts and mutual benefits, 
will be indissoluble, at least more firm than an union perpetually disturbed by 
disputed rights and retorted injuries. 

" Secondly. If all the terms above mentioned cannot be obtained, it is our 
opinion, that the measures adopted by the Congress for our relief should never 

be relinquished or intermitted, until those relating to the troops internal leo-is- 

lation — imposition of taxes or duties hereafter — the 35th of Henry the 8th 
chapter the 2d — the extension of Admiralty Courts — the port of Boston and 
the province of Massachusetts Bay — are obtained. Every modification or qualifi- 
cation of these points, in our judgment, should be inadmissible. To obtain 
them, we think it may be prudent to settle some revenue as above-mentioned, 
and to satisfy the East India Company. 

" Thirdly, If neither of these plans should be agreed to in Congress, but 
some other of a similar nature shall be framed, though on the terms of a 
revenue, and satisfaction to the East India Company, and though it shall be 
agreed by the Congress to admit no modification or qualification in the terms 
the}* shall insist on, we desire your Deputies may be ins^^rructed to concur with 
the other Deputies in it; and we will accede to, and carry it into execution as 
far as we can. 

" Fourthly. As to the regulation of trade — we are of opinion, that by making 
some few amendments, the commerce of the Colonies might be settled on a firm 
establisliment, advantageous to Great Britain and them, requiring and subject to 
no future alterations, without mutual consent. We desire to have this point 
considered by the Congress; and sucli measures taken as the}' may judge 
proper. 

" In order to obtain redress of our com mongrievances, we observe a general 
inclination among the Colonies of entering into agreements of non-importation 
and non-exportation. We are fully convinced that such agreements would with- 
hold very large supplies from Great Britain, and no words can describe our con- 
tempt and abhorrence of those colonists, if any such there are, who, from a 
sordid and ill-judged attachment to their own immediate profit, would pursue 
that, to the injury of their country, in this great struggle for all the blessings of 
liberty. It would appear to us a most wasteful frugality, that would lose every 
important possession by too strict an attention to small things, and lose also 
even these at the last. For our part, we will cheerfully make any sacrifice, 
when necessary, to preserve the freedom of our country. But other considera- 
tions have weight with us. We wish every mark of respect to be paid to his 
Majesty's administration. We have been taught from our youth to entertain 



1 40 SIS TOR T OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

tender and brotherly affections for our fellow-subjects at home. The interrup- 
tion of our commerce must distress great numbers of them. This we earnestly 
desire to avoid. We therefore request that the deputies you shall appoint may 
be instructed to exert themselves, at the Congress, to induce the members 
of it to consent to make a full and precise state of grievances, and a decent, yet 
firm claim of redress, and to wait the event before any other step is taken. It 
is our opinion that persons should be appointed and sent home to present 
this state and claim at the Court of Great Britain. 

" If the Congress shall choose to form agreements of non-importation and 
non-exportation immediately, we desire the deputies from this Province will 
endeavor to have them so formed as to be binding upon all, and that they may 
be permanent, should the public interest require it. They cannot be efficacious, 
unless they can be permanent ; and it appears to us that there will be a danger 
of their being infringed, if they are not formed with great caution and 
deliberation. We have determined in the present situation of public affairs to 
consent to a stoppage of our commerce with Great Britain only ; but in case any 
proceedings of the Parliament, of which notice shall be received on this 
continent, before or at the Congress, shall render it necessary, in the opinion of 
the Congress to take further steps, the inhabitants of this Province will 
adopt such steps, and do all in their power to carry them into execution. 

" This extensive power we commit to the Congress, for the sake of preserving 
that unanimity of counsel and conduct that alone can work out the salvation of 
these Colonies, with a strong hope and trust that they will not draw this 
Province into any measures judged by us, who must be better acquainted with 
its state than strangers, highly inexpedient. Of this kind, we know, any 
other stoppage of trade, but of that with Great Britain, will be. Even this 
step we should be extremely afflicted to see taken by the Congress, before 
the other mode above pointed out is tried. But should it be taken, we 
apprehend that a plan of restrictions may be so framed, agreeable to the respec- 
tive circumstances of the several colonies, as to render Great Britain sensible of 
the imprudence of her counsels, and yet leave them a necessary commerce. And 
here it may not be improper to take notice, that if redress of our grievances cannot 
be wholly obtained, the extent or continuance of our restrictions ma}', in some 
sort, be proportioned to the rights w^e are contending for, and the degree of 
relief afforded us. This mode will render our opposition as perpetual as 
our oppression, and will be a continual claim and assertion of our rights. We 
cannot express the anxiety with which we wish the consideration of these points 
to be recommended to you. We are persuaded, that if these Colonies fail 
of unanimity or prudence in forming their resolutions, or of fidelity in observing 
them, the opposition, by non-importation and non-exportation agreements, will be 
ineffectual ; and then we shall have only the alternative of a more dangerous 
contention, or of a tame submission. 

" Upon the whole, we shall repose the highest confidence in the wisdom and 
integrity of the ensuing Congress : And though we have, for the satisfaction of 
the good people of this Province, who have chosen us for this express purpose, 
offered to 3-ou such instructions as have appeared expedient to us, j-et it is not 
our meaning, that by these or by any you may think proper to give them, the 



GENEBAL HISTORY. 



141 



deputies appointed by you should be restrained from agreeing to any measures 
that shall be approved by the Congress. We should be glad tlfe deputies chosen 
by you, could, by their influence, procure our opinions, hereby communicated to 
you, to be as nearly adhered to as may be possible ; but to avoid difficulties, we 
desire that they may be instructed by you to agree to any measures that shall 
be approved by the Congress ; the inhabitants of tiiis Province having resolved 
to adopt and carry them into execution. Lastly— We desire the deputies from 
this Province may endeavor to procure an adjournment of the Congress, to such 
a day as they shall judge proper, and the appointment of a standing committee. 

"Agreed, that John Dickinson, Joseph Reed, and Charles Tiromson, be a 
committee to write to the neighboring colonies, and communicate to them the 
resolves and instructions. 

" Agreed, that the committee 
for the city and county of Phila- 
delphia, or any fifteen of them, be 
a Committee of Correspondence 
for the general Committee ol this 
Province." 

Such was the determined stand 
taken by the people of Pennsyl- 
vania, who, with loyalty upon their 
lips, sa3's Sherman Daj', but the 
spirit of resistance in their hearts, 
pushed forward the Revolution. 

The Assembly promptly res- 
ponded to the " Instructions " by 
appointing Josepli Galloway, 
Speaker, Daniel Riioads, Thomas 
Milllin, John Morton, Charles 
Humphreys, George Ross, Ed- 
ward Biddle, and subsequent!}', 
John Dickinson, as delegates from 
Pennsylvania to the Congress to 
be held in Philadelphia, in Sep- 
tember. This body, meeting on the 5th of that month, at Carpenter's Hall, chose 
Peyton Randolph, of Yirginio, President of Congress, and Cliarles Thomson, of 
Pennsylvania, Secretary. The declaration of rights was agreed upon. First, 
then, tliey named as natural riglits, the enjoyment of life, liberty-, and fortune. 
They next claimed, as British subjects, to be bound by no law to which they had 
not consented by their chosen representatives (excepting such as might be mu- 
tually agreed upon as necessary for the regulation of trade). They denied to 
Parliament all power of taxation, and vested the right of legislation in their 
own Assemblies. The common law of England they declared to be their birth- 
right, including the rights of trial by a jury of the vicinage, of public meetings, 
and petition. They protested against the maintenance in tlie Colonies of stand- 
ing armies without their full consent, and against all legislation by councils de- 
pending on the Crown. Having thus proclaimed their rights, they calmly cnu- 




CARPENTER'S hall, PHILADELPHIA— 1774. 



1 4 2 HIS TOE Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

merated the various acts which had been passed in derogation of them. These 
were eleven in number, passed in as many years — the sugar act, the stamp act, 
the tea act, those which provided for the quartering of troops, for the supersedure 
of the New York Legislature, for the trial in Great Britain of offences committed 
in America, for the regulation of the government of Massachusetts, for the shut- 
ting of the port of Bost^on, and the last straw, known as the Quebec Bill. 

On the 18th of October articles of confederation were adopted, the signing of 
which, two days afterwards, remarks Henry Armitt Brown, should be regarded 
as the commencement of the American Union, based upon freedom and cqualit}'. 
On the 26th of the same month, after adopting an address to the people of Great 
Britain, a memorial to the inhabitants of British America, and a loyal address 
to his Majesty, it adjourned to meet in Philadelphia, on the 10th May following. 

Tlie Assembly of Pennsylvania, which met on the 8th of December, was the 
first Provincial Legislature to which report of the Congressional proceedings 
was made. By this bod}'- they were unanimously approved, and recommended 
to the inviolable observance of the people ; and Messrs. Biddle, Dickinson, 
Mifllin, Galloway, Humphreys, Morton, and Ross were appointed delegates to 
the next Congress, Mr. Rhoads being omitted, his office of mayor of the city 
engrossing all his attention. Upon the return of Benjamin Franklin from Lon- 
don, he was immediately added to the Congressional delegation, together with 
Messrs. James Wilson and Thomas Willing. Mr. Galloway having repeatedly 
requested to be excused from serving as a deputy, was then permitted to with- 
draw. This gentleman became affrighted at the length to which the opposition 
to the parent State was carried. He drew the instructions given to the Pennsyl- 
vania delegates for the past and next Congress, and refused to serve unless they 
were framed to his wishes. 

Hitherto Governor Penn had looked upon the proceedings of the Assembly 
without attempting to direct or control them. He was supposed to favor the 
efforts made in support of American principles; but now a semblance of regard 
to the instructions of the Crown induced him to remonstrance in mild terms 
against the continental system of petition and remonstrance. In England, the 
proceedings of the Americans were viewed with great indignation by the King 
and his ministry, and the petition of Congress, although declared b}^ the Secre- 
tary of State, after a day's perusal, " to be decent and proper, and received 
graciously by his Majesty, did not receive much favor at the hands of the minis- 
tr}-, which resolved to compel the obedience of the Americans." Tlie remon- 
strances of three millions of people were therefore treated, perhaps believed, as 
the clamors of an unruly multitude. 

Both houses of Parliament joined in an address to the King, declaring " that 
they find a rebellion actually exists in the Province of Massachusetts." This 
was followed by an act for restraining the trade and commerce of the New Eng 
land Provinces, and prohibiting them from carrying on the fisheries on the Banks 
of Newfoundland, which was subsequently extended to New^ Jersey, Pennsylva- 
nia, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and the counties on the Delaware. 

Pending the consideration of this bill, Lord North introduced what he 
termed a conciliatory proposition. It provided " that when au}^ colony should 
propose to make provision, according to its circumstances, for contributing its pro- 



OENEliAL BISTORY. I43 

portion to the common defence, and should engage to make provision also for the 
support of the civil government, and the administration of justice in such colony, 
it would be proper, if such proposal were approved by His Majesty and Parlia- 
ment, and for so long as such provision should be made, to forbear to levy any 
duty or tax except such duties as were expedient for the regulation of commerce 
the net produce of the last mentioned duties to be carried to the account of such 
colony." This proposition was opposed as an admission of the correctness of 
the American views as to taxation by Parliament, and as a concession to armed 
rebels. The Prime Minister declared " that he did not expect the proposition 
would be acceptable to the Americans, but that if it had no beneficial effect in 
the Colonies, it would unite the people of England by holding out to them a dis- 
tinct object of revenue. That, as it tended to unite England, it would produce 
disunion in America; for, if one colony accepted it, their confederacy, which 
made them formidable, would be broken." 

This avowal of the character and tendency of the resolution w\as not requisite 
to enlighten the colonists. On its transmission to the Provinces it was unani- 
mously rejected. A specimen of the manner in which it was attempted to be 
supported is found in the address of Governor Penn to the Assembly of Penn- 
sylvania. " lie presented the resolution to the House as an indication of tlie 
strong disposition of Parliament to remove the causes of American discontents • 
urged them to consider this plan of reconciliation, offered by the parent State to 
her children, with that temper, calmness, and deliberation which tlie importance 
of the subject and the present critical situation of affairs demanded ; observed 
that the colonies, amid the complaints occasioned by jealous^' of their liberties 
had never denied the justice of contributing towards the burthens of the mother 
country', to whose protection and care they owed not onl}' their present opulence, 
but even their existence. On the contrary, every statement of tlieir supposed 
grievances avowed the propriet3' of such a measure, and their willingness to comply 
with it. The dispute was therefore narrowed to this point, whether the redress 
of colonial grievances should precede or follow the settlement of tliat just pro- 
portion which America should bear towards the common support and defence of 
the whole British Empire. In the resolution of the House of Commons, which 
he was authorized to sa}' was entirely approved b}- His Majosty, they had a 
solemn declaration, that an exemption from any dut}' would be the consequence 
of a compliance with the terms of such I'esolution. For the performance of this 
engagement, he presumed no greater security would be requiied than the resolu- 
tion itself approbated b}'^ Ilis Majest}'. And as they were the first Assembly to 
whom this resolution had been communicated, much depended upon their conduct, 
and the}' would deservedly be revered by the latest posterit}', if by an}' possible 
means the}- could be instrumental in restoring the public tranquility, and res- 
cuing both countries from the horrors of a civil war." 

The Assembly lost no time in replying to tliis message. " Tlicy regretted," 
they said, " that they could not think the offered terms afforded just and reason- 
able grounds for a final accommodation between Great Britain and tlie Colonies: 
They admitted the justice of contribution in case of the burthens of the mother 
country, but they claimed it as their indisputable right that all aids from Ihem 
should be free and voluntary, not taken by force, nor extorted by fear; and they 



144 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

chose rather to leave the character of the proposed plan to be determined by the 
Governor's good sense, than to expose it by reference to notorious facts, or the 
repetition of obvious reasons. But, if the plan proposed were unexceptionable, 
they would esteem it dishonorable to adopt it without the advice and consent of 
their sister colonies, who, united by just motives and mutual faith, were guided 
by general counsels. They assured him that they could form no projects of per- 
manent advantage for Pennsylvania which were not in common with the other 
colonies; and should prospect of exclusive advantage be opened to them, they 
had too great regard for their engagements to accept benefits for themselves 
only, which were due to all, and which, by a generous rejection for the present, 
might be finally secured to all." 

Notwithstanding the gloomy state of affairs this jear. Lord Dunmore of 
Virginia set up the unfounded pretension that the western boundary of Penn- 
sylvania did not include Pittsburgh and the Monongahela river, and many 
settlers were encouraged to take up lands on Virginia warrants. He even took 
possession of Fort Pitt, by his agent, Di-. John Connolly, on the withdrawal 
of the ro3^al troops by order of General Gage. Even General Washington, who 
knew that country so well, and had taken up much land in it, entertained the 
idea, probably, at that date, that what are now the counties of Fayette, Greene 
and Washington, were in Virginia. Some of these new settlers were of the 
worst class of frontiersmen, and several of them were concerned in the barbarous 
murder of the family of Logan, the Mingo Chief, and of others. A blood}^ war 
upon the frontier was the consequence of these murders ; but Pennsylvania, by 
timely conciliatory measures through Sir Wm. Johnson, escaped the ravages 
of that war. Governor Penn promptly repelled the intruders under the Virginia 
titles ; arrested and imprisoned Dr. Connolly, and kept in pay for some months 
the rangers of Westmoreland county, who had rallied for the defence of the 
frontier. Lord Dunmore's war against the western Indians followed the attack 
on the frontiers of Virginia. 

On the 23d of January, 1175, a Provincial Convention was held at Phila- 
delphia, continuing in session six days. There were present committees 
1775. from each count}', and as these individuals subsequently took an active 
part in the contest, either in the councils of the State or in the field, we 
give their names 

For the city and liberties of Philadelphia — John Dickinson, Thomas Mifflin, 
Charles Thomson, John Cadwalader, George Clymer, Joseph Reed, Samuel 
Meredith, William Rush, James Mease, John Nixon, John Benezet, Jacob Rush, 
William Bradford, Elias Boys, James Robinson, Manuel Eyre, Owen Biddle, 
William Heysham, James Milligan, John Wilcox, Sharp Delaney, Francis 
Gurne}', John Purviance, Robert Knox, Francis Ilassenclever, Thomas Cuth- 
bert, Sen., William Jackson, Isaac Melcher, John Cox, John Bayard, Christopher 
Ludwig, Thomas Barchi}', George Schlosser, Jonathan B. Smith, Francis Wade, 
Lambert Cadwallader, Re3'nold Keen, Richard Bache, Samuel Penrose, Isaac 
Coates, William Coates, Blathwaite Jones, Thomas Pryor, Samuel Massey, 
Robert Towers, Henry Jones, Joseph Wetherill, Joseph Cowperthwaite, Joseph 
Dean, Benjamin Harbcson, James Ash, Benjamin Loxle}', William Robinson, 
Ruloff Alberson, James Irvine. 



GENERAL HISTOllY. I45 

Philadelphia county— George Gray, John Bull, Samuel Ashmead, Samuel 
Irvine, John Roberts, Thomas Ashton, Benjamin Jacobs, John Moore, Samuel 
Miles, Edward Milnor, Jacob Laughlan, Melchior Waggoner. 

Chester county— Anthony Wayne, Hugh Lloyd, Richard Thomas, Francis 
Johnson, Samuel Fairlamb, Lewis Davis, William Montgomery, Joseph Mus- 
grave, Joshua Evans, Persifor Frazer. 

Lancaster county — Adam Simon Kuhn, James Clemson, Peter Grubb, Sebas- 
tian Graaff, David Jenkins, Bartram Galbraith. 

York county — James Smith, Thomas Hartley, Joseph Donaldson, George 
Eichelberger, John Hay, George Irwin, Michael Smyser. 

Cumberland county — James Wilson, Robert Magaw. 

Berks county — Edward Biddle, Christopher Schultz, Jonathan Potts, Sebas- 
tian Levan, Mark Bird, John Patton, Baltzer Gehr. 

Northampton county— George Taylor, John Oakley, Peter Kichline, Jacob 
Arndt. 

Northumberland county — William' Plunkett, Casper Weitzel. 

After the organization of the Convention, General Joseph Reed being chosen 
chairman, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

" That the committee of the city of Philadelphia, and each count}^ committee, 
shall have one vote in determining every question that may come before this 
convention. 

" That this convention most heartily approve of the conduct and proceedings 
of the Continental Congress. That we will faithfully endeavor to carry into 
execution the measures of the association entered into and recommended bj 
them, and that the members of that very respectable body merit our warmest 
thanks by their great and disinterested labors for the preservation of the rights 
and liberties of the British Colonies. 

" That it be, and it is hereby, recommended to the se';eral members of this 
convention to promote and encourage instructions, or advise from their several 
counties to their representatives in General Assembly to procure a law prohibit- 
ing the future importation of slaves into this Province. 

" That in case the trade of the city and liberties of Philadelphia shall be 
suspended in consequence of the present struggle, it is the opinion of this con- 
vention that the several counties should, and that the members of this conven- 
tion will exert themselves to afford all the necessary relief and assistance to the 
inhabitants of the said city and liberties, who will be more immediately affected 
by such an event. 

"That if any opposition shall be given to any of the committees of this Pro- 
Tince in carrying the association of the Continental Congress into execution, the 
committees of the other counties, in order to preserve the said association 
inviolate, will give all the weight and assistance in their power to the committee 
who shall meet with such opposition. 

" That it is the most earnest wish and desire of this convention to see harmony 
restored between Great Britain and the Colonies. That we will exert our utmost 
endeavors for the attainment of that most desirable object. That it is the 
opinion of this body that the commercial opposition pointed out by the Conti- 
nental Congress, if faithfully adhered to, will be the means of rescuing this 



146 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

unhappy country from the evils meditated against it. But if the humble and 
loyal petition of said Congress to his most gracious Majesty should be disre- 
garded, and the British administration, instead of redressing our grievances, 
should determine by force to effect a submission to the late arbitrary acts of the 
British Parliament, in such a situation we hold it our indispensable duty to resist 
such force, and at every hazard to defend the rights and liberties of America. 

"Whereas, It has been judged necessary for the preservation of our just 
rights and liberties to lay a restraint on our importation, and as the freedom, 
happiness, and prosperity of a State greatly depend on providing within itself a 
supply of articles necessary for subsistence, clothing, and defence, a regard for 
our country as well as common prudence call upon us to encourage agriculture, 
manufactures, and economy. Therefore this convention do resolve as follows : 

" That from and after the first day of March next, no person or persons should 
use in his, her, or their families, unless in cases of necessity, and on no account 
sell to the butchers, or kill for the market, any sheep under four years old. And 
where there is a necessity for using any mutton in their families it is recommended 
to them to kill such as are the least profitable to keep. 

"That we recommend the setting up of woollen manufactories in as many 
different branches as possible ; especially coating, flannel, blankets, rugs, or 
coverlids, hosiery, and coarse cloths, both broad and narrow. 

" That we recommend the raising and manufacturing of madder, wood, and 
such other dye-stuffs as may be raised in this Province to advantage, and are 
absolutely necessary in the woollen manufactures. 

" That each person having proper land should raise a quantity of flax and 
hemp, sufficient not only for the use of his own family, but also to spare to 
others on moderate terms. And that it be recommended to the farmers to 
provide themselves early with a sufficient quantity of seed for the proposed 
increase of the above articles of hemp and flax. 

" As salt is a daily and almost indispensable necessary of life, and the making 
of it among ourselves must be esteemed a valuable acqui.sition, we, therefore, 
recommend the making of it in the manner used in England and other countries, 
and are of opinion it may be done with success in the interior parts of the Pro- 
vince where there are salt springs, as well as on the sea coasts. 

" That saltpetre being an article of great use and consumption, we recommend 
the making of it, and are further of opinion it may be done to great advantage. 

" That the necessity we may be under for gunpowder, especially in tlie Indian 
trade, induces us to recommend the manufacturing that article as largely as 
possible by such persons wlio are or may be owners of powder mills in this 
Province. 

" That we recommend the manufacturing of iron into nails and wire, and all 
other articles necessary for carrying on our manufactures evidently in general 
use, and which, of consequence, should our unhappy differences continue, will be 
in creat demand. 

" That we are of opinion the making of steel ought to be largely prosecuted 
as the demand for this article will be great. 

"That we recommend the making of difi'erent kinds of paper now in use 
among us, to the several manufactures ; and as the success of this branch depends 



GENERAL HIS TOBY. 



147 



on a supply of old linen and woollen rags, request the people of this Province, 
in their respective houses, may order the necessary steps to be taken for preserv- 
ing these otherwise useless articles. 

" That as the consumption of glass is greater than the glass houses now 
established among us can supply, we recommend the setting up of other glass 
houses, and arc of opinion they would turn out to the advantage of the proprie- 
tors. 

" That whereas wool combs and cards have, for some time, been manufactured 
in some of the neighboring colonies, and are absolutely necessary for carrying on 
the hosiery and clothing business, we do recommend the establishing such a 
manufactory in this Province. 

" That we also recommend the manufacturing of copper into sheets, bottoms, 
and kettles. 

" That we recommend the erecting a greater number of fulling mills and mills 
for breaking, swingling, and softening hemp and flax, and also the making of 
grindstones in this country. 

" That as the brewing of large quantities of malt liquors within this Province 
would tend to render the consumption of foreign liquors less necessary, it is, 
therefore, recommended that proper attention be given to the cultivation of bar- 
ley ; and that the several, brewers, both in city and country, do encourage it by 
giving a reasonable and sufljcieut price for the same. 

" That we recommend to all the inhabitants of this Province, and do promise 
for ourselves in particular, to use our own manufactures, and those of the other 
colonies in preference to all others. 

" That for the more speedy and effectually putting these resolves into execu- 
tion, we do earnestly recommend societies may be established in different parts, 
and are of opinion that premiums ought to be granted in the several counties to 
persons who may excel in the several branches of manufactory, and we do further 
engage that we, in our separate committees, will promote them to the utmost of 
our power. 

" That if an}'^ manufacturer or vender of goods and merchandise in this Pro- 
vince shall take advantage of the necessities of his countr}^, by selling his goods 
or merchandise at an unusual and extravagant profit, such person shall be 
considered as an enemy to his country, and be advertised as such by the commit- 
tee of the place where such offender dwells. 

" That we recommend the making tin plates, as an article worth}^ the 
attention of the people of this Province. 

" That as printing t3'pes are now made to a considerable degree of perfection 
by an ingenious artist in Germantown, it is recommended to the printers to use 
such tj'pes in preference to anj^ which may be hereafter im.ported. 

" That the committee of correspondence for the cit}' and liberties of Philadel- 
phia be a standing committee of correspondence for the several counties here 
represented, and that if it should at any time hereafter appear to the committee 
of the cit}^ and liberties that the situation of public affairs render a provincial 
convention necessary, that the said committee of correspondence do give the 
earliest notice thereof to the committees of the several counties." 

The crisis to which the convention looked forward when framing these resolves, 



148 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 






.- -5^3 



ta 



i^ 



.<^. 



n 

.S' 
^ 



SEAT 



OF TiiK Committee oi 
SAFETY — 1775. 



had arrived. The battle of Lexington was subsequently fought, and submission 
to the arbitrary acts of Parliament was attempted to be enforced by the bayonet. 
Congress at their session in May having resolved to raise a Continental array, 
of which the Pennsylvania portion amounted to four thousand three hundred 
men, the Assembly recommended to the commissioners of the several counties, 

as thej^ regarded the freedom, welfare, and safety 
of their country, to provide arms and accoutre- 
ments for this force: they also directed the officers 
of the militar}'- association to select a number of 
minute men, equal to the number of arms which 
could be procured, who should hold themselves 
11 readiness to march at the shortest notice to any 
quarter, in case of emergency; they made further 
; ppiopriations for the defence of the city against 
attacks by vessels of war, and directed the purchase 
of all the saltpetre that should be manufactured 
within the next six months at a premium price. To 
assist in carrying into effect these measures, on the 
30th of June, a Committee of Safety, consisting of the following persons, were 
appointed : 

City of Philadelphia — Thomas Wharton, Jr., Benjamin Franklin, Samuel 
Morris, .Ir., Robert Morris, Francis Johnston, John Cadwallader, Owen Biddle, 
Thomas Willing, Andrew Allen, Robert White. 

Philadelphia County — John Dickinson, George Gray, Daniel Roberdeau, 
Richard Reily. 

Bucks — Henry Wynkoop. 

Chester — Anthony Wayne, Benjamin Bartholomew. 
Lancaster — George Ross. 
York — Michael Swope. 
C umberland — John Montgomery. 
Northampton — William Edmunds. 
Berks — Edward Biddle. 
Bedford — Bernard Dougherty. 
Northumberland — Samuel Hunter. 
Westmoreland — William Thompson. 

This body immediately organized by the appointment of Benjamin Franklin, 
president, William Garrett, clerk, and Michael Hillegas, treasurer. For the pay 
and support of the associated troops called into service for the defence of 
the Province, the Assembh' directed the issuing bills of credit for thirty-five 
thousand pounds. 

Among the first labors of the Committee of Safety was that of preparing 
articles for the government of the military organizations known as Associators. 
On the 19th of August, the following Articles of Association of Pennsylvania 
'vere adopted : 

"We, the ofl[icers and soldiers, engaged in the present association for 
the defence of American liberty, being fully sensible that the strength and 
security of any body of men, acting together, consists in just regularity, due 



GENEBAL HIS TOBY. U9 

sul)oi'dination, and exact obedience to command, without wliicli no individual 
can have that confidence in the support of those about him, that is so necessary 
to give firmness and resolution to the whole, do voluntarily and freely, after 
consideration of the following articles, adopt the same as the rules by which we 
agree and resolve to be governed in all our military concerns and operations, 
until the same, or any of them, shall be changed or dissolved by the Assembly, 
or Provincial Convention, or in their recess by the Committee of Safety, 
or a happy reconciliation shall take place between Great Britain and the 
Colonies. 

" 1st. If any officer make use of any profane oath or execration, when on 
duty, he shall forfeit and pa}'^, for each and every such off"ence, the sum of five 
shillings. And if a non-commissioned officer or soldier be thus guilty of cursing 
or swearing, he shall forfeit and pay, for each and every such offence, the 
sum of one shilling. 

" 2nd. Any officer or soldier who shall refuse to obey the lawful orders of 
his superior officer, may be suspended from doing duty on that day, and 
shall upon being convicted thereof before a regimental court martial, make such 
concessions as said court martial shall direct. 

"3rd. Any officer or soldier who shall begin, excite, cause, join in, or 
promote any disturbance in the battalion, troop, or compan}'-, to which he 
belongs, or in any other battalion, troop, or company, shall be censured accord- 
mg to the nature of the offence, by the judgment of a regimental court martial. 

" 4th. Any officer or soldier who shi^l strike his superior officer, or draw or 
offer to draw, or shall lift up any weapon, or offer any violence against him, 
being in the execution of his office, shall, upon conviction before a regimental 
court martial, be dismissed, and shall be deemed to be thereby disgraced as 
unworthy the company of freemen.. 

"5th. Any commanding or other officer who shall strike any person when on 
duty, shall, upon conviction before a general court martial, be in a like manner 
dismissed and disgraced. 

" 6th. Any officer or non-commissioned officer or soldier, who shall make use 
of insolent, provoking, or indecent language while on duty, shall suffer censure 
or fine as shall be inflicted by a regimental court martial, according to the 
nature of the offence. 

" Tth. If anj' officer or soldier should think himself injured by his colonel, or 
the commanding officer of the battalion, and shall upon due application made to 
him, be refused redress, he may complain to the general of the Pennsylvania 
Associators, or to the colonel of any other battalion, who is to summon a 
general court martial, and see that justice be done. 

" 8th. If any inferior officer or soldier shall think himself injured by his 
captain, or other superior officer in the battalion, troop, or company to which 
he belongs, he may complain to the commanding officer of the regiment, who 
is to summon a regimental court martial, for the doing justice according to 
the nature of the case. 

" 9th. No officer, non-commissioned officer, or soldier, shall fail of repair- 
ing with their arms, ammunition, and accoutrements upon any regular alarm, or 
at the time fixed, to the place of parade or other rendezvous appointed by the 



150 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

commanding officer, if not 2:)i-evented b}'^ sickness or some otlier evident neces- 
sity, or shall go from the place of parade without leave from the commanding 
officer before he shall be regularly dismissed, on penalty of being lined or cen- 
sured according to the nature of the offence, by the sentence of a regimental 
court martial. But no officer or soldier shall be obliged to attend to learn the 
military exercise more than once in a week. 

'• loth. An}' officer or soldier found drunk when under arms, shall be sus- 
pended from doing duty in the battalion, company, or troop on that day, and 
be fined or censured, at the discretion of a regimental court martial. 

" 1 1th. Whatever sentinel shall be found sleeping upon his post, or shall 
leave it before he is regularly relieved, shall suffer such penalty or disgrace as 
shall be ordered by a regimental court martial. 

" 12th. Whatever commissioned officer shall be convicted before a general 
court martial, of behaving in a scandalous or infamous manner unbecoming the 
character of an officer and a gentleman, shall be dismissed from the association 
with disgrace. 

" 13th. Every non-commissioned officer or soldier who shall be convicted 
at a regimental court martial of having sold, carelessly lost, wilfully spoiled 
or wasted, or having offered for sale, any ammunition, arms, or accoutrements 
belonging to this Province, shall be dismissed such battalion, troop, or com- 
pany, as an unworthy member, and be prosecuted as the law directs. 

" 14th. All disorders and neglects which officers and soldiers ma}' be guilty 
of, to the prejudice of the good order and military discipline of the association 
of this colon}', are to be taken cognizaiice of by a general or regimental court 
martial, according to the nature and degree of the ofTence, and be censured at 
their discretion. 

" 15th. That on the first meeting of every battalion, after subscribing these 
articles of association, and from thence forward on the first meeting of every 
battalion, after the third Monday in September annually, there be chosen two 
persons, such as are entitled to vote for members of Assembly, out of each com- 
pany in the respective battalions, hy the non-commissioned officers and privates, 
whose duty and office shall be for the year following, to set and join with the 
officers in court martial, which persons so chosen shall be styled court martial 
men. 

" 16th. Every general court martial shall consist of thirteen members, six 
of whom shall be commissioned officers under the i-ank of a field officer, and six 
court inartial men, who shall be drawn by lot out of the whole number, and 
these twelve are to choose a president, who shall be a field officer and have a 
casiing voice. 

" nth. Every regimental court martial shall be composed of seven mem- 
bers, three officers, three court martial men, and a president, who is to be a 
captain, and to be chosen by the six, and also to have a casting voice. 

" 18th. In all courts martial not less than two-thirds of the members must 
ao-ree in ever}' sentence for inflicting penalties, or for disgracing any associator, 
otherwise he shall be acquitted. 

" l^th. The president of each and every court martial, whether regimental 
or general, shall require all witnesses, in order to trial of offenders, to declare on 



GENERAL HISTOEY. 151 

their honor, that what they give in as evidence is the truth, and the members ot 
all courts martial shall make a declaration to the president, and the president to 
the next rank, upon their honor, that they will give judgment with impartiality. 

" 20th. All non-commissioned officers, drummers, fifers, or others, that shall 
be employed and receive pay in any of the battalions, companies, or troops, 
shall subscribe these rules and regulations, and be subject to such fines, to be 
deducted from their pay, and to such penalties as a regimental court martial 
shall think proper, upon being convicted of having transgressed any of these 
regulations. 

" 21st. All associators called as witnesses in any case before a court martial, 
who shall refuse to attend and give evidence, shall be censured or fined, at the 
discretion of the court martial. 

" 22d. No officer or soldier being charged with transgressing these rules, 
shall be suffered to do duty in the regiment, company, or troop to which he 
belongs, until he has had his trial by a court martial ; and every person so 
charged shall be tried as soon as a court martial can be conveniently assembled 

" 23d. The officers and soldiers of ever}' company of artillery, or othei 
compau}', troop, or party that is or shall be annexed to any battalion, shall be 
subject to the command of the colonel or commanding officer of said battalion, 
and the officers shall sit as members of courts martial in the same manner as 
the officers of any other company. 

" 24th. No penalty shall be inflicted at the discretion of a court martial other 
than degrading, cashiering, or fining, the fines for the officers not to exceed three 
pounds, and the fine for a non-commissioned officer or soldier not to exceed 
twelve shillings for one fault. 

'' 25th. The field officers of each and every battalion shall appoint a person 
to receive such fines as may arise within the same, for breach of any of these 
articles, and shall direct those fines to be carefully and properly applied to the 
relief of the sick, wounded, or necessitous soldiers belonging to that battalion, 
and such person shall account with the field officers for all fines received, and 
the application thereof. 

"26th. The general or commander-in-chief of this association, for the time 
being, shall have full power of pardoning or mitigating any censures or penalties 
ordered to be inflicted for the breach of any of these articles by any general 
court martial ; and every off"ender convicted as aforesaid, by any regimental 
court martial, may be pardoned, or have his penalties mitigated by the colonel 
or commanding officer of the battalion, excepting only where such censures or 
penalties are directed as satisfaction for injuries received by one officer or 
soldier from another. 

" 27th. Any officer, non-commissioned officer, or other person, who, having 
subscribed these articles, shall refuse to make such concessions, pay such fines, 
or in any other matter refuse to comply with the judgment of any court martial, 
shall be dismissed the service, and held up to the public as unfriendly to the 
liberties of America. 

" 28th. Upon the determination of any point by a regimental court martial, 
if the officer or soldier concerned on either side thinks himself still aggrieved, 
he may appeal to a general court martial; but, if upon second hearing, the 



1,;^2 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

appeal appears groundless and vexatious, the person so appealing shall be 
censured, at the discretion of the general court martial. 

" 29th. Upon the death, resignation, promotion, or other removal of an officer 
from any battalion, troop, or company (except field officers), or any court 
martial men, such vacancy is to be filled by the person or persons such troop 
or company shall elect. 

" oOth. No officer or soldier shall be tried a second time for the same ofl?ence, 
except in case of appeal. 

"31st. All officers and soldiers of every battalion, troop, company, or party 
of associators, who shall be called by the Assembly, or Committee of Safety in 
recess of Assembly, into actual service, and be on pay, shall, when acting by 
themselves, or in conjunction with the Continental forces, be subject to all the 
rules and articles made by the honorable' Congress for the government of the 
Continental troops. 

" 32d. No commissioned, non-commissioned officer, or private, shall with- 
draw himself from the company to which he belongs, without a discharge from 
the commanding officer of the battalion, nor shall such person be received into 
any other company without such discharge. 

" In testimony of our approbation and consent to be governed by the above 
regulations, which have been deliberately read to, or carefully perused by us, we 
have hereunto set our hands." 

Many of the citizen soldiers refused to sign and submit to tnese regulations, 
alleging that numerous persons, rich, and able to perform military duty, claimed 
exemption under pretence of conscientious scruples, and asserting that where the 
liberty of all was at stake, all should aid in its defence, and that where the cause 
was common to all, it was inconsistent with justice and equity that the burden 
should be partial. Moved by these representations, the Committee of Safety 
recommended to the Assembly to provide that all persons should be subject to 
military duty, but that persons conscientiously scrupulous might compound for 
actual service by a pecuniary equivalent. The Hoi".se, however, was not pre- 
pared for a measure of so strong a character; and they sufl"ered their term 
of office to expire without passing upon the proposition. 

But this subject was pressed on the early attention of the succeeding 
Assembly. Congress having recommended to the inhabitants of the several 
Provinces, between the ages of sixteen and fifty, to organize themselves into 
regular companies of militia, gave new occasion to the associators to urge the 
Assembly to put all the inhabitants in this respect on an equal footing. 

The Friends, who were the most affected by coercion to military service, 
addressed the Legislature, setting forth their religious faith and practice with 
respect to bearing arms, and claiming exemption from nailitary service by virtue 
of the thirty-fifth section of the laws agreed upon in England, and the first 
clause of the charter granted by Penn. The Mennonists and German Baptists 
also remonstrated, praying exemption, yet, while doing so, they were not 
unwilling to contribute pecuniary aid. The principles of the Quakers were 
severely denounced by the associators as unfriendly to the liberties of America, 
destructive of all society and government, and highly reflecting on the glorious 
revolutions which placed the present royal family on the throne. " Though 



GENEBAL HISTOEY. I53 

firmly persuaded," they said, " that a majority of the society have too much 
sincerity, wisdom, and good sense, to be influenced by such principles; yet duty 
to ourselves, to our country, and our posterity, at this alarming crisis, constrains 
us to use our utmost endeavors to prevent the fatal consequences that might 
attend your compliance with the application of the people called Quakers. 
These gentlemen would witlidraw their persons and fortunes from the service 
of their country at a time when most needed ; and if the patrons and friends 
of liberty succeed in the present glorious struggle, they and their posterity will 
enjoy ail the advantages, without jeoparding person or property. Should the 
friends of liberty fail, they will risk no forfeitures, but having merited the 
protection and favor of the British ministry, will probably be rewarded by 
promotion to office. This they seem to desire and expect. Though such 
conduct manifestly tends to defeat the virtuous and wise measures planned by 
the Congress, and is obviously selfish, ungenerous, and unjust, yet we would 
animadvert upon the arguments the}'^ have used to induce the House to favor 
and support it." 

Thus urged, the Assembly resolved that "all persons between the ages 
of sixteen and fifty, capable of bearing arms, who did not associate for the 
defence of the Province, ought to contribute an equivalent for the time spent by 
the associators in acquiring military discipline ; ministers of the gospel of all 
denominations, and servants purchased hona-fide for valuable consideration, 
only excepted." By this resolution the principle which still regulates the fines 
for neglect or refusal of military service was established. 

The military association, originally a mere voluntar}- engagement, became, 
by the resolutions of the Assembly, now having the effect of laws, a compulsory 
militia. Returns were required from the assessors of the several townships and 
wards of all persons within military age, capable of bearing arms ; and the 
captains of the companies of associators were directed to furnish to their 
colonels, and the colonels to the county commissioners, lists of such persons 
as had joined the association ; and the commissioners were empowered to assess 
on those not associated the sum of two pounds ten shillings annually, in addition 
to the ordinary tax. The Assembly also adopted rules and regulations for the 
better government of the military association, the thirty-fifth article of which 
provided " that if any associator called into actual service, should leave a family 
not of ability to maintain themselves in his absence, the justices of the peace 
of the proper city or county, with the overseers of the poor, should make 
provision for their maintainance." 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE BATTLE-DRUM OF THE REVOLUTION. THE PENNSYLVANIA NAVY. THE PRO- 
VINCIAL CONFERENCE. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. THE CONVEN- 
TION OF 1776, AND THE END OF PROPRIETARY RULE. 1775-1776. 




iITHIN ten clays, says Mr. Linn, after the news of the battle of Bun- 
ker's Hill had reached the Province of Pennsylvania, her first rifle 
regiment was officered and completed, many of the eight companies 
numbering one hundred men. It was commanded by Colonel William 
Thompson, of Cumberland county, whom Lossing by mistake credits to Tir- 
ginia. The companies were severally under the command of Captains James 
Chambers, Robert Cluggage, Michael Doudle, William Hendricks, John Lowdon, 
James Ross, Matthew Smith, and George Nagel. The regiment upon its organi- 
zation at once marched to the relief of Boston, where they arrived about the 
last of July. They were the first companies south of the Hudson to arrive in 
Massachusetts, and naturally excited much attention. They were stout and 
hardy yeomanry, the flower of Penns3'lvania's frontiersmen, and according to 
Thatcher, " remarkable for the accu^'acy of their aim." This command became, 
in January, 1776, the " Fb^st Regiment of the Army of the United Colonies^ 
commanded by General George Washington.''^ Two companies of tliis battalion. 
Captains Smith and Hendricks, were subsequently ordered to accompany General 
Arnold in his unsuccessful expedition to Quebec. Their term of service was for 
one year. 

The Committee of Safety held its sessions almost daily in Philadelphia. 
Their duties, says Dr. Smith, were arduous in the extreme. It is indeed difficult 
to comprehend how a body of men could control and direct such an amount of 
business, in all its details, as was brought under their notice, and no adequate 
idea can be formed of their labors. 

On the 20th of October a new committee was appointed, the old members con- 
tinuing except Thomas Willing and Robert White, of Philadelphia; William 
Edmunds, of Northampton ; William Thompson, of Westmoreland ; James Mease, 
George Clymer, David Rittenhouse, John Nixon, Samuel Howell, and Alexander 
Wilcocks, of the city of Philadelphia. Joseph Reed and Samuel Miles, of the 
county, George Taylor, of Northampton, and James Biddle, of Berks, were 
added. The same organization was efl'ected, and until the 22d of July, 1776, it 
was the moving power of the State. 

The troops ordered bj^ Congress were immediately raised, measures taken 
towards the defence of the Delaware river, both by means of chevaux-de-frize 
and the construction of an armed flotilla. With great promptness, on the 7th 
of July, John Wharton was directed to procure materials and make preparations 
for building a boat or calevat, of which he was to exhibit a model on the next 
day. Mr. Wharton, equally prompt, produced his model on the 8th, and was 

154 



GENERAL HISTORY. I55 

then directed to immediately build a boat or calevat of forty-seven or fifty feet 
keel, thirteen feet broad, and four and a half feet deep. On the lOth, Manuel 
Eyre was directed to build a boat according to a model produced by him, and on 
the 15th the sub-committee was directed to build twelve boats, includino- the 
two already ordered. The first officers, Captain Henry Dougherty and Captain 
John Rice, were appointed on the 17th of July, 1775. The first boat launched 
was from the yard of John Wharton, on the 19th of July, and was called the 
Experiment, tlie command of which was assigned to Captain Henry Dougherty. 
The second boat launched was the Bull Dog, from the ship yard of Manuel 
Eyre, at Kensington, on the 26th of July, and Captain Charles Alexander 
assigned to its command. This Avas the commencement of the Pennsylvania 
State Navy, antedating three months the first legislation of Congress (October 
13, 1775), in regard to a navy. 

The names of the builders of the greater part of the vessels have come down 
to us. The Franklin and Congress were built by Manuel Eyre; the Washington 
by John Wharton; the Burke by Warnock. Coates; the Hancock by William 
Williams; the Camden by Simon Sherlock; the Effingham by Casdrop and Ful- 
lerton; the Ranger by Samuel Robins; the Dickinson by John Rice, and the 
Warren by .Joseph Marsh. 

Among the first commissions issued subsequent to those above mentioned 
Trere those of Nicholas Biddle, as Captain of the Franklin, August 1, 1775 ; John 
Hamilton, of the Congress, August 2; Allen Moore, of the Effingham, August 
3 ; and James Montgomery, of tlie Ranger, August 31 ; and by the 15th of Sep- 
tember, the nav}^ was upon a permanent footing, officered as follows : Bull Dog, 
Captain Alexander Henderson, Lieutenant John Webb; Burke, Captain James 
Blair, Lieutenant John Chatliam ; Camden, Captain Richard Eyre, Lieutenant 
George Garland ; Chatliam, Captain Charles Alexander, Lieutenant Robert 
Pomeroy ; Congress, Captain John Hamilton, Lieutenant Hugh Montgomery; 
Dickinson, Captain John Rice, Lieutenant James Allen ; Experiment, Captain 
Allen Moore, Lieutenant Benjamin Thompson; Effingham, Lieutenant John 
Hennessey; Franklin, Captain Nicholas Biddle, Lieutenant Thomas Houston; 
Hancock, Captain John Moulder, Lieutenant David Ford ; Ranger, Captain 
James Montgomer}', Lieutenant Gibbs Jones ; Warren, Captain Samuel David- 
son, Lieutenant Jeremiah Simmons ; Washington, Captain Henry Doughertj^, 
Lieutenant Nathan Boys. 

The cost of this fleet was estimated at £550 per boat ; the boats were pro- 
pelled by rowers, each boat carr3ang two howitzers, besides swivels, pikes, and 
muskets. Bj^ the 28th of December ten fire rafts were constructed, and Captain 
John Hazlewood appointed commander and superintendent over the whole fleet 
of rafts. These were thirt^'-five feet long and thirteen wide, the floors close and 
caulked, with a wash-board and rails to confine the materials. They were loaded 
with hogsheads and other casks, the staves of tar-barrels, oil-barrels, turpentine 
and resin casks, with hay or straw, turpentine, brimstone, and other combustible 
substances thrown into the hogsheads and between them, a quantity of pine wood 
intermixed, and powdered resin strewed over the whole to convey the fire with 
greater rapidity to ever}'^ part. 

To the naval force were added, in 177fi, two floating batteries called the Arnold 



1 56 HISTOR T OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

and the Putnam, a ship of war called the Montgomery, the ^tna, a fire sloop, 
and six guard boats. According to a return of the 1st of August, 1776, the 
number of vessels in commission was twenty-seven, and the number of men in 
actual naval service seven hundred and sixty -eight. 

On the 14th of September, 1775, John M. Nesbit was appointed paymaster, 
and on the 16th John Ross, muster master of the navy. The latter, in accepting 
the appointment, said he would undertake it for the good of the service, and 
would accept no pay therefor. He acted in this capacity until the 23d of Feb- 
ruary, 1776. On the 27th of September, Dr. Benjamin Rush was appointed 
surgeon, an:', on the 10th of October, Dr. Duffield, assistant-surgeon, each to re- 
ceive sixteen dollars per mouth for their services. Ou the 23d of October Cap- 
tain Thomas Read had the honor of receiving the appointment of commodore, 
the first officer of that title of the naval forces of America. 

Congress had, by resolution, allowed all merchant vessels until the month of 
September to get away from Philadelphia ; immediately after which two tiers of 
the chevaux-de-frize were sunk opposite Fort Island (called also Mud Island), 
just below the mouth of the Schuylkill, to which a third tier was added soon 
after. Two tiers were sunk farther down the river, near Marcus Hook, and 
many hulks of vessels in the diff"erent channels of the river. The track through 
these obstructions was concealed from general knowledge, and ten pilots were 
taken into the pay of the State, who alone conve^^ed vessels through the passage. 
The buoys were all removed from the Delaware below the city, and pilots were 
stationed at Lewes, Delaware, and at Cape May, wlio piloted vessels up as far 
as Chester, where the chevaux-de-frize pilots took charge of them. The fire- 
rafts were stationed part in Darby creek, on the Delaware side of the river, 
part in Mantua creek, on the Jei'sey side, eleven miles below Camden, and 
part in the Schuylkill river, and five vessels were stationed between the chevaux- 
de-frize, and the mouth of Woodberry creek, which is a little above Mantua 
creek. Signal and alarm-posts were established and alarm-boats stationed near 
them. Post No. 1 was at Cape-Henlopen, under charge of Major Henry Fisher, 
of Lewes; No. 3 at Mother-kill; No. 8 at Chester; No. 10 at Billingsport, and 
so on up to the city ; and thus news of the arrival of any vessels off Cape Hen- 
lopen were conve^^ed to the Committee within twenty-four hours. The usual 
station of the fl'eet was at Fort Island ; it was manned in part b}'^ sailors and 
crews of enlisted men, filled up, as occasion required, by the assoeiators. 

In October a Continental fleet was fitted out by Congress, at Philadelphia, 
and the Committee of Safety loaded its vessels with all the gunpowder it could 
spare, furnished it with a great quantity of arms, and in addition, resolved that 
its officers might enlist one hundred men from among the crews of the armed 
boats who were willing to enter the service of the United Colonies. Thife fleet 
left Philadelphia in December, 1775, but was frozen up near Reedy Island, 
and did not finally leave the bay until the 17th of February ensuing. About the 
same time the second battalion, first under the command of Col. John Bull, and 
afterwards that of Col. John Philip De Haas, the latter a brave officer of the 
Provincial service under Forbes and Bouquet, was organized. 

Towards the close of the year the Continental Congress made a further 
demand of four battalions, which were raised in a few weeks. These were placed 



GENERAL HISTORY. I57 

under the commands of Colonels Arthur St. Clair, John Shee, Anthony Wayne, 

and Robert Magaw. The sixth battalion, under Colonel William Irvine, 

1776. was organized in February, 1776. These commands were speedily 

forwarded to the front, a portion to Canada and the defences on 

the Hudson, the remainder to the main army. 

On the 20th of February, 1776, the Committee of Safety requested the 
Assembly to adopt measures for raising two thousand additional troops for the 
protection of the Province. The latter body took prompt action, resolving 
to " levy and take into pay fifteen hundred men, officers included, and that the 
men be enlisted to serve until the first day of January, 1778, subject to be 
discharged at any time upon the advance of a month's pay to each man." Two- 
thirds of the lines were to be rifle-men, divided into two battalions ; the 
remainder to consist of one battalion of musketry. The entire body was raised 
in six weeks, and rendezvoused at Marcus Hook. The rifle regiment was 
under the command of Colonel Samuel Miles, the musketry battalion that of 
Colonel Samuel J. Atlee. These officers saw good service during the French 
and Indian war, and it was not man}^ days ere the men were under remark- 
able discipline. This force, however, was severely worsted in the Long 
Island campaign. The principal officers remaining prisoners, the men were 
re-organized and recruited as the " Pennsylvania State Regiment of Foot," 
under Colonel John Bull. On the appointment of the latter as adjutant-general 
of the militia of the State, Colonel Walter Stewart assumed command. 

On the 13th of January, Andrew Caldwell was appointed commander-in- 
chief of the fleet, " he having been applied to fake the command and consenting 
thereto." On the 22d of the month a muster showed four hundred and ten men 
employed on board the armed boats. On the 3d of February the pay of the 
captains of the armed boats was increased to £10 per month, or $26.66; pay of 
the first lieutenants to $17 per month ; and of the second lieutenants to $17 
per month ; two-thirds of all prize money to be distributed among the captors, 
one-third to be retained by the Committee for use of the widows and children 
of those killed in battle. On the 13th of March seamen's wages were fixed at 
$7 per month, and two dollars bounty, to be paid one month after their enlistment. 
The commodore's pa}^ was $60 per month. 

On the 5th of March, John Mitchell was appointed muster master, and on 
the same day William Brown the first captain of marines, in the State service. 
On the 6th, Captain Thomas Read was made second in command of the fleet, 
and the boats all ordered to Fort Island. On the 9th, Captain Samuel David- 
son was appointed to the command of the floating battery Arnold, and John 
Mitchell had to his other duty added that of commissary of provisions for the 
naval forces. 

"The first opportunity given this fleet to defend its native waters," remarks 
Mr. Westcott, in his History of Philadelphia, " was when, on the night of the 
6th of May, 1776, an express arrived with the information that two ships of war 
and other vessels, supposed to be tenders, were coming up the river. The Com- 
mittee of Safety ordered Captain Thomas Read, commander of the ship Mont- 
gomery, and Andrew Caldwell, commodore, to proceed with the thirteen armed 
boats and fire-vessel Jiltna, to attack the enemy. The enemy's vessels were the 



158 HISTOlt Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

frigate Roebuck, Captain Hanunond, of forty-eight guns, and the sloop of war 
Liverpool, Captain Bellew, of twenty-eight guns, with their tenders. Captain 
Proctor, of the artillery, who had command at Fort Island, volunteered with one 
hundred men, and served on board the Hornet. The Montgomery, the Conti 
nenLal ship llci)risal. Captain Weeks, and the floating battery Arnold, remained 
near the chevaux-de-frize, in a line with the forts, but the boats proceeded 
down the river near the moutli of Christiana creek. 

" On the afternoon of the 8th, the flotilla came in sight of the enemy. The 
boats opened fire with spirit, the cannonade on both sides being very heavy, and 
lasting for three or four hours, with no particular damage on either side. So 
wrote Colonel Miles, who was on the river bank near Wilmington with one 
hundred riflemen, to render any assistance that might be necessary. The 
Roebuck ran aground, and the Liverpool came to anchor to cover her. During 
the engagement the Continental schooner Wasp, Captain Charles Alexander, 
which had been chased into Wilmington creek, came out amid the confusion, 
and captured an English brig belonging to the squadron. It being nearly dark, 
and the provincial vessels being but poorly provided with ammunition, firing 
ceased on botli sides. The British worked faithfully during the night, and 
succeeded in getting their vessels off. An American prisoner on board, said 
much solicitude was expressed about the movements of the fire-ship. For some 
reason no effort was made to send the ^tna against the Roebuck before she got 
off. On Thursday morning at five o'clock the action was renewed with so much 
vigor and skill that the ships were obliged to return to the capes. They were 
followed by the boats as far as New Castle. 

"The captains of the boats complained very much of the character of the 
supplies furnislied them by the Committee. On the second day they had to cut 
uptlieir blankets, trowsers, and stockings to compensate for defective cartridges; 
and they also cut up cables and netting for wads for the guns. The captains 
published a statement, setting forth these facts, and blaming the Committee 
of Safety for the comparative failure of tlie expedition. The Assembly 
appointed a committee to investigate the subject, which reported that the 
galleys had sufficient ammunition, and that the committee was not in fault. 
But this report was attacked by the captains, who alleged that the committee 
had never heard any evidence upon the subject. 

"• The boats brought up to the cit3-, after the action, splinters from the 
enemy's vessels knocked off" by the Ameiican shot, which were exhibited at the 
Coffee House, exciting much interest. The loss of the boats was one killed and 
two wounded ; the loss of the British, one man killed and five wounded. The 
Roebuck and the Liverpool resumed their old stations at Cape May, where they 
organized invasions of the neighboring shores, and captured all the American 
vessels tliat came within their reach." 

The deputies from Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress had been instruct- 
ed by tlie Provincial Assembly which appointed them to use their best efforts 
for redress of grievances. P'ailing in this. Congress, on the 15th of May, 177G, 
recommended that "tlie respective Assemblies and conventions of the United Col- 
onies, where no government sufficient to tlie exigencies of their affairs has been 
hitherto established, to adopt such government as shall, iu the opinion of the 



GENERAL HISTORY. I59 

rei^resentatives of the people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their 
constituents in particular, and America in general." 

A diversity of opinion existed in the Province upon this resolution, and on 
the 21st of the same month [May], a protest was presented to the representa- 
tives in Assembly against the authority of the House to interfere in the premi- 
ses, as being elected under authority derived from the Crown, and sworn to the 
King's allegiance, they were disqualified from acting on this recommendation. 
The petitioners did not, however, object to the exercise of the proper powers 
then existing for the uiaintainance of order until a new constitution, originating 
with and founded on the authority of the people, should be prepared and adopt- 
ed by a convention elected for that purpose. They accordingly asked that au- 
plicatiou should be made to the several county committees for the election of a 
convention empowered to carry out the recommendations of Congress. The 
Assembly referred the resolve of Congress to a committee, but took no further 
action, nor did the committee ever make a report. "The old Assembly," says 
Westcott, "which had adjourned on the 14th of June, to meet on the 14th of 
August, could not obtain a quorum, and adjourned again to the 23d of Septem- 
ber. It then interposed a feeble remonstrance against the invasion of its prero- 
gatives by the Convention, but it was a dying protest. The Declaration of 
Independence had given the old State Government a mortal blow, and it soon 
expired without a sigh — thus ending forever the Proprietary and royal authority 
in Pennsylvania." 

In the meantime, the Committee of Correspondence for Philadelphia issued a 
circular to all the county committees for a conference in that city on Tuesday, 
the 18th day of June. On the day appointed, the following deputies met at Car- 
penter's Hall, and organized by the election of Colonel Thomas McKean, presi- 
dent, Colonel Joseph Hart, vice-president, and Jonathan B. Smith and Samuel 
C. Morris, secretaries : 

For the Committee of the Cit}-, &c., of Philadelphia — Dr. Benjamin Franklin, 
Col. Tiiomas M'Kean, Mr. Christopher Marshall, Sen., Major John Ba3'ard, 
Col. Timothy Matlack, Col. Joseph Dean, Capt. Francis Gurney, Major William 
Coates, Mr. George Schlosser, Capt. Jonathan B, Smith, Capt. George Goodwin, 
Mr. Jacob Barge, Mr. Samuel C. Morris, Capt. Joseph Moulder, Mr. William 
Lowman, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Mr. Christopher Ludwig, Mr. James Miliigan, 
Mr. Jacob Schriner, Capt. Sharp Delaney, Major John Cox, Capt. Benjamin 
Loxlc}', Capt. Samuel Brewster, Capt. Josepli Blewer, Mr. William Robinson. 

Pliihulelphia count}' — Col. Henry Hill, Col. Robert Lewis, Dr. Enocli Ed- 
wards, Col. ^Villiam Hamilton, Col. John Bull, Col. Frederick Antis, Majo.* 
James Polts, Miijor Robert Loller, Mr. Joseph Mather, Mr. Matthew Brooks, 
Mr. Edward Bartholomew. 

Bucks — John Kidd, PJsq., Mnjor Henry Wynkoop, Mr. Benjamin Segle, Mr. 
James Wallace, Col. Joseph Hart. 

Chester — Col, Richard Thomas, Major Williams Evans, Col. Thomas Hock- 
ley, M'.jor Cnleb Davis, p]lislia Price, Esq., Mr. Saiiiuel Fairlamb, Capt. Thomas 
Levis, Col. William Montgomery, Col. Hugh Lloyd, Richard Reily, Esq., Col. 
Evan Evans, Col. Lewis Gronow, Major Sketchley Morton. 

Lancaster — William Atlee, Esq., Mr. Lodowick Lowman, Col. Bartram Gal- 



IgQ HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

braitb, Col. Alexander Lowrey, Major David Jenkins, Capt. Andrew Graaff, Mr. 
William Brown, Mr. John Smiley, Major James Cunningham. 

Berks— Col. Jacob Morgan, Col. Henry Haller, Col. Mark Bird, Dr. Bodo 
Otto, Mr. Benjamin Spyker, Col. Daniel Hunter, Col. Valentine Eckert, Col. 
Nicholas Lutz, Capt. Joseph Heister, Mr. Charles Shoemaker. 

Northampton— Robert Levers, Esq., Col. Neigal Gray, John Weitzel, Esq., 
Nicholas Depui, Esq., Mr. David Deshler, Mr. Benjamin Dupui. 

York— Col. James Smith, Col. Robert M'Pherson, Col. Richard M'Allister, 
Col. David Kennedy, Capt. Joseph Reed, Col. William Rankin, Col. Henry 
Slagle, Mr. James Edgar, Mr. John Hay. 

Cumberland— Mr. James M'Lane, Col. John Allison, John Maclay, Esq., 
William Elliot, Esq., Col. William Clark, Dr. John Calhoon, Mr. John Creigh, 
Mr. Hugh M'Cormick, Mr. John Harris, Mr. Hugh Alexander. 

Bedford— Col. David Espy, Samuel Davidson, Esq., Col. John Piper. 
Westmoreland — Mr. Edward Cook, Mr. James Perry. 

The Conference at once unanimously resolved, "That the present government 
of this Province is not competent to the exigencies of our affairs, and 

" That it is necessary that a Provincial Convention be called by this Confer- 
ence for the express purpose of forming a new government in this Province on 
the authority of the people only." 

Acting upon these, resolves, preparations were immediately taken to secure a 
proper representation in the Convention. The qualifications of an elector 
were defined. Ever}' voter was obliged to take an oath of renunciation of the 
authority of George the Third, and one of allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania, 
and a religious test was prescribed for the memlaers of the Convention. The 
following declaration was signed by all the deputies on the 24th of June, 
and presented to Congress : 

" We, the deputies of the people of Pennsylvania, assembled in full Provincial 
Conference, for forming a plan for executing the resolve of Congress of the 15th 
of May last, for suppressing all authority in this Province, derived from 
the Crown of Great Britain, and for establishing a government upon the autho- 
rity of the people only, now in this public manner in behalf of ourselves, and 
with the approbation, consent, and authority of our constituents, unanimously 
declare our willingness to concur in a vote of the Congress, declaring the United 
Colonies free and independent States : Provided, The forming the government 
and the regulation of the internal police of this Colony be always reserved to the 
people of the said Colony ; and we do further call upon the nations of Europe, 
and appeal to the Great Arbiter and Governor of the empires of the world, 
to witness for us, that this declaration did not originate in ambition, or in an 
impatience of lawful authority, but that we were driven to it in obedience to the 
first principles of nature, by the oppressions and cruelties of the aforesaid King 
and Parliament of Great Britain, as the only possible measure that was left us 
to preserve and establish our liberties, and to transmit them inviolate to 
posterity." 

The Conference adjourned on the 25th of June, after unanimously approving 
of the following address to the Associators of Penns3'lvania: 

" Gentlemen : The only design of our meeting together was to put an end 



(JK^^tntAL HlbTOUY. 161 

to our own power in the Province by fixing upon a plan for calling a convention 
to form a government under the authority of the people. But the sudden 
and unexpected separation of the Assembly has compelled us to undertake the 
execution of a resolve of Congress for calling forth 4, 500 of the militia of the 
Province to join the militia of the neighbouring colonies to form a camp for 
our immediate protection. We presume only to recommend the plan we 
have formed to you, trusting that in case of so much consequence your love 
of virtue and zeal for liberty will supply the want of authority delegated to 
us expressly for that purpose, 

" We need not remind you that you are now furnished with new motives 
to animate and support your courage. You are not about to contend against 
the power of Great Britain in order to displace one set of villains to make room 
for another. Your arms will not be enervated in the day of battle with the 
reflection that j'ou are to risk your lives or shed your blood for a British tyrant, 
or that your posterity will have your work to do over again. You are about to 
contend for permanent freedom, to be supported by a government which will be 
derived from yourselves, and which will have for its object not the enrolment of 
one man, or class of men onl3\ but the safety, liberty, and happiness of every 
individual in the communit}^ 

"We call upon you, therefore, by the respect and obedience which are 
due to the authority of the United Colonies, to concur in this important measure. 
The present campaign will probably decide the fate of America. It is now 
in your power to immortalize your names by mingling your achievements with 
tlie events of the year 1776 — a year which we hope will be famed in the 
annals of history to the end of time, for establishing upon a lasting foundation 
the liberties of one-quarter of the globe. 

" Remember the honor of our Colony is at stake. Should yow desert the com- 
mon cause at the present juncture, the glory you have acquired by your former 
exertions of strength and virtue will be tarnished, and our friends and brethren 
who are now acquiring laurels in the most remote parts of America will reproach 
us and blush to own themselves natives or inhabitants of Pennsylvania. But 
there are other motives before you — your houses, your fields, the legacies of 
your ancestors, or the dear-bought fruits of your own industry and your liberty 
• — now urge you to the field. These cannot plead with you in vain, or we might 
point out to you further — your wives, your children, your aged fathers and 
mothers, who now look up to you for aid and hope for salvation in this day of 
calamity only from the instrumentality of your swords. Remember the name of 
Pennsylvania. Think of 3'our ancestors and of your posterity." 

Early the same month Congress " resolved, that a Flying Camp be 
immediately established in the middle Colonies, and that it consist of ten 
thousand men," to complete which number, it was ordered that the Province of 
Pennsylvania be required to furnish six thousand of the militia. This force 
was to be enlisted for six months. The Conference of Committees then in 
session resolved subsequently that four thousand five hundred of the militia 
should be embodied, which with fifteen hundred then in the pay of the Province 
would make up the six thousand required by Congress. The Flying Camp was 
accordingly soon formed. It consisted of three brigades, two of which were 



162 HISTOE Y OF PENNS YL VAWIA. 

commanded respectively by Brigadier-Generals James Ewing and Daniel Rober- 
deau, of Pennsylvania. The other officer was from Maryland. The object in 
forming this body seems to have been not only to show the enemy the power of 
the nation they warred against, but also to render assistance to General Wash- 
ington in case of offensive or defensive operations. The Flying Camp is closely 
united with the honors and the sufferings of many men in Pennsylvania. They 
underwent " the hard fate of war " in the Jerseys, and are intimately connected 
with the glories achieved at Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth. 

Toward the last of June, apprehending an immediate attack upon Philadel- 
phia by way of the river, the Committee of Safety continued to increase its 
defences, in order to be prepared for the enemy. The two tiers of chevaux-de- 
frize first constructed were probably defective, and in consequence two addi- 
tional tiers were sunk, one opposite Billingsport and the other in range with the 
fires of the Fort. It becoming obvious in a few days that New York, and not 
Philadelphia, was to be attacked. Col. Miles' command was ordered to Phila- 
delphia, and letters were dispatched by the Committee to the colonels of the 
different battalions of the counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Lancaster, and 
Chester, requesting they would hold themselves in readiness to march at an 
hour's warning. 

We now come to the most momentous epoch in the history not only of the 
State, but of the Nation. The first actual approval of independence by State 
authority was in North Carolina. The convention of that State, on the 22d of 
April, 1116, directed their delegates to " concur with those of other States in 
establishing independence." Then followed tlie action of Virginia, the conven- 
tion of which resolved unanimously that their delegates in Congress should 
propose to that body to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, 
absolved from all allegiance to or dependence on the King and Parliament of 
Great Britain. The delegates in Congress from Pennsylvania, by their instruc- 
tions of the 9th of November, 1775, were expressly commanded to resist this 
measure, as they had been to oppose ever}^ proposition for changing the form of tlie 
Provincial government. From this restriction they were, however, released by a 
resolution of the Assembly, adopted at the instance of some petitioners from the 
counties of Lancaster and Cumberland, authorizing them " to concur with the 
other delegates in Congress in forming such further contracts between the United 
Colonies, concluding such treaties with foreign kingdoms and states, and adopting 
such other measures, as, upon a view of all circumstances, shall be judged 
necessary for promoting the liberty, safety, and interests of America ; reserving 
to the people of this Colony the sole and exclusive right of regulating its inter- 
nal government and police." The reluctance with which the Assembly granted 
this authority is demonstrated by their concluding observations. " The happi- 
ness of these Colonies," they said, " has, during the whole course of this fatal 
controversy, been our first wish ; their reconciliation with Great Britain our next. 
Ardently have we prayed for the accomplishment of both. But if we must 
renounce the one or the other, we humbly trust in the mercies of the Supreme 
Governor of the Universe, that we shall not stand condemned before His throne, 
if our choice is determined by that overruling lavv of self-preservation, which 
His divine wisdom has thought proper to implant in the hearts of His creatures." 



GENERAL HISTORY. 163 

The committee which reported these instructions consisted of Messrs. Dickinson 
Morris, Reed, Clymer, Wilcocks, Pearson, and Smith. 

The action of the Pennsylvania Conference has been referred to. The public 
mind throughout the Colonies was now fully prepared for a declaration of 
independence. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, which displayed such reluctance, 
now assented to the measure. On the 7th of June the proposition was made in 
Congress by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, seconded by John Adams, of 
Massachusetts, that the " United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and 
independent states ; and that all political connection between them and the State 
of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totall}^ dissolved." This resolution was 
referred to a committee of the whole Congress, where it was daily debated. In 
favor of independence, Lee and Adams were the most distinguished speakers, the 
latter of whom has been characterized as the "ablest advocate " of the measure; 
and their most formidable opponent was John Dickinson. 

Although the latter, by his political writings, had been powerfully instru- 
mental in preparing the people for this end, yet when the time came, he endea- 
vored to allay the undue excitement. " Prudence," he said, " required that they 
should not abandon certain for uncertain objects. Two hundred years of happi- 
ness and present prosperity', resulting from English laws, and the union with 
Great Britain, demonstrated that America could be wisely governed by the King 
and Parliament. It was not as independent, but as subject States, not as a 
republic, but as a monarchy, that the Colonies had attained to power and great- 
ness. What then," he exclaimed, "is the object of these chimeras hatched in the 
days of discord and war ? Shall the transports of fury sway us more than the 
experience of ages, and induce us to destroy, in a moment of anger, the work 
which had been cemented and tried by time. The restraining power of the King 
and Parliament was indispensable to protect the Colonies from disunion and civil 
war; and the most cruel hostility which Britain could wage against them, the 
surest mode of compelling obedience, would be to leave them a prey to their 
own jealousies and animosities. For, if the dread of English arms were 
removed, province would rise against province, city against cit}', and the 
weapons now assumed to combat the common enemy would be turned against 
themselves. 

" Necessity would then compel them to seek the tutelary powe • they had 
jashly abjured : and, if again received under its aegis, it would be no longer as 
freemen, but as slaves. In their infancy, and without experience, they had given 
no proof of ability to walk without a guide; and, judging of the future by the 
past, they must infer that their concord would not outlive their danger. Even 
when supported by the powerful hand of England, the Colonies had abandoned 
themselves to discords, and sometimes to violence, from the paltry motives of 
territorial limits, and distant jurisdictions: what, then, might they not expect, 
when their minds were heated, ambition roused, and arms in the hands of all. 

" If union with England gave them means of internal peace, it was not less 
necessary to procure the respect of foreign powers. Hitherto, their intercourse 
with the world had been maintained under the name and arms of England. Not 
as Americans — a people scarce known — but as Englishmen, they had obtained 
entrance and favor in foreign ports : separated from her, the nations would treat 



1 64 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

them with disdain, the pirates of Europe and Africa would assail their vessels, 
massacre their seamen, or subject them to perpetual slavery." 

As far-seeing a man as John Dickinson was, he could not fully comprehend 
the idea of a separate existence of the Colonies from the mother country, and 
yet no purer patriot breathed the air of freedom. A zealous advocate of liberty, 
it was, as stated, his words that startled the Colonies and struck the key-note 
which aroused the energies of the provincialists and bade them contend for inde- 
pendence. Notwithstanding his over-cautiousness, nay hesitancy, the declara- 
tion having been determined on, Dickinson entered heartily into its support and 
took an active part in all the affairs transpiring in the Colonies — even wielding 
his sword in the cause. 

On the first day of July, a vote in committee of the whole was taken in Con- 
gress, upon the resolution declaratory of independence. It was approved by all 
the Colonies except Pennsylvania and Delaware. Seven of the delegates from 
the former were present, of whom four voted against it. Caesar Rodney, one of 
the delegates from the latter, was absent, and the other two, Thomas M'Kean 
and George Read, were divided in opinion, M'Kean voting in favor and Read 
against the resolution. At the request of a colony, the proposition having been 
reported to the house, was postponed until the next day, when it was fi.nally 
adopted and entered upon the journals. 

Pending the consideration of this important question, a committee, consisting 
of Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Sherman, and R. R. Livingston, was 
appointed to prepare a Declaration of Independence. Adams and Jefferson 
were appointed a sub-committee, and the original draft of this eloquent mani- 
festo was made by Jefferson. It was adopted by the committee without 
amendment, and reported to Congress on the twenty-eighth of June. On the Uh 
of July, having received some alterations, it was sanctioned by the vote of every 
Colony. 

Two of the members from Pennsylvania, Morris and DicKinson, were 
absent ; Franklin, Wilson, and Morton, voted for, and Willing and Humphreys, 
against it. To secure the vote of Delaware, M'Kean sent an express for 
Rodney, who, though eighty miles from Philadelphia, arrived in time to unite 
with him in tlie vote. 

The Declaration was directed to be engrossed, and, on the second of August, 
11 76, was signed by all the members then present, and by some who were not 
members at the time of its adoption. Among the latter were Colonels George 
Ross and James Smith, Dr. Benjamin Rush, George Clymer, and George 
Taylor, who had been elected by the Pennsylvania Convention, in the place of 
Messrs. Dickinson, Willing, and Humphreys, who had opposed it. 

On the 5th of July circular letters were sent by Congress to the Assemblies, 
Conventions, and Councils of Safety of the various States, requesting that the 
Declaration of Independence should be officially proclaimed. In Pennsylvania 
the Committee resolved on the latter — that the instrument should be read by 
the Sheriff of Philadelphia, or by some person under his direction, at the State 
House, on Monday the 8th of July. At the same time it was directed that the 
Kino-'s arms should be taken down from the court room and publicly burned by 
nine associators appointed for the purpose. 



GENEBAL HISTOBY. 1,;5 

On the day in question, the Committee of Observation for Philadelphia 
marched to the lodge room, in Lodge Alley, occupied by the Committee of 
Safety ; from thence both bodies proceeded to the State House yard, where John 
Nixon, a member of the Committee of Safety, on behalf of the proper officer, 
read the Declaration of Independence, " The instrument," says Mr. Westcott 
"was heard with attention, and received with hearty and warm applause. In 
the afternoon the five battalions were mustered on the commons, and the Decla- 
ration was proclaimed to each of them. In the evening the King's arms were 
torn down, as had been previously arranged, and burned, amidst the acclama- 
tions of a large crowd of spectators. Bells were rung, bonfires were lighted, 
and, upon this joyful occasion, the old bell of the State House, bearing upon its 
sides the remarkable motto '■Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land, unto all 
the Inhabitants thereof,^ was probably first rung in honor of the joj'ful change 
of affairs." 

The delegates to the Convention to frame a constitution for the new o-overn- 
ment consisted of the representative men of the State — men selected for their 
ability, patriotism, and personal popularit3^ Thej^ met at Philadelphia, on the 
15th of Jul3^, each one taking, without hesitancy, the prescribed test, and 
organized by the selection of Benjamin Franklin, president, George Ross, vice- 
president, and John Morris and Jacob Garrigues, secretaries. On the 18th 
of the month, Owen Biddle, Colonel John Bull, the Rev. Wm. Vanhorn, John 
Jacobs, Colonel George Ross, Colonel James Smith, Jonathan Hoge, Colonel 
Jacob Morgan, Colonel Jacob Stroud, Colonel Thomas Smith, and Robert Mar- 
tin, were appointed to " make an essay for a declaration of rights for this State." 
On the 24th the same persons were directed to draw up an essay for a frame or 
S3'stem of government, and John Lesher was appointed in place of Colonel JMor- 
gan, who was absent with leave. 

On the 25th of July, Colonel Timothy Matlack, James Cannon, Colonel 
James Potter, David Rittenhouse, Robert Whitehill, and Colonel Bartram Gal- 
braith, were added to the Committee on the Frame of Government. On the 
28th of September, the Convention completed its labors b}^ adopting the first 
State Constitution, which went into immediate eff"ect, without a vote of the 
people. During the session of the Convention, says Mr. Westcott, it not only 
discussed and perfected the measures necessary in the adoption of a Constitu- 
tion, but assumed the supreme authority in the State, and legislated upon 
matters foreign to the object for which it was convened. Among other matters 
this bod}^ appointed a Council of Safety, to carry on the executive duties of the 
government, approved of the Declaration of Independence, and appointed 
justices of the peace, who were required, before assuming their functions, to each 
tal»8 an oath of renunciation of the authority of George III., and one of allegi- 
ance to the State of Pennsylvania. 

The legislative power of the frame of government was vested in a General 
Assembly of one House, elected annuall3% The supreme executive power was 
vested in a President, chosen annually by the Assembly and Council, by joint 
ballot — the Council consisting of twelve persons, elected in classes, for a term 
of three years. 

A Council of Censors, consisting of two persons from each city and county, 



] 66 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

was to be elected in 1183, and in every seventh yeai' thereafter, whose duty it 
was to make inquiry as to whether the Constitution had been preserved inviolate 
during the last septennary, and whether the executive or legislative branches of 
the government had performed their duties as guardians of the people, or 
assumed to themselves, or exercised other or greater powers than they were 
entitled to by the Constitution. They were also to inquire whether the public 
taxes had been justly levied and collected, in all parts of the Commonwealth ; 
in what manner the public moneys had been disposed of, and whether the laws 
had been duly executed. For these purposes they had power to send for 
persons, papers, and records, and they could pass public censures, order 
impeachments, and recommend to the Legislature the repeal of such laws as 
appeared to have been enacted contrary to the principles of the Constitution. 
Their powers were to continue one year, and they might call a convention to 
meet within two years, if deemed absolutely necessary, for amending any 
article of the Constitvition that might appear defective, or for explaining any 
that might be thought to be not clearly explained, or for adding such as might 
appear necessary for the preservation of the rights and happiness of the people. 
The articles to be amended were to be published six months before election, in 
order that the people might have opportunity of instructing their delegates 
concerning them 

This Constitution, although defective, was not for some years remedied. 
The Assembl}^, in 177*7, adopted measures looking to a calling of a convention, 
and an election ordered for delegates thereto by a resolution on 28th November, 
1778, but so highly incensed were the people of the State at what they consi- 
dered an uncalled-for action on the j^art of the Legislature, that body rescinded 
the motion by a vote of forty-seven to seven, nine-tenths of the qualified voters 
remonstrating. 

The scarcity of salt exciting serious apprehensions. Congress passed resolu- 
tions against a monopoly of that article, and the Council of Safety purchased 
a quantity to distribute through the State. They established salt works on 
Tom's river. New Jersey, but some time elapsed before these works were pro- 
ductive. 

The necessities of the Continental service caused the Council of Safety to 
place the State battalions of Colonels Samuel Miles, Samuel J. Atlee, and Daniel 
Brodhead at the disposal of Congress. The}'' were marched to Long Island, 
where, with the Continental regiments of the Pennsylvania Line, viz. : Colonels 
Shee's, Magaw's, and Lambert Cadwallader's, they were engaged in battle on the 
27th of August, wliich resulted in the defeat of the American forces and the 
evacuation of Long Island. The Pennsylvania troops sustained serious loss. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Caleb Perry, of the musketmen, was killed, as also Lieu- 
tenant Charles Taylor, of the second battalion of riflemen, and Lieutenant 
Joseph Moore, of the musketmen. Colonel Samuel Miles and Lieutenant- 
Colonel James Piper, of the first riflemen, and Colonel Samuel J. Atlee, of 
the third, with other officers, were taken prisoners. 

On the 16th of November Fort Washington was reduced, and as in the 
engagement at Long Island, the Pennsylvania troops were severe sufterers. 
Morgan's, Cadwallader's, Atlee's, Swope's, Watts', and Montgomery's battalions 



GENERAL HISTOliY. 169 

'' Well," said General Sullivan, " we must fight them with the bayonet." From 
Birmingham to Trenton the distance by the river road and the Scotch road 
is nearly equal, being about four and a half miles. 

The troops were formed in two divisions. One of them, commanded b}' 
General Sullivan, marched down the river road. The other, commanded by 
General Washington, accompanied by Generals Lord Stirling, Greene, Mercer, 
and Stevens, filed off to the left, crossed over to the Scotch road, and went 
down this road till it enters the Pennington road about a mile above Trenton. 
Scarcely a word was spoken from the time the troops left the ferry till they 
reached the town, and with such stillness did the army move that they were not 
discovered until they came upon the out-guard of the enemy, which was posted 
in the outskirts of the town, when one of the sentries called to the out-guard and 
asked, " Who is there ?" " A friend," was the reply. " A friend to whom ?" 
"A friend to General Washington." At this the sentinel fired, retreating. 
The American troops immediately returned the tire, and, marching upon them, 
drove them into town. The artillery, under Colonel (afterwards General) Knox, 
soon got into position, and entiladed the main street. The infantry supported 
the artillery, and the enemy were thrown into confusion. One regiment 
attempted to form in an orchard, but were soon forced to fall back upon 
their main body. A company of them entered a stone house, which they 
defended with a field-piece, judiciously posted in the hall ; but Captain 
(afterwards Colonel) Washington advanced to dislodge them. Finding his 
men exposed to a close and steady fire, he suddenly leaped from them, rushed 
into the house, seized the officer who had command of the gun, and claimed 
him prisoner. His men followed him, and the whole company were made 
prisoners. In the meanwhile victory declared itself everywhere in favor of 
the American arms. 

General Rahl, who commanded the Hessians, was mortally wounded early in 
the engagement. He was taken to his headquarters, where he died of his 
wounds. The number of prisoners was twenty-three officers and eight hundred 
and eighty-six privates. The loss of the enemy in killed was seven officers and 
thirty privates ; that of the Americans, two privates killed and two frozen 
to death. Had General Ewing's division been able to cross the Delaware 
as contemplated, and taken possession of the bridge on the Assunpink, all 
the enemy that were in Trenton would have been captured ; but owing to so 
much ice on the shores of the river, it was impossible to get the artillery over 
As it was, the victory greatly revived the drooping spirits, not only of Lhe 
army, but of the Union. Before night the forces of Washington, with their 
prisoners and other trophies of victory, had safely landed on the Pennsylvania 
side of the river. 

After the battle at Trenton, General Putnam hastened to rejoin the army, 
leaving General Irvine in command of Philadelphia. Subsequently General 
Gates succeeded the latter. 

Close upon the victory at Trenton followed the action at Princeton, on the 

2d day of January, 1111. In this battle the Philadelphia City Troop, 

1777. under the command of Captain Samuel 3Iorris, and Captain William 

Brown's company of marines, belonging to the Pennsylvania ship 



no 



HIS TOR T OF PENNS TL VANIA. 



Montgomery, distinguished themselves by their bravery. At Princeton fell the 
brave General Hugh Mercer, and a number of other officers and men. 

The members of the Supreme Executive Council, chosen under the Constitu- 
tion of the State, at the election in February, assembled on the 4th of March, 
and proceeded to an organization, and the Council of Safety was dissolved. In 
joint convention with the Assembly, Thomas Wharton, Jr.,* was elected 
President, and George Bryan, Vice-President. To give due dignity to the 
executive of the new government, the inauguration took place on the following 
day, the 5th, with much pomp and ceremony, at the court house. 

On the 13th of March, the Supreme Execu- 
tive Council appointed a Navy Board, to whom 
was committed all powers necessary for the 
good of that service. This board entered very 
promptly upon the duties of its appointment, 
meeting with many difficulties, boats out of 
repair and inefficiently manned, difficulties 
about rank in the fleet, all of which it succeeded 
in overcoming. In April, when it was thought 
Philadelphia woi;ld be attacked, this board was 
invested with all powers in its department 
necessary to ensure the public safety, and a pro- 
clamation was issued forbidding the sailing of 
all vessels from the port without its permission. 
The association system failing, the Assem- 
bly addressed itself to the task of establishing a regular and permanent mili- 
tia, and a Board of War, consisting of nine members, was appointed to assist 
in carr^dug out the provisions of the new militia law. 

Early in June, General Howe, commander of the British forces at New York, 
showed a disposition to advance by land across New Jersey, and to take posses- 
sion of Philadelphia. On the 14th of that month he actually made an advance 
by two columns, which led General Washington to believe that this was his real 
intention. This information being communicated to Congress, the same day 
that body directed " that the second-class of the militia of the counties of 
Philadelphia, Chester, Bucks, Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Berks, and North- 
ampton, be ordered to march to the places to which the first class of the said 
counties respectively are ordered, and that the third class be got in readiness to 
march, and also, that the first and second classes of the city militia be ordered 
to march to Bristol, and the third class hold themselves in readiness to march at 
the shortest notice." This order was promptly responded to by the Supreme 
Executive Council of the State, who issued a circular letter to the lieutenants of 




THOMAS WHARTON, JR., 



* Thomas Wharton, Jr., M-as born in Philadelphia in 1735. He was descended from 
an ancient English family, and was the grandson of Richard Wharton, who emigrated to 
Pennsylvania in 1683. President Wharton was twice married, first to Susan, daughter of 
Thomas Lloyd, and subsequently to Elizabeth, daughter of William Fishbourn. He was 
a warm supporter of the principles of the Revolution, and on the change of government, 
was elected to the highest office in the State. He died suddenlj^ at Lancaster, on the 23d 
of May, 1778. He was buried with military honors, and at the request of the vestry, was 
interred within the walls of Trinity church in that city. 



GENERAL HISTORY. 171 

the counties named " to forward the first-class of militia immediately, and to 
hold the second class in readiness to march at the shortest notice." One 
hundred wagons were also directed to be sent. The militia, we will state here 
was divided into eight classes. When a class was called out, many belongino- 
to it could not or would not go. The deficiency was made up by the emplo}-- 
ment of substitutes, either taken from the other classes, or from those not 
subject by law to the performance of military duty. These substitutes were 
procured by means of a bounty, which was paid by the State, to be remunerated 
by the fines imposed on delinquents, and varied from £15 to £50 for two months 
service. In some regiments the number of substitutes nearly equalled the num- 
ber of those regularly drafted. The system of employing substitutes at high 
rates was much complained of by the officers of the regular army, who regarded 
it as a serious obstruction to recruiting by enlistments. 

The marching of General Howe, it seems, was intended to draw General 
Washington from the strong position he then occupied, and in that event to give 
him battle, which he declined to do, as our troops were then posted. Wash- 
ington wisely refused to risk his army in an open field fight, and Howe would 
not venture to cross the Delaware, leaving so large a force as that commanded 
by Washington in his rear, so that Philadelphia was again relieved from being 
attacked by the way of New Jersey. It having become apparent, therefore, that 
General Howe had definitely changed his plan for gaining possession of Phila- 
delphia, the marching orders for all the militia, except those of Chester and 
Philadelphia, were countermanded. 

Early in July, news of the embarkation of a large British force at New York 
very reasonably suggested the idea that the attack on the capital of Pennsyl- 
vania would be by way of the river Delaware, and that perchance was 
General Howe's intention when he sailed. Every effort was accordingly made 
for the defence of the river. On the 2'7th of July certain information was 
received by the Council of Safety of the approach of the British fleet towards 
the Delaware bay. The news produced the highest degree of excitement among 
the inhabitants, and induced the authorities of the State to redouble their 
exertions. The day following. Congress made a requisition on the Supreme 
Executive Council for four thousand militia, in addition to those already in 
service, in response to which the authorities ordered one class to be immediately 
called into service " to march for Chester." 

The diflTerent detachments of the army under Washington were also directed 
to repair to the vicinity of Philadelphia, while the militia of Maryland, Dela- 
ware, and Northern Virginia, were ordered by forced marches to join the Penn- 
sylvania troops. It was at this time that Washington first met Lafayette, who 
had recently arrived in Philadelphia. Lafayette, invited by Washington, at once 
took up his quarters with the commander-in-chief, and shared all the privations 
of the camp. 

After entering Delaware bay. General Howe found some difficulty in the 
navigation of his immense naval armament. He retraced his steps to the ocean, 
deciding to make his approach by the way of the Chesapeake. 

On the 25th of August, the British army, consisting of eighteen thousand 
men, including a portion of the Hessian force, was disembarked not far from 



172 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

the head of the river Elk. It was plentifully furnished with all the equipage of 
war, excepting the defect of horses, as well for the cavalry as for the baggage. 
The scarcity of forage had caused many of them to perish the preceding winter, 
and a considerable number had died also in the late passage. 

This was a serious disadvantage for the royal troops, who, in this section 
of Pennsylvania, might have employed cavalry with singular effect. On the 
28th, the English vanguard arrived at the head of the Elk, and the day follow- 
ino- at Gray's hill. Here it was afterwards joined by the rear guard under 
General Knyphausen, who had been left upon the coast to cover the debarkation 
of the stores and artillery. 

The whole army took post behind the river Christiana, having Newark upon 
the right, and Pencander or Atkins on the left. A column commanded by Lord 
Cornwallis having fallen in with Maxwell's riflemen, routed and pursued them 
as far as the farther side of White Clay creek, in which the patriots lost forty 
in killed and wounded. The loss of the enemy was somewhat less. 

The American army, in order to encourage the partisans of independence, 
and overawe the disaffected, marched through the city of Philadelphia ; it after- 
wards advanced towards the enemy, and encamped behind White Clay creek. 
A little after, leaving only the riflemen in the camp, Washington retired with 
the main body of his army behind the Red Clay creek, occupying with his right 
wing the town of Newport, situated near the Christiana, and upon the great 
road to Philadelphia ; his left was at Hockhesson. But this line was little capa- 
ble of defence. 

The enemy, reinforced by the rear guard under General Grant, threatened 
with his right the centre of the Americans, and extended his left as if with the 
intention of turning their right flank, Washington saw the danger, and retired 
with his troops behind the Brandywine ; he encamped on the rising ground 
which extend from Chadd's Ford, in the direction of northwest to southeast. 
The riflemen of Maxwell scoured the right bank of the Brandywine, in order to 
harass and retard the enemy. The militia, under the command of General Arm- 
strong, guarded a passage below the principal encampment of Washington, and 
the right wing lined the banks of the river higher up, where the passages were 
most difficult. The passage of Chadd's Ford, as the most practicable of all, was 
defended by the chief force of the army. The troops being thus disposed, the 
American general waited the approach of the English. Although the Brandy- 
wine, beino; fordable almost evervwhere, could not serve as a sufficient defence 
against the impetuosity of the enemy, yet Washington had taken post upon its 
banks, from a conviction that a battle was now inevitable, and that Philadelphia 
could only be saved by a victory. General Howe displayed the front of his army, 
but not, however, without great circumspection. Being arrived at Kennet Square, 
a short distance from the river, he detached his light-horse to the right upon Wil- 
mington, to the left upon the Lancaster road, and in the front towards Chadd's 
Ford. The two armies found themselves within seven miles of each other, the 
Brandywine flowing between them. 

Early in the morning of the 11th of September, the British army marched to- 
ward the enem3^ Howe had formed his army in two columns, the right command- 
ed by General Knyphausen, the left by Lord Cornwallis. His plan was, that while 



GENEBAL HISTORY. 173 

the first should make repeated feints to attempt the passage of Chadd's Ford, 
in order to occupy the attention of the Americans, the second should take a long 
circuit to the upper part of the river, and cross at a place where it is divided 
into two shallow streams. The English marksmen fell in with those of Max- 
well, and a smart skirmish was immediately engaged. The latter were at first 
repulsed ; but being reinforced from the camp, they compelled the English to re- 
tire in their turn. But at length, they also were reinforced, and Maxwell was 
constrained to withdraw his detachment behind the river. Meanwhile, Knyp- 
hausen advanced with his column, and commenced a furious cannonade upon the 
passage of Chadd's Ford, making all his dispositions as if he intended to force it. 
The Americans defended themselves with gallantry, and even passed several detach- 
ments of light troops to the other side, in order to harass the enemy's fianks. But 
after a course of skirmishes, sometimes advancing, and at others obliged to retire, 
they were finally, with an eager pursuit, driven over the river. Knyphausen then 
appeai'ed more than ever determined to pass the Ford ; he stormed, and kept up 
an incredible noise. In this manner the attention of the Americans was fully oc- 
cupied in the neighborhood of Chadd's Ford. Meanwhile, Lord Cornwallis, at the 
head of the second column, took a circuitous march to the left, and gained unper- 
ceived the forks of the Brandywine. By this rapid movement, he passed both 
branches of the river, at Trimble's and at Jefferis' fords, without opposition, 
about two o'clock in the afternoon, and then turning short down the river, took 
the road to Dilworth, in order to fall upon the right flank of the American army. 
General Washington, however, received intelligence of this movement about 
noon, and, as it usually happens in similar cases, the reports exaggerated its im- 
portance exceedingly ; it being represented that General Howe commanded this 
division in person, Washington therefore decided immediately for the most ju- 
dicious, though boldest measure ; this was to pass the river with the centre and 
left wing of his army, and overwhelm Knyphausen by the most furious attack. 
He justly reflected that the advantage he should obtain upon the enemy's right 
would amply compensate the loss that h.is own might sustain at the same time. 
Accordingly, he ordered General Sullivan to pass the Brandywine with his divi- 
sion at an upper ford, and attack the left of Knyphausen, while he, in person, 
should cross lower down, and fall upon the right of that general. 

They were both already in motion in order to execute this design, when a 
second report arrived which represented what had really taken place as false, 
or in other words, that the enemy had not crossed the two branches of the river, 
and that he had not made his appearance upon the right flank of the American 
troops. Deceived by this false intelligence, Washington desisted, and Greene, 
who had already passed with the vanguard, was ordered back. In the midst of 
these uncertainties, the commander-in-chief at length received the positive 
assurance, not only that the English had appeared upon the left bank, but also 
that they were about to fall in great force upon the right wing. This was 
composed of the brigades of Generals Stephen, StMing, and Sullivan. The 
first was the most advanced, and consequently the nearest to the English ; the 
two others were i osted in the order of their rank, that of Sullivan being next 
to the centre. The latter was immediately detached from the main body to 
support the two former brigades, and, being the senior oflflcer, took the com- 



] 74 HlSTOIl Y OF PENNS YL VANIA . 

mancl of the whole wing. Washington himself, followed by General Greene, 
approached with two strong divisions towards this wing, and posted himself 
between it and the corps he had left at Chadd's Ford, under General Wayne, 
supported by Proctor's artillery, to oppose the passage of Knyphausen, These 
divisions, under the immediate orders of the commander-in-chief, served as a 
corps of reserve, ready to march, according to circumstances, to the succor of 
Sullivan or of Wayne. 

But the column of Cornwallis was already in sight of the Americans. 
Sullivan drew up his troops on the commanding ground above Birmingham 
meeting-house, with his left extending towards the Brandywine, and both his 
flanks covered with very thick woods. His artillery was advantageously 
planted upon the neighboring hills ; but it appears that Sullivan's own brigade, 
having taken a long circuit, arrived too late upon the field of battle, and had not 
yet occupied the position assigned it when the action commenced. The British, 
having reconnoitered the dispositions of the Americans, immediately formed, 
and fell upon them with the utmost impetuosity. The engagement became 
equally fierce on both sides about four o'clock in the afternoon. For some 
length of time the Americans defended themselves wath great valor, and the 
carnage was terrible. But such was the emulation which invigorated the efforts 
of the British and Hessians, that neither the advantages of situation, nor a 
heavy and well-supported fire of small-arms and artiller^^, nor the unshaken 
courage of the Americans, were able to resist their impetuosity. The light 
infantry, chasseurs, grenadiers, and guards, threw themselves with such fury 
into the midst of the Continental battalions, that they were forced to give wa}'. 
'iiieir left flank was first thrown into confusion, but the rout soon became 
general. The vanquished fled into the woods in their rear; the victors pursued, 
and advanced by the great road towards Dilworth. On the first fire of the 
artillery, Washington, having no doubt of what was passing, had pushed 
forward the reserve to the succor of Sullivan. But this corps, on approaching 
the field of battle, fell in with the fiying. soldiers of Sullivan, and perceived that 
no hope remained of retrieving the fortune of the day. General Greene, b}' a 
judicious manffiuvre, opened his ranks to receive the fugitives, and after their 
passage, having closed them anew, he retired in good order, checking the 
pursuit of the enemy by a continual fire of the artillery which covered his rear. 
Having come to a defile, covered on both sides with woods, he drew up his men 
there, and again faced the enemy. His corps was composed of Virginians and 
Pennsylvanians ; they defended themselves with gallantry, and made an heroic 
stand. 

Knyphausen, finding the Americans to be fully engaged on their right, and 
observing that the corps opposed to him at Chadd's Ford was enfeebled by the 
troops which had been detached to the succor of Sullivan, began to make 
dispositions for crossing the river in reality. The passage of Chadd's Ford was 
defended by an intrenchment and battery. The Americans stood firm at first ; 
but upon intelligence of the defeat of their right, and seeing some of the British 
troops who had penetrated through the woods, come out upon their flank, they 
retired in disorder, abandoning their artillery and munitions to the Hessian 
general. In their retreat, or rather flight, they passed behind the position of 
G.Mieral Greene, who still defended himself, and was the last to quit the field of 



GENERAL HISTORY. 1^5 

battle. Finall}', it being already dark, after a long and obstinate conflict, he 
also retired. The whole army retreated that night to Chester, and the day 
following to Philadelphia. 

There the fugitives arrived incessantly, having effected their escape through 
by-ways and circuitous routes. Th^ victors passed the night on the field of 
battle. If darkness had not arrived seasonably, it is very probable that the 
whole American army would have been destroyed. Their loss was computed at 
about three hundred killed, six hundred wounded, and near four hundred taken 
prisoners. They also lost ten field-pieces and a howitzer. The loss in the 
royal army was not in proportion, being something under five hundred, of 
which the slain did not amount to one-fifth. 

The French officers were of great utility to the Americans, as well in forming 
the troops as in rallying them when thrown into confusion. One of them, the 
Baron St. Ouary, was made a prisoner, to the great regret of Congress, who 
bore him a particular esteem. Captain De Fleury had a horse killed under him 
in the hottest of the action. The Congress gave him another a few days after. 
The Marquis De Lafayette, while he was endeavoring, by his words and 
example, to rally the fugitives, was wounded in the leg. He continued, never- 
theless, to fulfil his duty, both as a soldier in fighting and as a general in cheer- 
ing the troops and re-establishing order. The Count Pulaski, a noble Pole, also 
displayed an undaunted courage at the head of the light-horse. The Congress 
manifested their sense of his merit by giving him, shortly after, the rank of 
brigadier, and the command of the cavalry. 

If all the American troops in the action of the Brandywine had fought with 
the same intrepidity as the Virginians and Pennsylvanians, and especially if 
Washington had not been led into error by a false report, perhaps, notwith- 
standing the inferiority of numbers and the imperfection of arms, he would have 
gained the victory, or, at least, would have made it more sanguinary to the 
English. However this might have been, it must be admitted that General 
Howe's order of battle was excellent ; that his movements were executed with 
as much ability as promptitude ; and that his troops, British as well as German, 
behaved admirably well. 

The daj^ after the battle, towards evening, the British dispatched a detach- 
ment of light troops to Wilmington. There they took prisoner the Governor of 
the State of Delaware, and seized a considerable quantity of coined money, as 
well as other property, both public and private, and some papers of importance. 

Lord Coniwallis entered Philadelphia the 26th of September, at the head of 
a detachment of British and Hessian grenadiers. The rest of the army 
remained in the camp at Germantown. Thus the rich and populous capital of 
the whole confederation fell into the power of the royalists, after a sanguinary 
battle, and a series of manoeuvres no less masterl}^ than painful, of the two 
armies. The Quakers, and all the other loyalists who had remained there, wel- 
comed the English with transports of gratulation. Washington, descending 
along the left bank of the Schuylkill, approached within sixteen miles of German- 
town. He encamped at Skippack creek, purposing to accommodate his measures 
to the state of things. 

Congress and the Supreme Executive Council of the State remained in 



l^g lUtSTOB Y OF PENNS YL VAJSHA. 

Philadelphia during the exciting events transpiring before the city. The former 
adjourned on the 18th to meet at Lancaster, where it convened on the 2nh, but 
three days after removed to York. The State government remained until the 
24th, when it adjourned to Lancaster, the archives, etc., having previously been 
removed to Easton. 

A few days after the battle of Brandy wine four or five hundred of the Ameri- 
can wovmded soldiers were taken to Ephrata and placed in a hospital. Here the 
camp fever set in, which, in conjunction with the wounds of the soldiers, baffled 
the skill of the surgeons. One hundred and fifty, a fearful mortality, proved 
fatal and were buried there. They were principally from Pennsylvania and New 
England, and a few British who had deserted and joined the American army. 

On the evening of the 20th of September General Wayne's division of the army 
was encamped on the ground at Paoli, three miles in the rear of the left wing of 
the British army, from whence, after being reinforced by General Smallwood's 
command of militia, it was his intention to march and attack the enemy's rear 
when they decamped, and if. possible " cut ofi" their baggage." General Howe 
having been informed by Tories residing in the neighborhood of the exact posi- 
tion of Wayne's encampment, dispatched General Gray, with an adequate force, to 
capture the whole party. Cautiously approaching in the dead of the night, and 
probably guided by some local enemy of the American cause, he drove in the 
pickets with charged bayonets, and at once rushed upon the encampment with 
the cry of "no quarters." Wayne instantly formed his division, and with his 
right sustained a fierce assault, directed a retreat by the left, commanded by 
Colonel Richard Humpton, under cover of the first Pennsjdvania regiment, the 
light infantry, and the horse, who for a short time withstood the violence of the 
shock. The total loss of the Americans has been variously estimated at from 
one hundred and fifty to three hundred, while the British only admitted a loss of 
seven. 

Some severe animadversions on this unfortunate affair having been made in 
the army. General Wayne demanded a court martial, which, after investigating his 
conduct, was unanimously, of opinion "that he had done everything to be 
expected from an active, brave, and vigilant officer," and acquitted him with 
honor. Of this court General Sullivan was president. 

General Howe, having occupied Philadelphia, at once took measures to secure 
the unobstructed passage of his fieet up the Delaware river. Colonel Sterling was 
sent with a detachment to attack the fort at Billingsport, as its capture would 
place it in their power to make a passage through the obstructions in the chan- 
nel, and to bring their vessels within striking distance of Fort Mifflin. This 
was accomplished on the 2d of October, without resistance, the small garrison, 
under Colonel Bradford, taking off all the ammunition and some of the cannon 
spiking the rest, and burning the barracks. 

While this was being effected by the enemy. General Washington regarded 
it as a favorable opportunity of making an attack on the British force stationed 
at Germantown. He took this resolution with the more confidence, as he was 
now reinforced by the junction of the troops from the Hudson and a division 
of Maryland militia. 

The British line of encampment crossed Germantown at right angles about 



GENERAL HISTOEY. Ill 

the centre, the left wing extending on the west from the town to the Schuj-lkill. 
That wing was covered in front by the mounted and dismounted Hessian 
chasseurs, who were stationed a little above, towards the American camp ; 
a battalion of light infantry and the Queen's American rangers were in the front 
of the right. The centre, being posted within the town, was guarded by the 
40th regiment, and another battalion of light infantr}-, stationed about, three- 
quarters of a mile above the head of the village. Washington resolved to 
attack the British by surprise, not doubting that if he succeeded in breaking 
them, as they were not only distant, but totally separated from the fleet, his 
victory must be decisive. 

He so disposed his troops that the divisions of Sullivan and Wayne, flanked 
by Conway's brigade, Avere to march down the main road, and entering the town 
by the way of Chestnut Ilill, to attack the English centre and the right flank 
of their left wing ; the divisions of Greene and Stephen, flanked by MacDougal's 
brigade, were to take a circuit towards the east, by the limekiln road, and 
entering the town at the market-house, to attack the left flank of the rijrht wino-. 
The intention of the American general in seizing the village of Germantown by 
a double attack, was effectually to separate the right and left wings of the royal 
arm}', which must have given him a certain victor}-. In order that the left flank 
of the left wing might not contract itself, and support the right flank of the same 
wing. General Armstrong, with the Pennsylvania militia, was oi'dered to march 
down the Manatawny or Ridge road upon the banks of the Schuylkill, and 
endeavor to dislodge the chasseurs and Hessians at Van Deering's mill and at the 
falls, and afterwards to get upon the left and rear of the enemy, if they should retire 
from that river. In like manner, to prevent the right flank of the right wing 
from going to the succor of the left flank, which rested upon Germantown, the 
militia of Maryland and New Jersey, under Generals Smallwood and Forman, 
were to march down the old York road, and to fiill upon the English on that 
extremity of their wing. The division of Lord Stirling, and the brigades of 
Generals Nash and Maxwell, formed the reserve. General Potter, in the mean- 
time, was ordered to make an attack or a feint from-the west side of the Schuyl- 
kill upon the royal camp in the city, so as to keep the grenadiers in work. 
These dispositions being made, Washington quitted his camp at Skippach creek, 
and moved towards the enemy on the 3d of October, about seven in the evening. 
Parties of cavalry silently scoured all the roads, to seize any individual who 
might have given notice to the British general of the danger that thi-eatened 
him. Washington in person accompanied the columns of Sullivan and Wayne. 
The march was rapid and silent. 

At three o'clock in the morning, the British patrols discovered the approach 
of the Americans ; the troops were soon called to arms ; each took his post with 
the precipitation of surprise. About sunrise the Americans came up. General 
Conway, having driven in the pickets, fell upon the 40th regiment and the 
battalion of light infantry. These corps, after a short resistance, being over- 
powered by numbers, were pressed and pursued into the village. Fortune 
appeared already to have declared herself in favor of the Americans ; and 
certainly if they had gained complete possession of Germantown, nothing could 
hivj frustrated them of the most signal victory. But in this conjuncture 



178 



HISTOllY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Lieutenant-Colonel Musgrave threw himself, with six companies of the 40th 
regiment, into a large and strong stone house, the mansion of Judge Chew, 
situated near the head of the village, from which he poured upon the assailants 
so terrible a fire of musketry that they could advance no further. The Amci'i- 
cans attempted to storm this unexpected covert of the enemy, but those within 




THE CHEW MANSION, GERMANTOWN. 



continued to defend themselves with resolution. They finally brought cannon 
up to the assault, but such was the intrepidity of the English, and the violence 
of their fire, that it was found impossible to dislodge them. During this time 
General Greene had approached the right wing, and routed, after a slight 
engagement, the light infantry' and Queen's rangers. Afterwards, turning 
a little to his right, and towards Germantown, he fell upon the left flank of 
the enemy's right wing, and endeavored to enter the village. Meanwhile, he 
expected that the Pennsylvania militia, under Armstrong, upon the right, 
and the militia of Maryland and New Jerse}', commanded b}' Smallwood and 
Forman, on the left, would have executed the orders of the commander-in- 
chief, by attacking and turning, the first the left, the second the right flank 
of the British arm3'. But either because the obstacles they encountered had 
retarded them, or that the}^ wanted ardor, the former arrived in sight of the 
German chasseurs, and did not attack them; the latter appeared too late upon 
the field of battle. 

The consequence was, that General Gre}-, finding his left flank secure. 



GENERAL JlJSTOIiY. ,79 

marched, with nearly the whole of the left whig, to the assistance of the centre, 
which, notwithstanding the unexjiectcd resistance of Colonel Musorave was 
excessivel}' hard pressed in Germantown, where the Americans gained ground 
incessantly. The battle was now very warm at that village, the attack and the 
defence being equally vigorous. Tlie issue appeared for some time dubious. 
General Agnew was mortally wounded while charging with great bravery at the 
head of the Fourth brigade. Colonel George Matthews, of the Ninth Virginia 
regiment, who was in the advance of Greene's column, assailed the English with 
so much fury that he drove them before him into the town. He had taken 
a large number of prisoners, and was about entering the village when he; 
perceived that a thick fog and the unevenness of the ground had caused him 
to lose sight of the rest of his division. Being soon enveloped by the extremity 
of the right wing, which fell back upon him when it had discovered that nothing 
was to be apprehended from the tardy approach of the militia of Maryland and 
New Jersey, he was compelled to surrender with all his party ; the English had 
already rescued their prisoners. Tliis check was the cause that two regiments 
of the English right wing were enabled to throw themselves into Germantown, 
and to attack the Americans who had entered it in flank. Unable to sustain the 
shock, they retired precipitately, leaving a great number of killed and wounded. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Musgrave, to whom belongs the principal honor of this 
affair, was then relieved from all peril. General Grey, being absolute master 
of Germantown, flew to the succor of the right wino- which M^as eno-ao-cd with 
tlie left of the column of Greene. The Americans then took to flight, abandon- 
hig to the English, throughout the line, a victory, of which, in the commence- 
ment of the action, the}' had felt assured. 

The principal causes of the fiiilure of this well-concerted enterprise were the 
extreme liaziness of the weather, which was so thick that the Americans could 
neither discover the situation nor movements of the British arm}-, nor j-et those 
of their own ; the inequalit}- of the ground, which incessantly broke the ranks of 
their battalions, an inconvenience more serious and diflicult to be repaired 
for new and inexperienced troops, as were most of the Americans, than for the 
English veterans ; and, flnally, the unexpected resistance of Musgrave, who 
found means, in a critical moment, to transform a mere house into an impreg- 
nable fortress. General Reed's proposition was to pursue the enem^^ when first 
thrown into confusion and turning their faces towards I'liiladelphia, but General 
Knox opposed the suggestion as being against all military rule, " to leave an 
enemy in a fort in the rear." "What," exclaimed Reed, "call this a fort, and 
los-8 the happ3' moment!" Knox's opinion prevailed, and the result was as 
described. 

Thus fortune, who at first had apjieared disposed to favor one party, sud. 
denly declared herself on the side of their adversaries. Lord Cornwallis, being 
at Philadelphia, upon intelligence of the attack upon the camp, flew to its 
succor with a corps of the cavalry and the grenadiers; but when he reached 
the field of battle the Americans had already left it. They had two Inmdred 
men killed in this action ; the number of wounded amounted to six hundred ; 
and about four hundred were made prisoners. One of their most lamented 
losses was that of Brigadier-General Francis Nash, of North Carolina, besides 



180 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VAIflA. 

Colonel Boyd, Major Sherbourne, Major White, and Major Irvine. The loss of 
the British was little over five hundred in killed and wounded ; among the for- 
former were Brigadier-General Agnew and Colonel Bird. The American army 
saved all its artillery, and retreated the same day, about twenty miles, to 
Perkiomen creek. 

The Congress expressed, in decided terms, their approbation, both of the 
plan of this enterprise and the courage with which it was executed ; for which 
their thanks were given to the general and the army. A few days after the 
battle, the ro^^al army removed from Germantown to Philadelphia. 

On the nth of October the British army, under Burgojme, surrendered to 
General Gates, the news of which enlivened the hearts of the desponding patriots, 
but unfortunately resulted in a clamor for a change in the commander-in-chief, 
substituting Gates in Washington's position. This faction was not strong, and 
although tlic}^ excited a spirit of envy and jealousy in many officers of the Con- 
tinental army, yet the rank and file bore true allegiance to t^eir illustrious 
commander. 

On the 22d of October occurred Count Dunop's attack on Fort Mercer, at 
Red Bank. It commenced at four o'clock, and with the first sound of the 
Count's cannon, the British fleet, consisting of the Augusta, a new sixtj^-four gun 
vessel, the Roebuck, forty -four guns, the Merlin frigate, the Liverpool, and 
several other vessels which had got through the barrier at Billingsport, attempted 
to make its wa}' up the river to assist the attack. The Pennsylvania State fleet, 
under Commodore Hazelwood, immediately engaged these vessels and droA'e them 
back ; the galleys also were of great service in flanking the enemy at the fort. 
Going down the river, the Augusta and Merlin ran aground ; hearing of which, 
on the morning of the 23d, the commodore immediately^ hoisted signal to engage, 
and the action soon became general. The Augusta took fire and blew up, and 
not being able to get the Merlin off", she was burned b^^ her crew. Commodore 
Hazelwood was, b}^ a vote of Congress of the 4th of November, honored with a 
sword for his gallant conduct in this action. 

Pending the reduction of Fort Mifilin, on Ilog Island, the Pennsj-lvania fleet 
was actively engaged defending the pass between it and the Jersey shore, took a 
part in the actions before the fort was burned and abandoned by our troops on the 
16th of November, losing in one day thirtj'-cight men killed and wounded. On 
the 20th, Fort Mercer was abandoned b}' our troops, and the fleet could no longer 
lie in safety under Red Bank; accordingly-, after holding a council of the captains 
of the galleys, it Avas determined to pass by the city in the night, and take refuge 
in the Delaware above Burlington. At three o'clock in the morning of the 21st, 
the commodore got vmder way, and about half past four passed the city without 
having a shot fired at the convoy. It consisted of thirteen galleys, twelve 
armed boats, province sloop, ammunition sloop, Convention brig, an accommo- 
dation sloop, one provision sloop, one schooner, and two flats with stores ; the 
schooner Delaware, Captain Eyre, was driven on shore and set on fire. An 
attempt was made to get the Continental fleet up, but failed, and its vessels 
Andrea Doria, Xebex, etc., with the Province ships and the two floating batteries, 
were set on fire and burned. 




CH7\PTER XL 

THE REVOLUTION, THE CANTONMENT AT VALLEY FORGE. THE MISCIIIANZA. 
PHILADELPHIA EVACUATED BY THE BRITISH. INDIAN OUTRAGES. SULLI- 
VAN'S EXPEDITION. ABOLITION OP SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA. 1177 1780. 

ATE in November, General Washington, being now reinforced b}^ Gen- 
eral Gates' arn\y from the north, encamped in a strong position at 
Whitemarsh, Montgomery county. The American army at this 
time consisted of about eleven thousand, of whom nearly three 
thousand were unfit for duty, " being barefooted and otherwise nuked." Howe 
had with him but little more than twelve thousand fighting men. The British 
general made several attempts to provolce or entice Washington into the field, 
but tlie latter chose to receive the enemy in camp — each general choosing not to 
risk a battle without the advantage of ground. On the 3d of December General 
Howe attempted to surprise the American camp, but his design was frustrated 
by the vigilance of the American commander. Howe manoeuvred with the hope 
of drawing General Washington out to battle, but signally failed. The Americans 
remained in their own camp, with the exception of skirmishing parties sent out 
to annoy the enem}'. Generals Potter, Irvine, Armstrong, and Reed, of the 
Pennsylvania troops, kept watch over the movements of the British. On the 
night of the 8th, General Howe marched back ingloriously to Philadelphia 
without accomplishing his threat of "driving General Washington over the Blue 
Mountains." Washington finally concluded to go into winter quarters at Valley 
Forge. Here this faithful band of patriots, worn out with the fatigues of the 
summer's campaign, and destitute of all the necessaries of life, passed a most 
dreary winter. They erected log huts on the plan of a village, and so far were 
comfortably sheltered ; but blankets, sufficient clothing, shoes, and oftentimes 
provisions, Avere but scantily provided. It was with great difliculty and anxiety 
that Washington kept his army together until spring. Yet amid all this suffer- 
ing, day after daj', as Dr. Lossing remarks, surrounded by frost and snow, for it 
was a winter of great severity, patriotism was still warm and hopeful in the 
hearts of the soldiers; and the love of self was merged into the one holy senti- 
ment — love of country. Although a few feeble notes of discontent were heard, 
and symptoms of intentions to abandon the cause were visible, yet the great 
body of that sufl!"ering phalanx were content to wait for the budding spring, and be 
ready to enter anew upon the fields of strife for the cause of freedom. It was one 
of the most trying scene*^ in the life of Washington, but a cloud of doubt seldom 
darkened the serene atmosphere of his hopes. He knew that the cause was just 
and hoh% and his faith and confidence in God as a defender and helper of right 
were as steady in their ministrations of vigor to his soul as were the pulsations 

181 



182 



HIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VAWIA . 



of his lieart to his active limbs. In i^erfect reliance upon Divine aid, he moved 
in the midst of crushed hopes, and planned brilliant schemes for the future. 

Congress, on the lOtli of December, passed a resolution requesting the 
Legislature of Pennsylvania to enact a law requiring all persons at the distance 




"WASHIKGTON'S HEAD-QUARTERS AT VALLEY FORGE. 

of sevent}^ miles, and upwards, from General Washington's headquarters, and 
below the Blue Mountains, to thresh out their wheat and other grain within as 
short a space of time as the Legislature should deem sufficient for the purpose, 
and in case of failure to subject the same to seizure by the commissaries at the 
price of straw only. No such law was passed, but the commander-in-chief, on 
the 29th, issued a proclamation from Valley Forge commanding that one-half of 



GENERAL HISTOBY. 183 

the grain in store within seventy miles of his camp should be threshed out Viefore 
the first of February ensuing, and the other half before the first of March. 

On Monday, the 5th of January, 1778, transpired the ever-memor- 
1778. able event — the " Battle of the Kegs." The large number of vessels, 
says Thompson Westcott, which lay before Philadelphia, stimulated the 
ino-enuity of the Americans to find some means to destroy them. A num- 
ber of kegs, or of machines that resembled kegs as they were floating, were pre- 
pared at Burlington by tlie men of the Pennsylvania galleys, and placed in a 
position to be carried against the shipping by the current. Unluckily the vessels, 
which had been in the middle of the river, were then drawn in near the wharves to 
avoid the ice. The kegs had spring locks which were contrived so as to explode on 
coming in contact with any hard substance. On the day in question several of 
these kegs were observed floating down the river, and "an alarm immediately 
spread throughout the citj^ Various reports prevailed, filling the city and the 
royal troops with consternation. Some reported that these kegs were filled with 
armed rebels who were to issue forth in the dead of night and take Philadelphia by 
surprise, asserting that they had seen the points of their bayonets through the 
bung-holes of the kegs. Others said they were charged with the most inveterate 
combustibles, to be kindled by secret machinery, and setting the whole Delaware in 
flames, were to consume all the shipping in the harbor ; whilst others asserted they 
were constructed by art magic, would of themselves ascend the wharves in the 
night time, and roll, all flaming, through the streets of the city, destroying every- 
thing in their way. Be this as it may, certain it is that all the shipping in the 
harbor, and all the wharves were fully manned. The battle began, and it was 
surprising to behold the incessant blaze that was kept up against the enemy — the 
kegs. Both oiRcers and men," continues the account, " exhibited the most 
unparalleled skill and bravery on the occasion, whilst the citizens stood gazing 
as the solemn witnesses of their prowess. From the Roebuck and other ships ot 
war whole broadsides were poured into the Delaware. In short, not a wandering 
chip, stick, or drift log, but felt the vigor of the British arms." The entire 
transaction was laughable in the extreme, and furnished the theme for unnum- 
bered sallies of wit from the Whig press, while the distinguished author of 
" Hail, Columbia," Francis Ilopkinson, paraphrased it in a ballad which was im- 
mensely popular at the time. 

With the exception of occasional depredations committed by British foraging 
parties, during the winter all was quiet on the Delaware. The vigilance of 
Generals Potter and Lacey greatly restrained these forays. In the meantime, 
through Washington, with the aid of Steuben and other foreign officers in the 
army, the band of American patriots were metamorphosed into a well-disciplined 
army. General Wayne's command was encamped during nearl}^ the whole winter 
and spring at Mount Joy, in Lancaster county, assisting in securing supplies of 
provisions for the army at Valley Forge. 

The Supreme Executive Council of the State, and the Assembly, in session 
at Lancaster, and the Congress at York, were principally engaged in legislating 
for the interests of the army, preparing for the ensuing campaign. On the 6th 
of March the Assembly passed the "act for the attainder of divers traitors," 
among whom were specially mentioned, Joseph Galloway, Andrew Allen, Rev. 



18:; HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Jacob Duche, John Biddle, and others. The recreant sons of Pennsylvania 
beo-an to be numerous and troublesome, and severe measures were absolutely 
necessary. 

'On the 6th of February France openly espoused the American cause, and a 
treaty of alliance was negotiated at Paris, by the commissioners, Benjamin Frank- 
lin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, who had been sent as ambassadors by Congress 
in September of the previous year. This joyful news reached York on the 2d of 
May. In compliance with this agreement, the French ministry dispatched a 
fleet of twelve ships and four frigates, under Count D'Estang, to the Delaware. 

On the 1st of May, General John I^acey, with a small force of militia 
stationed at Crooked Billet Tavern, Bucks county, for the purpose of preventing 
supplies of provisions being sent to Philadelphia, were surprised by a detachment 
of British troops under Colonel Abercrombie. The Americans lost twenty-six 
killed, eight or ten wounded, and fifty-eight missing. The British bayoneted 
many of the prisoners after they had surrendered ; others of the wounded 
were " thrown in among some standing buckwheat straw, which was set on fire, 
whereby several were burned to death. The corpses of the killed were roasted, 
and the clothes burned ofi' their bodies." The infamous wretches who committed 
these atrocities were the Tory soldiers of Simcoe's rangers. Among the Ameri- 
cans killed was Captain John Downey. He served gallantly at Trenton and 
Princeton, and was commissary to Lace^^'s brigade. 

On the Tth of May, Lord Ilowe was superseded by Sir Henry Clinton. Pre- 
vious to the British commander's departure a magnificent fete, called the 
Mischianza — "a combination of the regatta, the tournament, the banquet, and 
the ball," we quote from Hazard, " was given in his honor by his field officers. 
The principal scenes were enacted at Mr. Wharton's country-seat, in Southwark; 
but a splendid spectacle was exhibited on the Delaware, by the procession of 
galleys and barges, which left the foot of Green Street, with the ladies, knights, 
Lord and General Howe, General Knyphausen, &c., on board, with banners and 
music. The British men-of-war, the Vigilant, the Roebuck, and the Fanny, lay 
in the stream opposite the city ; and the shores were crowded with British trans- 
port ships, from which thousands of eager spectators watched the scene. Cheers 
and salutes of cannon greeted the procession. The principal actors in the 
pageant were the six Knights of the Blended Rose, splendidly arrayed in white 
and pink satin, with bonnets and nodding plumes, mounted on white steeds 
elegantl}^ caparisoned, and attended by their squires. These knights were the 
champions of the Ladies of the Blended Rose, and were dressed in Turkish habits 
of rich white silk. To these were opposed the Knights of the Burning Mountain, 
dressed and mounted with equal splendor, and professing to defend the Ladies 
of the Burning Mountain. The names of the Ladies of the Blended Rose, as 
given by one of the actors in the pageant, were Miss Auchmuty (the daughter 
of a British officer), Miss Peggy Chew, Miss Jenny Craig, Miss Wilhelmina 
Bond, Miss Nancy White, and Miss Nancy Redman. The Ladies of the Burning 
Mountain, Miss Beckie Franks, Miss Becky Bond, Miss Becky Redman, Miss 
Sally Chew, and Miss Wilhelmina Smith — only five; but Major Andre, in his 
account, gives it a little differently. In place of Miss Auchmuty, of the Blended 
Rose, he has Miss M. Shippen ; and in place of Miss Franks, of the Burning 



GENERAL HISTORY. 



185 



Mouiitain, he has Miss S. Shippen, and, in addition, Miss P. Shippen. Tiie 
challenge given b^' the Knights of the Blended Rose was, that ' the Ladies of 
the Blended Rose excel in wit, beautj^, and every other accomplishment, all the 
other ladies in the world ; and if any knight or knights should be so hardy as to 
deny this, they are determined to support their assertions by deeds of arms, 
agreeable to the laws of ancient chivahy.' The challenge was of course accepted 
by the Knights of the Burning Mountain, and the tournament succeeded. After 
the tournament came a grand triumphal procession, through an arch ; and then 
a fete champetre, with dancing, supper, &c., enlivened by all the music of the 




THE WHARTON HOUSE, WHEBE THE MISCHIANZA WAS HELD. 

[Fac-simile of an Old Print.] 

army. Such were the scenes exhibited in Philadelphia, while the half-naked and 
half-starved oflicers and soldiers of the American army were suffering on the hills 
of Yalley Forge. The accomplished and unfortunate Major Andre was one of 
the knights, and was, besides, the yevy life and soul of the occasion. He, with 
another oflicer, painted the scenery, and designed and sketched the dresses, both 
of the Knights and Ladies." 

Six days after this pageant of folly, on the 24th of May, a council of war was 
held under Sir Henry Clinton, and it was resolved to evacuate the city, which 
took place on the 18th of June. This was delayed owing to the arrival, on the 
6th, of the commissioners of Great Britain sent to negotiate peace and a recon- 
ciliation. It was too late. The treaty with France put that out of the question 
now, whatever might previously have been the feeling. Among other intrigues, 
it is stated, the commissioners secretly offered to General Joseph Reed, then 
deleo-ate to Conorress, and afterwards President of the Executive Council of 
Pennsylvania, £10,000 sterling, with the best office in the Colonies, to promote 



1 86 HISTOR T OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

their plans. He promptly replied : " I am not worth purchasing ; but such as I 
am, the king of Great Britain is not rich enough to do it," Fearing the arrival 
of the French fleet, news of which had been forwarded General Clinton by the 
British ministry, the enemy's flotilla went out to sea, or took shelter in Raritan 
Bay, while the array pushed across the Jerseys. Washington, apprised of the 
retreat of the enemy, moved his troops from winter quarters and pursued them. 
The brilliant action of Sunday, the 28th of June, at Monmouth, was the con- 
sequence. The day was excessively warm and sultry. The American troops, 
though much fatigued b}^ their march, fought with determined bravery, and the 
British were compelled to give way. Taking advantage of the night, the ap- 
proach of which probably saved them from a total rout, they withdrew, and at 
daybreak had gained the heights of Middletown, having left behind them such 
of their wounded as could not with safety be removed. 

On the 23d of May previous. President Wharton died suddenly of an attack 
of quinsy, at Lancaster. His funeral, on the day following, was conducted by 
the State authorities, and as commander-in-chief of the forces of the State, was 
buried with military honors. By his decease, the Vice-President, George Bryan, 
assumed the executive functions. 

Upon the re-occupation of Philadelphia by the Continental army, Major 
General Benedict Arnold was ordered by General Washington to take command 
of the city, and " prevent the disorders which were expected upon the evacua- 
tion of the place and the return of the Whigs after being so long kept out of 
their property." 

Congress met at the State House, on the 25th of June, and the Supreme 
Executive Council held its first meeting the day following. 

It was the 9th of July ere Commodore Hazelwood reported the armed boats 
of the Pennsylvania navy all afloat and getting ready for service. The Conven- 
tion brig. Captain Thomas Houston, was ordered to be fitted out as soon as 
possible, and it, with the armed boats, to go down into the bay ; and in a short 
time three of the galleys and three of the bai'ges were fitted and manned. The 
rest were laid up except one gallc}'', which was sunk in Crosswichsunk creek, 
near Bordentown. 

On the 25th the Supreme Executive Council took into consideration the case 
of John Gilfray, boatswain of the ship Montgomery, found guilty of deserting to 
the enemy, and under sentence of death. It being the first conviction of an 
offence of this kind in the State fleet, he was pardoned, and Commodore Hazel- 
wood was authorized to ofi'er full pardon to all deserters who returned before the 
1st of September. In the beginning of this month, however. Lieutenant Lyon, 
of the Dickinson, and Lieutenant Ford, of the Effingham, who deserted during 
the attack upon Fort Mifflin, were executed on board one of the guard boats on 
the Delaware. Lieutenant Wilson, of the Rangers, and John Lawrence, one of 
the gunners of the fleet, who deserted at the same time, and were under sentence 
of death, were reprieved. ^ 

Active measures were taken for the speedy trial of all persons accused of high 
treason, and the "conviction of quite a number excited an intense sensation and 
much alarm among the Tories and Quakers," Several were executed, notwith- 
standing every exertion to save them, but so bitter was the hatred of the Whigs 



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1 88 HISTOB T OF PFNNS TL VANIA. 

of the Revolution, many of whom had suffered severely at the hands of the dis- 
affected, that some victims were deemed necessary to mollify their animosities. 
" Mercy," says Thompson Westcott, " was fettei-ed in the desire to vindicate 
principles, and strike terror into the souls of the Tories by some memorable 
examples." 

The Indians of the Six Nations, as well as the tribes in the western territory, 
had been induced by the British to take up the hatchet against the Colonies. 
During the 3'car 1777 they were principally engaged on the Northern frontiers of 
New York, and Pennsylvania escaped their ravages, with the exception of a few 
marauding parties. In 1778 the garrison at Pittsburgh was strengthened, and 
Fort M'Intosh was built at the mouth of Beaver. Notwithstanding the expected 
attacks from Indians on the north and west branches of the Susquehanna, the 
inhabitants of Northumberland count^^ and of the Wyoming valley iiad promptly 
responded to the urgent calls of Congress, and lefb exposed their own homes, 
by sending nearly all their fighting men to the -campaigns in the lower 
country. While in this defenceless situation, the dark cloud of savage warfare 
burst upon them. Early in July, 1778, Colonel John Butler, with a party of 
Tory rangers, a detachment of Sir John Johnson's Royal Greens, and a large 
body of Indians, chiefl}' Scnecas, descended the Susquehanna, and destroyed the 
flourishing settlements of the Wyoming valley. A few old men were hastil^'^ 
gathered for defence, with a few soldiers returned on a visit from the army ; the 
women and children were sheltered in a stockade fort, where their defenders 
ought also to have remained ; but their courage outweighed their prudence, they 
loved fighting from habit, and they chose to go out to meet the enemy. This 
little handful of men fought with more than Spartan courage, but numbers over- 
powered them — they were routed — many were cut down in the fight, and those 
captured were put to death with the hatchet. Colonel Dennison, who escaped to 
the fort with a few others, succeeded in entering into a capitulation by which the 
women and children were to be preserved, and permitted to depart. Unhappily, 
however, the British commander either could not or would not enforce the terms of 
the capitulation, which were to a great extent disregarded, as well by the Torjes 
as Indians. Instead of finding protection, the valley was again laid waste — the 
houses and improvements were destroyed by fire, and the country plundered. 
Families were broken up and dispersed, men and their wives separated, mothers 
torn from their children, and some of them carried into captivity, while far the 
greater number fled through the wilderness of the Pokono mountains towards the 
settlements on the Delaware. Some died of their wounds, others from want and 
fatigue, while others were lost in the wilderness or wei*e heard of no more. 
Several perished in a great swamp in the neighborhood, which from that circum- 
stance acquired the name of The Shades of Deaths and retains it to this day. 
For fuller details of this painflil transaction, the reader is referred to the sketch 
of Luzerne. 

Colonel Hartley, with a small detachment from Muncy, soon after the battle, 
went up the Susquehanna, and destroyed the Indian villages at Wyalusing, 
Sheshequin, and Tioga. A month or two after the battle of Wj'oming, a force 
of British, Indians, and Tories, under Colonel McDonald, made a descent on the 
West Branch. Fort Muncy being untenable, was abandoned on definite 



GENERAL HISTORY. Ig.j 

information being received of the approacli of tlie enemy, as also the fort at the 
mouth of Warrior's run, and all the women and children in the neighborhood were 
put into boats and sent down to Fort Augusta. Four miles up from the mouth of 
the Warrior's run was located Fort Freeland, which at this time was commanded 
by Captain John Lytic. The enemy at once laid siege to the fort. There were 
brave men in that fort, who would have defended it to the death ; but it was also 
filled with women and children, whom it was not thought prudent to expose to 
the cruelties that might result from a capture by storm. When, therefore, the 
enemy were about setting fire to the fort, a capitulation was entered into, by 
whicli the men and boys, able to bear arms, were to be taken prisoners, and the 
women and children were to return home unarmed. A Mrs. Kirk, in the fort 
with her daughter Jane and her son William, before the capitulation fixed 
a bayonet upon a pole, vowing she would kill at least one Indian ; but as there 
was no chance for fighting, she exhibited her cunning by putting petticoats upon 

her son " Billy " — who was able to bear arms, but had yet a smooth chin and 

smuofo;led him out among the women. 

The enemy took possession of the place, allowing the women and children to 
remain in an old building outside of the fort, on the banks of the run. At a 
preconcerted siguiil, Captain Hawkins Boon, who commanded a stockade on Muddy 
run, two miles above Milton, came up to the relief of Freeland's fort, with a 
party of men. Perceiving the women and children playing outside of the fort, 
he suspected no danger, and incautiously approached so near that the women 
were obliged to make signs to him to retire. He retreated precipitately, but was 
perceived by the enemy, who with a strong force waylaid him, on the Northum- 
berland road, at McClung's place. Boon's party fell into the ambush, and 
a most desperate encounter ensued, from which few of the Americans escaped. 
Colonel McDonald afterwards spoke in the highest terras of commendation of the 
desperate bravery of Hawkins Boon. He refused all quarter — encouraged and 
forced his men to stand up to the encounter ; and at last, with most of his 
Spartan band, died on the field, overpowered by superior numbers. 

The border settlements of Westmoreland were also overrun in every direc- 
tion by scalping parties, and as many of the marauding parties were known to 
cross the Allegheny, forts were ordered to be erected at the mouth of Puckety 
creek, on the Loyalhanna, and on the Kiskeminitas. At the same time. General 
Mcintosh was sent with a small force of regulars for the protection of the 
frontiers. He commenced the erection of a fort at the mouth of the Beaver, 
named after the commander. From here General Mcintosh went on an expedi- 
tion against the Sandusky towns, and erected Fort Laurens on the Tuscarawas. 

On the 1st of December, General Josejoh Reed was elected President, and 
George Bryan, Vice-President, who were inducted into their oflicial stations 
with all the pageantry attending the first inauguration of the chief executive of 
the State. 

The main body of the American army continued at White Plains watching 
the movements of the enemy during the autumn of 1778, when Washington took 
Cip winter quarters in huts which he had caused to be constructed at Middle- 
brook, in New Jersey. 

Wednesday, the 30th of December, was observed, by order of Congress, as 



190 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



a day of fasting and prayer. At this period " the affairs of the colonies were 

in the most distressed and ruinous condition Party disputes and 

personal quarrels were the great business of the day, while the momentous 
concerns of the countr3', a great and accumulating debt, ruined finances, 
depreciated money, and a want of ci'edit, which is the consequence in the 

want of CA'erything, were but secondar}' con- 
siderations, and jiostponed b}^ Congress from 
time to time, as if their affairs wore the most 
promising aspect. The paper was sinking in 
Philadelphia daily fifty per cent." In fact, 
there was an alarming supineness pervading the 
constituted authorities. 

The conduct of General Arnold, on the 3d 
of February, 1779, occasioned decided 
1779. action on the part of the Supreme 
Executive Council, and the Attorney- 
General of the State was ordered to prosecute 
Arnold for illegal and oppressive conduct while 
in command of the military at Pliiladelphia. 
A copy of the charges were presented to the 
General before he left the ciij^, but he did not care to meet them, and under pre- 
tence of attending to his dut}^, " fled from inquiry." From the camp on the 
llaritan, whence he had gone, he addressed a letter " To the Public," expressing 
his willingness that Congress should direct a court-martial to inquire into his 
conduct. The accusations of the Supreme Executive Council were laid before 
tl)at body, but the trial was delayed, and not until January, 1780, was the court- 
martial held. Arnold was then " convicted of using the public wagons for his 
own benefit," but lie was acquitted of any corrupt intent, and sentenced to be 
reprimanded b\' the commander-in-chief. 




JOSEPH EEED.* 



* Joseph Reed was bom at Trenton, New .Tersey, August 27, 1741. He graduated at New 
Jersey College, 1757, and shortly after entered the Inner Temple, London, as a law student. 
Returning in 1765, he began a successful practice at Trenton, and in 17G7 was appointed 
deputy secretary of New Jersey. After his marriage in England to Esther De Berdt, he 
settled in Philadelphia. He was a member of the Committee of Correspondence in 1774. 
president of the Convention of Januaiy, 1775, delegate to Congress in May, and in July, 
accompanied Wasliington to Cambridge as his secretaiy and aid-de-camp. During the 
campaign of 177G he was adjutant-general of the Continental army. In 1777 he was 
appointed chief-justice of Pennsylvania, and named b^-^ Congress brigadier-general, both of 
wliich lie declined. He served as a volunteer at Brandj'wine, Whitemarsh, Germantown, 
and Monmouth. Member of Congress in 1778, he signed tlie Articles of Confederation. 
From 177S to 17S1 he was President of Pennsylvania. Active, energetic, and patriotic, 
President Reed had the conlidence of his fellow-citizens, by whom he was respected and 
beloved. His nieinorv, ibr almost a century, has been clouded b}' suspicions and cliarges of 
disloyalty. Eecent researches, liowever, prove tlieir falsity, and that the American officer wiio 
listened to the siren-voice of the Britons was a Colonel Reed, of the Burlington, N. J., militia. 
President Eeed resumed liis profession at tlie close of his administration, and after the peace 
visited England for his health, but without beneficial result. He aided greatly the founding 
of the University of Pennsylvania, favored the gradual abolition of slavery, and the doing 
away with the Proprietary powers vested in the Penn family. He died at Pliiladelphia, 
March 5, 1785. 



GENERA L JHSTOli Y. 191 

The " scarcit3' of articles of food and personal necessity " was now becoming 
so general, that the Supreme p]xecutive Council issued a proclamation on the 18th 
of January against "forestalls and engrossers." The cause of all this trouble 
was, as heretofore alluded to, the depreciation of the Continental money. The 
quantity of this money then in circulation, exclusive of the State's emissions of 
paper, was one hundred and thirty millions of dollars — about four times as much 
as was necessary for a medium of trade. The Continental money, therefore, 
instead of standing at almost one-fourth of the value, remarks Thompson 
Westcott, had depreciated in some articles so low as l/u^ee thousand per cent. 
This was said to be due " first, to a scarcity of many articles, particularly of 
European goods ; second, a monopoly of many articles, particularly of West 
India goods, which operates the same way as a scarcity; third, a Avant of confi- 
dence in the credit of the mone}^ induced people to ask and give a greater sum 
for articles than they were Avortli." The Penns^dvania Assembly attempted to 
grapple with this subject, and adopted certain restrictions in regard to purchases, 
and laid embargoes on the exportation of goods. Prices Avere affixed by the 
local committees of inspection for certain imported articles and home produc- 
tions. These measures, it was hoped, Avould be of the utmost benefit, but the 
regulation of prices bore hard on some of the tradesmen, and in consequence 
they Avere the first to complain. The Avhole difficulty was owing to the deprecia- 
tion of the currency, but the problem Avas not of easy solution. On the 2Gth of 
May the Supreme ExecutiA^e Council and the Assembly presented a memorial to 
Congress upon this subject. That bod}'^ adopted " a plan for raising money by 
subscription, and stopping the emissions of paper currency'." This gave some 
relief, but unfortunately the loans Avere small. 

The campaign of 1779 opened, therefore, under circumstances not bright or 
cheery. Congress made no proA^isions for re-enlisting until late, Aviicn at the 
time a competent arm^^ should have been in camp. The bounty then ofi'ered Avas 
so loAV that men could not be procured to enter the serAice, and the States of Penn- 
S3dvania, New York, Virginia, and Ncav Jersey had to be called on in the most 
pressing manner, by the commander-in-chief, and ultimately by Congress, to 
increase the bounty, and use ever}- exertion to forAvard their respective quotas 
of troops. 

The policy of waging a more decislA'C Avar against the Indians, and the Tories 
associated Avith them in their barbarous irruptions upon the frontiers of Penn- 
sylvania and Ncav York, caused Congress, on the 25th of February-, to direct 
the commander-in-chief to take the most elTectual means to protect the inliabi- 
tants and chastise the savages. With this end in vicAV, General AVashlnglon 
ordered General Sullivan to carry the Avar into the country of the Six Nations, 
" to cut ofl' their settlement, destroy their -crops, and inflict upon them every 
other mischief Avhich time and circumstances would permit." The i)lan of the 
campaign Avas to be commenced hy a combined movement of tAvo divisions, the 
one from PennsylA\ania ascending the valley of the Susquehanna to the intersec- 
tion of the Tioga riA'er, under Sullivan, and the other from the north under 
General James Clinton, Avhich Avas to descend the Susquehanna from its 
principal source, and after forming a junction, the whole to i)roceed by the 
course of the Chemung river into the fertile country of the Senecas and 



1 92 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Ca3^ugas. The progress of this force was slow, and Indian precaution was used 
to guard against surprise. Large llnnlving parties were flung out on either 
side, and riflemen and scouts were kept forward. Major Parr's rifle corps 
formed the advance guard, the brigades of Generals Hand, Maxwell, Parr, and 
Proctor's artiller3^ forming the central column, or constituting the main body of 
the army, while General Clinton's division protected and brought up the rear. 
On the 29th, the advance fell in with the enemy near Newtown, on the Chemung. 
The number of Indians was thirteen hundred, of the Tories tAvo hundred and 
fifty. The notorious Brant commanded the savages, while the regular troops 
and rangers were led by Colonel John Butler. The contest was long, and on 
the side of the enemy, blood^^ The latter, at last, fled in the utmost precipita- 
tion. Eleven Indian dead were found on the field. The rest of the wounded 
and dead were borne away on the retreat. Being pushed at the point of the 
bayonet, they had not time to bear away all their slain, although the Indians 
invariably exert themselves to the utmost to prevent the bodies of their dead 
from fallino- into the hands of their foes. The Americans lost three killed and 
thirty-four wounded. Sending his wounded back to Tioga, General Sullivan 
pushed on his army, destroying the various Indian towns, their fields of corn 
and beans. The Indians ever3^where fled as the American army advanced, and 
the whole country of the Genesee was swept as with the besom of destruction. 
Fort}^ Indian towns, the largest containing one hundred and twenty-eight 
houses, were destroyed. Corn, gathered and ungathered, amounting to one 
hundred and sixty thousand bushels, shared the same fate. This terrible lesson 
neither intimidated the savages nor prevented their incursions. Throughout 
the remainder of the war, they stole in small parties into all the frontier settle- 
ments, where blood and desolation marked their track. Colonel Brodhead, about 
the same time, engaged in a successful expedition against the Munsey towns on 
the north branch of the Allegheny, destroying the villages and crops about the 
mouth of Brokenstraw, and above the Conewango, and a party of forty warriors 
cut off who were on their way to the settlements in Westmoreland county. 

The successful storming of Stony Point by General Wayne on the night of 
July 15, one of the most daring exploits of the war, produced a great alteration 
in the situation of aff'airs, wrote General St. Clair, and buoyed up the hearts of 
the desponding patriots, as it struck terror to the Tories. Congress, on the 26th 
of the same month, unanimously passed a resolution of thanks to General 
Wa\Tie, " for his brave, prudent, and soldierly conduct in the spirited and well 
conducted attack on Stony Point." 

On the 11th of October, Vice-President Br3'^an resigned his oflSce, whereupon 
Colonel Matthew Smith was chosen to fill the vacancy, which he, too, resigned 
on the 29th of the month. At the annual election on the 12th of November 
following, William Moore was nnanimousl3'^ chosen to the position. 

On the 27th of November, the Assembly, after careful consideration, passed 
resolutions annulling the Royal Charter, and granting the Penns, as a compen- 
sation for the rights of which they were deprived, £130,000 sterling. They 
retained, however, their manors, real estate as private proprietors, their 
ground-rents and quit-rents issuing out of their manors, and were still 
the largest landed proprietors in Penns3'lvania. The3'' subsequentl3' received 



QENEBAL HISTORY. I93 

from the British government an annuity of £4,000 for their losses by the Revo- 
lution, 

The year 1180 is memorable in the annals of Pennsylvania for the 
1780. passage of the act for the gradual abolition of slavery in this State. 
On the 5th of February, 1179, the Supreme Executive Council, in their 
message to the Assembly, called the attention of that body to this subject. " We 
think," say the\, "we are loudly called on to evince our gratitude in making 
our fellow-men ,oint heirs with us of the same inestimable blessin2;s. under such 
restrictions and regulations as will not injure the community, and will imper- 
ceptibly enable them to relish and improve the station to which they will be 
advanced. Honored will that State be in the annals of mankind which shall 
first abolish this violation of the rights of mankind ; and the memories of thosb 
will be held in grateful and everlasting remembrance who shall pass the law to 
restore and establish the rights of human nature in Pennsylvania. We feel our- 
selves so interested on this point as to go beyond what may be deemed by some 
the proper line of our duty, and acquaint you that we have reduced this plan to 
the form of a law, which, if acceptable, we shall in a few da3^s communicate to 
you." Although the subject was thus forcibly presented, the matter was dis- 
missed by the Assembly " as the Constitution would not allow them to receive 
the law from the Council." Nothing more was done until in the November As- 
sembly, when George Bryan, formerly Yice-President of the State, having been 
elected a member of the Legislature, urged the passage of a bill which he had 
prepared. On the first of March, 1780, by a vote of thirty-four yeas to twenty- 
one nays, the act passed the Assembly. It provided for the registration of every 
negro or mulatto slave or servant for life, or till the age of thirty-one years, be- 
fore the first of November following, and also provided, "that no man or woman 
of any nation or color, except the negroes or mulattoes who shall be registered 
as aforesaid, shall at any time liereafter be deemed, adjudged, or holden within 
the territory of this Commonwealth, as slaves or servants for life, but as free 
men and free women." The servants of members of Congress, foreign ministers, 
and persons passing through or sojourning not longer than six months, were 
also made an exception. To Vice-President Br3^an is due the credit of originat- 
ing and finally urging this humane measure to a successful vote. 

Again the paper-money difficulties took up the attention of the State Legisla- 
ture. On the 20th of March, Congress, yielding to the necessity, authorized the 
States to revise the laws making the continental bills a tender, and to amend 
them as it was thought proper. The next day, in the Assembly, a motion to sus- 
pend the operation of the law so far as it made the continental currency equal to 
gold and silver in payment of debts, was lost by a tie vote. The effort, however, 
to prevent a suspension of the tender laws could not be maintained very long. 
On the 24th of May a bill was proposed, which passed the 31st, effecting this plan 
for three months, and on the 22d of June the suspension was continued until the 
next session, and on December 22d, indefinitely. On the 1st of June, for the 
purpose of bringing the war to a close, the Assembly authorized the passage of 
an act to redeem the continental bills to the amount of twenty-five millions of 
dollars, by the collection of taxes at the rate of one million dollars to forty mil- 
lions. Every eff'ort was made to keep the State money up to par. The mea- 

N 



194 HIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA . 

sures adopted bringing but temporary relief, the Assembly, on the 29th of May, 
passed resolutions authorized the borrowing of a sum of money not exceeding 
£200,000 sterling, pledging the faith and honor of the State for its repayment 
after ten j-ears. It was deemed necessary to send an agent to Europe, but 
neither in Holland nor France, countries whose sympathies were the strongest 
for the struggling Colonies, could this be effected, and he was, in July, 1781, 
recalled by the Supreme Executive Council. Other measures were adopted to 
relieve pressing necessities. The army was not only without pay but without 
clothing, and full short of provisions. To supply their destitute countrjanen, 
subscriptions were instituted by the ladies, while to relicA^e financial embarass- 
ment, " The Bank of Pennsylvania " was established. The continental money, 
however, continued to sink in value, while efforts were made again and again to 
sustain it. 

On the 20th of March a law was passed to effect a re-organization of the 
whole militia system. It provided for the appointment of a lieutenant for each 
count}', and two sub-lieutenants or more, not exceeding the number of batta- 
lions. The battalions were to be divided into classes as heretofore. Fines, 
however, for non-attendance on muster daj^s were fixed for commissioned officers at 
the price of three da^'s' labor, and for non-commissioned officers and privates at one 
and a half days' labor. When called out, the pay of privates was to be equal to one 
day's labor. Persons called out, but neglecting or refusing to go, were liable to 
pay in each case the pi'ice of a day's labor during the terra of service, besides a 
tax of fifteen shillings on the hundred pounds upon their estates. As a relief to 
this class, the hiring of substitutes Avas allowed. Pensions were promised to 
the wounded in battle, and support to the families of those militia men who were 
killed, at rates to be fixed b}' the couits. Considerable opposition was made to 
this law, from the fact that by permitting the hiring of substitutes it would 
relieve the disaffected and Tories. 

The exigencies of the times, says Thompson Wescott, led to the authorizing 
of some extraordinary measures. On the 28th of May, General Washington, in 
writing to President Reed, said : " I assure you everj' idea that j'ou can form 
of our distress will fall short of the reality. There is such a combination 
of circumstances to exhaust the patience of the soldiery that it begins at 
last to be worn out, and we see in every line of the army the most serious 
features of mutiny and sedition. ... I must observe to you that much 
will depend upon the State of Pennsylvania. She has it in her power to 
contribute, without comparison, more to our success than any other State, in the 
two essential articles of fiour and transportation. . . . The matter is 
reduced to a point. Either Pennsylvania must give us all the aid we ask 
of her, or we undertake nothing. ... I wish the Legislature could be 
engaged to vest the Executive with plenipotentiarj^ powers. I should then 
expect something from your abilities and zeal. This is not a time for formality 
or ceremony. The crisis is in everj^ point of view extraordinary, and extraor- 
dinary expedients are necessary'. I am decidedly of this opinion." 

In addition to the demands of our own armj^ in the field, the expected arrival 
of the French troops rendered energetic and determined action. On the first of 
June the Assembly resolved, that during the recess of the House, " should the 



GENERAL JUISTVK Y. I95 

circumstances of the war render it necessar3'," tlie President or Vice-President in 
Council, sliould be autliorized and empowered " to declare martial law," as far as 
the same might be "conducive to the public security and to the safety and 
defence of the good and faithful citizens of this Commonwealth." On the 6th, 
Council passed resolutions to the effect, that as it " would be necessary to make 
extraordinary exertions for the supply of the army, and supporting other 
measures that might be for the safety and security of tlie State, a discrimination 
should be made between citizens who had shown themselves to be friends of the 
country and those of a contrarj^ character. On the same daj^ a proclamation was 
issued, in which was specified the necessity of procuring supplies in so short a 
space of time that the usual and ordinarj'' forms must be dispensed with. Late 
offensive movements of the enem}', of which certain intelligence had just been 
received, admitted of no delay in procuring a number of horses and wagons to be 
forwarded with all expedition to camp. Furthermore, the indiscriminate 
admission of all strangers without examination or inquiry gave facilities to spies 
and emissaries of the enemy. All suspicious persons were ordered to be arrested. 
An embargo was laid on all outward bound vessels, excepting those in the service 
of France. Seizure of horses was made, especially those belonging to the 
Tories and Quakers. Searches for arms were also made through the houses of 
the latter. 

Sir Henry Clinton having entered the State of New Jersey with his force, 
seems to have caused all this alarm. A portion of the militia was ordered 
to join the main army, but the British commander having pushed up North 
river, the orders were countermanded. Shortly after, the French troops, 
under llochambeau having arrived, a plan was formed for an attack on New 
York. In order to make this enterprise effective, the services of militia 
from Pennsylvania were demanded, and the several counties of the State 
were put under requisition for the furnishing of supplies. Flour, forage, 
wagons, and horses were required. Four thousand militia were ordered to 
be organized by the county lieutenants, to rendezvous at Trenton, New Jersey. 
President Reed took command of the camp in person. When strongest, it consisted 
of fifteen hundred infantry, two companies of artillery, with four pieces of 
cannon, and the City Troop of light-horse. On account, however, of the 
blockade of Rochambeau by the British licet, and the non-arrival of anoth.er 
division of the French army, the plan failed and the camp broke up. The camp 
at Trenton was well conducted — the tents and necessaries for field service were 
in good order— a regular market was held which was attended by neighboring 
farmers. On the occasion of the dismissal of the troops on the 2d of September, 
addresses were made to them by General Lacey, Colonel Eyre, and ColonelAVills, 
a committee appointed for that purpose. 




CHAPTER XII. 

THE REVOLUTION. THE TREASON OP ARNOLD. REVOLT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA 
LINE. SURRENDER OP CORNWALLIS. DECLARATION OF PEACE. 1780-1783. 

OWARDS the close of September the Supreme Executive Council 
received intelligence of the treason of General Benedict Arnold, 
who had been in command of the American post at West Point. 
Among the people the news of the infamy of this man excited 
the greatest indignation. In Philadelphia, to give expression to popular 
feeling, a public parade took place, three days after the arrival of the 
news, in which an effigy of Arnold was carried through the streets and 
finally hung upon a gallows. The Council at once confiscated Arnold's 
estate, and his wife was ordered to depart the State within fourteen daj's. Of 
the arrest, trial, and execution of Major Andre, and the escape of Arnold, his 
reward and price of dishonor, it is not in our province to refer to in full. If the 
proceedings against Tories in Pennsylvania had been fierce previous to this time, 
the feeling aroused by the defection of Arnold produced the bitterest animosity 
and hatred against all who were not in full sympathy with the American Colonies. 
Many arrests were made, a number were tried and condemned, and one, a Quaker 
of Chester county, executed for high treason. The property of prominent Tories 
were forfeited and sold, and in fact, the most energetic measures taken to crush 
out whatever might be inimical to the cause of independence. 

The situation of the soldiers from Penns^dvahia in the Continental army at 
this period was truly deplorable. About the 1st of December, the division of 
General Wayne went into winter quarters, in the neighborhood of Morristown. 
The soldiers were wearied out with privations, and indignant at their officers, 
whom they accused of not properly representing their situation to Congress. 
But the fault was in the tardiness of Congress, not in the officers. The Penn- 
sylvania troops had been enlisted on the ambiguous terms of "serving three 
years or during the continuance of the war," and the commanding officers of the 
arm}^ anticipated the evils that occurred. From the report to the Assembly we 
give the accounts which follow. 

It appears that considei'able discontent had for some time taken place 
amongst the soldiers on account not only of the cause alluded to, but of deficiencies 
of clothing, arrearages of pay, and the depreciation of the curreuc}'^ ; which as yet 
extended no further than private complaints and murmurs. Whatever real 
causes of discontent, in some of these particulars, might have been occasioned by 
the public necessities, owing to disappointments unavoidable in times of war and 
invasion, it is evident that they were greatly exaggerated by the influence of too 
great a mixture of British deserters in the Pennsylvania Line. It is more than 
probable that this dissatisfaction would not have assumed the formidable aspect 

196 



GENERAL HISTOBY. 



.97 



in which it afterwards appeared had not concurrent circumstances administered 
the occasion. 

New Year's Day, being a day of customary festivity, an extra pro. 

1781. portion of rum was served out to the soldiers. This, together with 

what they were able to purchase in the neigliborhood of the Line, was 

sufficient to inflame the minds of men, already predisposed by a mixture of real 

and imaginary injuries, to break forth into outrage and disorder. As soon as 

night came on, the camp was observed to be in great confusion, and by eleven 

o'clock became quite tumultuous ; the troops avowedly threw off all obedience 

and prepared to march. In vain did General Wayne and tlie officers of the Line 

exert themselves to reduce the mutiny and restore order and discipline ; the 

affair had gone too far to yield to their exertions, and one of the officers 

.unhappily lost his life in the attempt. At length the Line left their camp in a 

most tumultuous and disorderly manner, and marched to Princeton, where they 

fixed their quarters. 

General Wayne, uncertain whether this mutiny arose from British influence 
and disaffection, or only from the grievances they so loudly complained of, 
thought it most prudent to get this disorderly body, if possible, organized into 
some regularity, in wliich situation the mutineers might be treated with and the 
truth discovered. To this he was the more encouraged as they had repeatedly, 
and in the strongest terms, denied the least tincture of disaffection, or any inten- 
tion of deserting to the enem3^ He accordingly recommended it to them to 
choose a number of sergeants, to sit as a board and represent their grievances, 
so that redress might be had if their complaints should appear to be well founded. 
In pursuance of this order, a sergeant from each regiment met General Wayne, 
Colonels Butler and Stewart, and mentioned the following grievances : 

" 1. Many men continued in the service after the expiration of the enlistments. 

"2. The arreai'ages of pay, and the depreciation not yet made up, and the 
soldiers suffering ever}' privation for want of money and clothing. 

" 3. That it was very hurtful to the feelings of the soldiers to be prevented 
from disposing of their depreciation certificates as they pleased, without con- 
sulting any person on the occasion." 

Upon this representation being considered by General Wayne and the 
colonels, it was agreed, on their part, that one disinterested sergeant or private 
from each regiment should, with the commanding officer of the corps, when an 
enlistment was disputed, determine on the case; also that a sergeant from each 
regiment be appointed to carry an address to Congress, backed by the general 
and field officers. This was followed by the proposals from the sergeants to 
General Waj'ne, which, with his answer, was sent forward. The sergeants' 
propositions were entitled : " Proposals from the Committee of Sergeants, now 
representing the Pennsylvania Line Artillery, &c." 

"• 1. That all, and such men as were enlisted in the years lYTG or 1777, and 
received the bounty of twenty dollars, should be without any delay discharged ; 
and all arrears of pay, and depreciation of pay, should be paid to the said men, 
without any fraud, clothing included. 

" 2. Such men as were enlisted after the year 1777, and received one hundred 
and twenty dollars bounty, or any more additions, should be entitled to their 



1 98 HISTOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA . 

discharge at the expiration of three years from the time of said! enlistment, and 
their full depreciation of pay, and all arrears of clothing. 

" 3. That all such men belonging to the different regiments that were enlisted 
for the war, should receive the remainder part of their bounty and pay, and all 
arrears of clothing. That they should return to their respective corps, and 
should do their duty as formerly, and that no aspersions should be cast, and no 
grievances should be repeated to the said men. 

" 4. Those soldiers who were enlisted and received their discharges, and all 
arrearages of pay and clothing, should not be compelled to stay by any former 
officers commanding any longer time than was agreeable to their own pleasure 
and disposition ; of those who should remain for a small term as volunteers, that 
they should be at their own disposal and pleasure. 

" 5. As they then depended and relied upon General Wayne to represent and 
repeat their grievances, they agreed in conjunction from that date, January 4, 
in six days to complete and settle every such demand as the above five articles 
mentioned. 

" 6. That the whole Line were actually agreed and determined to support the 
above articles in every particular." 

General Wayne, having maturely considered the foregoing pi'oposals and arti- 
cles presented to him by the sergeants, in behalf of themselves, the artillery 
and privates of the Pennsylvania Line, returned the following answer : 

" That all such non-commissioned officers and soldiers as were justly entitled 
to their discharges should be immediately settled with, their accounts properly 
adjusted, and certificates for their pay and arrearages of pay and clothing given 
them, agreeably to the resolution of Congress, and the act of the Honorable As- 
sembly of Pennsylvania, for making up the depreciation, and should be dis- 
charged the service of the United States. 

'' That all such non-commissioned officers and privates belonging to the respec- 
tive regiments, artillery or infantr}', who were not entitled to their discharge, 
should also be settled with, and certificates given them for their pay, deprecia- 
tion, and clothing, in like manner as those first mentioned, which certificates 
were to be redeemable at a short period as the nature of the case would admit, 
to be paid in hard cash or an equivalent in Continental money of these States, 
and should be immediately furnished with warm clothing, they returning to their 
duty as worthy, faithful soldiers. 

" These propositions were founded in principles of justice and honor, between 
the United States and the soldiery, which was all that reasonable men could ex- 
pect, or that a general could promise consistent with his station or duty, and the 
mutual benefit of their country and the Line which he had had so long the honor 
of commanding. If the soldiers were determined not to let reason and justice 
govern on this occasion, he had only to lament the fatal and unfortunate situation 
to which they would reduce themselves and their country." 

Intelligence of this affair was soon conveyed to New York. The enemy were 
highly elated on the occasion, and exerted themselves to the utmost, not abating 
their diligence, although the rain poured down incessantly. Four or five thou- 
sand troops were immediately embarked in order to make a descent on Jersey, at 



QIOMEEAL HISTOEY. I99 

South Amboy, under a full persuasion that the Pennsylvania Line waited only 
an opportunity to join the British troops. 

They were confirmed in this idea by a person from Woodbridge who 
went over to Staten Island and informed that such was the determination of 
the Board of Sergeants. 

Ou the arrival of this news at Philadelphia, the President of the State and a 
committee of Congress, attended by the Pensylvania troop of horse, set out for 
Trenton. In the meantime, the negotiations previously stated had taken place 
but not to any extent. General Wayne was yet in doubt as to the real desio-ns 
of the mutineers ; but a circumstance now occurred which seemed to evince the 
fidelity of the discontented troops. A spy from New York, attended by a guide, 
appeared before the Board of Sergeants with a paper rolled in sheet lead, inti- 
mating that if the Pennsylvania Line would direct their march toward North 
river a large body of British troops should be ready to receive them ; and pro- 
mising very large emoluments to every soldier who would thus desert his 
country's cause. No sooner did this emissary make his errand known but the 
Board of Sergeants rejected the proposal with disdain, and sent the spy with his 
companion under guard to General Wayne, with a reserve, however, that they 
should be re-delivered to the Board if demanded. 

President Reed, having on the 6th advanced near Princeton (being also fully 
authorized by the Committee of Congress to make propositions), wrote a letter 
to General Wayne, in which he expressed some doubts as to the propriety of 
going within the pickets of the insurgents. This letter being shown to the 
sergeants, they immediately wrote to the President these words: "Your 
Excellency need not be in the least afraid or apprehensiv^e of any irregularities 
or ill-treatment, that the whole Line will be very happy, how expedient your 
Excellency would be in settling this Unhappy affixir." 

Encouraged by these circumstances, but without any great confidence in them, 
more especially as the Board of Sergeants had demanded the spies from General 
Wayne and at this time had them in possession, his Excellency determined to 
venture among them. That the President bad no firm dependence on their 
pacific assurances, appears by a passage in a letter written to the Vice-President 
at Philadelphia, just before he went into Princeton, wherein he sajs : "I have 
but one life, and my country has the first claim to it. I therefore go with the 
cheerfulness which attends performing a necessary, though not a pleasant duty." 
Upon his entry into Princeton the whole Line was drawn up for his reception, 
and every mark of military honor and respect shown him. After this interview 
the negotiations commenced in regular form. 

During the treaty, the President had the address to persuade the mutineers to 
advance to Trenton; for notwithstanding all favorable appearances, he still 
remained jealous of their situation. 

After a correspondence of some days, in which great tenaciousness was shown 
on the part of the malcontents, and equity with firmness on the part of Presi- 
dent Heed, articles of agreement were finally assented to and confirmed ou both 
sides. These articles were as follows, viz. : " Proposals made to the non-com- 
missioned officers and soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line, at Princeton, January 
Ith, 1781. 



200 HIS TO n r of penns yl vania. 

'' His Excellency, Joseph Reed, Esq., President, and the Honorable Briga- 
dier-General Potter of the Council of Pennsjdvania, having heard the complaints 
of the soldiers as represented by the sergeants, informed them that they were 
full}^ authorized to redress reasonable grievances, and they had the fullest 
disposition to make them as easy as possible; for which end they propos<! 1 : 

" That no non-commissioned officer or soldier should be detained beyond the 
time for which he freely and voluntarily engaged, but where it appeared they had 
beejiin any respect compelled to enter or sign, such enlistment should be deemed 
void and the soldier discharged. 

" To settle who were and who were not bound to sta}^, three pei'sons should 
be appointed by the President and Councils [this appointment was made after- 
wards by the Committee of Congress], who were to examine into the terms of 
enlistments ; where the original enlistments could not be found, the soldier's oath 
should be admitted to prove the time and terms of enlistment, and the soldier 
should be discharged upon his oath by the condition of the enlistment. 

" Wherever any soldier had enlisted for three years, or during the war 
he was to be discharged, unless it should appear he afterwards re-enlisted 
voluntarily and freely. The gratuity of one hundred dollars given by Congress 
was not to be reckoned as a bounty, or any men detained in consequence of that 
gratuity-. The commissioners to be appointed were to adjust any difficulties 
which might arise on this article also. 

" The auditors were to attend as soon as possible to settle the depreciation 
with the soldiers, and give them certificates. Their arrearages of pay should bo 
made up as soon as circumstances would admit. 

" A pair of shoes, overalls, and shirt, should be delivered to each soldier in a 
few days, as they were already purchased and ready to be forwarded whenever 
the Line should be settled. Those who were discharged would receive the above 
articles at Trenton, producing the General's discharge. 

" The President hoped that no soldier of the Pennsylvania Line would break his 
bargain, or go from the contract made with the public, and they might depend 
upon it that the utmost care would be taken to furnish them with every necessary 
fitting for a soldier. In addition, the President would recommend that the State 
of Pennsylvania should take some favorable notice of those who were engaged 
for the war. The Commissioners would attend at Trenton, where the clothing 
and stores would be immediately brought, and the regiments should be settled 
with in their order. A field officer of each regiment was to attend during the 
settlement of his regiment. 

" Pursuant to General Wayne's orders of the 2d instant, no man was to be 
brought to any trial or censure for what had happened on or since New Year's 
Day, but all matters were to be buried in oblivion." 

On the conclusion of the foregoing articles, the two emissaries were again 
delivered up, but his Excellency having been informed by General Wayne, that 
at the time they were first brought to him, he had promised the two soldiers who 
conducted them fifty guineas each as a reward for their fidelity, he determined 
to fulfil this engagement, and accordingly sent for those men, and offered them 
the promised gratuity. This, however, they declined accepting, saying that they 
only obeyed the orders of their superiors, the board of sergeants. The hundred 



GENERAL HISTOET. 201 

guir.eas were then offered to the board of sergeants, who returned this remarkable 
answer . " Agreeably to the information of two sergeants of our board who 
waited on your Excellency, that in consideration of the two spies, they informed 
the remainder of the board that your Excellency had been i:)leased to offer a sum 
of gold as a compensation for our fidelity ; but as it has not been for the sake or 
through any expectation of receiinng a reward^ hut for the zeal and love of our 
country^ that we sent them immediately to General Wayne, we, therefore, do not 
consider ourselves entitled to any other reward hut the love of our country and 
do jointly agree that we shall accept of no other." 

The two spies were tried by a court-martial on the 10th, and being duly 
convicted, were executed on the Uth, agreeable to their sentence, near the great 
road leading from Philadelphia to Trenton ferry. 

However unjustifiable the conduct of the Pennsylvania Line was and should 
be deemed in the first instance, it must be acknowledged that they conducted 
themselves in the business, culpable as it was, with unexpected order and reou- 
larity, and their fidelity in refusing the large offers made by the enemy, in deliv- 
ering up the spies, and in refusing the hundred guineas they had so justly 
merited, exhibits an instance of true patriotism and disinterestedness not to be 
found amongst mercenary troops who bear arms for pay and subsistence only, 
uninspired by their country's rights, or the justice of the cause which they have 
engaged to support. 

In pursuance of the articles agreed to, and the plan adopted, commissioners 
were appointed by Congress to settle with the discontented soldiers, man by 
man, their terms of enlistment carefully inquired into, their wants supplied, 
money advanced on account of pay, and certificates given for the remainder. 

About the close of February, 1781, orders were given for the rendezvous- 
ing of the Pennsylvania troops under General Wayne at York, previous to 
joining the Southern army under General Greene. The delay of the State 
auditors, who were appointed to settle and pay the proportion of the deprecia- 
tion due the troops, caused some little trouble, but by the 1th of June this force, 
amounting to only eleven hundred, formed a junction with Lafayette. 

No sooner had the allied armies departed, than fears arose that the unprotected 
state of the countr\^ might tempt the British troops in New York to make an 
incursion into New Jersey, and even to approach Philadelphia. To counteract 
such a movement, the Pennsylvania militiamen were ordered to hold themselves 
in readiness for instant service. Congress recommended that three thousand 
men should be called out. This force rendezvoused at Newtown, in Bucks 
county. A watch was set at Cape May. The public records were ordered to be 
got ready for immediate removal. The uncertainty as to the designs of the 
enemy continued for some days, but as no movement was made against New 
Jersey, and as embarkations were made from New York, it became probable 
that the intenti'on was to transport a bod}'- of troops southward to relie"e 
Cornwallis. The camp at Newtown was therefore broken up about the middle of 
October, and the militia i-eturned to their homes. 

The capitulation of the British army under Cornwallis at Yorktown to the 
American Commander-in-Chief on the 29th of October, gladdened and cheered the 
hearts of the patriots of the whole country. They were overpowered, saj^s 



202 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



We^tcott, with gratitude and gladness — while the hearts of the Tories sank 

wiihin them for they Ivnew this great event was virtually a conclusion 

of the war. The important news was first communicated to Thomas McKean, 

President of Congress, on the morning of the 22d. On the 24th, when the official 

account of the surrender was brought by Major Tilghman, aid to Washington, 

the Supreme Executive Council of the State waited upon the President of Con- 

o-ress, the members of that august body, and the minister of France, who 

congratulated each other on this great, important, and happy event. The 

standard of Pennsylvania was hoisted, and at twelve o'clock a salute was 

fired from the artillery in the State House yard, as also from the shipping in the 

harbor with colors displayed. 

The success of the American arms before Yorktown did not lessen the ardor 

and energy of Congress, the State of Pennsylvania, the commander-in-chief, or 

the army. The end of the conflict with the mother countr}-^ seemed nearer, and 

no effort was spared to secure the blessed boon for which they had struggled so 

many years. 

On the 14 th of November William Moore,* 

who had served as Vice-President since It TO, 
succeeded President Reed, whose term as coun- 
cillor had expired. General James Potter was 
chosen at the same time Vice-President. Dur- 
ino; the entire administration of President 
Moore, the great question at issue in the State 
was that of the finances. 

On account of the hostile demonstrations of 
the Oliio Indians against the settlements in 
Western Pennsylvania, it was determined that 
a force should be raised and marched against the 
Sandusky Indians, who seemed the most active 
in keeping up a predatory warfare. The requisite 
force was raised principally in Washington and 
Westmoreland counties, consisting of the ranging companies of volunteers. On 
the 20th of May the troops, numbering more than four hundred, assem- 
1782. bled at Mingo Bottom, where they unanimousl}- selected as leader Colo- 
nel William Crawford, of Westmoreland. Of the disastrous results of 
that expedition, the defeat, the capture, and finally the burning of Colonel Craw- 
ford at the stake by the savages, we can merely refer to. When the news of 
Crawford's unhappy fate reached the settlements, it spread a gloom on every 
countenance, During the French war he had distinguished himself for his 
l)rave and gallant conduct, and in the revolutionary struggle he proved himself 

* William IMoore was a native of Philadelphia, and at the outset of the Revolution 
engaged in mercantile pursuits. He signed the non-importation resolutions, an I was » 
member of the Council of Safety, 1776, from which he was transferred by the Supreme 
Executive Council to the Board of War. Upon his election as Councillor in 1779 he was 
chosen Vice-President, and, on the expiration of President Reed's term of office, to the head 
of the State government. In 1784 he was elected a member of the Assembly, and, until his 
death, which took place in 1793, he took an active part in public affairs. Mr. Moore married 
Sarah, daughter of Thomas Lloyd, and was brother-in-law of President Wharton, who 
married Susaima Lloyd. 




WILLIAM MOOKE. 



GENERAL HISTOJiT. 203 

not unworthy his reputation as a soldier and a patriot. His loss was a severe 
blow to the frontiers. 

The savages soon after this, emboldened with their late success, and instiga- 
ted by Girty, McKee, and other white outlaws who had taken refuge among 
them, determined on a grand campaign. Measures were at once adopted to defend 
the exposed settlements, and although there were frequent Indian incursions 
into Kentucky and Virginia, Western Pennsylvania was happily spared. 

In August a special session of the Assembly was convened by request of the 
Supreme Executive Council, to devise some means to provide funds for carrying 
on the government. At this session the matter of a treaty between Great Britain 
and the United States was taken up. In 1778, the General Assembly had passed 
resolutions declaring " that the man or men who should presume to make a 
separate or partial convention with the King of Great Britain, or witli commis- 
raissioners appointed b}'- him, ought to be considered as enemies of the United 
States ; that, as a preliminary, the fleets and armies of the British Crown ought 
to be withdrawn from the American territory, or the independence of the United 
States previously acknowledged. Kesolutions were also adopted affirming the 
sovereignty of the State, and averring that Congress had no right or authoritj"- 
to do anything that might have a tendency to yield up that authority, without 
the consent of the State, previously obtained." These matters were now taken up 
by the Council. In many particulars the condition of public affairs had changed 
and become modified since 1778; but the probability of peace rendered some 
definite action necessary. A resolution was therefore adopted on the 28th of 
May, by the Supreme Executive Council, re-affirming the spirit of the resolu- 
tions of 1778, with the additional declaration that any propositions that might 
be made hy Great Britain in any manner tending to violate the treat}' existing 
between the United States and France ought to be treated " with every mark 
of indignit}' and contempt." At the same time, the Council declared that the 
benefits which Great Britain might derive from America, were she to adopt 
principles of moderation, wisdom and justice, " were such that a desire for the 
general interest of mankind and the dignity of human nature, caused some con- 
cern at witnessing that once powerful and respectable nation continuing to act 
upon principles which, if persisted in much longer, would, b}' destroying all title 
to the esteem and confidence of the United States, render treaties of amity and 
commerce between the Americans and English absolutely and altogether impracti- 
cable." This measure came up before the Assembly at the special session. A reso- 
lution against peace with England without the concurrence of France, against re- 
union with Great Britain on any terms, and against a revival of the rights of tho 
Proprietary family, was before the Assembly. It was supposed that, in reference 
to the last subject, the House was divided in sentiment. The proposition had 
previously been rejected in committee hy a vote of seven to five. This news 
reached the public and caused a great excitement. The proposal was recom- 
mended by way of amendment to be taken up the following day. The spirit 
manifested by the people was such as to show the members of the Legislature 
what the real feeling was. It was so strong and overwhelming, that the next 
day, when the amendment was proposed, instead of a warm debate upon it, all 
opposition was silenced, and the resolutions were passed unanimously. 



204 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

On account of Indian incursions into the upper part of Northumberland during 
the early part of tlie autumn, the Council determined to send an expedition into 
the Genesee country, of which General James Potter, Vice-President, was to be 
in command. The lieutenants of Berks, Lancaster, Northampton, and Cumber- 
land were directed to call into service a sufficient number of troops to rendezvous 
at Fort Muncy on the 4th of October. At the same time militia from several of 
the western counties were ordered to Fort Pitt under command of General 
William Irvine, who had been deputed by the same authority to march on 
Sandusky. Both of these expeditions were on the eve of setting out, when at the 
request of General Washington, the orders were countermanded. This was owinf 
to the determined efforts required for the further prosecution of the war against 
the British. The alacrity with which the frontiersmen entered the service on 
this special call was conspicuous, and when orders came to lay aside the expedi- 
tions the disaffection was great, as the militia were, particularly in the western 
counties, determined to avenge the atrocious murder of Colonel Crawford. 

In November, the Pennsylvanians confined on board the Jersey prison-ship, at 
New York, made application to the State authorities, representing their destitute 
condition. They were cruelly treated by the English, and were in want of 
clothing, blankets, and food. There were sent to them immediately afterwards, 
by a flag of truce, three hundred bushels of potatoes and fifty barrels of flour. 
As frequently, however, as possible, exchanges were made of prisoners, by which 
many of the captives at New York were released. 

Prior to the Revolution an angry controversy grew out of the claims of 
Connecticut to the Wyoming Yalley lands. It was postponed to the more 
pressing exigencies of that important epoch, in which botii parties made common 
cause. The Connecticut settlers had returned soon after Sullivan's expedition 
of 1179. In 1778, the title of these lands had been taken from the Penns and vest- 
ed in the State. On the assertion of this new title on the part of the State, the 
controversy was opened anew, and was referred to Congress, who appointed 
commissioners to meet at Trenton in November, 1782. The commissioners, after 
hearing both parties, decided that Connecticut had no right to the land in con- 
troversy — and that the jurisdiction and pre-emption of all lands within the 
charter bounds of Pennsylvania of right belonged to that State. The settlers 
cheerfully acquiesced in the change of jurisdiction, but claimed that, although 
Connecticut had no right to the land, yet the Susquehanna Company had. The 
State proceeded to enforce its claims by a method very different from that of 
William Penn, and thereupon ensued a fierce and vindictive civil war, nearly as 
desolating as the previous irruptions of the Tories and savages. At length, after 
a series of vacillating and ill-advised legislation, the State passed a law, in 1799 
and 1801, compensating the Pennsylvania claimants by a grant of lands else- 
where, or by a payment in money ; and confirming to the Connecticut settlers 
their titles on condition of their pajnng the State a small price per acre, from 
eighty-six cents to one dollar and twenty cents, according to the qualit}^ of their 
land. The New England emigrants became obedient, industrious, and valuable 
citizens of their adopted State ; and Wyoming, after a long train of unparalleled 
Bufl'erings, enjoyed a state of repose and prosperity. 

At the election in November, John Dickinson was chosen President, and 



GENEEAL HISTOBY. 



205 



General James Ewing, Vice-President. Political controversy ran high, and 
neither before or since, were bitter invective and detraction of prominent citizens 
so freely indulged in by newspaper writers. Mifflin, Reed, McKean, Dickinson 
Cadwallader, and other influential men of the State, were assailed by a malignity 
and virulence unequalled. 

On the 12th of March, the first 

1783. news was received of the signing of the 
treaty of November 30, 1182, acknow- 
ledging the independence of the United States. 
This was the first measure necessary in the nego- 
tiations for peace between all the belligerents. 
On the 20th of January, 1783, the preliminary 
treaty of peace was signed. On the 11th of April, 
Congress issued a proclamation enjoining a 
cessation of hostilities ; and on the 16th of the 
same month, the Supreme Executive Council 
made public announcement of the happ}^ event 
at the Court House. The State flag was hoisted, 
church bells were rung, and expressions of joy 
at the happy relief from the miseries of war, were 
universal. 

One of the first measures that was necessary on the cessation of the war was 
an exchange of prisoners. The soldiers of Burgoyne's army were principally in 
the interior of Pennsylvania, and these were put in motion before the proclama- 
tion, and arrived in Philadelphia on their way to New York a day or two pre- 
vious to the official announcement. 

With this joyful intelligence, the re-opening of commerce followed, and at once 
action was taken by the Supreme Executive Council, for the removal of the 
obstructions in the Delaware river. 




JOHN DICKINSON.'' 



* John Dickinson was a native of Maryland, born November 13, 1732. He studied law 
in Philadelphia, and entered the Temple, Londou. On his return he practiced with success 
at Philadelphia. Was elected member of the Assembly in 1764. In 1765 he was a deputy 
to the first Colonial Congress, and its resolutions were drawn up by him. In 1767 he pub- 
lished his "Farmers' Letters to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies," which was re- 
printed in England and France. In 1760 the College of New Jersey conferred on him tlie 
degree of LL.D. In 1774 he wrote an " Essay on the Constitutional Power of Great Britain 
over the Colonies of America," published by the Provincial Conference of Pennsylvania. 
He was a member of the Congress of 1774, and was the author of those important State 
papers, "The Address to the Inhabitants of Quebec," The Declaration to the Armies," the 
two petitions to the King, and " The Address to the States." He opposed the Declaration 
of Independence as premature. This course made him unpopular for a time. In October 
1777, he was made brigadier-general of the Pennsylvania militia. In April, 1779, he re- 
turned to Congress from Delaware, and wrote "The Address to the States," of May 26. In 
1781-5 he was President of the States of Pennsylvania and Delaware, successively, and mem- 
ber of the Convention for framing the Federal Constitution. In 1788 appeared his " Fabius " 
letters, advocating the adoption of the new Constitution. Another series over the same 
signature, on the relations of the United States with France, 1797, was his last work. In 
1792 he was a member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of Delaware. His 
political writings were published in two volumes, in 1801. He was a man of elegant learn- 
ing and fine conversational powers. He died at Wilmington, Delaware, February 14, 1808. 



if 


3 


m. 


M 



CHAPTER XIIl. 

TROUBLE IN THE SETTLEMENT OF THE CLAIMS OF THE SOLDIERS. COUNCIL OF 
CENSORS. TREATY AT FORT STANWIX. CONVENTION TO REVISE THE CONSTI- 
TUTION. 1783-1790. 

N June 1783, a number of the non-commissioned officers and sol- 
diers of the Pennsylvania Line, wearied and exasperated by the 
delay in the settlement of their claims, resolved to demand a redress of 
their grievances and a prompt settlement of their accounts. A body of 
them accordingly* marched from Lancaster towards the city of Philadelphia, and 
although the Supreme Executive Council and Congress were informed of their 
coming, no measures were taken to check the advance of the malcontents. On the 
21st of June, while the Executive Council was in session, about thirty of them 
armed m:.i"chcd to the State House, and sent in a memorial in writing that as their 
general officers had left them, they should have authority to appoint commis- 
sioned officers to command them and redress their grievances. With this demand 
went a threatening message that in case they were refused, the soldiers would be 
let in upon the Council, who must then abide by the consequences. Onl}' twenty 
minutes were given for deliberation ; but so insolent were the terms, that Council 
at once unanimously rejected the propositions. This creating a wide-spread alarm, 
the President of Congress assembled that body in special session, and demanded 
that the militia of the State should be immediately called forth in sufficient force 
to reduce the soldiers to obedience, disarm them and put them in the power of 
Congress. Prior to the assembling of Congress at Carpenter's Hall, the soldiers 
were at their barracks and all was quiet. A session of the Supreme Executive 
Council was held on the following day, Sunday, at the house of President Dick- 
inson. That bod}', however, was not as much in favor of the extreme measures as 
Congress. The result was that the latter, dissatisfied with the indisposition of the 
Council, adjourned to meet at Princeton, New Jersey. The action of Congress was 
neither prudent nor necessary-. It was, continues Mr. Westcott, whose account 
we have given, the result of too high a degree of pride, and a disposition to con- 
strue an undesigned affront into a wanton insult, or it was a consequence of a 
pusilanimous fear, that was unjustifiable by the succession of events. 

The promoters of this mutiny escaped, but several of the ringleadei's were ar- 
rested and court-martialed. Two of the sergeants of the Third Pennsylvania 
were sentenced to be shot, while several others were to receive corporal punish- 
ment. AW were subsequently pardoned by Congress. 

Congress remained during the summer at Princeton. The Assembly of Penn- 
sjdvania, the Council, and prominent citizens of the State invited it to return to 
Philadelphia, and although Congress seemed pleased and satisfied at the meas- 
ures taken, yet they were ashamed to go back to a city they had deserted so pre- 
cipitately and causelessly almost, and they adjourned to meet at Annapolis. 

206 



GENERAL HISTOJIY. 207 

During this year, a conference was held by George Bryan, George Gray, and 
William Bingham, commissioners appointed on behalf of Pennsylvania, and 
Abraham Clark, Joseph Cooper, and Thomas Henderson, on behalf of New Jer- 
sey, to settle the jurisdiction of the islands in the Delaware. By this body 
the islands were assigned to the States according to proximit3^ Windmill is- 
land. League island, Mud or Foot island, Ilog island, and Little Tinicum were 
annexed to the State of Pennsylvania, while Betty's island and Red Bank island 
were assigned to New Jersey. It was further agreed that the river Delaware 
should be a public highway, and that the two States should have concurrent 
jurisdiction between the shores. This treaty was ratified by an act passed 20th 
September. 

At the general election in October, members of the Council of Censors were 
chosen, conformable to the Constitution of 1T76, for the purpose of inspecting the 
acts of the Legislature and Executive branches of the Government, since the 
adoption of that instrument. 

On the 10th of November, the Council of Censors met at Philadelphia. Of this 
bod}^' Frederick A. Muhlenberg was chosen president. The Council continued 
in existence nearly a year, adjourning finally on the 25th of September, 1784. 
Various amendments were discussed and strong differences of opinion were mani- 
fested;- but in their address to the freemen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylva- 
nia, at the close of their labors, recommended a continuance of the frame of gov- 
ernment. The}'' say, " If with heart and hand united, we will all combine to sup- 
port the Constitution, and apply its injunctions to the best use of society, we 
shall find it a source of tlie richest blessings. We would earnestly recommend 
this to 3'ou. Give it a fair and honest trial ; and if after all, at the end of another 
seven j-ears, it shall be found necessary or proper to introduce any changes, they 
may then bo brought in, and established upon a full conviction of their useful- 
ness, with harmony and good temper, without noise, tumult, or violence.'' 

The definitive treaty of peace with England was ratified by Congress 
1784. on the 14th of January, 1784, and proclamation of the fact published on 
the 22d of that month. In celebration of this event, the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania erected a ti'iumphal arch on High Street, between Sixth and Sev- 
enth streets. By an unlucky accident the arch took fire just as the inaugurating 
ceremonies were to take place. 

On the 9th of August, General Lafayette visited Philadelphia and was received 
by the citizens of the State with great enthusiasm, "amidst the discharge of 
artillery and the ringing of the bells." lie was waited upon b}' the officers of the 
Pennsylvania Line, headed by Generals Wayne, St. Clair, and Irvine, and an 
address of welcome and congratulation delivered by President Dickinson, in the 
presence of the Council and the Assembl}'. 

Since the year 17G8, the northwestern boundary of Indian purchases in the 
State ran from the Susquehanna, on the New York line, to Towanda creek; 
thence to the head of Pine creek ; thence to its mouth, and up the West Branch 
to its source; thence over to Kittanning, and down the Ohio to the west line of 
the State. The last treaty held at Fort Stanwix with the Indians took place in 
October, 1784. One important feature of this treaty was the settlement of the 
difficulty that had existed for sixteen years between the whites, in relation to the 



208 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



boundary line embraced by Tyadaghton. It was contended by some that Lyco- 
ming creek was the line, and by others that it was Pine creek. 




SHOWING THE VARIOUS PLRCHASES 

3MIlD]E3'Ig([M[MIEimi)iANS ^C, 




GREXKE 



At this treaty, the Pennsylvania commissioners were specially instructed to 
inquire of the Indians which stream was really the Tyadaghton, and, also, the 
Indian name of Burnett's Hills, left blank in the deed of 1768. The Indians 
informed them Tyadaghton was what the whites call Pine creek, being the largest 
stream emptying into the West Branch. As to Burnett's Hills, they called them 
the Long Mountains, and knew them by no other name. 

The commissioners at this treaty purchased the residue of the Indian lands 
within the limits of Pennsylvania, and the deed, signed by the chiefs of the Six 
Nations, is dated October 23, 1784. This purchase was confirmed by the Wj'an- 
dott and Delaware Indians, at Fort Mcintosh, by a deed executed by those 
nations, dated January 21, 1785. Thus, says Meginness, in a period of about 
one hundred and two years was the whole right of the Indians to the soil of 
Penns^'lvauia extinguished. The Legislature, at the time of this last treaty, 
being apprehensive that the directions given to the commissioners to ascertain 
the precise boundaries of the purchase of 1768, might produce some inconveni- 
ences, declai'ed : " That the said directions did not give, nor ought not to be 
construed to give, to the said commissioners, any authority to ascertain, defi- 
nitel}^, the boundary lines aforesaid, in the year 1768, striking the line of the 
West Branch of Susqu-ehanna, at the mouth of Lycomick or Lycoming creek, shall 
be the boundaries of the same purchase, to all legal interests and purposes, until 
the General Assembly shall otherwise regulate and declare the same." 

This last accession of lands was called by the whites the "New 
1785. Purchase," and when the land office opened in 1785, settlers rapidly 
flocked up the West Branch. 



GENERAL HISTORY. 



209 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



On the 4th of July of this year, the Philadelphia Agricultural Society, the 
first in the United States, was organized. 

On the 18th of October, Benjamin Franklin,* then on the verge of eighty, 
having arrived from France the previous month, was chosen President of the 
State, and Charles Biddle, Vice-President. 

The controversy in relation to the test laws 
which the previous year had caused the dis- 
ruption of the Assembl}^, was reviewed before 
the Legislature, but little relief was 
1786. given by the act of 4th of March, 1186, 
and it was not until three years after 
that a bill was passed repealing all laws requiring 
any oath or affirmation of allegiance " from the 
inhabitants of the State." 

The islands assigned to Pennsylvania by the 
treaty with New Jersey were, by an act passed at 
this session of the Legislature, distributed 
among the several counties bordering on the 
river. Up to this time the jurisdiction over 
Hog island was doubtful, but it had been exer- 
cised by Philadelphia county. By this act that island was permanently attached 
to Chester county. 

During this year considerable activity was manifested by manufacturers 
and inventors. Applications were made to the Assembly for aid, bj^ John 
Stephens, to enable him to prosecute to perfection his "discovery of the art of 
making blue stone melting pots equal to black lead crucibles ; by John Fitch, 
the exclusive right to his invention of navigating boats and vessels by steam ; 

* Benjamin Franklin was born at Boston, Massachusetts, on the 17th of Januarj', 
1706. Apprenticed to his brother James, a printer, he occasionally contributed to the 
newspaper published by him. The brothers disagreeing, Benjamin left him, went to 
Philadelphia, and established himself as a printer. He subsequently visited England, 
where he M'orked as a journeyman, returned in 1720, and in 1729 became editor and 
proprietor of the Pennsylvania Gazette. In 1730, married Deborah Reed ; commenced 
publishing "Poor Richard's Almanac," which acquired a wide celebrity. He became clerk 
of the Provincial Assembly in 173G, postmaster of Philadelphia, 1737, dejauty jiostniaster, 
general of the British Colonies in 1753, agent of the Assembl}' in opposition to the claims of 
the Proprietary Governments of exemption from taxation in England, 1757-G2. In 1752 he 
made, by means of a kite, the great discovery of the identity of lightning with the electric 
fluid. This procured him the membership of the Royal Society, the Copley gold medal, 
and the degree of LL.D., in 17G2, from Oxford and Edinburgh. In 1755 he assisted in 
lurnishing transportation for Braddock's expedition. He was commissioner to the Albany 
Congress of 1754. While in England, in 1766, he wasexamined before the House of Commons 
on the state of affairs in the Colonies, and partly by his exertions the obnoxious Stamp Act 
was repealed. Returning to Philadelphia, in May, 1775, he was elected to Congress; was one 
of the coinmittee to prepare, and a signer of, the Declaration of Independence. He was 
president of the Provincial Convention which framed the Constitution of 1776. From the 
close of the latter year to 1785 was ambassador to France. To him is due the principal 
credit of procuring the treaty of alliance with France, 1778, which secured the independence 
of the Colonies. With Adams and Jay, he signed the definite treaty of peace, Septembers, 
1783. He was President of Pennsylvania, 1785-88, and delegate to the Convention which 
framed the Federal Constitution of 1787. He died at Philadelphia, April 17, 1790. 
O 



i^^ 



210 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

by John Eve, manufacturer of gunpowder; by Oliver Evans, for the exclusive 
right to use his inventions of machines for making cotton and woolen cards, and 
also a machine to clean wheat and manufacture it into flour ; by Whitehead 
Humplireys, for assistance to prosecute his discoveries in the art of convert- 
ing bar-iron into steel ; by George Wall, for exclusive manufacture of a new 
mathematical instrument invented by him ; and by Emanuel Bantling, for a 
special law of encouragement for his invention of a tube-bellows for blacksmiths. 

In March, 178T, the subject of the removal of the seat of the State Govern- 
ment from Philadelphia to Harrisburg was introduced into the Assem- 
1787. blv by Mr. Pindley. The preamble stated that " the people of the State 
suffered great inconvenience, and were subjected to unequal burdens in 
consequence of the seat of Government, Land Office, Treasury of the State, Comp- 
troller-General's Office, and Rolls' Office being fixed at Philadelphia, at the 
distance of four hundred miles from the Western boundary of the State." He 
therefore moved that a committee be appointed to bring a bill appointing commis- 
sioners to erect a State House at Harrisburg, on a lot of ground belonging to 
the State. This motion was carried by a vote of thirty-three yeas to twenty-nine 
nays, but was shortly afterward reconsidered and laid on the table. 

In May of this year [HST], the Convention to frame the Federal Con- 
stitution assembled in Philadelphia. Twelve States were represented. The 
delegates from Pennsylvania were Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, Benjamin 
Franklin, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared IngersoU, James Wilson, 
and Gouverneur Morris. General Washington was elected president, and William 
Jackson, secretary. The Convention sat with closed doors. It terminated its 
deliberations on the 18th of September, when the scheme of the Constitution was 
perfected. The plan had many opponents in Pennsylvania, particularly among 
tiie partisans of the State Government. A draft of the instrument was reported 
to the Assembly, when a motion was made to authorize the calling of a State 
Convention to deliberate upon its adoption. This body met on the 21st of 
November, and was organized by the choice of Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg 
as president, and James Campbell as secretary. On the 12th of December 
following, the final adoption of the draft of the Constitution was carried by a 
vote of forty-six yeas to twenty-three nays. The day after, the members of the 
Convention and of the Supreme Executive Council, with officers of the State, 
and the city of Philadelphia, and others, went in procession from the State House 
to the old Court House, where the ratification of the instrument was solemnly 
proclaimed. Twelve cannon were fired and the bells were rung. The Convention 
returned to the State House, where two copies of the ratification of the 
Constitution were signed. According to Hamilton, a motion was made that all 
members should sign it as an acquiescence to the principle that the majority 
should govern, which was strenuously objected to by the opponents of tliis 
instrument. 

The Federal Constitution, after its adoption by Pennsylvania, was submitted 
to the other States, and as State after State approved of it, the exultation 
of the "Federalists," as they were called, and the chagrin of the "Anti- 
Federalists," were displayed with more and more violence. In several States 
processions had taken place to celebrate the inauguration of the new era, but in 



GENERAL HISTORY. 211 

Pennsylvania, says Westcott, there had been no celebr.-ition of this land, the 
proceedings in reference to the adoption of the Constitution being hurried 
through so as not to allow of any public display. It was decided, however, 
that as soon as the ninth State acceded to it, measures should be taken for 
public rejoicing. Delaware, New Jersey, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Con- 
1788. necticut, Maryland, South Carolina, and Massachusetts had adopted 
it prior to June, ITSS, and when, on the 21st of that month, New 
Hampshire, the ninth State, ratified it, it was determined by the citizens of 
Philadelphia to celebrate the formation of the new Union on the ensuing 4th 
of July. By that time Virginia had acceded to the Constitution. This pageant 
was as imposing as it was possible for the authorities and people of Pennsyl- 
vania, in their enthusiasm, to make it, and not only in the metropolis, but in 
• every town in the State was the occasion one of patriotism and splendor. 

The adoption of the Constitution, says Mr. Westcott, rendered the institu- 
tion of measures necessaiy for the election of members of Congress and electors 
of President and Vice President of the United States. In order to avail 
themselves as fully as possible of the privileges afforded, the Anti-Federalists 
were early at work. A few among the leading men of this part}' assembled in 
convention at Harrisburg in September, ostensibly for the purpose of recom- 
mending a revision of the new Constitution. Blair McClenachan was chairman 
of this small assembly, and General John A. Hanna secretary. They resolved 
that it was expedient to recommend an acquiescence in the Constitution, but 
that a revision of the instrument was necessary. Among other topics enforced 
was the propriety of a reform of the ratio of Congressional representation, and 
that Senators should be liable to be superseded or recalled at any time bj' the 
State which elected them. Several other changes were advocated, but it contented 
itself by nominating a general ticket for Congress. The action of this body was 
immediately denounced, and as the nominees were Anti-Federalists, it was said 
that power to enforce the new Constitutional sj'stem ought not to be granted to 
its opponents. A new convention was called to meet at Lancaster, which selected 
candidates for Congress and electors for President. The election of members of 
Congi-ess took place in November, and in the State six of the nominees on the 
Federal ticket were elected, and two (David Muhlenberg, of Montgoraerj^, and 
Daniel Heister, of Berks), who, although Federalists, had, with two others of 
the same politics, been placed as a matter of policy with the opposition ticket. 

On the 14th of October, Vice President Muhlenberg resigning, David Redick, 
of Washington county, was chosen to that station. On the 5th of November 
following. General Thomas Mifllin succeeded Benjamin Franklin, who declined a 
re-election on account of his advanced years. At the same time George Ross, of 
Lancaster, was elected Vice President. 

The first election for electors of President of the United States under the 
new Constitution was held in January. The Federal ticket was suceess- 
1789. ful — the ten votes of Pennsylvania were given for George Washington 
as President, and eight votes for John Adams, and two for John Han- 
cock for Vice President. Eleven of the thirteen States participated in the elec- 
tion—two not having ratified the Constitution, and the other not having 
provided for the choosing of electors. General Washington received the 



212 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

unanimous vote as President, and John Adams had the majority for Vice 
President. 

The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1176 proving inadequate for the require- 
ments of a useful and effective government, its revision was demanded. On the 
24th of March the Assembly passed resolutions recommending the election of 
delegates to form a new Constitution. The Supreme Executive Council refused 
to promulgate this action of the Assembly. In September following the latter 
body passed resolutions for calling a convention. At the election in October 
delegates were chosen, and on the fourth Tuesday of November the Convention 
assembled in Philadelphia, electing Thomas Mifflin, President. After a long 
session the members adjourned in the ensuing year to meet again, when 
1790. the subject of the Constitution was again taken up and concluded, and 
the new instrument adopted September 2, 1790. 

The most radical changes were made in the executive and legislative branches 
of government. The Assembly ceased to have the sole right to make laws, a 
Senate being created. The Supreme Executive Council was abolished. A 
governor was directed to be elected, to whom the administration of affairs was to 
be entrusted. The former judicial system was continued, excepting that the 
judges of the higher courts were to be appointed during good behavior, instead of 
for seven years. The Bill of Rights re-enacted the old Provincial provision 
copied into the first Constitution, respecting freedom of worship, rights of 
conscience, and exemptions from compulsory contributions for the support of 
any ministry. The recognition of God, and of a future state of rewards and 
punishments, was still demanded of all holding office, but a belief in the divine 
inspiration of the Old and New Testaments was not included. The Council 
of Censors ceased to have authority ; and Pennsylvania conformed in all important 
matters to the system upon which the new Federal Government was to be 
administered. 

In the autumn of 1790, depredations on the frontiers became of common 
occurrence, and as little could be done to arrest them without marching into the 
heart of the Indian settlements, this was determined upon, and General Josiah 
Harmar was ordered to march upon the towns bordering on the Miami. The 
result was unfortunate, owing to the ruinous plan of acting in detachments ; by 
this means one-half of the regular force was lost. This abortive expedition 
served only to encourage the enemy, and to give additional rancor to their 
incursions. The failure of General Harmar made a deep impression upon the 
American nation, and was followed by a loud demand for a greater force, under 
the command of a more experienced general. 

General Arthur St. Clair, a native of Pennsylvania, an officer of the Revolu- 
tion, and then Governor of the Northwestern territory, was placed in the year 
following at the head of a regular force of about fifteen hundred men, well 
furnished with artillery, and six hundred militia. Like Harmar's, this expedi- 
tion was a disastrous failure, ending in the total route of St. Clair's army, and 
the loss of many officers and men. This, in proportion to the number engaged, 
was enormous and unparalleled, except in the affair of Braddock. Sixty-eight 
officers were killed upon the spot, and twenty-eight wounded. Out of nine hun- 
dred privates who went into action, five hundred and fifty were left dead upon 
the field, and many of the survivors were wounded. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR MIFFLIN. THE YELLOW FEVER IN PHILADELPHIA. 



THE PRESQU'ISLE ESTABLISHMENT. 
OP THE FRONTIERS. 1790-1794. 



THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. DEFENCE 




IIE first election held under the Constitution of the Commonwealth — 
that of 1790, resulted in the choice of Thomas Mifflin* for Governor. 
General Mifflin had little or no opposition, his term of service as 
President being highly acceptable to the people. General Arthur 
St. Clair, his opponent, was highly esteemed, but the popularity of Mifflin 
carried him in triumph, and for three terms was chosen to the chief magistracy 
of Pennsylvania, and the routine of execu- 
tive business, says Armor, as established by 
him under the new Constitution, witli little 
variation has been preserved. Several impor. 
tant events transpired during his administration 
which more than ordinarily moved the public 
mind. 

The system of internal improvements which in 
Pennsylvania in after years formed so great a 
portion of the cares of the State, and which in- 
volved the Commonwealth in heavy debts, dates 
its beginning from measures adopted during the 
first year of Governor Mifflin's administration. 
The committee appointed by the Legislature 
at their session in 1790, made a long and valuable 

report on the 19th of February, 1791, in which the results of the 

1791. examinations made in previous years by the commissioners were 

embodied. The members of this committee were of opinion that the 




THOMAS MIFFLIN. 



*Thomas Mifflin was born in Philadelpliia, in 1744, of Quaker parentage. On the 
completion of his education in the Philadelphia College, he entered a counting-house. He 
visited Europe in 1765, and returning, entered into mercantile pursuits. In 1772, he was 
chosen to the Assembly from Philadelphia ; and in 1774, a delegate to the first Continental 
Congress. He was appointed major of one of the tirst Pennsylvania battalions; accompanied 
Washington to Cambridge, as aid-de-camp ; in August, was made quarter-master general ; 
shortly afterwards adjutant general; brigadier general, March 16, 1776; and major gen- 
eral, February 19, 1777. He commanded the covering party during the retreat from Long 
Island. After the battle of Germantown, he resigned his position in the army. In 1782, 
was elected a delegate to Congress, of which body he was president in 1783. He was mem- 
ber and speaker of the Legislature in 1785 ; a delegate to the convention to frame the 
Federal constitution in 1787 ; President of the Supreme Executive Council from October, 
1788, to December, 1790; president of the convention which framed the constitution of 1790; 
Governor of the State from 1790 to 1799 ; and died at Lancaster, January 21, 1800, while serv- 
ing as a member of the Legislature. 

213 



2 1 4 HIS TORY OF PENNS YL VANIA . 

Delaware river could be an important channel for the introduction of the trade and 
produce of New York b}^ a portage of nineteen miles, and by extending two other 
short portages to Lake Ontario. They estimated that a safe boat and raft navi-, 
gation might be made to the Northern boundary of the State for £25,000. In re- 
gard to the connection of the Delaware and Allegheny rivers, they stated various 
interesting facts. In 1790 it was said that one hundred and fifty thousand bushels 
of wheat had been brought down the Susquehanna, and passed through Middle- 
town for Philadelphia, a large proportion of which came from the Juniata. In 
1788 a considerable quantity of flour went up the Susquehanna for the settlers of 
Northumberland. A further report was made in April, by which appropriations 
for opening the rivers were recommended, and that the Governor should issue a 
proclamation inviting proposals for undertaking the construction of canals and 
locks in and near the waters of the Tulpehocken and Quittapahilla ; that a canal 
should be made from Frankstown to Poplar run ; that proposals should be 
invited for clearing the Susquehanna from "Wright's ferry tO the Maryland line ; 
that the construction of a turnpike road from Philadelphia through Lancaster to 
the Susquehanna should be contracted for ; also, other roads throughout the 
State. The bill was passed on the 6th of April, and in August Governor Mifflin 
apprised the Legislature that he had made contracts for the improvement of cer- 
tain streams, but that several propositions had not yet met with persons v,'il4ing 
to undertake the specified w^ork." 

In the meanwhile, continues Mr. Westcott, "an association was formed for 
promoting the improvement of roads and inland navigation," and the Assembly 
was asked to pass an act of incorporation for " a company for opening a canal 
and lock navigation between the rivers Schuylkill and Susquehanna, or by the 
waters of the Tulpehocken and Quittapahilla, and the Quittapahilla and Swatara 
in the counties of Berks and Dauphin." The public interest was strongly 
aroused in favor of this enterprise, and the most sanguine ideas of its impor- 
tance and successful accomplishment were indulged in. It is stated that forty 
thousand shares were subscribed for, when the number were but one thousand. 
To give all an equal chance, the shares were distributed among the subscribers 
by lottery. This enterprise began in 1792, was completed after some years, and 
is now known as the Union Canal. 

In April, 1793, a corapanj^ was chartered for the purpose of constructing 

a canal and lock navigation in the west branch of the Brand^^wine. 

1793. On the same day "The Conewago Canal Company " was authorized 

to open and improve the navigation of the Susquehanna river, from 

Wrio-ht's ferry to the mouth of the Swatara. This project was an important 

')bject in the great scheme for internal improvement and intercourse with the 

West. The remains of this canal around the Great Falls are still to be seen. 

During the same year the Bank of Pennsylvania was incorporated by the 
Legislature, the opinion being expressed that it would "promote the regular, 
permanent, and successful operation of the finances of the State, and be produc- 
tive of great benefit to trade and industry in general." The State subscribed for 
one-third of the entire stock — and branches were established at Lancaster, Har- 
risburg, Beading, Easton, and Pittsburgh. These were discontinued in 1810; in 
1843 the State sold its stock, and with the financial crisis of 1857 it sunk in ruin 



OENEBAL HI8T0BT. 215 

In 1Y93, the affairs of the French revolution created undue excitement in 
America, and much sympathy was expressed by the people of the Union in that 
t;prrible convulsion which shook Europe to its centre. The appointment of M. 
Genet as Minister from the French Republic to the United States, raised the 
enthusiasm to the highest pitch. Upon the arrival of Genet, the streets of Phil- 
adelphia were the scene of continual excitement. Every effort was made by the 
Federal and State governments to stem the tide of Gallic madness which threat- 
ened violence, owing to the number of English and French sailors then in the 
port of the capital. A British ship, the Granger, was captured in the Delaware, 
but being in violation of the laws of nations, was promptly released. Following 
this a vessel named the Sally was fitted out as a French privateer. The State 
government determined to make an effort to maintain the neutrality of the port, 
and Mr. Pallas, Secretary of the Commonwealth, was directed by Governor 
Mifflin to wait on M. Genet, and forbid the sailing of the vessel. In the course, 
of the violent controversy which ensued during this interveiw. Genet said that 
he " would appeal from the President to the people." 

This expression, so severely criticised and denounced by the citizens and the 
press, was emphatically denied by the French minister. He gave his promise that 
the privateer should not leave, but in violation she did sail a few days afterward. 
A committee of merchants waited on Governor Mifflin and entreated him to pre- 
serve neutrality. The governor assured them that every measure would be 
taken ; and the Federal authorities also showed earnestness in the determina- 
tion to repress the proceedings of M. Genet. 

In the heated discussions which resulted, Governor Mifflin maintained a 
reserved and dignified position. 

At the opening of the session of the Legislature in August, the Executive 
reported the measures which were taken to preserve the neutrality of the ports. 
In accordance with his views, an appropriation was made for the erection of a 
battery on Mud island, for the purpose of commanding the river Delaware. 

It was during this year that the dreaded pestilence, the 3'ellow fever, ravaged 
Philadelphia, spreading dismay and terror. The general consternation which 
incited many to flee from the destroyer, " produced scenes of distress and 
misery," wrote Matthew Care}', "of which parallels are rarely to be met with, 
and which nothing could palliate but the extraordinary public panic and the 
great law of self-preservation. Men of affluent fortunes, who gaA'e daily employ- 
ment and sustenance to hundreds, were abandoned to the care of a negro, after 
their wives, children, friends, clerks, and servants had fled away and left them 
to their fate. In some cases, at the commencement of the disorder, no money 
could procure proper attendance. With the j^oor the case was as might be ex- 
pected, infinitely worse than the rich. Many of these perished without a human 
being to hand them a drink of water, to administer medicines, or to perform any 
charitable office for them. Various instances occurred of dead bodies found 
lying in the streets, of persons who had no house or habitation and could pro- 
cure no shelter." The cessation of business, in consequence of the plague, 
threw hundreds of poor people out of employment. Want and famine made 
their api)carancc. ^Vliile the fatal atmos]ihere of contagion overspread the 
devoted city, says Westcott, the most frightful exaggerations of the i-eal condi- 



2 1 fi HIS TO liY OF PENNS YL VANIA . 

tion of things were spread throughout the country, the consequence of which 
very soon became serious. In nearly all the cities and towns, near and far, 
with a few humane exceptions, all intercourse with Philadelphia was yjrohibited. 
This added to the general distress. At last the benevolence of the inhabitants 
elsewhere came to the relief, and contributions in money and provisions were 
poured out with a liberal hand. The mortality, it is stated, Avas about five 
thousand, equal to twenty-two per cent, of those remaining in the city. 
Among those attacked were Governor MifQin and Alexander Hamilton, 
Secretary of the Treasury under Washington. Both recovered, and on the 
14th of November the Executive issued a proclamation, stating the pestilence 
had ceased, and fixing a day of thanksgiving, fasting, and prayer. 

The defence of the western portion of the State from Indian incur- 
1794. sions again required the prompt attention of the authorities, and on 
the 28tli of February, 1794, the Legislature passed an act for raising 
soldiers for the defence of the river Delaware and of the western frontiers. At 
the same time efforts were made toward the laying out of a town at Presqu'Isle, 
" in order to facilitate and promote the progress of settlement within the Com- 
monwealth, and to afford additional security to the frontiers thereof." 

Governor Mifflin transmitted to the President of the United States a cop}' of 
this act, apprehending the difficulties which soon manifested themselves. Prior 
to this he had sent to Captain Ebenezer Denny a commission, giving him the 
command of the Allegheny company, ordered to protect Messrs. William Irvine, 
Andrew Ellicott, and Albert Gallatin, who had been appointed commissioners to 
lay out the town. For the same object, a post had been established at Le Boeuf, 
two miles below the site of the old French fort of that name. On the arrival of 
the detachment at Fort Franklin the news were not favorable toward an estab- 
lishment at Presqu'Isle. The Indians had been irritated by the British, and 
meditated an opposition to the government. General Wilkins, in writing to 
Mr. Dallas, stated " the English are fixed in their opposition to the opening of 
the road to Presqu'Isle, and are determined to send a number of English and 
Indians to cut them off." 

On the 24th of May Governor Mifflin applied to the President to order one 
thousand militia from the Western brisiades, raised for the frontier defence, to 
support the commissioners who were authorized to lay out the towns. The 
brigade inspectors of Westmoreland, Washington, Allegheny, and Fayette, 
accordingly made a draft for that number to co-operate with Captain Dennj^'s 
detachment, under the command of General Wilkins. The citizens of North- 
western Pennsylvania urged on improvements, and the President, fearful of 
giving offence to the Indians, advised a temporary cessation. Governor 
Mifflin, in writing to the Secretary of War, said : " Some of the old grievances, 
alleged to have been suffered from the Union, the inflammatory speech of Lord 
Dorchester, the constant machinations of British agents, and the corruption of 
the British tribes, had, in truth, previously excited that hostile disposition 
which 3^ou seem to consider the effect of the measures pursued by Pennsylvania 
for establishing a town at Presqu'Isle. ... I desire to be clearly under- 
stood that on my part no assent is given to any proposition that shall bring in 
doubt or controversy the rights of the States. ... At the same time I am 



(JKlS-EliAL HISTORY. 217 



anxious to promote the views of the general government, and to avoid increasing 
the dissatisfaction of the Six Nations, or in any manner extending the sphere of 
Indian hostilities." Orders were issued to Captain Denny to proceed no farther 
with his detachment than Le Boeuf, where under the direction of General 
Wilkins two small block-houses had been erected for the protection of the 
commissioners. 

Attorney-General Bradford having been written to by the Secretary of AVar 
as to the constitutionality of raising four companies of troops "for the port of 
Philadelphia and the defence of the frontiers,'' replied : " There is nothino- in 
the Constitution, I apprehend, which prohibits the several States from keeping 
troops in time of war. If peace shall be made with the Indians, and the 
United States be engaged in no other war, these troops cannot be constitutionally 
kept up in Pennsylvania, although the war should continue to rage in Europe." 

A rumor prevailing that a large body of Indians, assisted by the British, had 
been seen crossing the lake, and others descending the Allegheny, with the object 
of taking Fort Franklin, destroying the settlement at Cussewago, and then make 
an establishment at Presqu'Isle, Captain Denny removed to Venango with his 
men, at the same time ordering the brigades to be ready when called. 

On the 18th of June, at Buffalo creek, a council was held with the Six 
Nations, by General Chapin, United States commissioner, and Colonel Johnson, Brit- 
ish agent. Cornplanter addressed the conference, in substance as follows: "That 
they depended upon the Americans to do all in their power to assist them ; they 
wished Colonel Johnson and General Chapin to remove the people back over 
the line which they had laid out. This line began at O'Bail's town, and in 
a direct line crossed French creek, just below Mead's, and on the head of the 
Cuyahoga ; from thence to the Muskingum, and down the Ohio and to the mouth 
and up the Mississippi, leaving a small square for a trading house at the mouth 
of the rivers, and one where Clarksville now stands. If this removal was at- 
tended to immediately, they should consider them friends ; if not, they must be 
considered enemies." At a council held at Fort Le Boeuf on the 26th of June, Mr. 
Ellicott and Captain Denny, the Pennsylvania commissioners, replied as follows : 
" By the peace of 1782 the King of Great Britain ceded all the lands of Penn- 
sylvania, which they claim, but from regard to justice they desired to fairly 
purchase it from the Six Nations — the real owners of the soil. The purchase 
north of the north boundar}'^ of Pennsjdvania, west of the Conewango river. 
Lake Chatauqua, and the path leading from thence to Lake Erie, and south of 
said lake, was made of your chiefs at Fort Harmar by Generals Butler and 
Gibson, and the money and goods punctually paid them. They had also sold 
those lands to such people as chose to settle and work them, and it was tiieir 
duty to protect them from depredations. Their military preparations were in- 
tended as a defence from hostile Western Indians, not supposing they 
needed any from the Six Nations, whom they considered their friends and allies. 
They could not consistently with their duty remove from the lands they had 
purchased, unless directed to do so by the great council of the people, to whom 
they would immediately send their message. They had been ordered by the 
great council of Pennsylvania to their present post, and they could not move 
from thence until orders came for that purpose." 



218 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

At another conference, held at the same place, the Indians maintained that they 
"had decided upon their boundaries, and wished for nothing but justice — they 
wanted room for their children. If a garrison were established at Pres ju'Isle 
the southern Indians might do injury and the Six Nations be blamed for it.'' 

In October, the President, at the desire of the Indians, appointed a conference 
at Canandaigua for the purpose of establishing a firm and permanent friendshii- 
with the Six Nations, and appointed Colonel Timothy Pickering sole agent for 
this purpose. At this council all difficulties were amicabl}' settled, a large tract 
of land west of the Phelps and Gorham purchase in New York was reserved to 
them, with $14,500 in goods; and fifty-nine sachems signed a treaty of perpetual 
peace and friendship with the United States. 

Although active preparations were made for carrying out the intentions of the 
Legislature, an act was subsequent!}^ passed to suspend the laying out of a town 
at Presqu'Isle, and it was not until the 18th of April, 1795, that, all difficulties 
removed, the same body authorized the laying out of the towns at Le Boeuf, at 
the mouth of Conewango creek, at the mouth of the French creek, and at 
Presqu'Isle. 

At this time transpired the important events to which we shall now refer. 
Perhaps no part of the history of Pennsylvania is less understood than the insur- 
rection of 1794, commonly known as the " Whiske}' Insurrection." We give, 
therefore, a summary of the various excise laws of Pennsylvania, with their fate 
as indicating the temper of the people on that subject, together with a notice of 
the hardships the early settlers of Western Pennsylvania had to endure, the 
disturbances following the enactment of an excise law by Congress, and of the 
measures, peaceable and militar}-, taken to suppress them. 

On the 16th of March, 1684, the first excise was imposed by the Assembly of 
the Province, in an act entitled " Bill of Aid and Assistance of the Government." 
[Votes of Assembly, I. 29.] This objectionable feature thereof was soon after 
repealed, and not renewed until the year 1738, when the Provincial Assembly 
passed " An Act for laying an excise on wine, rum, brandy, and other spirits." 
So unpopular was this act, that it remained in force only a few months. 

In May, 1744, it was again renewed by the Assembly, for the puipose of 
providing mone}^ without a general tax, not only to purchase arms and ammuni- 
tion for defence, but to answer such demands as might be made upon the 
inhabitants of the Province by his Majesty for distressing the public enemy in 
America. This was not long in operation. 

In the year 1772, the attention of the Assemblj' was once more called to the 
excise as a productive source of revenue, and a duty ts^as levied on domestic and 
foreign spirits. At first, however, as to home distilled spirits it was not executed, 
and, indeed, hardly any steps were taken for the purpose, particularly in the older 
counties. But during the Revolutionary war, the necessities of the State and a 
temporary unpopularity of distillation, owing to the immense amount of grain 
consumed, rendered the collection of duties both necessary and practicable, and a 
considerable revenue was thereby attained. Towards the end of the war th act 
was repealed. 

In 1780, Congress resolved that an allowance of an additional sum should be 
made to tlie armj', to compensate for the (lepi'eciation of its pay. This was 



GENERAL HISTOBY. 219 

distributed among tlie States for discharge. Pennsylvania made several appro- 
priations for the purpose, but the revenues so applied turned out to be 
unproductive. The depreciation fund was always favorably regarded, and upon 
an application of the officers of the Pennsylvania Line, another effort was made, 
the revenue arising from the excise remaining uncollected was appropriated to 
this fund, and vigorous measures were taken for its collection. [Dallas, II. 162.] 

Great changes, however, had taken place in the disposition of the people since 
the first imposition of these duties. The neighboring States were free from the 
burthen, and in New Jersey, where a law had been passed for the purpose, its 
execution had been entirely prevented by a powerful combination. The Pennsyl- 
vania law, therefore, met with great opposition, especially west of the Alleghenies, 
and there is no evidence that the excise was ever paid in that section. 

The majority of the people in the western counties of the State were of Scotch- 
Irish descent. They had heard of the exaction and oppression in the old country 
under the excise laws — that houses were entered by excise officers, the most 
private apartments examined, and that confiscations and imprisonment followed 
if the smallest quantity of whiskey was discovered not marked with the official 
brand. They also remembered that resistance to the stamp act and dut}^ on tea, 
at the commencement of the Revolution, began by the destruction of the tea and 
a refusal to use the royal stamps ; that the design was not to break allegiance to 
the British throne, but to force a repeal of these odious laws. They were almost 
to a man enemies to the British government, and had contributed their full 
proportion in service in establishing the independence of America. To them no 
other tax of equal amount would have been half so odious. Holding these 
opinions, it is not to be wondered at, that the more hot-headed resorted to threats 
of violence, and precipitated tlie riotous proceedings which are detailed in the 
pages following. 

The condition of the Western counties at this period we shall briefly describe. 
This portion of Pennsylvania was partially settled from ten or fifteen years be- 
fore the war of the Revolution. During that contest the people west of the 
mountains had to defend themselves against the murderous attacks of the 
Indians on their borders. The savage foe often made incursions into the settle- 
ments, murdered men, women, and children, burnt their cabins and destroyed 
their grain and cattle. 

On one occasion they penetrated into the centre of Westmoreland county, 
burnt the county town, killed several of the inhabitants, and carried off as 
prisoners the daughters of Hanna, the original proprietor of the place. In the 
summer season, for several years, the men placed their wives and children 
in block-houses, guarded by the old men, while the young and active hoed their 
corn and harvested their crops in parties, some keeping watch and others per- 
forming the work. Thfey were also called on for their quota of men to fight 
the British on the Atlantic coast. " When a boy," says Dr. Carnahan in an 
excellent resume of the transaction, " I have heard from the lips of western men 
of the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, and also of the 
horrors and sufferings of the Jersey prison-ships. For several years after the 
peace of 1183, there was nothing but a horse-path over the mountains; so that 
salt, iron, powder, lead, and other necessary articles had to be carried on pack- 



220 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VAJSTIA. 

horses from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. As late as 1794, the year of the 
insurrection, so bad were the roads that freight in wagons cost from five to ten 
dollars per hundred pounds, salt sold for five dollars a bushel ; iron and steel 
from fifteen to twenty cents per pound in Pittsburgh. 

" Western Pennsylvania is a hilly but remarkably healthy and fertile region, 
and in its virgin state the soil produced wheat, rye, corn, and other grains 
in abundance with very little culture. But there was no market. While 
the farmers east of the mountains were growing rich by means of the French 
revolution and the general war in Europe, those west of the mountains could 
find no outlet for their abundant harvests. The freight of a barrel of flour from 
Pittsburgh to Philadelphia would cost nearly as much as it would bring in 
that market. The mouth of the Mississippi was then in the hands of the 
Spanish, and there were no houses of established character in New Orleans to 
which produce could be consigned. Merchants in Pittsburgh and elsewhere 
would not purchase wheat or flour and run the risk of sending it down the river 
in boats, which were liable to be fired on by the Indians from the banks of the 
Ohio, the boatmen murdered, and their cargoes destroyed 

" Trade down the river was carried on in this way : A farmer of more enter- 
prise than his neighbors, would build a boat or ark of rough plank, load it with 
his own produce and that of his neighbors who were willing to send a venture, 
and he would float down the Ohio and Mississippi and sell at New Orleans for 
what he could get,* and make his way back in a vessel to New York ; or what was 
more common, he would come through Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, 
Kentuck}'', and Virginia, over the mountains and through cane-brakes, wearing a 
girdle of Spanish dollars round his body, which might serve as a corset in case 
an Indian, as was very likely, should shoot at him." 

Wheat was so plentiful and of so little value that it was a common practice to 
grind that of the best quality and feed it to the cattle, while rye, corn, and barley 
would bring no price as food for man or beast. The only way left for the inhabi- 
tants to obtain a little money to purchase salt, iron, and other articles necessary 
in carrying on their farming operations, was by distilling their grain and reducing 
it into a more portable form, and sending the whiskey over the mountains or down 
the Ohio to Kentucky, then rapidly filling up and affording a market for that 
article. The lawfulness or morality of making and drinking whiskey was not in 
that day called in question. When Western Pennsylvania was in the condition 
described, the Federal Constitution was adopted, and a most difficult problem was 
presented, viz. : How to provide ways and means to support the government, to 
pay just and pressing Revolutionary claims, and sustain an army to subdue the 
Indians still harassing the frontiers. The duties on goods imported were very 
far from adequate to the wants of the new government. Taxes were laid on 
articles supposed to be the least necessary, and, among other things, on distilled 
liquors or on the stills with which they were manufactured. 

The Constitution of the United States provided ''that all duties, imports, 
and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States." (Section 8.) But 
it is manifest that the same article may be taxed alike in all the States, and yet 
the tax may be very unequal and oppressive in particular parts of the country. 
Excise on stills and whiskey operated in this way, little or no whiskey was 



GENERAL HUSTOBT. 221 

manufactured in some of the States, and in different parts of tlie same State. 
Tlie Western people saw and felt that the excise pressed on them, who were the 
least able to bear the burden, more heavily than on any other part of the 
Union. They had more stills and made more whiskey than an equal population 
in any part of the countr3\ There were very few or no large manufactories 
where o-rain was bought and cash paid, Thei'e was not capital in the country 
for that purpose. In some neighborhoods every fifth or sixth farmer was a 
distiller, who, during the winter season, manufactured his own grain and that of 
his neighbors in a portable and saleable article. They foresaw that what little 
money was brought into the country by the sale of whiskey would be carried 
away in the form of excise duties. The people of Western Pennsylvania then 
regarded a tax on whiskey in the same light as the citizens of the State would 
now a United States tax on coal and iron. 

The State tax, as heretofore remarked, having remained a dead letter for 
years, was repealed, a circumstance not likely to incline the people to submit to 
a similar law passed by Congress on the 3d of March, 1791, at the suggestion of 
General Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury. This law laid an excise of 
four pence per gallon on all distilled spirits. The members from Western 
Pennsylvania — Smilie, of Fayette, and Findley, of Westmoreland — stoutly 
opposed the passage of the law, and on their return among their constituents 
loudly and openlj^ disapproved of it. Albert Gallatin, then residing in Fayette 
count}^, also opposed the law by all constitutional methods. It was with some 
difficulty that any one could be found to accept the office of inspector in the 
western district on account of its unpopularity. 

The first public meeting in opposition was held at Redstone Old Fort, 27th 
July, 1791, where it was concerted that county committees should meet at the 
four county seats of Fayette, Allegheny, Westmoreland, and Washington. On 
the 23d of August the committee of Washington county passed resolutions, and 
published them in the Pittsburgh Gazette, to the effect that " any person who had 
accepted or might accept an office under Congress in order to carry the law into 
effect, should be considered inimical to the interests of the countr}', and 
recommending to the citizens of Washington county to treat every person 
accepting such office with contempt, and absolutely to refuse all kind of com- 
munication or intercourse with him, and withhold from him all aid, support, and 
comfort." 

Delegates from the four counties met at Pittsburgh, on the 7th of September, 
1791, and passed severe resolutions against the law. These meetings, composed 
of influential citizens, served to give consistency to the oi>i50sition. 

On the 5th of September, 1791, a party, armed and disguised, waj'laid 
Robert Johnson, collector of Allegheny and Washington, near Pigeon creek, in 
Washington county, tarred and feathered him, cut off his hair, and took away his 
horse, leaving him to travel on foot in that mortifying condition. Several per- 
sons were proceeded against for the outrage, but the deputy marshal dared 
not serve the process, and " if he had attempted it, believes he should not have 
returned alive." The man sent privately with the process was seized, whipped, 
tarred and feathered, his money and horse taken from him, blindfolded and tied 
in the woods, where he remained five hours. 



222 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

In October, 1791, an unliapp}- person, named Wilson, who was in some 
measure " disordered in his intellects," and affected to be, perhaps thought he 
was, an exciseman, and was making inquiry for distillers, was pursued by a 
party in disguise, taken out of his bed, and carried several miles to a black- 
smith's shop. There they stripped off his clothes and burned them, and having 
burned him with a hot iron in several places, they tarred and feathered him and 
dismissed him, naked and wounded. The unhappy man conceived himself to be 
a martyr to the discharge of an important duty. 

In Congress, 8tli of May, 1792, material modifications were made in the law, 
lightening the duty, allowing monthly payments, &c. 

In August, 1792, the Government succeeded in getting the use of William 
Faulkner's house, a captain in the United States army, for an inspection office. 
He was threatened with scalping, tarring and feathering, and compelled to 
promise not to let his house for that purpose, and to publish his promise in the 
Pittsburgh Gazette. 

The President issued a proclamation the 15th of September, 1792, enjoining 
all persons to submit to the law, and desist from all unlawful proceedings. The 
Gov-ernment determined — first, to prosecute delinquents ; second, to seize unex- 
cised spirits on their way to market ; and third, to make no purchases for the 
army except of such spirits as had paid duty. 

In April, 1793, a party in disguise attacked in the night the house of Benja- 
min Wells, collector in Fayette county, but he being from home, thej' broke 
open his house, threatened, terrified, and abused his family. Warrants were 
issued against the offenders by Judges Isaac Mason and James Findley, but the 
sheriff refused to execute them, whereupon he was indicted. On the 22d of 
November they again attacked the house of Benjamin Wells in the night. They 
compelled him to surrender his commission and books, and required him to 
publish a resignation of his office within two weeks in the papers, on pain of 
havino; his house burned. 

Notwithstanding these excesses, the law appeared, during the latter part of 
1793, to be rather gaining ground. Several principal distillers complied, and 
others showed a disposition, but were restrained by fear. 

In June, 1794, John Wells, the collector for Westmoreland, opened his office 
at the house of Philip Reagan, in that county. An attack was made in the night 
by a numerous body of men. Reagan expected them, and had prepared himself 
with guns and one or two men. The firing commenced from the house, and the 
assailants fired at it for some time, without effect on either side. The insurgents 
then set fire to Reagan's barn, which they burned, and retired. In the course of 
a day or two 150 men returned to renew the attack. After some parleying, Rea- 
gan, rather than shed blood, proposed to capitulate, provided they would give 
him honorable terms and assurances that they would neither abuse his person 
nor destroy his property, he to give up his commission, and never again act as 
an exciseman. These stipulations were agreed to, reduced to writing and signed 
by the parties. Reagan then opened his door, and came out with a keg of whis- 
key and treated them. However, after the whiskey was drunk, some of them 
began to say that be was let off too easy, and that he ought to be set up as a tar- 
get to be shot at. Some were for tarring and feathering him, but others took 



GENERAL HISTOBY. 



223 



his part, and said he had acted manfully, and that after capitulating they were 
bound to treat him lionorably. At length they got to fighting amongst them- 
selves. After this it was proposed and carried that Reagan should be court- 
martialed, and that they would march off right away to Ben, Wells, of Fayette 
county, the excise officer there, and catch him and try him and Reagan both 
together. They set out accordingly, taking Reagan along, but when they arrived 
at Wells' house he was not there, so they set fire to it and burned it to the ground 
with all its contents. They left an ambush near the ruins, in order to seize 
Wells. Next morning he was taken, but during the night, as Reagan had escaped 
and Wells was very submissive with them, they let him oflT without further moles- 
tation. 

The next attack was made on Captain Webster, the excise oflBcer for Somer- 
set county, by a company of about 150 men from Westmoreland. They took his 
commission from him, and made him promise never again to act as a collector of 
excise. An attempt was made by some of the party to fire his haystacks, but it 
was prevented by others. They marched homeward, taking Webster a few miles. 
Seeing him very submissive, they ordered him to mount a stump and repeat his 
promise never again to act as a collector of excise, and to hurrah three times for 
" Tom the Tinker," after which they dismissed him. 

This term, " Tom the Tinker," came into popular use to designate the oppo- 
sition to the excise law. It was not given by adversaries as a term of reproach, 
but assumed by the insurgents in disguise at an early period. " A certain John 
Holcroft," says Mr. Brackenridge, " was thought to have made the first applica- 
tion of it at the attack on William Coughran, whose still was cut to pieces. This 
was humorously called mending his still. The menders, of course must be tink- 
ers, and the name collectively became Tom the Tinker," Advertisements were 
put up on trees and other conspicuous places, with the signature of " Tom the 
Tinker," threatening individuals, admonishing or commanding them. Menacing 
letters, with the same signature, were sent to the Pittsburgh Gazette, with orders 
to publish them, and the editor did not dare refuse. " At Braddock's field the 
acclamation was, ' Hurrah for Tom the Tinker I' ' Are you a Tom Tinker's man ?' 
Every man was willing to be thought so, and some had great trouble to wipe off 
imputations to the contrary." Mr. Findley says " it afterwards appeared that 
the letters did not originate with Holcroft, though the inventor of them has 
never been discovered." 

The office in Washington opened to receive the annual entries of stills, after 
repeated attempts, was suppressed. At first the sign was pulled down. On the 
6th of June, twelve persons, armed and painted black, broke into the house of 
John Lynn, where the office was kept, and, beguiling him by a promise of safety 
to come down stairs, they seized and tied him, threatened to hang him, took him 
into the woods, cut off his hair, tarred and feathered him, and swore him never 
again to allow the use of his house for an office, never to disclose their names, 
and never again to aid the excise; having done this, they bound him, naked, to 
a tree and left him. He extricated himself next morning. They afterwards 
pulled down part of his house, and compelled him to seek an asylum elsewhere. 

In Congress, on the 5th of June, 1794, the excise law was amended. Those, 
however, who desired not amendment, but absolute repeal, were thereby incited 



224 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA . 

to push matters to a more violent crisis. It became indispensable for the gov- 
ernment to meet the opposition with more decision. Process issued against a 
number of non-complying distillers in Fayette and Allegheny. Indictments were 
found against Robert Smilie and John M'CuUoch, rioters, and process issued 
accordingly. 

It was cause of great and just complaint in the Western counties, that the Fed- 
eral courts sat only on the eastern side of the mountains, and that individuals 
were subjected to ruinous expenses when forced to attend them. The processes, 
requiring the delinquent distillers to appear at Philadelphia, arrived in the west 
at the period of harvest, when small parties of men were likely to be assembled 
together in the fields. In Fayette county the marshal executed his processes 
without interruption, though under discouraging circumstances. In that county 
the most influential citizens and distillers had, at a meeting in the winter or 
spring previous, agreed to promote submission to the laws, on condition that a 
change should be made in the officers. 

In Allegheny county, the marshal had successfully served all the processes 
except the last, when, unfortunately, he went into Pittsburgh. The next day, 15th 
July, 1794, he went in company with General Neville, the inspector, to serve the 
last writ on a distiller named Miller, near Peters' creek. It is believed that had 
Major Lenox, the marshal, gone alone to serve that remaining one, there would 
have been no interruption. Unfortunately he called on the inspector to accom- 
pany him. General Neville was a man of the most deserved popularity, says 
Judge Wilkinson, and in order to allay opposition to the law as far as possible, 
was appointed inspector for Western Pennsylvania. His appealing, however, in 
company with the marshal, excited the indignation of some of Miller's neighbors, 
and on the return of the marshal and inspector, they were followed by five or six 
men armed, and a gun was discharged towards them, not, it is believed, with a 
design to injure, but to alarm them and show their dislike towards the inspector. 

On the day of this occurrence, there was a military meeting at Mingo 
creek, about seven miles distant from the inspector's house, for the purpose of 
drafting men to go against the Indians. A report of the attack on the marshal 
and inspector was carried to this meeting, and on the day following, at daylight, 
about thirty 3'oung men, headed b^'^ John Ilolcroft, the reputed " Tom the 
Tinker," assembled at the house of the inspector and demanded the delivery of 
his commission and official papers. This was refused, and the firing of guns 
commenced. It is not known who fired the first gun — the insurgents always 
maintaining that it came from the house, and their only intention was to alarm 
the inspector, and to cause him to deliver his papers. 

The firing went on for some time from the house and from the assailants. 
At length a horn was sounded in the house, and then there was a discharge of 
fire-arms from the negro quarters, which stood apart from the mansion house. 
From the guns of the negroes, who probably used small shots, five or six of the 
insurgents were wounded, one of them mortally. Forthwith the report spread 
that the blood of citizens had been shed, and a call was made on all who valued 
liberty or life to assemble at Mingo creek meeting-house, prepaied to avenge 
the outrage. Some went willingly, others were compelled to go. A large 
number assembled at the place of rendezvous. Three men were appointed to 



GENERAL HISTORY. 225 

direct the expedition, and Major Macfarlane, who had been an officer in the 
Pennsylvania Line of the Revolution, was chosen to command the armed force. 
When they were within half a mile of Neville's house, leaving those who had no 
fire-arms in charge of the horses, they advanced. After the first attack, Neville 
had left his house, and Major Kirkpatrick, with ten or twelve United States 
soldiers, had come to defend it. Kirkpatrick was allied to the family of Neville 
by marriage. When the assailants approached the house, the three men who 
were to superintend the affair took their station on an eminence at a distance. 
Macfarlane and his men approached within gun-shot and demanded Neville. 
It was answered that Neville was not in the house nor on the premises. His 
commission and official papers were then demanded, with a declaration that if 
the}' were not delivered they would be taken b}^ force. Kirkpatrick replied 
that he had a sufficient force to defend the house, and he would not surrender 
the papers. Macfarlane informed him that he would wait until the women and 
children, which he observed were in the house, had withdrawn, and then he 
would commence the attack, unless his demands were complied with. The 
women withdrew and the firing began on both sides. 

After several rounds the firing seemed to cease from the house, and Mac- 
farlane, supposing a parley was desired, stepped from behind a tree which 
protected him and ordered his men to stop. At that instant a ball from the 
house struck him, and he expired in a few minutes. Some of the assailants, 
without orders, applied a torch to the barn ; from the barn the fire spread to 
the other out-buildings, and from them to the dwelling house. When the house 
caught fire, Kirkpatrick surrendered and was permitted to leave with his 
command uninjured. 

The death and funeral of Macfarlane greatly increased the excitement, and 
runners were sent forth to call a meeting of the people at Mingo creek meeting- 
house, to determine what measures were to be taken. In the town of Washing- 
ton, among others, the messenger urged David Bradford and Colonel John 
Marshall to attend the proposed meeting. At first they both refused. Marshall 
said he would have nothing to do with the business ; and Bradford declined on the 
ground that he was prosecuting attorney for the county, and that his services in 
that capacity might hereafter be called for. They afterwards changed their 
minds, attended the meeting, where, hearing the story of what they called the 
murder of Macfarlane, their sj-mpathies became excited, and from that moment 
they took a warm and active part. The prominent persons at this meeting were 
those named, and Messrs. Parkinson, Cook, and Brackenridge. The latter, it 
appears, attended for the purpose of gaining their confidence. He suggested 
that though what they had done might be morally right, yet it was legallj'- 
wrong, and advised the propriety of consulting their fellow citizens. A meeting 
of delegates from the Western counties was therefore ordered to be held at 
Parkinson's Ferry, now Monongahela city, on the 14th of August. 

A night or two after the meeting at Mingo creek, Bradford and Marshall got 
possession of the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia mail. The post-boy had been 
attacked and the mail taken from him by two men near Greensburg. The object 
was to ascertain what had been written to the east respecting the disturbance. 
Letters were found giving sad accounts of their doings, and naming individuals 
p 



226 HISTO RF OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

concerned. Those of General Gibson, Colonel Presley Neville, Mr. Brison, and 
Mr. Edward Day, gave the greatest offence to the insurgents. The documents 
not referring to this affair were put into the mail bag and returned to the post- 
office in Pittsburgh. The authors of the objectionable letters were, in conse- 
quence, obliged to leave Pittsburgh, by some circuitous route, or conceal 
themselves, that it might be given out publicly that they were gone. 

In the meantime, Bradford and others, without a semblance of authority 
issued a circular letter to the colonels of the several regiments in the Western 
counties, requiring them to assemble their commands at the usual place of 
rendezvous, fully equipped with fire-arms and ammunition and four days' 
provision, and from thence to march to Braddock's Field, so as to arrive on 
Friday, the 1st of August. Strange to say, it was in many instances promptly 
obeyed ; many who despised it at heart did not dare to disobey it. Bradford 
afterwards denied that he gave such an order, but this is in existence. 

There were but three days between the date of the orders and the time of assem- 
blage, yet a vast and excited multitude was brought together, many in companies, 
under arms. Some were well disposed towards the government, but came for 
fear of being proscribed ; others as mere spectators ; others, such as Judge 
Bratkenridge and several from Pittsburgh, to put themselves, if possible, at the 
head of the multitude, and restrain them, by organization and management, from 
proceeding to open outrage and rebellion. Great apprehension was entertained 
that the insurgents might proceed to Pittsburgh and burn the town. The 
obnoxious persons had been banished, as if by authority, in deference to the 
demands of the Tom Tinker men, and the Pittsburgh delegation were careful to 
announce the fact at Braddock's Field. Probably the majority of those assembled 
were secretly well disposed towards the government, but afraid to come out and 
avow it. Mr. Brackenridge thus describes the feeling that prevailed there and 
throughout the Western counties : "A breath in favor of the law was sufficient to 
ruin any man. It was considei'ed as a badge of Toryism. A clergyman was not 
thought orthodox in the pulpit unless against the law. A physician was not 
capable of administering medicine, unless his princip es were right in this respect. 
A lawyer could have got no practice without at least concealing his sentiments, 
if for the law ; nor could a merchant at a country store get custom. On the 
contrary, to talk against the law was the way to office and emolument. To go to 
the Legislatui'e or to Congress, you must make a noise against it. It was the 
Shibboleth of safety, and the ladder of ambition." 

It was proposed by Bradford to march and attack the garrison at Pittsburgh, 
but this was abandoned. Bradford now moved that the troops should go on 
to Pittsburgh. " Yes," said Brackenridge, " by all means ; at least to give a 
proof that the strictest order can be observed, and no damage done. We will 
just march through, and, taking a turn, come out upon the plain on the banks of 
the Monongahela ; and after taking a little whiskey with the inhabitants, the 
troops will embark and cross the river." Officers having been appointed, Edward 
Cook and Bradford, generals, and Colonel Blakenay, officer of the day, the 
insurgents marched in a body, by the Monongahela road, to Pittsburgh. By the 
wily management of some of the Pittsburgh gentlemen, the greater part of the 
company, after being diverted by a treat, were got across the Monongahela. A 



GENERAL HISTORY. 227 

few, however, remained, determined to burn General Neville's house, in town, 
and General Gibson's and others. By the influence of Colonel Cook, Marshall, 
and others of the insurgent party, this outrage was prevented. Major Kirk- 
patrick's barn, across the river, was burned. If they had succeeded in burning 
two or three houses, the whole town must have been consumed. " The people," 
says Mr. Brackenridge, "were mad. It never came into my head to use force on 
the occasion. I thought it safest to give good words aiid good drink, I'ather 
than balls and powder. It cost me four barrels of old whiskey that day, and I 
would rather spare that than a quart of blood." 

An account of these turbulent proceedings reaching the State and national 
authorities, a conference was immediately held. Governor Mifflin, on the 6th of 
August, appointed Chief-Justice M'Kean and General William Irvine to proceed 
immediately to the Western country to ascertain the facts relative to the late riots, 
and, if practicable, to bring the insurgents to a sense of their duty. The day 
following. President Washington issued a proclamation of warning, commanding 
"all persons being insurgents, on or before the 1st day of September, to disperse 
and retire peaceably to their respective abodes," at the same time directing the 
raising of troops, to be held in readiness to march at a moment's warning." The 
quotas of the States were as follows : 

Infantr3\ Cavalry. Artillery. Total. 

Pennsylvania.. 4,500 500 200 5,200 

New Jersey 1,500 500 100 2,100 

Maryland 2,000 200 150 2,350 

Virginia 3,000 300 ... 3,300 

11,000 1,500 450 12,950 

The same day, Governor Mifflin issued a similar proclamation, directing the 
quota of the State to be armed and equipped as speedily as possible. The 
Governor issued a second proclamation, calling together the Assembly of the 
State in special session. 

On the 8th, the President appointed James Ross, Jasper Yeates, and William 
Bradford forthwith to repair to the Western counties and confer with such bodies 
or individuals as they may Approve, " in order to quiet and extinguish the insur- 
rection," giving them full instructions and ample powers concerning the same. 

These proceedings in the east had not been received west of the Alleghenies 
previous to the meeting called for the 14th of August, at Parkinson's Ferry. 
This was composed of two hundred and sixty delegates, elected by the respective 
counties of Westmoreland, Fayette, Allegheny, Washington, and that part of 
Bedford lying west of the mountains, and by the county of Ohio, in Virginia. 
Many had been sent with a view to stem the current of disorder until it had time 
to cool down. This, however, was only to be accomplished, as some thought, 
not by open opposition, but by covert management. Colonel Cook was appointed 
chairman, and Albert Gallatin secretary. Gallatin, Brackenridge, and Judge 
Edgar, of Washington county, took a prominent part in the discussions. The 
intemperate resolutions were gradually softened down or explained awSy. The 
organic force of the insurrection was condensed into a committee of sixty, one 
from each township ; and this committee was again represented by a standing 



228 SIS TOR Y OF PEWNS YL VANIA. 

committee of twelve. The committee of sixty was to meet at Redstone Old Fort, on 
the 2d of September, and the standing committee were in the meantime to confer 
with the United States commissioners, whose arrival had been announced at 
Pittsburgh, during the meeting. To gain time and restore quietness was the 
great object with Gallatin and his friends. Mr. Gallatin presented with great 
force the folly of past resistance, and the ruinous consequences to the country 
of the continuance of \;he insurrection. He urged that the government was 
bound to vindicate the laws, and that it would surely send an overwhelming force 
against them. He placed the subject in a new light, and showed the insurrection 
to be a much more serious affair than it had before appeared. 

The Pennsylvania commissioners reached Pittsburgh on the l*rth. On the 
20th the commissioners on the part of the Union, with those on the part of the 
State, met the committee appointed at the meeting at Parkinson's Ferry. At 
this conference, preliminary proceedings were taken which resulted in proposi- 
tions by both bodies of commissioners, who explicitly declared that the 
exercise of the powers vested in them " to suspend prosecutions," " to engage 
for a general pardon and oblivion of them," " must be preceded by full 
and satisfactory assurances of a sincere determination in the people to obey the 
laws of the United States." The committee presented their grievances, dwelling 
principally, saj^s Chief-Justice M'Kean, on their being sued in the courts 
of the United States, and com.pelled to attend trials at the distance of three 
hundred miles from their places of abode, before judges and jurors who were 
strangers to them. Every argument against an excise was urged, but it 
was clearly evidenced that there was an apprehension in the gentlemen of the 
committee themselves respecting the safety of their own persons and property, 
if they should even recommend what they conceived best for the people in the 
deplorable situation to which they had brought tnemselves. 

The conference adjourned to the 28th of August, to meet the committee 
of sixty at Redstone Old Fort, now Brownsville, where, after two days' session, 
the propositions of the commissioners were finally recommended for acceptance. 
The meeting was opened by a long, sensible, and eloquent speech by Mr. Gallatin, 
in favor of law and order. Mr. Brackenridge enforced and enlarged upon the 
arguments already advanced by Gallatin. Bradford, in opposition, let off a 
most intemperate harangue ; but when he found the vote, 34 to 23, was against 
him, he retired in disgust. Afterwards, alleging that he was not supported by 
his friends, he signed the terms of submission, and advised others to do it. 
Judge Edgar summed up the argument for submission, and, by his pious and 
respectable character and his venerable appearance, won many over to his side. 

Such was the fear of the popular frenzy that it was with difficulty a 
vote could be had at this meeting. No one would vote by standing up. None 
would write a yaa, or nay, lest his handwriting should be recognized. At last it 
was determined that yea and naj' should be written by the secretary on the same 
pieces of paper, and be distributed, leaving each member to chew up or destro}"^ 
one of the words, while he put the other in the box. This resulted in the 
appointment of another committee to confer with the commissioners, who were 
also empowered " to communicate throughout the several counties the day 
at which the sense of the people was expected to be taken " on this question, 



GENEBAL HISTORY. 229 

" Will the people submit to the laws of the United States upon the terms 
proposed by the commissioners of the United States ?" 

The foregoing test of submission was to be signed individually by the citizens 
throughout the Western counties before or on the Uth of September. Only ten 
days intervened, says Rev. Dr. Carnahan, between the offer of the new terms and 
the day on which each individual should secure an amnesty of the past by 
a written promise of submission to the laws. Four of these days passed before 
the terms were printed, leaving only six days to circulate information over a 
region much larger than the State of New Jersey. There was no opportunity to 
instruct the people respecting what was to be done. The consequence was that 
in some places the people did not meet at all. 

All the commissioners had returned to Philadelphia before the day of 
signing, except James Ross, who remained to carry the signatures to the govern- 
ment. Bradford and Marshall signed on the day appointed, and to the credit of 
the former be it stated, that he made a long speech exhorting the people to submit. 

The report of the commissioners, however, was so unfavorable, that the 
President though it necessary to send over the mountains the army already 
collected, but within a few days after Mr. Ross left with the papers signed, 
a sudden and great change took place in the sentiments and conduct of the 
insurgents. Various meetings were held, and strong resolutions were passed, 
expressing their ready submission to the laws of the land. Ohio county, 
Virginia, was the only exception — the inhabitants of that district being as 
rebellious as ever. 

The army, as previously stated, consisted of 12,950 men. Governor Henry 
Lee, of Virginia, was placed in chief command. Governor Thomas Mifflin, of 
Penns3dvania ; Governor Richard ITowell, of New Jerse}'^ ; Governor Thomas 
S. Lee, of Maryland ; and General Daniel Morgan of Virginia, commanded the 
volunteers from the respective States. 

The President, accompanied by General Henry Knox, Secretary of War ; 
General Alex. Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury ; and Judge Richard Peters, 
of the United States District Court, set out for Western Pennsylvania on the 1st 
of October. On Friday His Excellency reached Harrisburg, and on the day 
following, Carlisle, where the main body of the army had preceded him. 

The meeting of the Committee of Safety at Parkinson's Ferry, on the 2d of 
October, appointed William Findley, of Westmoreland, and David Redick, 
of Washington county, commissioners to wait on the President and to assure 
him that submission and order could be restored without the aid of military 
force. They met President Washington at Carlisle on the 10th, where several 
interviews were had. They made known to him the change that had taken place, 
that the great body of people, who had no concern in the disorders, remained 
quietly at home and attended to their business, had become convinced that the 
violence used would ruin the country ; that they had formed themselves into 
associations to suppress disorder and to promote submission to the laws. The 
President in reply, stated that as the army was already on its way to the 
disaffected region, the orders would not be countermanded, yet assured the 
delegates that no violence would be used, and all that was desired was to 
have the inhabitants come back to their allegiance. 



230 ' HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

The commissioners returned, called another meeting of the Committee of 
Safety at Parkinson's Ferry, on the 24th, and made their report. Assurances 
were received from all parts of the country that resistance to the laws had been 
abandoned, and that no excise officer would be molested in the execution of his 
duties. The same commissioners, with the addition of Messrs. Ephriam Doug- 
lass and Thomas Morton, were appointed to meet the President on his arrival at 
Bedford, and inform him of the state of the country. 

The President left Carlisle on the 11th of October, reaching Chambersburg 
on the same day, Williamsport on the 1.3th, and Fort Cumberland on the 16th, 
where he reviewed the left division of the army, consisting of the Virginia and 
Maryland volunteers. On the 19th, he arrived at Bedford, where he remained 
two or three days, then returned to the Capital, which he reached on 
the 28th. 

In the meantime, the commissioners appointed by the insurgents, finding 
that the President had left for the east, proceeded to Uniontown, to confer with 
General Lee, in whose hands all power to treat with them had been delegated, 
who received them with civility, assuring them that no exertions would be 
wanting on his part to prevent injury to the persons and property of the 
peaceable inhabitants. He bade the commissioners to " quiet the apprehensions 
of all on this score," that he expected on the part of " all good citizens the 
most active and faithful co-operation, which could not be more effectually given 
than b}^ circulating in the most public manner, the truth among the people, and 
by inducing the various clubs which had so successfully poisoned the minds 
of the inhabitants to continue their usual meetings for the pious purpose of 
contradicting with their customary formalities their past pernicious doctrines. 
A conduct, he continued, so candid should partially atone for the injuries which, 
in a great degree, may be attributed to their instrumentality, and must have a 
propitious influence in administering a radical cure to the existing disorders." 
Tills report was printed and widely circulated. The General himself published 
an address to the inhabitants of the " Four Western Counties," recommending 
the subscribing " an oath to support the Constitution and obey the laws, and by 
entering into an association to protect and aid all the officers of the government 
in the execution of their respective duties." 

Notices were at once issued b}^ all the justices of the peace that books were 
opened at their respective offices " to I'eceive the tests or oaths of allegiance of 
all good citizens." At the same time General Neville gave official notice for the 
immediate entering of all stills. At once the people attended to the require- 
ments of the commander-in-chief of the arm}^ and the law, and on the 17th of 
November, general orders were issued for the immediate return of the troops, 
except a small detachment under General Morgan, directed to remain at Pitts- 
burgh " for the winter defence." 

A formal investigation was held by Judge Peters, at which information was 
made against many who had really been guilty of no offence against the 
Government. Quite a number were arrested and carried to Pittsburgh. Some 
were released through the inteposition of influential friends, while others, less 
fortunate, were sent to Philadelphia for trial, where they were imprisoned for 
ten or twelve months. Several were finall}' tried, one or two convicted, but 



GENERAL HISTORY. 231 

subsequently pardoned. David Bradford, who bad been excepted from the 
amnesty, fled down the Ohio river, escaping into the Spanish dominions. 

The peculiar course which Mr. Brackenridge had taken placed him, for a 
time, in a very awkward predicament, as well as in personal danger. He was 
denounced to the government as having been one of the leaders of the insurrec- 
tion. He had certainly taken an active part in the public meetings, and 
apparently acted with the insurgents. The turning point in his case was the 
quo animo, the motive for his peculiar conduct. Fortunately, his motives had 
been fully known, throughout his whole course, to Hon. James Ross, who 
explained his conduct to the Secretary of the Treasury. At the close of the 
examination the Secretary, General Hamilton, said to him, " In the course of 
yesterday I had uneasy feelings. I was concerned for you as for a man of 
talents. My impressions were unfavorable. You may have observed it. I now 
think it m}^ duty to inform 3fou that not a single one remains. Had we listened 
to some people, I do not know what might have been done. There is a side to 
your account. Your conduct has been horribly misrepresented, owing to 
misconception. I will announce you in this point to General Lee, who repre- 
sents the Executive. You are in no personal danger. You will not be troubled 
even b}' a simple inquisition b3'' the judge. What may be due to yourself with 
the public, is another question." 

Albert Gallatin, as also Judge Addison, were censured for the part taken 
therein, but no men stood higher in the opinion, not only of the President of 
the United States, but of the Penns^-lvania authorities. William Findley and Hugh 
H. Brackenridge, each wrote a Historj' of the Insurrection, but they endeavored 
simply to defend the parts they took in the transaction. In the language of 
Dr. Carnahan, " this occurrence was salutary as an example, showing that the 
Federal Government was not a rope of sand, which might be broken at the will 
of any section of the country whenever any State or part of a State thought a 
particular law unjust or oppressive." 

This year, August 20, General Anthony Wayne gained a complete victory 
over the combined forces of the Indians. His pursuit of them even to the gates 
of the British fort, the destruction of McKee's house, and the Indian cornfields, 
close to that fort, and his very decided correspondence with the British com- 
mandant, broke the spirit of the Indians and led to the treaty of Fort Greenville, 
by which the Indian title to the eastern portion of the State of Ohio was ceded 
to the United States. This removed all danger of hostile incursions into 
Western Pennsylvania, and thus also contributed to the rapid settlement of 
that section of the State. 



CHAPTER XY. 



jay's treaty, the fries insurrection, removal of the seat op govern- 
ment. ADMINISTRATIONS OF GOVERNORS M'KEAN AND SNYDER. WAR OF 1812. 

1795-1817. 

HE terms of the treaty with Great Britain, commonly called Jay's, 
upon being made known caused intense excitement, and a violent 
spirit of opposition, says Westcott, to its ratification was immedi- 
ately displayed. Town meetings were called in Philadelphia, and 








|^^:^t^^^^*SS^5SgS»8SS; 



BTJILDING ERECTED BY PENNSYLVANIA FOB THE PKESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

IFac-simile of an Old Print.] 

memorials were presented to the President of the United States upon the 

1795. subject. These demonstrations were all intended to have an influence 

upon Washington, who had not yet signed the treaty, but they were 

without effect. Despite the vituperation launched against himself and Mr. Jay, 

he ratified the instrument on the 11th of August. 

In the expectancy that Philadelphia would continue to be the Capital of the 
nation, the Legislature erected a building on Ninth Street, with the intention of 
making it the official residence of the President. On the completion of the 
building. Governor Mifflin tendered the use of it to Mr. Adams, the President 
elect, who declined the offer. The building was eventually sold, and became the 
property of the University of Pennsylvania. 

In March, the President informed Congress of the diflficulties which prevented 
the negotiation of a treaty with France. The demands of the latter were so 

232 



GENERAL HISTORY. 



233 



insolent, that the intelligence checked in part the tide of sympathy which had 
been setting so strongly towards that unfortunate country. The Senate of Penn- 
sylvania, however, passed strong resolutions deprecating war, but they met with 
disaster in the House. The political excitement ran high, and the French or 
black cockade was worn by the over-ardent patriots of the day. As a badge of 
distinction it was said to be indiscreet and improper, and led many into 
turbulence. 

Governor Mifflin, in view of the prospect of a war with France, addressed a 
circular letter to the officers of the militia, requesting their assistance 

1797. in preparing for warlike measures. The enthusiasm of the citizens 
became aroused, and new companies were formed where the old were 

not prompt in their conduct. Measures were taken by the merchants of Phila- 
delphia for the building of vessels of war to be loaned the government. In 
the beginning of July, Captain Decatur, in command of the sloop-of-war 
Delaware, captured a French privateer cruising about the capes. She was sent 
a prize to Philadelphia, and her crew forwarded to the jail at Lancaster. 

The imposition of the so-called " house tax " by the Federal Government, 
led to resistance in Lehigh, Berks, Northampton, and a small portion 

1798. of Bucks and Montgomery counties. The intention of the United 
States was to raise a revenue to reduce the heavy debt incurred b}^ the 

Revolutionary war. Had the participants clearly understood the law and the 
objects of Congress, they would not have deigned to resist by force the attempt 
at its collection. The measure was at first opposed b}^ the women, and the 
methods of defence resorted to by them induced the title " The Hot Water 
War " to be applied to the disturbances. In Northampton county a number of 
persons were seized by order of the United States marshal, but rescued b}^ a force 
under the leadership of John Fries. In obedience to the proclamation of the 
President, Governor Mifflin called out troops from Philadelphia, Bucks, 
Chester, Montgomery, and Lancaster. The command was given to General 
William Macpherson. The ringleaders were soon arrested, and taken to Phila- 
delphia. Fries was subsequently tried for high treason and found guilty, but 
his life was spared, as well as those of his companions. President Adams 
according them a free pardon. 

The removal of the Capital, always a vexatious question, began to be vigor- 
ously discussed shortly after the adoption of the Constitution. The location of 
the seat of government in a large city has ever been objectionable, from the 
fact that legislation is too much under the control of the municipality, and in 
the great State of Pennsylvania it was considered that it would be better for the 
interests of the Commonwealth if the Capital was centrally located. In 
February, 1795, a resolution passed the House of Representatives for the 
removal of the place of permanent residence of the Legislature to Carlisle. It 
failed in the Senate. At the session of 1796 the House again took up the 
matter. Reading and Carlisle were both named ; but their claims not agreed 
to. Lancaster was chosen by two majority ; the Senate, however, interposed, 
and the measure was not accomplished. Two years afterwards the subject was 
again renewed, and Wright's Ferry on the Susquehanna river proposed. Subse- 
quently a motion was made to strike out Wright's Ferry and insert Hanisburg, 



234 



HisTo nr OF pe:n^ns yl vAifiA. 



but was lost. The bill, as passed, was amended in the Senate by the insertion 

of Harrisburg as the Capital. Neither House would recede, and the measure 

failed. In 1799 another effort pi'oved successful, and Lancaster was 

1799. selected as the seat of government. The Governor signed the bill on 

the 3d of April, 1799. The time from which Lancaster was to be 

considered the State Capital was after the first Monday of November. The 

Legislature met there on the 3d of December following; "and thus, after one 

hundred and seventeen years," says Westcott, " Philadelphia ceased to be the 

capital of the State, about the same time Avhen, by the removal of the Federal 

Government, it ceased to be the capital of the Union." 

In 1799, the choice of Governor fell on 
Thomas M'Kean,* then chief justice of Penn- 
sylvania. On assuming the duties of his office, 
great difficulties had to be surmounted, the prin- 
cipal of which was the removal from office of 
many who had heretofore been appointed not 
through merit, but personal considerations only. 
His course was sharply criticised, and party 
feeling during his entire administration was 
exceedingly warm and bitter. Writing to Presi- 
dent Jefferson shortly after his induction into 
office, he says : " It appears that the anti-repub- 
licans (even those in office), are as hostile as 
ever, though not so insolent. To overcome 
them they must be shaven, for in their offices 
(like Samson's hair-locks) their great strength, with their disposition for mis- 
chief, may remain, but their power of doing it will be gone. It is out of the 
common order of nature to prefer enemies to friends ; the despisers of the people 
should not be their rulers, nor men be vested with authority in a government 
which they wish to destroy." 

The Federalists in the Legislature made an attack upon the Governor for hold- 
ing the principles thus enunciated, and the address of the Senate was one of 
accusation instead of congratulation. Governor M'Kean made a long reply, 
"declaring that the objectionable expressions were uttered before he assumed 




THOMAS M'KEAN. 



* Thomas M'Kean was born in Chester county, March 19, 1734. After an academic and 
professional course of study, lie was admitted an attorney, and soon after appointed deputy 
attorney-general for Sussex county, Delaware. In 1757 he was elected clerk of the Penn- 
sylvania Assembly, and from 1762 to 1769 was member thereof for the county of New Castle. 
In 1765 he assisted in framing the address of the Colonies to the British House of Commons. 
In 1771 he was appointed collector of the port of N'CW Castle; member of the Continental 
Congress in 1774, and annually re-elected until February, 1783. In 1778 he was a member 
of the convention which framed the Articles of Confederation ; and 1781 president of Con- 
gress. In addition lo these duties, in 1777 he acted as President of Delaware, and until his 
election of Governor, from 1777 to 1799, held that office, and executed the duties of chief 
justice of Pennsj'lvania. He was a promoter of and signer of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence ; commanded a battalion which served under Washington in the winter of 1776-77. 
He was elected Governor of Pennsylvania three terms (1798 to 1808) under the constitution 
of 1790, of the convention framing which he was a member. He died at Philadelphia, on 
the 24th of June, 1817. 



GENERAL HISTOUY, 235 

office, and that as regarded the removals from office he relied upon his right to 
make such changes as he deemed proper, without accountability to any person 
or party." 

During his last term of office, such was the acrimony of the opposition who 
controlled the Assembly, that articles of impeachment were preferred against 
him, but a trial was never had. Governor M'Kean submitted a paper " defining 
in a most lucid manner the powers and duties of the several branches of the 
government, legislative, judicial, and executive, and expounding clearly 
impeachable offences. This document is regarded with great favor by profes- 
sional men, and is quoted as authority upon the questions of which it treats." 

In his last message to the Legislature he said, " In my last personal com- 
munication to the Assembly, probabl}' in the last important public act of my 
life, I shall be indulged, I hope, in claiming some credit for feelings corre- 
sponding with the solemnity of the occasion. It has been my lot to witness the 
progress of our country from a colonial to a national character, through the 
ordeal of many trials, in peace and in war. It has been my happiness to enjoy 
the favor and the confidence of our covmtry in the most arduous as well as in 
the most auspicious stages of her political career. Thus attached by every tie 
of honor and of gratitude, by all the motives of social interest and affection, I 
contemplate the future destinies of our country with a proud but an anxious 
expectation. My day of exertion (of feeble exertion at the best) is past ; but 
for our fellow-citizens, and for their representatives in every department of the 
government, I can only cease to implore the blessing of Providence when I 
cease to exist." 

By a law passed in 1802, to provide for the regulation of the militia, the 
State cockade was dii'ected to be blue and red. The same year was 

1802. passed the first law for the education of the children of the poor 
gratis, although both the Constitution of 1T16 and that of 1190 

provided for the establishment of " a school or schools in every comity." 
Owing to the lameness of this law, it remained a dead statute so far as some of 
the counties in the State were concerned. 

In the address of the Democratic committee for 1803, is used the following 
language : " As Pennsylvania is the keystone of the Democratic arch, 

1803. every engine will be used to sever it from its place" — being probabl}' 
the first instance in which the comparison of the Commonwealth to the 

keystone of an arch was used, and the origin of a figure of speech since very 
common. 

At the session of the Legislature in December, a memorial was presented from 
Thomas Passmore, of Philadelphia, charging Justices Yeates, Shippen, and 
Smith, of the Supreme Court, with oppression and false imprisonment, he having 
been committed for contempt of court. The subject was referred to the 
succeeding Assembly. This body took up the affair, and the House of Repre- 
sentatives recommended that the court should be impeached for high 
misdemeanors. Articles of complaint were prepared and the impeachment sent 
to the Senate. It was not until the subsequent session that proceedings were 
had, when, upon the final vote in the Senate, thirteen pronounced guilty, 
eleven not guilty ; the constitutional majority of two-thirds not being obtained, 
the accused were acquitted. 



236 



HIS TOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



In the month of August thd first through line of coaches from Philadelphia 
to Pittsburgh, via Lancaster, Harrisburg, Carlisle, Shippensburg, 

1804. Bedford, Somerset, and Greensburg was established, and the time 
occupied about seven days. 

In 1805, a project was started by a portion of the Democratic party, as then 
organized, for revising the State Constitution. It grew out of the trial 

1805. of the judges of the Supreme Court, and the advocates of the measure 
proposed to make the election of senators annual, to reduce the 

patronage of the Governor, and to limit the tenure of the judiciary. The party 
urging these changes assumed the name of " Constitutionalists ;'■' while those 
opposed called themselves " Friends of the People." The controversy for some 
time was carried on with much bitterness, but did not result in a change. 

This year was distinguished by an effort towards the propulsion of the first 
land-carriage moved by steam in the world. This was done by Oliver 
1807. Evans, in July, at Philadelphia. The year following the first railroad 
in America was built in Ridley township, Delaware county. 

In October, 1808, Simon Snyder,* another 
member of the Constitutional convention of 
1790, was elected Governor. Three 
1808. years previously, on account of the 
estrangement of Governor M'Kean 
from the party which elevated him to power, 
his defeat was nearly effected by Mr. Sn3aier. 
The former having served the full constitutional 
period, the latter was nominated for Governor, 
and although his opponent, James Ross, was a 
man of eminent talent. Governor Snyder was 
elected by an overwhelming majority. 

On his accession to the gubernatorial office, 
difficulties with England were serious, she assum- 
ing the right to search American vessels for sus- 
pected deserters fi-oni the British nav}', under cover of which the grossest out- 
rages were committed by British cruisers and privateers on American commerce. 
Tliese depredations produced the most intense excitement. From the begin- 
ning of its career the United States had earnestly protested against the right of 
search. An open rupture had been apprehended for several j-ears, but owing 




SIMON SNYDER. 



* Simon Snyder was born at Lancaster, November 5, 1759. His father, Anthony Snyder, 
was a native of Oppenheim in Germany, emigrating to America in 1748. He apprenticed 
himself at tlie age of seventeen to the trade of a tanner at York, and during intervals pur- 
sued his studies. In 1784 lie removed to Selinsgrove, where he entered into mercantile 
pursuits. He was early elected a justice of the peace, whicli oflBce ho held for twelve 
years. He was a member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of 1790 ; and in 
1797 was elected a member of the House of Representatives, of which he was chosen 
Speaker in 1802, serving in that position for six successive terms. With him originated the 
arbitration principle incorporated with other wholesome provisions for the adjustment of 
controversies brought before justices of the peace, in a law commonly called the "hundred 
dollar law." In 1808 he was elected Governor of Pennsjdvania, and served for three terms. 
Upon retiring from that office in 1817, he was chosen to the State Senate, but died while a 
member of that bod\', November 9, 1819. 



GENEBAL HISTOEY. 237 

to the amicable nature of the Federal Government the resort to arms was 
delayed until all hopes of settling existing difficulties with England were at an 
end. As early as 1807 active preparations were made by the United States for 
defence, and about five millions of dollars were appropriated by the govern- 
ment for war purposes. In 1811 Congress was convened a month 

1811. earlier, and that body at once seconded the measures adopted by 
President Madison, declaring offensive measures, and authorizing the 

call of one hundred thousand troops. 

Pennsylvania spoke out emphatically, resolving to stand by the general 

government, and this course was promptly followed by nearly all the States of 

the Union. On the 12th of May, 1812, Governor Snyder expressed tlie 

1812. feelings of the people of his native State, in his call for Pennsylvania's 
quota of fourteen thousand militia, when he said : " The Revolution 

of America, that great and mighty struggle, Avhich issued in giving to the United 
States that place among the powers of the earth to which the laws of nature 
and of nature's God entitled them, had scarcely been consummated, when the 
King, over whom we had been triumphant, began an invasion of our rights 
and property, which has almost uninterruptedly been continued and j^earl}'- 
aggravated in kind and in degree. Remonstrance has followed remonstrance, 
but they ' have only been answered by repeated injury ' and new outrage. 
Their promises — their written engagements — their plighted faith — have all been 
wantonly violated. These wrongs have been so long endured, that our 
motives have been mistaken, and our national character misrepresented. Our 
forbearance has been called cowardice — our love of peace, a slavish fear to 
encounter the dangers of war. We know that these representations have no 
foundation in truth ; but it is time that our enemies — that our friends — that the 
world, should know, we are not degenerated sons of gallant sires. 

" For nearly thirty years we have been at peace with all the nations of the 
earth. The gales of prosperity, and the full tide of happiness, have borne us 
along ; while the storm of war has been desolating the greater part of the 
civilized world, and inundated it with the bitter waters of affliction. All the 
means which wisdom and patriotism could devise have been in vain resorted to, 
in the hope of preserving peace. The cup of patience — of humiliation and 
long suffering — has been filled to overflowing ; and the indignant arm of an 
injured people must be raised to dash it to the earth, and grasp the avenging 
sword. 

" In the cultivation of the earth, and in manufacturing and transporting 
its products, the people of the United States have been honestly, usefully, 
and harmlessly employed ; and for many years have we been feeding the nation 
whose navy ' has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, and destroyed the 
lives of our people.' Our ability and disposition to serve them has whetted 
their commercial jealousy and monopolizing animosity. 

" It is our property that has been plundered — it is our rights that have been 
invaded — it is the persons of our friends, relatives, and countrymen, that have 
been ' taken captive on the high seas,' and constrained • to bear arms against 
their countrj- ; to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to 
fall themselves by their hands.' It is our flag that has been bathed in our 



238 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

waters — made red with the blood of our fellow-citizens. Every gale from the 
ocean wafts to our ears the sighs, the groans of our impressed seamen, 
demanding retribution. It is our homes and firesides that have been invaded 
by ' the merciless Indian savages,' who have been instigated to pollute our 
sacred soil with hostile feet, and tomahawk our citizens reposing in peace in 
the bosom of our country. The seeds of discord have been sown amongst 
our people by an accredited spy of the British government, ^,t a time, too. 
when the relations of peace and amity were subsisting between our own aud 
that government, founded on re-iterated assurances from them of national 
esteem and friendship. 

"If ever a nation had justifiable cause for war, that nation is the United 
States. If ever a people had motives to fight, we are that people. Our govern- 
ment, the watchful guardians of our welfare, have sounded the alarm — they have 
called upon us to gird on our swords and be ready to go forth and meet our enemies. 
Let us hasten to obe}^ the government of our choice, and rally around the consti- 
tuted authorities of the Union. Let an honorable zeal glow in our bosoms, as 
we eagerly press forward to render our services. It would give the Governor 
inexpressible satisfaction, if Pennsylvania would volunteer her quota. May 
each State animate the others, and every citizen act as if the public weal — the 
national honor and independence — rested upon his single arm. The example of 
the heroes and statesmen of our Revolution, and the rich inheritance their 
courage and wisdom achieved, cannot fail to urge all who love their country'- to 
flock around her standard — upborne by the right hands of freemen, planted in 
the sacred soil their valor won, and consecrated by a righteous cause ; — this 
nation may well go forth ' with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Pro- 
vidence,' and a conscious belief that the arm of the Lord of Hosts, the strength 
of the Mighty One of Israel, will be on our side. 

" The last appeal being now to be made, by an injured and indignant nation, 
it remains for the militia and volunteers of Pennsjdvania, by a prompt co-opera- 
tion with her sister States, to render eflficient the measures which are or may 
hereafter be adopted by the the United States government." 

Such was the enthusiasm of the hour, that in I'esponse to the Governor's call 
three times as many troops tendered their services as were required. The disap- 
pointment of some was so great that money was freely offered to secure a place 
among those accepted by the authorities. 

General William Reed, the adjutant-general of the State, speedily organized 
this force, which was formed into two divisions — Major-General Isaac Morrell 
appointed to the command of the first, and Major-General Adamson Tannehill to 
the second. The difierences which had so long subsisted between the United 
States and Great Britain, and which had led to the various measures adopted for 
defence, finally resulted in war, which was declared by Congress on the 18th day 
of June, 1812. Every representative but two from Penns^dvania, and both the 
senators, voted in favor of a declaration, and nobly did their constituents make 
known their approval of that vote. 

By a law of the General Assembly passed in February, 1810, the seat of 
government was directed to be removed to Harrisburg in the summer of 1812. 
Until the erection of the public buildings, for which a commission was 



QENEBAL HISTORY. 289 

\ appointed, the sessions of the Legislature were held in the Court House at Har- 
risburg, from December, 1812, to December, 1821. 

In July, a general alarm prevailed in the town and vicinity of Erie, in conse- 
quence of the appearance of a British Indian force on the opposite side of the 
Lake. On the 15th, orders were issued for the organization of the sixteenth 
division of the Pennsylvania militia, under General Kelso, for the protection of 
the frontier. Arms and munitions of war were sent forward. These measures 
so promptly taken, prevented the British and their savage allies from polluting 
. the soil of Pennsylvania with hostile feet. 

On the 3d of December, 1812, Governor Snyder, in his annual message, held 
this language in relation to the declaration of war by Congress against Great 
Britain : " The sword of the nation, which for thirty years has been rusting in 
its scabbard, has been drawn to maintain that independence which it had 
gloriously achieved. In the war of the Revolution our fathers went forth, as it 
were, ' with a sling, and with a stone, and smote the enemy.' Since that pei'iod 
our country has been abundantly blessed and its resources greatly multiplied ; 
millions of her sons have grown to manhood, and, inheriting the principles of 
their fathers, are determined to preserve the precious heritage which was pur- 
chased by their blood, and won by their valor." 

At the suggestion of the Governor, the Legislature passed an act for an 
additional monthly allowance to be made to the militia from Pennsylvania. 
Gun-boats and privateers were built and fitted out in the port of Philadelphia, 
the ordnance at Fort Mifflin was repaired, and energetic efforts made to place not 
only the Delaware river, but that portion of the State upon Lake Erie, in a 
state of defence. 

The gallant services of two eminent Pennsylvanians, Commodore Stephen 

Decatur, of the frigate United States, and Lieutenant James Biddle, of the 

Wasp, received special approbation at the hands of the Legislature, who directed 

an appropriate sword to be presented to each of those officers for their bravery. 

Early in the month of March, 1813, the blockade of the Delaware, 

1813. which had been constantly anticipated from the period at which 

hostilities were proclaimed, was effected by the British fleet under 

Commodore Sir John P. Berresford. It was prosecuted with such vigor as to 

cut off the chief part of the foreign commerce of Philadelphia. In the 

course of that month, the enemy were several times repulsed by the militia 

of Delaware in attempts to capture small vessels close in with the shore. 

In obedience to requisitions from the President, a third and fourth detach- 
ment of one thousand men each were ordered into the service of the Union. The 
fourth detachment was to protect the shores of the Delaware, and the third 
to protect vessels of war then building and equipping in the harbor of Ene. 
The happy result of the latter service was amply manifested in the glorious 
victory on Lake Erie, which, if ever equalled, was in naval service never 
excelled — a viotory not less brilliant in its achievements than important in 
its effects ; not less honorable to the nation than to the distinguished Perry, 
who commanded, and tlie brave officers and men who composed, that heroic 
force. The successes of Croghan, Harrison, and Chauncey, during the year, 
struck a fatal blow to British prowess, whether upon the land or the sea. 



240 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

At the subsequent session of the Assembly of the State, it was directed " that 
the thanks of the government be tendered to Captain Oliver Hazard Perry, of 
Rhode Island, for the brilliant action through which he succeeded in capturing 
His Britannic Majesty's fleet on Lake Erie," and that a gold medal be presented 
to him. A ffold medal was likewise presented to Commodore Jesse Duncan 
Elliott, of Pennsylvania, for heroic conduct in that engagement, and silver 
medals " to those citizens of the State who nobly and gallantly volunteered on 
board of the American squadron on Lake Erie." 

In the summer and autumn of 1813, the shores of the Chesapeake and its 
tributary- rivers were made a general scene of ruin and distress. The British 
force assumed the character of the incendiary in retaliation for the burning of the 
town of York in Upper Canada, which had been taken by the American army 
under General Dearborn in April of that year. This was purely accidental, but 
it served as a pretext for the general pillage and conflagration which followed the 
marching of the invading army. On the 24th of August, 1814, the enemy took 
possession of Washington City, no defence having been made. The commanders 
of the British force — General Ross and Admiral Blackburn — proceeded in person 
to direct and superintend the business of conflagration. " They set fire 
1814. to the Capitol," says Mr. Dallas in his " Causes and Character of the 
War," " within whose walls were contained the halls of the Congress of 
the United States — the hall of their highest tribunal for the administration of 
justice ; the archives of the legislature and the national library. They set fire to 
the edifice which the United States had erected for the residence of their chief 
magistrate. And they set fire to the costly and extensive buildings erected for 
the accommodation of the principal officers of the government in the transaction 
of the public business. These magnificent monuments of the progress of the arts 
which America had borrowed from her parent Europe, with all the testimonials 
of taste and literature which they contained, were on the memorable night of 
the 24th of August, consigned to the flames, while British oflflcers of high rank 
and command united with their troops in riotous carousals by the light of the 
burning pile." Horror-stricken, if not conscience-stricken, at the desolation, 
General Ross fled from the unfortunate city. 

Owing to the menacing attitude of the enemy subsequent to the fearful 
depredations alluded to, additional requisitions were made, and the prompti- 
tude with which the militia of the State turned out at their country's call 
reflected upon them signal honor. On the 26th of August, Governor Snyder 
issued his stirring appeal for a call to arms : " The landing upon our shores," he 
said, " by the enemy, of hordes of marauders, for the purpose avowedly to create 
by plunder, burning, and general devastation, all possible individual and public 
distress, gives scope for action to the militia of Pennsylvania by repelling that foe, 
and with just indignation seek to avenge the unprovoked wrongs heaped on our 
unoflTending country. The militia generally within the counties of Dauphin, 
Lebanon, Berks, Schuylkill, York, Adams, and Lancaster, and that part of 
Chester county, which constitutes the 2d brigade of tlie 3d division, and those 
corps particularly who, when danger first threatened, patriotically tendered 
their services in the field, are earnestly invited to rise (as on many occasions 
Pennsylvania has heretofore done) superior to local feeling and evasives that 



GENERAL HISTORY. 241 

might possibly be drawn from an imperfect military system, and to repair with 
that alacrity which duty commands, and it is fondly hoped inclination will 
prompt, to the several places of brigade or regimental rendezvous that shall 
respectively be designated by the proper otiicer, and thence to march to the 
place of general rendezvous. 

" Pennsylvanians, whose hearts must be gladdened at the recital of the 
deeds of heroism achieved by their fellow-citizen soldiers now in arms on the 
Lake frontier, and within the enemy's country-, now the occasion has occurred, 
will with ardor seek and punish that same implacable foe, now marauding on 
the Atlantic shores of two of our sister States." 

B}' the general orders issued the same day camps were established at 
Marcus Hook, on the Delaware, and at York. A force of five thousand men 
were soon at the latter rendezvous under the commands of Major-General 
Nathaniel Watson and Brigadier-Generals John Forster and John Adams 
When General Ross attempted to capture Baltimore, these Penns3dvania 
militia marched thither and had the high honor to aid in repelling the enemj'. 

The gallant record, during the j^ear's campaign, of the brave Pennsylvanmns 
who served at Chippewa and Bridgcwater, reflected glory on the ^oatriotism and 
valor of the old Commonwealth, and secured not onl^' the thanks of their brave 
commander, but the gratitude of tlieir countrymen. 

During the struggle which had just closed, he soil of Pennsylvania had 
never been trodden b}^ a hostile foot, and j-et it had at one time a greater 
number of militia and volunteers in the service of the United States than were 
at any time in the field from any other State in the Union, and as she furnished 
more men, so did she furnish more money to carry on the war. The militia and 
volunteers, as noted, were actually engaged in Canada, on Lake Erie, at Balti- 
more and elsewhere, and stood ready to repel the cncni}' from the States of New 
York and New Jerse}'. It ought not be forgotten that wlien four thousand New 
York militia, under General Van Rensselaer, arrived at Buffalo on tlieir march to 
invade Canada, they refused to cross the line, on the pretext that the}' were not 
obliged to do so even to light their country's enemies ; but soon after, wlien 
General Adamson Tannehill, with a brigade of two tliousand Pennsylvanians, 
reached the Niagara, the}' did not hesitate, but promptly crossed the line and 
gallantl}' met the foe. So, too, it was the militia of Pennsylvania who manned 
Perr3-'s fleet, on Lake Erie, and enabled him to announce, "We have met the 
enem}', and they are ours." 

On the nth da}'' of February, 1815, the treaty of peace between the 
1815. United States and Great Britain was ratified by the Senate. 

On the 20th of the same month. Captain Charles Stewart, of the 
frigate Constitution, with an inferior force, captured the British ships of war, 
Cyane and Levant. This gallant service was received everywhere with joy, and 
Captain Stewart's native State, Pennsylvania, presented him with a magnificent 
gold-hilted sword, commemorative of his distinguished bravery and skill. 

Q 



CHAPTER XVI. 




ADMINISTRATIONS OF GOVERNORS FINDLAY, IIIESTER, SIIULZE, WOLF. AND RITNER. 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM. 1817-1837. 

HE success of the llepublicans in 1817 brought to the gubernatorial 
office William Fiudlay,* of Franklin county. Governor Finclla}! 
found his position one of much care and trouble. Party rancor 
ran so high that at each sojourn of the Legislature during his term 
of office the opposition who controlled both Houses made his official conduct 
subject to investigation. 

In June, 1817, commissioners on 

1817. the part of Maiyland Avere met by 
those from Pennsylvania to examine 

the river Susquehanna and consider the means 
best calculated to improve its navigation. The 
commissioners reported against the continuation 
of the canal S3'stem adopted at Conewago, but 
recommended the removal of certain obstruc- 
tions in the river at the different rapids, as far 
as Northumberland. Explorations of other 
streams had previously been made, and an exten- 
sive system of internal improvements Avas pre- 
sented to the Legislature at its session 

1818. in 1818 b}^ Governor Findla}', the main 
features being the improA'cment of 

the navigation of the principal rivers, with their tributaiy streams within the 
jurisdiction of the State, as far up and as near to their sources as possible, then 
by connecting the heads of these streams by short portages. 

During Governor Findla3''s term of office began the opening up of the 
anthracite coal trade, which has groAvn to such immense proportions. The 
primary difficulty heretofore had been in sending the coal to market. Private 

* William Findlay was born at Mercei'sburg, Franklhi count}', Juno 20, 1708. Plis 
ancestors were Scotch-Trisli. He received a good English education, and was intended for 
the law, but owing to the pecuniary embarrassments of his father, who met with a severe 
loss bj'- fire, a collegiate course, then considered necessary, was denied him. After marry- 
ing, in 1791, he began life as a farmer. He was appointed a brigade inspector of Franklin 
count}', tlio first oflice lie held. In 1797 he was elected a member of the House of 
Representatives. In 1803 he was again chosen to that office, and success! vcIa' until January, 
1807, wiien, having been elected State Treasurer, he resigned his seat in the House. For ten 
years he filled the latter position. In 1817 he was elected Governor over General Joseph 
Heister. He served one term. At the session of the Legislature, in 1821-22, Governor Find- 
lay was chosen TTnited States Senator for six years. At the expiration of the senatorial term, 
President Jackson appointed him Treasurer of the United States Mint. He died at Harris- 
burg, November 12, 1840. 

242 




WILLIAM FINDLAY, 



GENERAL BISTOBY. 



243 



enterprises, however, were encouraged, and by these means easy access was 
rapidly afforded for the products of the mines in the interior counties to reach 
the seaboard. 

General Joseph Hiester,* an officer of the Revolution, succeeded Governor 
Findlay in December, 1820. Remembering- the unmerited attacks made 

1820. upon his predecessor in office, he thus alludes to the subject in his 
inaugural: " I trust that if any errors shall be committed, they will 

not be chargeable to intention. They will not proceed from a willfid neo-lect ot 
dut}' on my part, nor from any want of devo- 
tion to the best interests of our countr}-. Such 
errors, I may justly hope, will meet with indul- 
gence from an enlightened and liberal people. 
. . . Considering myself as elected by the 
people of this Commonwealth, and not by any 
particular denomination of persons, I shall 
endeavor to deserve the name of chief magis- 
trate of Pennsj'lvania, and to avoid the dis- 
graceful appellation of the Governor of a 
party." 

As it is with us even to-day, the great sub- 
ject which engrossed the minds of the 

1821. citizens of the State, was the opening 
of a great highway to the West — ever 

the grand aim of those who had the prosperity of the Commonwealth at heart. 
The Legislatui'e chartered a number of canal and turnpike companies, and 
authorized State subscriptions to the same. 

The subject of education was another measure to which the attention of the 
people was drawn, and in his annual message Governor Iliester used this 
language : " Above all it appears an imperative duty to introduce and support a 
li])eral system of education connected with some general religious instruction." 
The city and county of Philadelphia had been erected into "the first school 
district of renns3'lvania" in 1818, and during this session (1822) the city and 
county of Lancaster were erected into "the second school district." These, 
termed the Lancasterian methods, were the beginnings of that glorious s3-stem of 
free education, which has placed our State in the front rank of public educators. 

In 1822, the Legislature first met in the Capitol erected at Harrisburg. This 
building had occupied two 3-ears in its erection, the corner-stone 

1822. having been laid on the 31st of May, 1819, with imposing 
ceremonies. 




JOSEPH HIESTKR. 



* Joseph Hiester was born at Koading, November 18, 1752. In 1775 he raised a company 
of eighty men, and received his commission as captain. When the battalion was formed 
he was appointed major. He participated In the battle of Long Island, severely wounded, 
was taicen prisoner, and suffered a year's confinement in a British prison-ship. After his 
exchange he again joined the army and was wounded at Germantown. He was for many 
years a member of the LegislaMire ; was deh^gate of the Convention of 1790, and was a 
member of Congress from 1797 to 1805, and again from 1S15 to 1821, when he was elected 
Governor of the State, which station he tilled one term. He died June 10, 1832. 



244 



HISTOHV OF PENNSYLVANIA. 




GENERAL HISTOBY. 



245 



John Andrew Shulze,* of Lebanon county, was inano-urated Gover- 
1823. nor December 16, 1823. For six years he occupied the executive 
chair. 
In 1823, in his annual message, President Monroe made his celebrated decla- 
ration in favor of the cause of liberty in the Western hemisphere and the 
non-interference of European powers in the political affairs of this continent. 
The determined stand taken by Mr. Monroe was warmly endorsed by the peoijle 
of Pennsylvania, and the Legislature of the 
State, at the subsequent session, passed reso- 
lutions to the effect that it had afforded them 
"the highest gratification to observe the Presi- 
dent of the United States, expressing the senti- 
ments of millions of freemen, pi'oclaiming to the 
world that any attempt on the part of the allied 
sovereigns of Europe to extend their political 
systems to any portion of the continent of 
America, or in any other manner to interfere in 
their internal concerns, would be considered as 
dangerous to the peace and safety of the United 
States." Governor Shulze, in transmitting these 
resolutions to the President, expressed his 
hearty endorsement of the doctrines therein set 
forth. 

During the administration of Governor Shulze, General Lafayette made 
his second visit to Pennsylvania, an event which produced marked and 

1825. spontaneous enthusiasm among the entire population. Next to the 
great and good Washington, he was hailed as the deliverer of this 

country, and no where was he made more welcome than in this State. 

In 1825, the Schuylkill navigation canal, projected almost thirty years 
previously, although not commenced until 1815, was completed. The occasion 
was one of public rejoicing, and the success of the enterprise gave an impetus to 
other improvements. Shortly afterwards the Union canal, heretofore referred 
to, was also finished. The great Pennsylvania canal was prosecuted with vigor. 
Governor Shulze hesitated somewhat at this stupenduous jilan of 

1826. internal improvements by the State, and opposed the loan of a million 
dollai's authorized by the Legislature. He was obliged to yield, how- 
ever, to the popular will, and before the close of his second term, six millions 
of dollars had been borrowed. 




JOHN ANDREW SHULZE. 



* John Andrew Shulze, the son of a Lutheran clergyman, was born at Tulpehocken, 
Berks county, July 19, 1775. He received a classical education and studied theology. He 
was ordained in 179r> a Lutheran minister, and for six years officiated as pastor of several 
congregations in Berks county. Owing to a rheumatic affection, he forsook the church and 
entered upon mercantile pursuits. In 1800 he was elected to the Legislature, and served 
three years. In 1813 he was commissioned prothonotary of the new county of Lebanon, 
which office he tilled for eight years. In 1821 he was chosen representative, and the year 
following a State senator. In 1823 he was elected Governor of the State, and re-elected in 
1825. In 1810 he was a member of the Electoral College. In 1846 he removed to Lancaster 
where he died, November 18, 1852. 



246 



H R'tT'W Y OF FENNS YL VANIA. 



The main line of the public works from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was 
composed of 126 miles of railroad and about 292 miles of canal. It was 
completed in 1831. Several branch canals were also put under contract, and 
the entire ex]:)enditure for the improvements amounted to over thirt^'-five 
millions of dollars. These internal improvements were managed by a board of 
three canal commissioners. 

On the 28th of March, 1825, the question of calling a convention to revise the 
Constitution was ordered to be submitted at the next general election, but the 
measure was defeated by a vote of 44,470 to 59,813. 

Previous to 1827, says Mr. Sypher, the only railroads in America were 
a short Avooden railroad (to which we have heretofore referred), constructed at 
Leiper's stone quarry in Delaware county, Penns^dvania, and a road three miles 
in length, opened at the Quinc^^ granite quarries in Massachusetts, in 1826. In 
May, 1827, a railroad nine miles in length was constructed from Mauch Chunk 
to the coal mines. This was, at the time, the longest railroad in America. 

In 1829, George Wolf,* of Northampton 
count}', was chosen Governor over 
1829. Joseph Pitner. At this joeriod there 
began to be a change in the political 
horizon of the State. A fearful crusade was 
made against secret societies, which were de- 
nounced as tending to subvert free govern- 
ment. Commencing in the New England 
States, the reported abduction of a traitor to 
the f]-ce-masons in New York, assisted to 
spread rapidly the contagion, and party lines 
were almost equally drawn in the State of 
Pcnns3-lvania. The Federal party lost its iden- 
tit}', and the Anti-Masons sprung up like mush- 
rooms. Their candidate for Governor was 
defeated at the first election by seventeen thousand, and at the second b}^ only 
three thousand votes out of a poll of almost two hundred thousand. 

When Governor Wolf came into office the financial affairs of the Common- 
wealth, owing to the extensive scheme of public improvements, then well 
progressing, were in a deplorable condition. There was but one course to pur- 
sue which would maintain the credit of the State, and that was to push the 
works to rapid completion. This was done, and in a few j-ears he with others 
had the proud satisfaction of beholding how far these needed improvements went 
towards developing the resources of Pennsylvania. 




GEORGE WOLF. 



* George Wolf was a native of Allen township, Northampton county, where he was 
born, August 12, 1777. He received a classical education. Before his majority he acted as 
clerk to the prothonotary, at the same time studying law under John Ross. President 
Jefferson appointed him postmaster at Easton.and shortly after Governor M'Kean commis- 
sioned him as Clerk of the Orphans' Court, which office he held until 1809. In 1814 he was 
chosen member of the Legislature, and in 1824 a representative in Congress, a position he 
filled for three terms. From 1829 to 1835 he occupied the executive chair of the State. 
General Jaclison appointed him comptroller of the Treasury in 1836, and President Van 
Buren collector of the port of Philadelphia in 1838. He died at Philadelphia, March 11,1840. 



GENERAL IIISTOR Y. 



241 



At this period measures -\vere adopted which has secured for the children of 
the Commonwealth the system of public or free education beino- the levvino- 

of a tax for a school fund. The Governor, in his annual messa"-e, 
1831. December, 1831, sa3^s in reference thereto: "It is cause for no 

ordinary measure of gratification that the Legislature, at its last 
session, considered this subject worthy of its deliberations, and advancing one 
step towards the intellectual regeneration of the State by laying a foundation 
for raising a fund to be employed hereafter in the righteous cause of a practical 
general education; and it is no less gratifying to know that public opinion is 
giving strong indications of having undergone a favorable change in reference 
to this momentous measure, and by its gradual but powerful workings is fast 
dispelling the grovelling fallacies, but too long prevalent, that gold is preferable 
to knowledge and that dollars and cents ai'C of a higher estimation than 
learning. ... I would suggest for your consideration the propriety of 
appointing a commission, to consist of three or more talented and intellio-ent 
individuals, known friends of a liberal and enlightened system of education 
whose duty it should be to collect all the information and pos!?ess themselves 
of all the facts and knowledge that can be obtained from any quarter havino- 
a bearing upon or connection with the subject of education, and to arrano-e and 
embody the same in a report to the Legislature." In compliance with this wise 

recommendation, a bill was eventually drawn embodying what were 

1834. believed to be the best features of those systems which had been 
most successful in other States, and at the session of 1834 passed 

both branches of the Legislature with a unani- 
mity rarely equalled in legislation. 

On the 14th of April, the Legislature again 
passed an act for submitting the question of 
calling a convention, which Avas approved at the 
general election by a vote of 87,570 to 73,106. 
At the next session of the Assembly', March 29, 
1836, an act was passed directing the convention. 
In 1835, at a period of unusual 

1835. political excitement, Joseph Ilitner,* 
of Westmoreland county-, was elected 

Governor. Owing to a defection in the ranks 
of the party to whom Governor Wolf gave 
adherence, the vote was divided between him 
and Henry A. Muhlenberg, resulting in his 
defeat. 




JOSEPH RITNER. 



* Joseph Ritner was born in Berks countv, March 25, 1780. He was brought up as a 
farmer, with little advantages of education. About 1802 he removed to Washington county. 
M'as elected a member of the Legislature from that county, serving six years, and for two 
years was Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1835 he was elected Governor of 
Pennsylvania, as the Anti-Masonic candidate. He was an earnest advocate of the common 
school system, so successfully inaugurated during the administration of Governor Wolf, 
and also a strong opponent of human slavery. In 1848 he was nominated by President 
Taylor director of the mint, Philadelphia, in which capacity he served lor a short time. He 
died on the 16th day of October, 1869. 



248 



HIS TOBY OF PENNSYLVAN'IA. 



Notwithstanding the perfect unanimity which attended the passage oT tlie 
school law of 1834, in many sections of the State persons were sent to the 
Leo-islature especially to secure its abolition. It was at this time that such 
men as Wolf, and Ritner, and Stevens, stood up in advocacy of the common 
school system, and which fortunately resulted in preserving the law intact, 
except so far as to divest it of any objectionable features. In the language of 
Mr. Burrowes, "When the agitating divisions of the day shall have sunk into 
comparative insignificance, and names be only repeated in connection with some 
great act of public benefaction, those of George Wolf and Joseph Ritner will 
be classed by Pennsylvania among the noblest on her long list ; the one for his 
early and manly advocacy, and the other for his well-timed and determined 
support, of the Free School." 







A View on the Schuylkill. 




CHAPTER XVII. 

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. " BUCKSHOT WAR." ADMINISTRATIONS OF COVER 
NORS PORTER, SUUNK, JOHNSTON, POLLOCK, AND PACKER. 1837-18G1. 

N the 2cl of May, 1837, the convention, of which John Sergeant was 
elected president, assembled at Harrisbnrg for the purpose of 
revising the constitution of the Commonwealth. Adjournino- in 
July, the convention met again at Harrisbnrg in October, and 
removed in December to Philadelphia, where their labors were closed 
1838. on the 22d February, 1838. The amendments were adopted by the 
people at the subsequent annual election. In conformity with the more 
important amendments, the political j- ear commenced in January ; rotation in 
office was secured b^^ allowing the Governor but two terms of three 3-ears each, in 
any term of nine j^ears ; the senatorial term was reduced to three years ; the power 
of the Legislature to grant banking privileges was abridged and regulated ; private 
property could not be taken for public use without compensation previously se- 
cured ; the Governor's patronage was nearly all taken away, and the election of 
many officers heretofore appointed by him was vested in the people or their repre- 
sentatives ; the Governor's nomination of judicial officers was to be confirmed in the 
Senate with open doors ; all life offices were abolished; judges of the Supreme 
Court were to be commissioned for fifteen years — presidents of the common pleas, 
and other law judges, for ten years — and associate judges for five years — if they so 
long behaved themselves well ; the right of suffrage was extended to all white 
freemen twenty-one years old, one year resident in the State, having within two 
years paid a tax assessed ten daj^s before the election, and having resided ten 
days immediately preceding in the district; white freemen between the ages of 
twenty-one and twenty-two, citizens of the United States, having resided a 3'car 
in the State and ten days in the district, could vote without paying any tax ; 
two successive Legislatures, with the approbation of the people at a subsequent 
election, once in five years, could add to the Constitution whatever other 
amendments experience may have required. 

The amendments proposed were ratified at the general election in October by 
a vote of 113,971 to 112,759. 

At the October election (1838) David R. Porter, of Huntingdon, was chosen 
Governor, in a hotly contested political canvass over Governor Ritner. The 
defeated party issued an ill-timed and ill-advised address, advising their friends 
" to treat the election as if it had not been held." 

It was determined therefore to investigate the election, and to do this the 
political complexion of the Legislature would be decisive. The majority of the 
Senate was Anti-masonic, but the control of the House of Representatives hinged 
upon the admission of certain members from Philadelphia whose seats were 
contested. The votes of one of the districts in that city were thrown out by 

249 



250 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



reason of fraud, and the Democratic delegation returned. The Anti-masonic 
return judges refused to sign the certificates, "and both parties made out returns 
eacli for a different delegation, and sent them to the Secretary of the Common- 
wealth." The Democratic returns ^Yere correct, and should have been promptly 
received " without question." 

When the Legislature met, the Senate organized b}' tne ^choice of Anti-ma- 
sonic officers. In the House a fierce stru^ole 
ensued, both delegations claiming scats. The 
consequence was that each party went into an 
election for speaker, each appointing tellers. 
Two speakers were elected and took their seat 
upon the platform — William Hopkins being the 
choice of the Democrats, and Thomas S. Cun- 
ningham of the opposition. The Democrats be- 
lieving they were in the right, left out of view 
the rejection of the votes of the Philadelphia 
district. HoweA'cr, when the returns from the 
secretary's office were opened, the certificate of 
the minority had been sent in, thus giving the 
advantage to the Anti-masons. It was then a 
question which of the two Houses would be 
recognized b}' the Senate and the Governor. 

At this stage of the proceedings, a number of men (from Philadelphia 
especiallv), collected in the lobby, and when the Senate after organizati-an 
proceeded to business, interrupted it by their disgraceful and menacing conduct. 
The other branch of the Legislature was in like manner disturbed, and thus both 
Houses were compelled to disperse. The crowd having taken possession of the 
halls proceeded to the Court House, where impassioned harangues were indulged 
in and a committee of safety appointed. For several daj^s all business was suspen- 
ded, and the Governor, alarmed for his own personal safet}'^, ordered out the militia, 
and fearing this might prove insufficient, called on the United States authorities 
for help. The latter refused, but the militia under Major-Generals Patterson 
and Alexander, came promptly in response. For two or three days during this 
contest, the danger of a collision was imminent, but wiser counsels 
1839. prevailed, and the Senate having voted to recognize the section of the 
House presided over by Mr. Hopkins, the so-called " Insurrection at 
Harrisburg " was virtually ended. This was what is commonlj' known as the 
" Buck-shot War." 




DAVID R. PORTER. 



* David Rittenhouse Porter, the son of General Andrew Porter, of the Revolution, 
was born near Norristown, Montgomery county, October 31, 1788. He received a good 
classical education. When his father was appointed surveyor-general, young Porter went 
as his assistant. During this period he studied law, but his health becoming impaired, he 
removed to Huntingdon county, where he engaged in the manufacture of iron. In 1819 
he was elected member of the Assembly, serving two years. In 1821 Governor Hiester 
appointed him prothonotarj"^ of Huntingdon county. In 1836 he was chosen State senator, 
and from 1838 to 1845 filled the office of Governor of the Commonwealth. He died at 
Harrisburg, August 6, 1867. 



k 



GENERAL IIISTOR Y. 



251 



Governor Porter in his first annual message to the Legislature held the follow- 
ing views, which for far-sightedness were somewhat remarkable, insomuch as 
as they were the subject of considerable ridicule by the press : " There 
are two subjects which are essentially necessary to the full fruition of the bene- 
fits to be derived from our main lines of canals and railroads between the eastern 
and western sections of the Commonwealth, as to awaken the earnest solicitude 
of every true Pennsylvanian. I allude to the removal of the obstructions to 
steamboat navigation in the Allegheny, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers from Pitts- 
burgh to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Pittsburgh up the Allegheny as far as 
the same may be found practicable by the survey authorized under direction of 
the general government, and to the construction of a continuous railroad from 
the city of Pittsburgh through or near the capitals of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, 
to some point on the Mississippi river at or near St. Louis." 

In 1836, the charter of the second bank of the United States expired, but the 
United States Bank of Pennsylvania was chartered by the State Legislature, 
with the same capital of $.35,000,000, and, purchasing the assets and assuming 
the liabilities of the old bank, continued the business under the same roof. In 
1837, a reaction commenced. All the banks, with very rare exceptions, sus- 
pended specie payment throughout the Union. A resumption was attempted in 
1839, but was only persevered in by the banks of New England and New York. 
This new suspension, however, was not generally followed by contraction of the 
currency in Pennsjdvania until 1841, when an attempt was made to 

1841. resume, but it proved fatal to the bank in question and the Girard 
ban'k, which were obliged to go into liquidation; while nearly all the 

banks of this State, and of all the States south and west of it continued their 
suspension. To relieve the distressing pressure throughout the State, consequent 
upon the downfall of the great banks, and the general reaction of all private 
speculations, and also to provide temporary means for meeting the demands 
upon the State treasury, the banks, still in a state of suspension, were permitted, 
by a law of 4th Ma}', 1841, to issue small notes, of the denominations of $1, $2, 
and $3, which were loaned to the State, and were redeemable in State stock 
whenever $100 were presented in one parcel. The treasury of the State still 
being embarrassed, the State stocks became depreciated (being at one time as 
low as $35 for $100), and the small notes depending upon it, sj'mpathized in the 
depreciatioi., but not to an equal extent. An attempt to coerce the banks to 
specie payments, in the spring of 1842, was unsuccessful, the State having made 
no adequate provision for the redemjotion of the small notes, called 

1842. relief notes. A few cit}' banks resumed ; others failed ; the country 
banks generally remained in a state of suspension, and the relief notes, 

at a discount of from seven to ten per cent., formed the only currency throughout 
the State. During this year the State made only a partial payment, in depre- 
ciated funds, of the semi-annual interest on her stocks, and her credit, hitherto 
sustained with difficulty, sunk with that of other delinquent States. The legisla- 
tive provisions of 1842 and 1843, especially the tax law of July, 1842, tended in 
a great measure to replenish the exhausted treasury, and resuscitate the credit 
of the State. 

In 1843 arose a new political organization which had for its principles reform 



252 



HISTOB T OF PENNS YL VANIA. 



1843. 



in the naturalization laws, the reading of the Bible in the public schools, 

and the election or appointment of native Americans only to office 

"American Republican Associations," as the societies were termed, were 

rapidly organized, especially in the large cities. " Beware of foreign influence," 

was the rallying cry of this ephemeral party, who were charged with religious 

proscription, intolerance, and persecution. A very large proportion of the inhabi- 

tants of Philadelphia were of foreign extraction, if not of foreign birth. The 

attempt to infuse religious prejudices into political contests always results in 

outrage, disorder, blood, tumult, and conflagrations. Such was the consequence 

in the metropolis — a series of riotous proceedings in April and May, 1844, 

which required at last the State authorities to check. Governor Porter 

1844. issued a proclamation calling " into immediate service all the volunteer 

companies belonging to the first division of the Pennsylvania militia," 

under the command of Major-General Patterson. Over-awed for the time by the 

presence of this armed force, the lawless proceedings ceased, but no sooner did 

the military retire, than the same spirit fanned anew the flames of discord. The 

militia were again called out, and the city placed under martial law. A conflict 

arose between the populace and the troops, which resulted in the latter firing into 

an unarmed crowd of citizens. Several were killed and a number wounded. The 

excitement became intense. The Governor went 
in person to the city and used every exertion to 
quiet the turbulent and disaff"ected, which result- 
ed successfully — and thus ended the lawless pro- 
ceedings which disgraced the proud escutcheon 
of not only the city of Philadelphia but the 
State of Pennsylvania. 

Having served two terms. Governor Porter 
was succeeded in office by his former 
1845. Secretary of the Commonwealth, Fran- 
cis R. Shunk,* at that time from Alle- 
gheny county. During his first term but little 
of interest transpired in Pennsylvania, the en- 
tire attention of the people of the State being 
drawn to the war with Mexico, brought about 
by the annexation of Texas. 

Congress, on the 13th of May, 1846, announced that by the act ot 

1846. Mexico a state of war existed between that government and the United 

States, and for the purpose of prosecuting it to a speedy and successful 

termination, the President was authorized to employ the militia, naval, and 

* Francis Rawn Shunk was born at the Trappe, Montgomery county, August 7, 17S8. 
He became a teacher at the age of fifteen, and in 1S12 received the appointment as clerk 
in the Surveyor-Generars office vmder General Andrew Porter. In 1814 he marched as a 
private soldier to the defence of Baltimore. In September, 1816, he was admitted to the 
practice of the law. He filled the position of assistant and then principal clerk of the 
House of Representatives for several years; next became secretary to the Board of Canal 
Commissioners; and in 1839 Governor Porter appointed him secretary of the Common- 
wealth. In 1842 he removed to Pittsburgh, engaging in his profession. In 1844 he was 
elected Governor of Pennsylvania, and re-elected in 1847. He died on the 30th of July, 1848. 




FRANCIS R. SHUNK. 



GENERAL HISTORY. 



253 



military forces of the United States and to call for and accept the services of 
fifty thousand volunteers. 

In pursuance of this authority the President requested six regiments of 
volunteer infantry to be held in readiness to serve for twelve months, or to 
the end of the war. Within a period of thirty days the offer of ninety companies, 
sufBcient to fill nine regiments, were received— manifesting an old-time pat- 
riotism and zeal highly cre:^.itable to the State. 

In November, 1846, orders were sent for the mustering into the service of 
the United States one regiment of volunteers, and on the 15th day of De- 
cember the first regiment was organized at Pittsburgh — six of the companies 
composing it were from Philadelphia, one from Pottsville, one from Wilkes- 
Barre and two from Pittsburgh, under the command of Colonel Wynkoop. 

At the request of the President, the second regiment of volunteer infantry 

was mustered into service on the 5th of January, 1847, at Pittsburgh. One of 

the companies composing this force was organized in Philadelphia, one 

1847. in Reading, one in Mauch Chunk, one in Harrisburg, one in Danville, 

two in Cambria county, one in Westmoreland county, one in Fayette 

county, and one in Pittsburgh. Colonel Roberts was placed in command, to 

which succeeded Colonel Gear}^ 

Two additional companies were subsequently mustered into service and 
sent to the field. One of these was from Bedford, the other from Mifllin 
count3^ 

The record of the gallant services of these troops on the fields of Mexico 
it is not our province now to recall. At Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Chepultcpcc, 
and the City of Mexico, their bravery and valor secured the highest commenda- 
tions of their venerated chieftain. 

Just as the remnant were returning from the South with their 
1848. laurels, the Executive of the State, deeply lamented, passed away, hav- 
ing a few days previous (July 9, 1848) issued the following : 
" To the people of Pennsylvania : 

" It having pleased Divine Providence to deprive me of the strength neccs- 
sar}^ to the farther discharge of the duties of your chief magistrate, and to \ay 
me on a bed of sickness, from which I am admonished by my physicians and my 
own increasing debility, I may, in all human probability', never rise, I have 
resolved, upon mature reflection, under a conviction of dut}', on this day, to 
restore to you the trust with which j'our suffrages have clothed me, in oider tliat 
you may avail yourselves of the provision of the Constitution to choose a suc- 
cessor at the next general election. I therefore hereb}' resign the ofllce of 
Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and direct this, my resigna- 
tion, to be filed in the office of the Secretary of the Commonweallh. 

" In taking leave of you under circumstances so solemn, accc])t my gratitude 
for the confidence you have reposed in me. My prayer is that peace, viitue, 
intelligence, and religion may pervfide all 3'our borders — that the free institutions 
you have inherited from your ancestors ma}' remain unimpaired till the latest 
posterity — that the same kind Providence, which has already so signally blessed 
3"ou, ma3' conduct you to a still higher state of individual and social happiness — 
and when ihe world shall close upon you, as I feel it is soon about to close upon 



254 



HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 



me, that you may enjoy the consolations of the Christian's faitli, and be gathered, 
without a wanderer lost, into the fold of the Great Shepherd above." 

Governor Shunk was succeeded in office by William F. Johnston, * then 
Speaker of the Senate, according to the provisions of the Constitution. The 
vacancy having occurred three months before the time fixed for the annual elec- 
tion, the acting Governor therefore issued the necessary writs for the election 
of a chief marristrate, which resulted in the choice of Mr. Johnston. 

Owing to a number of illegal seizures of fugi- 
tives from labor, on the 3d of March previous the 
Assembly passed an act to prohibit the exercise 
of certain powers heretofore emploj'ed by the 
judicial officers of the State, relative to the ren- 
dition of fugitive slaves, forbidding the use of 
the jails of the Commonwealth for the deten- 
tion of such persons, and also repealing so much 
of the act of 1780 as authorized the masters 
or owners of slaves to bring and retain such 
within the State for a period of six months. 
This act was considered in the Southern States 
as being inimical to the faithful observance of 
renns3lvania's Federal obligations. Fidelity in 
the discharge of every constitutional duty has 
distinguished our governnient and people, and whatever may have been the 
mischievous opinions then propagated beyond our borders, the}' were conceived 
in error of our true history. 

Attention having been called to the neglected and suffering condition of the 
insane poor of the State in 1844, the Legislature, at the subsequent session, pro- 
vided for the establishment of an asylum for this unfortunate class, to be located 
within ten miles of the seat of government. The citizens of Ilarrisburg, with the 
aid of a liberal appropriation by Dauphin countj^, purchased a farm adjoining 
that city, and in 1848 the commissioners appointed by the State began the 
erection of the first building erected by the Commonwealth for the reception of the 
insane To the individual exertions of an estimable and philanthropic lad}'. Miss 
Dorothea L. Dix, are we indebted for the active interest taken by the Common- 
wealth in these noble charities. 




WILLIAM F. JOHNSTON. 



* William Freame Johnston was born at Greensburg, Westmoreland county, Novem- 
ber 29, 1808. With a limited academic education, he studied law and Avas admitted to the 
bar in May, 1829. Removing to Armstrong county, he was appointed District Attorney, a 
position he held until 1832. He represented Armstrong county for several years in the Lower 
House of the Assembly, and in 1847 was elected a member of the Senate from the district 
composed of the counties of Armstrong, Indiana, Cambria, and Cleartield. At the close of 
the session of 1848, he was elected Speaker of the Senate for the interim, and on the resig- 
nation of Governor Shunk on July 9th following, assumed the gubernatorial functions 
according to the provisions of the Constitution. At the general election in October, he 
was elected for the full term, serving until January 20, 1852. On retiring from office. 
Governor Johnston entered into active business life. He was appointed by President 
Johnson collector of the port of Philadelphia, but owing to the hostility of the United 
States Senate to most of that President's appointments, he was not confirmed. He died at 
Pittsburgh, October 25. 1872. 



GENERAL HISTORY. 



255 



It was not until this year that the common school system was adopted 
throughout the entire State — and in the educational epoch of our history, stands 
conspicuous. From this time onward rapid strides were made — improvements 
in the system and defects remedied. 

In 1849 considerable excitement existed in Pittsburgh and the western part 
of the State, occasioned by the erection of a bridge over the Ohio river 

1849. at Wheeling, owing to the obstruction to navigation of that highway 
in times of high water. The Legislature was appealed to, eventually 

Congress, and finally the Supreme Court of the United States. Measures, 
however, were adopted which removed all objections. 

During Governor Johnston's administration, the attention of the Legislature 
was called to the records of the Provincial and State governments, which in their 
then condition were inaccessible, and that body authorized their publication 
Twenty-nine volumes of these documents, includins: a general index, edited by 
Samuel Hazard, were printed. They form almost complete details of the trans- 
actions of government from 1682 to 1790 — invaluable in their importance to a 
full comprehension of the early history of Pennsylvania. 

The passage by Congress of the fugitive slave law was a matter of 

1850. A^ast importance to the State. Situate on the borders of the slave 
States of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, wrongs were to be feared 

and disorders apprehended. For years previous the southern slave felt free 

whenever he touched the soil of the Land of 

Penn, but the enactment of the compromise 

measures of 1850 obliged him to flee beyond 

the confines of the States. The year following 

a serious riot occurred at Christiana, Lancaster 

county ; and in other localities the arrest of 

fugitives led to disturbances of the peace and 

bloodshed. 

William Bigler,* of Clearfield, as- 
sumed the functions of the chief magis- 
tracy January 20, 1852. During Gov- 
Bigler's term of office several very 
important measures were adopted by the Legis- 
lature, the principal of which were the estab- 
lishing the office of county superintendent of 



1852. 



erner 




WILLIAM BIGLER. 



*Wtlliam Bigler was born at Shermansburg, January 1, 1814. He received a fair 
scliool education. Learned printing wicli liis brotlier from 1830 to 1833, at Bellefonte. In 
the latter year he established the Clearfield Democrat, which lie successfully carried on for 
a number of years. He subsequently disposed of his paper and entered into mercantile 
pursuits. In 1841 he was elected to the State Senate, chosen Speaker in the spring of 1843, 
and at the opening of the session of 1844. In October following, lie was re-elected to the 
Senate. In 1849 appointed a revenue commissioner. In 1851, elected Governor of the 
State, serving for tliree years. In January, 1855, he was elected for the term of six years to 
the United States Senate. Governor Bigler \\ as a prominent delegate of the Constitutional 
Convention of 1873, and to his labors are we indebted for a number of the beneficial fea- 
tures of this instrument. He was one of the earliest championsof the Centennial Exposition 
of 1876, and represented Pennsylvania in the Board of Finance, and his eflbrts ministered 
greatly to its successful issue. His ivsidem^e is at Cleartield. 



256 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



common schools, and the founding of the Pennsylvania training school for 
feeble-minded children. 

The completion of the Pennsylvania railroad from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, 

in February, 1854, added a powerful impulse to the development of the 

1854. resources of the State, and perfected that grand scheme by which almost a 

century previous the inhabitants of the metropolis sought to secure the 

trade of the West. With the completion of this important route, lateral roads 

were built until at the present time a map of that thoroughfare presents the 

anpearance of a o-igantic tree with innumerable branches. The consolidation 

act of the 2d of February, by which the county of Philadelphia was blotted 

out of existence merging it iJito the city, was a notable event of the year 

The North Branch canal, the last of the sj's- 
tem of internal improvements undertaken by 
the Commonwealth, was completed. Owing to 
some mismanagement the work had been dis- 
continued for ten or twelve years. It opened an 
outlet to the inexhaustible mines of coal with 
which that section abounds. 

At the October election, 18.^5, James 
1855. Pollock,* of Northumberland, was 
chosen Governor b\^ a large majority. 
He was nominated and supported by the Know- 
Nothing party, an organization closely allied to 
the Native American Association. At this 
period the subject of the introduction of slavery 
into the Territories was warmly agitated through- 
out the length and breadth of the State. 

Bv the act of the IGth of May, the main line of the public works 
1857. of the State was directed to be sold. On the 25th of June following 
Governor Pollock caused the same to be done, and on the 31st day of 
Jul}^ the whole line of the public works between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was 
transferred to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, at the price of seven 
millions five hundred thousand dollars. Following this sale, measures were 
taken for the disposal of the remaining divisions of the public improvements. 
They had failed to be a source of revenue to the State, and the application of the 
proceeds to the payment of the debt of the Commonwealth soon led to the 
removal of taxation b}'^ the State. 

* James Pollock was born at Milton, Northumberland county, September 11, ISIO. His 
early education was committed to the care of Rev. David Kirkpatrick, who had charge of 
the classical acadeni3'- at Milton. Pie graduated at Prihceton, September, 1831; in 1835 he ^ 
received the degree of A.M. in course, and in 1855 the honorary degree of LL.D. was confer- 
red upon him. Jefferson College conferred a like honor in 1857. In November, 1833, he 
was admitted to tlie bar; in 1835 appointed District Attorney for Northumberland county; 
from 1813 to 1849 served as member of Congress; in 1850 appointed president judge of the 
eigbth judicial district, and in 1854 Governor of Penns^dvania. In the so-called com- 
promise convention assembled at Washington in February and March, 18G1, Governor 
Pollock represented Pennsylvania. From 18G1 to 1^GG he filled the office of Director of the 
United States Mint under the appointment of President Lincoln. In 18G9 he was re- 
instated by President Grant to the sam.e position, which office he now [1S7G] holds. 




JAMES POLLOCK. 



GENERAL HISTOBY. 



257 




In the summer of this year [1857], a serious financial revulsion occurred, 
resulting in the suspension of specie paj^ments by the banlcs of Pennsylvania and 
other States of the Union, followed by the failure of many long-established com- 
mercial houses, leading to the destruction of confidence, and to the o-eneral 
embarrassment and depression of trade, and threatening to affect disastrously the 
credit of the Commonwealth and the great industrial interests of the people. 

In order to release the banks from the penalties and forfeitures incurred by 
a suspension of specia payments, Governor Pollock convened the Leo-islature in 
"extraordinary session " on the 6th of October, On the 13th an act was passed 
" providing for the resumption of specie payments by the banks and for the 
relief of debtors," to go into immediate effect. 
This law had the desired result, and public 
confidence being restored, the different branches 
of industry revived, and the communit3' saved 
from bankruptcy and ruin. 

When AVilliam F. Packer,* of Lycoming 

county, assumed the office of Governor on the 

19th of January, 1858, the great ques- 

1858. tion which occupied the minds of the 

people not only of the State but of the 

Union was the admission of Kansas among the 

great famil}^ of States. 

Although by the act of 1857, separating the 
office of superintendent of iDUblic schools from 
that of secretary of the Commonwealth, provi- 
sion was made for the establishment of normal schools, it was not until 1859 
that any such was recognized. The first was that located at Millersville, Lan- 
caster count}'. 

In 1859 the celebrated raid into Virginia by John Brown occurred, by which 
the public property of the United States at Harper's Ferry was seized, and the 
lives of citizens of that State sacrificed by that band of desperadoes, who, in 
their mad zeal, attempted to excite the slave population to insurrection. The 
subsequent trial and conviction of John Brown b}^ no means quenched the flames 
of disunion which the Missouri compromise of 1820, the fugitive slave law of 1850, 
and the Kansas-Nebraska imbroglio had united in kindling. The election of Presl- 
dent Lincoln in 1860 causelessly precipitated the measures which led to civil 
war. On the 20th of December, South Carolina passed by a unanimous vote the 

* William Fisher Packer was born in Howard township, Centre county, April 2, 
1807. At tlie age of thirteen he began to learn the profession of printing in the office of 
Samuel J. Packer, at Sunbury. Mr. Packer's newspaper being discontinued, Williatu F. 
returned to Centre county, completing his apprenticeship in the office of the Patriot. In 
1825, he was appointed clerk in the register's office of Lycoming county. In 1827 he began 
the study of law, but purchasing an interest shortly after in the Gazette, ho continued his 
editorial career with that paper until 183(5, when he assisted in establishing the Keystone at 
Harrisburg, remaining connected therewith until 1841. In February, 1839, he was appointed 
a member of the Board of Canal Commissioners ; in 1842, Auditor-General of the Comniou- 
wealth ; in 1817. and 1848, elected member of the Legislature, being chosen the latter year 
Speaker of the House ; in 1S49, elected to the Senate ; and in 1857, Governor of the Coin- 
xnonwealth. He died in the city of Williarasport, September 27, 1870. 
R 



WILLIAM K. PACKER. 



258 



HISTOnr OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



ordinance of secession. Governor Paclver, in his last message to the Legislature, 
expressed in plain terms the fearful position in which not only South Carolina, 
but the other States preparing for similar action, had placed themselves. " The 
advocates of secession," he said, "claim that the Union is merely a compact 
between the several States composing it, and that any one of the States which 
may feel aggrieved may, at its pleasure, declare that it will no longer be a party 
to the compact. This doctrine is clearly erroneous. The Constitution of the 
United States is something more than a mere compact, or agreement, between 
the several States, As applied to nations, a compact is but a treaty which may 
be abrogated at the will of either party ; responsible to the other party for its 
bad faith in refusing to keep its engagement, but entirely irresponsible to any 
superior tribunal. A government, on the other hand, whether created by consent 
or conquest, when clothed with legislative, judicial, and executive powers, is 
necessarily in its nature sovereign ; and from this sovereignty flows its right to 
enforce its laws and decrees bj' civil process, and in an emergency, by its military 
and naval power. The government owes protection to the people, and they in 
tui-n owe it their allegiance. Its laws cannot be violated by its citizens without 
accountability to the tribunals created to enforce its decrees and to punish 
oflenders. Organized resistance to it is rebellion." 

On the 24th of December, on the attempt to ship ordnance from the arsenal at 
Pittsburgh for the purpose of supplying southern ports, the citizens of that city 
rightly refused permission, and it was prevented. 




UNION LEAGUE HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA. 



CHAPTER XYIII. 



M 



THE CIVIL WAR. ESTABLISHMENT OF CAMP CURTIN. PENNSYLVANIA TROOPS THE 
FIRST TO REACH THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. THE BATTLE FLAGS OF THE STATE. 
PENNSYLVANIA INVADED BY THE CONFEDERATES. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVEN- 
TION OF 1873. ADMINISTRATIONS OF GOVERNORS CURTIN, GEARY, AND HART- 
RANPT. 1861-18T6. 

UTTERINGS of the coming storm were approaching nearer and 
nearer, and the year opened up gloomily. In the midst of this 
portentous overshadowing, on the 15th of January, Andrew G. 
Curtin,* of Centre county, took charge of the helm of State. In 
his inaugural he took occasion "to declare that Pennsylvania would, under 
any circumstances, render a full and determined support of tlie free 
1861. institutions of the Union," . . . and pledged himself to stand 
betAveeen the Constitution and all en- 
croachments instigated by hatred, ambition, ,-- >, 

fanaticism, and foil}'. 

On the nth of February, the House passed 
a series of resolutions approbatory of Major 
Anderson, and Governor Hicks- of JMaryland, 
and pledging to that State the fellowship and 
support of Pennsylvania. The month previous 
the House had passed resolutions taking high 
ground in favor of sustaining the Constitution 
and the Union. In Philadelphia and throughout 
the State, meetings were held for the avowal 
of the same sentiments at that time. It was 
b}' this means that the elements of opposition 
to treason were called forth and put in motion. 

Threatening as was the danger, no one anticipated that it would break forth 
so snddenl}', nor that it would grow to such fearful proportions as it in a brief 
time assumed. The Governor was aware of the solid patriotism of the citizens 
of the State, in the stubborn will, the ability, and resources of the Common- 
wealth. It is true, when the leaders of the South, who had long secretly been 
preparing to dissolve the Union, unmasked their design b}^ the attack on Fort 
Sumter, in Charleston harbor. South Carolina, on the 12th da}^ of April, ISHl, 
no State in the Union was less prepared, so far as munitions of uar were 




ANDllEW G. CUIITIN, 



* Andrew Gkegq Curttn was born at Bellefonte, Centre county, April 28, 1817. 
Admitted to the bar in 1839, and practiced at Bellefonte. From 1855 to 1858 he was 
Secretary of the Commonwealth and superintendent of common schools. In 18f)0 he was 
elected Governor of Pennsylvania. When the war for the Union broke out he was one of 
the most zealous of the war governors of the Northern States. He was re-elected in 18G3. 
Active in the election of General Grant to the Presidency, he was honored with the 
appointment of Minister to Russia in 18G9. He returned in 1872, and was elected a member 
of the convention which framed the present Constitution of the State. He resides at 
fiellefoute. 

259 



260 . HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

coiicernerl, to take part in an armed conflict, tlian Pennsylvania at that time. 
Her volunteer soldiery system had fallen into deca}^ There were kss volunteer 
military companies in tlie State up to 1860 than ever before were on the rolls 
of the Adjutant-General's office. While the militia system had fallen into 
contempt, by reason of the burlesques to which it was made a subject, the 
distaste for that service had grown with the long period of peace which 
had surrounded the country ; and this, added to the fact that the large Quaker 
and Menonnite portion of the population, the strong Methodist and Presby- 
terian elements which exist in all parts of the Commonwealth, and which, as a 
rule, held the mere trade in war in abhorrence, pervaded the State, so barren in 
military material, that when the first tokens of the impending storm were seen 
by tlie movement of secession, the people of Pennsylvania looked on with 
seeming indifference, lulling themselves in the false security which their hopes 
that there Avould be no collision, inspired. But when that first overt act was 
committed, and the news was flashed over the North, it created no fiercer 
feeling of resentment elsewhere than it did throughout the Ke^^stone State. 

On the 15th day of the same month, the President of the United States 
issued a proclamation calling out seventy-five thousand militia from the 
different States to serve for three months, in the war thus precipitated, and a 
requisition at once made on this State for fourteen regiments. The alacrity with 
which these regiments were furnished, demonstrated not so much the military 
ardor, as it did the patriotic spirit of the people. As before remarked, the 
citizens had no clear idea of the horrors of war — the shedding of human blood 
and the sacrifice of human life was a thing fearfully horrible to them — which they 
did not fully realize were to be the enormous effects of the attack on Fort Sumter. 
When they responded to the call for troops, they rushed forward believing their 
firm appearance would over-awe the insurgents, and a single bloodless campaign 
end the trouble between the South and the National government. Hence, instead 
of fourteen regiments, sufficient rushed to Harrisburg to organize twenty-five. 
But there were two men — Pennsylvanians — who comprehended the situation from 
the outset. General Simon Cameron, Secretary of War under President Lincoln, 
advised the organization of the most powerful army the North could raise, so that 
at one blow armed Rebellion might be effectually cruslied. Governor Curtin took 
advantage of the excess of men offering their services, and began at once, after 
the complement of the three months' men had been furnished to the Federal 
government, to organize the famous Reserve corps. He discovered the approach- 
ing tornado in the distance, and thus commenced to prepare for its ftuy, the 
ReserA'es being the onl}^ troops well-organized and disciplined in the North ready 
for the service of the Union at the moment of the disaster of the first battle 
of Bull Run. 

On the 18th of April, Camp Curtin was regularly and formall}' established 
in tlie north-western suburbs of Harrisburg. It was the first regular camp 
formed north of the Susquehanna in the loyal States, and before the end of 
the month of April, twenty-five regiments were sent to the field from its precincts. 
On the 30th of April, Governor Curtin called an extra session of the Legislature, 
for the purpose of providing means for the better establishment of the State 
Militia, for the passage of financial measures, the assumption of a military debt 



GENERAL IIISTOEY. 261 



then already created, and to organize an armj' for State defence. The Leglsla- ~ 
ture, wlien convened, acted with energetic promptness. On the 15th day of May, 
following, an act was passed providing for the organization of the Reserve 
corps, to consist of thirteen regiments of infantrj-, one regiment of cavalry, and 
one of artiller}'. 

The first military organization which, according to documentary evidence, 
began the active preparations for defence, was the Ringgold light artillery, of 
Reading. Early in January, 1861, Captain McKnight believed he foresaw the 
signs of impending danger, and he therefore councilled with his men, who 
agreed to devote a certain portion of each day to drill and discipline. 

On the morning of the 12th of April Governor Curtin received the following 
dispatch from Philadelphia*: 

" The war is commenced. The batteries began firing at four o'clock this 
morning. Major Anderson replied, and a brisk cannonading commenced. This 
is reliable, and has just come by associated press. The vessels were not 
in sight." 

Tliis intelligence referred to the attack on Fort Sumter, and was at once flash- 
ed from the Capital, by orders of the Governor, to all parts of the State. The 
news was interpreted as the precipitation of a great rebellion. Three da^ys later, 
the President issued his proclamation calling out the militia. The Secretary of 
War telegraphed to Governor Curtin to send two regiments of the quota of four- 
teen from this State within two da3's. Washington city was reported as in 
imminent peril, being entirely unprotected and at the mercy of the assailants then 
in arms in Virginia. The utter lack of militar^^ organizations outside the cities 
of the State was remarkable at this period — so remarkable, indeed, as to have 
no doubt been understood and acted upon by the insurgent leaders, because the 
same condition existed in all the Middle and Eastern States, where a continuous 
period of peace had almost completely deadened military ardor. Aside from 
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, there were few mill tar}^ companies in the State 
fully armed and equipped, and of these not one-fourth contained the minimum 
number (thirty-two) of men. But, as the appeal for men was disseminated 
through the towns and villages of the interior, the officers of whatever military 
organizations which did exist promptl}^ rallied their men and tendered their 
services to the Governor. The Ringgold light artillery. Captain McKnight, of 
Reading; the Logan guards. Captain Selheimer, of Lewistown ; the Washington 
artillery, Captain Wren, and the National light infantry, Captain McDonald, of 
Pottsville ; and the Allen rifles. Captain Yeager, of Allentown, were the first, or 
among the very first to off'er their services in an armed and disciplined condition 
for immediate action. When the Ringgold light artillery, numbering one 
hundred and two men, reached Harrisburg, and word was sent to the Secretary 
of War of the presence of so strong a company at the State Capital, he at once 
telegraphed for its immediate presence in Washington, but for prudential reasons 
the order was suppressed. 

On the morning of the 18th of April, a detachment of regulars of company 
"H," 4th artillery, numbering fifty men, arrived in Harrisburg from the West, 
in command of Lieutenant Pemberton. This young officer was of Northern 
extraction, but his Southern sympathies led him into the Rebel service, where he 



262 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

rose to the grade of Lieutenant- General, and had the felicitous favor of being 
captured, with his entire command, at Vicksburg. The five volunteer com- 
panies having been mustered into the United States service by Captain Seneca 
G. Simmons, of the Ith United States infantry, the regulars and the volunteers 
referred to departed on the same train, the first for Fort McHenry, and the latter 
for Washington. The volunteers marched two miles through the city of Balti- 
more, then filled with Southern sympathizers, ready to obstruct their passage 
througli the city. On leaving the cars at Bolton to march to Camden station, 
a battalion was formed in this order : Pemberton's regulars on the right, Selheim- 
er's Logan guards next, and Yeager, Wren, and McDonald following — McKnight, 
with the Ringgold artiller}^, bringing up the rear. As the column was formed at 
Bolton station, the Baltimore police appeared in large force, headed by Marshal 
Kane, followed by a mob, who at once attacked the volunteers, and w^ere counte- 
nanced by the police sent to give them a safe conduct through the city. The men 
were ordered to maintain their discipline, and to make no reply to the ribald slang 
of the ruffians who menaced them. When in the centre of the citj', the regulars 
under Pemberton filed off toward Fort McHenr}', leaving the volunteers to 
pursue their march to Camden station. This seemed to be a signal to the mob, 
and at once the air was filled with flying missiles, while e\evy species of oath 
and imprecation were flung at the volunteers as they moved onward. Not a man 
made a reply — steadily, silently, sternly, and undauntedly the five companies 
moved over the rough, cobble-stone streets. At every step the mob increased — 
almost every house contributed to swell the stream of fury — women screamed 
encouragement from latticed blinds — but with unblanched faces and a steady 
step the brave men who hurried to the rescue of the National Capital never for a 
moment wavered, marching like veterans, as the mob gaye way before and around 
them, they forced their passage to the depot. The mob believed that a portion 
of tlie Logan guards carried loaded guns, because their half-cocked pieces dis- 
played percussion caps, but in reality, there was not a load of powder or ball in 
the entire five companies; nevertheless the feint of displaying the caps, which 
was done partly as a jest on leaving the cars at Bolton station, saved the men 
from the bloody attack which was hurled the next da}^ at a force of Massa- 
chusetts troops passing through the cit}'. As it was, when the troops were 
boarding the cars at Camden station, the infuriated rabble who had dogged their 
steps hurled bricks, stones, clubs, and mud into their disorganized ranks, without, 
fortunately, injuring a man. Attempts were made to throw the cars from the 
track, to detach the locomotive, and to break the machinery — all of which 
failed, the train leaving the depot amid the demoniac yells of the disappointed 
rulTians whose tliirst for blood was now aroused to a savage fury. The solici- 
tude of Governor Curtin for the safe transit of these troops through Baltimore 
was intense. He remained at the telegraph office in Harrisburg receiving dis- 
patches depicting tlie scene in the streets of Baltimore, and when at length it 
was announced that the train had passed out of the reach of their assailants, 
with the men on board, he emphatically declared tliat not another Pennsylvania 
soldier should march through Baltimore unarmed, but fully prepared to defend 
himself. 

At seven o'clock, p.m., of the 18th, these five companies reached Washington, 



GENERAL HISTOEY. 2G3 

and were at once properly quartered. They were the first troops which arrived 
from any State to defend the National Capital, constituting the advance of that 
mighty host wjaich speedily followed from the North, the West, and the East, 
and which eventually defeated the slaveholder's rebellion for the destruction of 
the fairest heritage in the shape of a government man ever bequeathed to his 
brother. The following resolution was passed by Congress in recognition of the 
gallantry displayed by the soldiers from Pennsylvania who passed through Bal- 
timore on the ever-memorable 18th of April: 

" 37th Congress, U. S., July 22, 1861. 
" Resolved, That the thanks of this House are due, and are hereby tendered, 
to the five hundred and thirt}^ soldiers from Pennsylvania, who passed through 
the mob at Baltimore and reached Washington on the 18th of April last, for the 
defence of the National Capital. 

" Galusha a. Grow, 
" Speaker of the House of Representatives.'''' 

On the day when the first troops contributed by the State for the defence of 
the National Capital were pursuing their march through the streets of Baltimore, 
other volunteers were arriving in Harrisburg — the railroad depots were over- 
flowing with recruits — the public grounds around the State Capitol were covered 
with improvised shelter for troops — the Capitol was occupied by them, and it was 
at once apparent that a great camp must be established, where raw recruits could 
be received, drilled, equipped, and arr/.ed for active service. Accordingl3', what 
was known as the Dauphin County Agricultural Society's park, an eligible 
plot of ground in the northwestern portion of the suburbs of Harrisburg, was 
taken possession of by the authorities. It lay within two hundred feet of the 
Pennsylvania railroad on the east, and a thousand on the west from the Sus- 
quehanna river, and was, perhaps, the finest site for a great camp of instruction 
and depot for military stores in the Commonwealth. Camp Curtin was founded 
on the 18th of April, 1861, and before the end of that month twenty-five regi- 
ments were formed there and sent to the field. It can be inferred from this, the 
energy and enthusiasm with which the authorities and people of Pennsylvania 
entered into the conflict for the defence of the Union after the assault on Fort 
Sumter had fully aroused their patriotic resentment. 

Captain G. A. C. Seller, of Harrisburg, organized the first military opera- 
tions at Camp Curtin ; and under the immediate direction of the State authorities 
before the regular recruiting and instruction of men at that post, the Secretary 
of the Commonwealth, Eli Slifer, had, previously to the establishment of 
the camp on the ISth of April, assumed the discharge of certain military func- 
tions, such as replying to telegraph offers of troops, aff"ording information as to 
quotas of companies ; but after the regular opening of Camp Curtin, Captain 
Seller was formally put in command, which position he held by commission from 
the 28th of May to the 31st of July, 1861, during which he displayed great 
energy, but by exposure and over-work contracted a disease, from which he died. 
Having relinquished the command of the camp on the date named, he was suc- 
ceeded by Colonel John H. Taggart, 12th Regiment, P. Y. 

Early on the 21st of April, there arrived in Harrisburg troops in companies 
from Ohio, consisting of men from Cincinnati, Cleveland, Urbana, Mansfield, 



2CA HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Dayton, Zanesville. and Steubenville, who were quartered at Camp Curtin. The 
intelligence had reached Harrisburg of the burning of the bridges on the Northern 
Central railroad, and a body of two tiiousand men were at once thrown forward 
from Camp Curtin, followed by three hundred regulars from Carlisle barracks with 
a batter3' of fl3'ing artiller}-. When these troops reached Cockeysville, Md., it 
produced the most intense excitement along the Northern Central railroad lead- 
ing into Baltimore, while in that city the sympathizers with the rebellion were 
throAvn into convulsive rage at the threat which this advance of troops seemed to 
impl3\ of an attack on that place. It was believed there that the troops in Fort 
McHenry were awaiting the arrival of the troops from Cockej^sville to shell 
Baltimore. In the meantime the few companies enlisted at the former locality 
were subjected to almost equal anxietj-, as they were there without tents or 
proper commissary supplies, expecting hourly to be overwhelmed by the advance 
of a ijowerful force from disloyal Baltimore. 

On the 2*rth of April, at least three thousand men had arrived at Camp Cur- 
tin ; two thousand were encamped at Lancaster, and three thousand were in 
readiness to march from Philadelphia. 

Tlie twenty-five regiments which were fitted out at Camp Curtin, consisting 
of 20,175 men, were clothed, armed, equipped, subsisted, and transported by the 
State, in consequence of the inability' of the Federal Government to perform 
this service. At the completion of the three months enlistment, over ten thousand 
of these men were returned to Camp Curtin. Their condition while in service on 
the Southern border of the State, in Maryland and Virginia, was not the best, as 
they were compelled, to a great extent, to do without cooked rations or tents, 
and much complaint was uttered in consequence. 

Colonel Thomas Welsh, of Lancaster count}', assumed the command of Camp 
Curtin in July', 1861, which he held until the complete organization of his 
regiment, the 45th, and its departure for the scene of war, on the 21st of 
October following, having receiA^ed its flag from Governor Curtin on the day 
previous. Until Colonel Welsh took command of the Camp, its organization 
and discipline were not as rigid as strict military rule demanded. This was 
parti}' owing to the peculiar condition of the levies which daily arrived. The 
three months' men had been principal!}' organized under the militia laws of the 
State, and fi'om the troops which had acquired that short experience in actual 
service, the nine months' men were recruited — after which came the requisition 
for the thi-ee-years' men, and with it a stei-ner element in both camp and field, 
which brought up the standard of the troops sent to the front to the very 
highest veteran efflciencx'. Colonel Welsh gave to the discipline of Camp 
Curtin its first strict military rule, in the enforcement of, which he was ably 
seconded by Adjutant W. W. Jennings, of Harrisburg, who served from the 
opening of the Camp in that position until he was elected Colonel of the 12Tth 
regiment. 

During the year 1862, when the organization of the three years, 

1862. regiments began, drafts were ordered by the Federal Government, and as 

the Federal authorities apportioned the quotas to the States, the State 

authorities in turn apportioned quotas to the several counties, where they were 

sub-divided among towns and townships. To fill up these quotas and thus 



GENERAL HISTORY. 265 

escape the draft, called into existence a business in bounties, by which hundreds 
of thousands of dollars were spent if not squandered. Agents from the several 
counties of the State were stationed at Camp Curtin for the purpose of offering 
bounties to recruits, a business wliich was converted into a rivalry out of which 
official fraud and personal corruption grew to frightful proportions, filling up 
companies frequently with men who were physically and mentallj' incompetent. 
and in many cases with others who shirked their dut}- when in the field, or 
sought to escape before the}' reached the front. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania met 
the demands made upon her by the War Department with the utmost alacrity, 
and the best material she could command. 

Of the quota of the State, under the call of July T, 18G2, forty-three 
regiments of volunteers, aggregating 40,383 men, were put into service, and 
under the draft, ordered August 4th of the same 3'ear, fifteen regiments, con- 
taining an aggregate force of 15,000 men, organized and sent forward. During 
the same period nine independent batteries of artillerj^ were organized in the 
State, with an aggregate strength of 1,358 officers and men. The speed with 
which Governor Curtin pushed forward these men elicited the warmest 
acknowledgments of the War Department, through which President Lincoln 
forwarded his thanks to the people of Penns^dvania for the promptness with 
whicli they responded to the call for troops. By the liberal offer of bounties 
the draft was rendered unnecessary in nearly all parts of the State, each county 
quota being in most part filled up by the nine months' men, w'ho, on reaching 
Camp Curtin, in most instances re-enlisted for the war. 

In the month of September, after the second disaster at Bull Run, it became 
evident that the enemy had adopted an aggressive policy, and was about to 
invade the Northern States through Maryland and the southern border of 
Pennsylvania. At the period of this crisis. Governor Curtin, with his usual 
alacrity and foresight, solicited and I'cceived authority from the President to 
issue a proclamation calling into immediate service fifty thousand of the 
freemen of the State. Under this call twenty-five regiments and four companies 
of infantry, fourteen unattached companies of cavalry-, and four batteries of 
artillery were immediately organized and sent to the border, the greater portion 
advancing beyond the State line into Maryland. General John F. Reynolds, at 
that time commanding the Pennsylvania Reserve corps, w^as put temporarily in 
charge of these troops, and when the crisis ended which made their appearance 
in the field necessary, Governor Curtin was thanked by Major-General McClel- 
lau for his zeal in thus covering the southern border of his State, which 
materially aided in frustrating the Southern incursion into the heart of Penn- 
sylvania, and probably further North. 

Early in June, 1863, before the dispersing of General Milroy's force at 

Winchester, the general government took the alarm, and an order from 

1863. the War department constituted two new military departments, one of 

them being that of the Susquehanna, under the the command of 

General Couch, the other that of the Monongahela, under the command of General 

W. T. H. Brooks. On the 12th of June, Governor Curtin called out the entire 

militia of the State. Prompt was the response, and large numbers of troops 

came at once to Harrisburg, offering their services for the emergency. Unfortu- 



260 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

nately, the general government refused to accept on that first call any troops for 
less than six months. The men, who had suddenly left their homes, were 
unprepared for an absence of six months, and would not be mustered into the 
service of the United States. In this dilemma, Governor Curtin was appealed 
to, that he should receive the offering troops on account of the State, as we had 
a right to defend our territory without the consent of the general government — 
but to prevent a conflict of authority, the Governor would not consent thereto. 

It was on the 26th of June that the second proclamation of Governor 
Cui-tin was issued, limiting the service to ninety days, or for the emergency. 
However, in the interim between the llth and the 26th of the month eight regi- 
ments and one battalion had been mustered in for the emergency. During this 
delay the battle of Gettysburg had occurred, and the rebel force retreated south 
of the Potomac ere the entire number of troops called by the State were in 
motion. This circumstance has given rise to the charge of lack of patriotism by 
Mr. Greeley and other historians of the war. It is stated by the former that 
■"the uniformed and disciplined regiments of New York city generally and 
promptlj'- went to the front, but that the number of Pennsylvanians, Marylanders, 
and West Virginians, who set their faces resolutely towards the enemy in this 
crisis bore but a slim proportion to that of their brethren, who seemed just then 
to have urgent business east of the Susquehanna or west of the Ohio ;" in other 
words, that the country was profoundly disheartened, while the army had 
already absorbed what was bravest and most patriotic of its militia — and he puts 
down the number of Pennsylvanians who finally responded to the calls at 
twenty-five thousand, with the force of New York at fifteen thousand, and New 
Jersey at three thousand. 

The New York and New Jersey troops were not required to be mustered into 
the United States service for six months, but were received as they came, for 
the emergency. This should be properly understood. There was no lack of 
patriotism on the part of tlie people of Pennsylvania on this occasion, but the 
paucity of State troops was attributable, in a great degree, to the action of 
the State and National authorities. That the people of the State would have 
responded to a proper call before the battle of Gett^^sburg is evident from the 
alacrity which was exhibited on the occasion of that made by the Governor in 
September, 1862, 

It has been stated that the object of the Secretary of War in calling foi 
troops for so long a period as six months was in a great measure to have a large 
force ready to guaixl the line of the Potomac when necessary. Had a 
longer time been afforded for that purpose, troops might have been obtained, 
but it was unwise to make a call for the period noted, when the invasion of 
the State was imminent. 

The first evidence the inhabitants of the Cumberland Valley had of tlie 
rebel approach, was the flight of Milroy's wagon train, which was ordered, as 
alleged, to secure itself on the east side of the Susquehanna. The horse and ' 
mule teams, laden with army supplies, thronged the main road from the State 
line, and afforded substantial evidence of Milroy's overthrow. Soon followed 
trains of farm wagons not only from Maryland, but from York, Franklin, and 
Cumberland counties, too numerous to find accommodations at Harrisburg or in 



GENEBAL HISTORY. 



267 



ts vicinity, but which pushed on to Lebanon, Berks, and Lancaster counties. 
Man}^ of these trains were crowded with produce and house furniture, most of 
cheni leaving behind the women and children. Loose cattle, horses, colts, and 
calves abounded. Pedestrians also pushed along Avith the caravan, some 
carrying what they well could. So precipitate was the flight that many 
amusing incidents occurred, of which it is not our province at the present to 
rehearse. 

While the female portion of the rural districts remained behind with their 
household goods to guard, in the towns along the railroads there prevailed a 
general alarm, and those who could left for places of security. As far east as 
Harrisburg was this especially the case ; railroad cars were crowded, and other 
vehicles were called into requisition. But the commotion was not confined to 
them. Banks were cleared of their money and valuable papers, numerous stores 
of their goods, and at the Capitol of the State, the important and valuable 
papers of the departments, the books of the State Library, as also the different 
county records, wei'e removed to places of safety. 

In the midst of the consternation which prevailed, the men of the State who 
were not with the militia were firm, and the able-bodied went to work upon the 
fortifications on the west of the Susquehanna, opposite Harrisburg, subsequently 
named Fort Washington, with the hope of some, and the expectation of others, 
that the Confederate force, if it came at all, would come directly down the 
valley. Troops were likewise stationed at the different fording places of the 
river, and breastworks thrown up. 

The New York and New Jersey troops did not by any means comprise all 
the effective militia force in the valley. They were of some use in swelling the 
number of our forces at Fort Washington, and it is now reported that Colonel 
Jenkins, who with his command of eight hundred men, spent a night at 
Mechanicsburg, approached Harrisburg as far as Oyster's Point, where a slight 
artillery skirmish ensued, but that officer ascended a hill in the valley frora 
which he had a view of the defences opposite the Capital, and upon inquirj' was 
informed that a large Union force, with considerable artillerj^, occupied that 
city. However, the Army of the Potomac was approaching, the Confederate 
troops sent for, and on Monday, June 29, their forces at Carlisle and York fell 
back to concentrate. 

Of the subsequent events — the three days' fight at Gettysburg — that decisive 
battle which struck the death-knell of the Southern Confederacy, we shall 
describe in full in subsequent pages. 

In July 1864, the Confederate forces again crossed the Potomac, 
1864. threatening the southern border of the State, and marched towards the 
National Capital. Under the pressing demands of the Federal authori- 
ties, all the organized troops in Pennsylvania were immediately sent forward. 
The Southern army was defeated and driven back. A column of three thousand 
men had however crossed into the State, and on the SOth of July, burned the 
town of Chambersburg. The full details of this transaction are given elsewhere. 
Although the people of all the Southern border sufl^'ered much from the incursions 
of the enemy, Chambersburg was the only town entirely destroyed within the 
limits of any loyal State. The citizens of that place were suddenly reduced to 



268 



IT It' 'WRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



poverty, ami for a time, were sustained b}' the active benevolence of the people 
of other portions of the Commonwealth. The burning of Chambersburg was an 
act of rutliless vandalism unnecessary at the time as a means of promoting the 
protection or tlie success of the invader, and perpetrated merely as a show of 
bravado, in defiance of all honorable warfare and the sacred rights of humanit}'-. 
Tlie inliabitants offered no resistance at the time to the advance — there was no 
Union force intrenched in the town, and therefore, no necessity to fire it as a 
means of dislodging an enem3^ 

The history of all the campaigns in which the troops of Pennsjdvania took 




GENERAL, HOSriTAL, CAMP CURTIN, 18G3. 
[From a Photograph by D. C. Eurnilc] 

part is also the history of Camp Curtin. It was on that classic ground that 
these troops were in great part recruited, mustered -in, and mustered-out. 

After the mustering in of the nine months' men, the Federal authorities took 
charge of Camp Curtin, the affairs of which were thenceforth, to the end of the 
war, entirely conducted through the AVar Department. The control of all troops 
after they were mustered into the United States service passed out of the hands 
of the State, yet the Governor of the Commonwealth did not cease vigilantly to 
care for their welfare, to look after their comfort in the field, and their succor 
when sick or wounded. Camp Curtin, besides being a vast depot of military 
stores and rendezvous for troops passing to and from the army in the field, was 
also a hospital for the accommodation of the sick and wounded, and for the quar- 
tering of prisoners captured iu battle. In addition to the relief afforded by the 
government in hospitals attached to this and other camps, the citizens in various 
portions of the State were unceasing in their attention to the wounded or dis- 
eased-stricken heroes. After those sanguinary conflicts at Antietam and Gettys- 



GENEBAL BISTOIiY. 26i> 

burg, when numerous hospitals were improvised, and indeed during the four 
years of war, the entire population of the State busied themselves in providing 
such aid that the military stores did not afford, in which noble duty women and 
children vied with old and young men in contributing the utmost in their power. 

Governor Curtin, at the close of the war, in a special message to the Legisla- 
ture thus referred to the part which the people had taken in the struggle to 
maintain the Union and preserve the Government : 

" Proceeding in the strict line of duty, the resources of Pennsylvania, whether 
in men or money, have neither been withheld or squandered. The history of the 
conduct of our people in the field is illuminated with incidents of heroism worthy 
of conspicuous notice; but it would be impossible to mention them in the proper 
limits of a message, without doing injustice, or, perhaps, making invidious dis- 
tinctions. It would be alike impossible to furnish a history of the associated 
benevolence and of the large individual contributions to the comfort of our peo- 
ple in the field and hospital, or of the names and services, at all times, of our 
volunteer surgeons, when called to assist in the hospital or on the battle field ; 
nor is it possible to do justice to the many patriotic Christian men who were 
always ready to respond when summoned to the exercise of acts of humanity and 
benevolence. Our armies w^ere sustained and strengthened in the field, b}' the 
patriotic devotion of their friends at home ; and we can never render full justice 
to the heaven-directed, patriotic. Christian benevolence of the women of the 
State." 

With this message all operations at the various camps were brought to a 
close. At the great rendezvous. Camp Curtin, the ground was restored to the 
uses of agriculture, and to-day is partly occupied by private residences. But 
the scenes enacted there will never be forgotten. It was the Altar on Avhich 
Penns^'lvania laid her most precious oflTerings for the safety of the Union of which 
she is the Keystone. The flower of her youth and the robust maturity of her 
strongest manhood passed into and out of that camp to the field of battle — some 
to perish amid its carnage, others to return wounded or sickened unto deatli, and 
still others unharmed, the survivors of the great conflict, who now live to wear 
its honors and enjoy the fruits of the victory for Liberty and Union, which their 
valor helped to win. 

During the four 3'ears of war, Pennsjdvania sent to the Federal or Union army 
210 regiments and several unattached companies, numbering in all 387,284 
men, including the 25,000 militia in service in September, 18G2. 

1861. — Under call of the President of April 15, 1861, for three months, 
20,979; "Pennsylvania reserve volunteer corps" sent into the United States 
service under the call of the President of July 22, 1861, for three 3'ears, 
15,856 ; organized under act of Congress of July 22, 1861, for three years, 
93,759; making 130,594. 

1862. — Under call of the President of July 7, 1862, including eighteen nine- 
months regiments, 40,383; organized under draft ordered August 4, 1862, for 
nine months, 15,100; independent companies for three years, 1,358; recruits 
forwarded by superintendents of recruiting service, 9,259 ; enlistments in 
organizations of other States and in the regular army, 5,000; making 71,100. 

1863. — Organized under special authority from War Department for three 



270 HISTO nr OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

years, 1,066; under call of the President of June, 1863, for six months, 
4,484; for the emergency, 7,062; recruits forwarded by superintendents of 
recruiting service, 4,458 ; enlistments in regular army, 934 ; militia called out in 
June for ninet}- days, 25,042 ; making 43,046. 

1864, — Re-enlistments in old organizations for three j'^ears, 17,876 ; organized 
under special authority from War Department for three yeai-s, 9,867 ; under 
call of July 27, for one year, 16,094 ; under call of July 6, for one hundred days, 
7,675; recruits forwarded by superintendents of recruiting service, 26,567; 
drafted men and substitutes, 10,651; recruits for regular army, 2,974 ; making 
91,704. 

1865. — Under call of the President of December 19, 1864, for one year, 
9,645; recruits forwarded by superintendents of recruiting service, 9,133; 
drafted men and substitutes, 6,675; recruits for regular arm}^, 387; making 
25,840 ; and a total of 362,284 men. To this should be added the militia 
called out in 1862, amounting to 25,000, which go to make up the grand total 
of 387,284 men furnished by Pennsylvania. 

There is no feature so attractive in the organization and services of the 
regiments whicli Penns3dvania contributed to aid in crusliing the insurrection of 
the people of the slave States, than that of the origin of the regimental battle 
flags, the actions in which they were borne, their present condition, and place of 
deposit. 

In May, 1861, the Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsjdvania, an organization 
formed of the surviving officers of the Revolutionary war and their descendants, 
tendered to Governor Curtin a donation of five hundred dollars, to be used 
toward arming and equipping the volunteers of the State. On the 8th of May 
the Governor, in a special message to the Legislature, announced the tender of ; 
this mone3^, and requested that he be authorized to receive and directed how to 
apply it. In a series of joint resolutions, the Assembly directed him to npply 
the money to the purchase of regimental flags to be inscribed with the arms of 
the State. Other resolutions were passed providing for ascertaining how the 
several regiments of Pennsylvania in the war of the Revolution, in that of 1812, 
and with Mexico, were numbered, the divisions of the service in which the}' were 
distributed, and in what action said regiments distinguished themselves ; that 
having obtained these particulars, the Governor should procure regimental 
standards, inscribed with the numbers of those regiments respectively, on which 
should be engrossed such data. The standards thus were delivered to the regi- 
ments then in the field or forming, bearing the regimental numbers corresponding 
to the regiments of Pennsylvania in former wars. The Reserves secured the 
greater portion of the flags tlius inscribed with the dates of the Revolution and 
succeeding wars. The Governor was also authorized to procure flags for all the 
regiments of the State serving in the Union army, emblazoned with the number 
thereof and the coat of arms of the Commonwealth. These resolutions provided 
for the return of all the standards to the possession of the State at the close of 
the war, to be inscribed as the valor and good conduct of the soldiers of each 
regiment deserved ; and whenever the country ma3' be involved in any future 
war, the}' are to be delivered to the regiments then formed according to their 
number as they ma}^ be called into service. 



GENERAL HISTOliY. 2Y1 

Such was the origin of the battle-flags of Pennsylvania. The Governor in 
person presented each regiment with one of these ensigns, the ceremony either 
taking place at camps within the State or in the camps of the armies at the front 
to which they were assigned. Such events were always interesting — the mag- 
netic eloquence of the fervid Governor eliciting the spontaneous enthusiasm of 
the men who received their standards with vows that were zealously kept, while 
the pledges of personal devotion which the Governor made to care for them in 
sickness, wounds, and death, and to provide for the widows and orphans of those 
who perished, were as religiously fulfilled. Every regiment that went into 
service bearing one of these flags never lost its identity with the State wliich 
contributed it to the national defence, and to that extent the fame those soldiers 
made for themselves on the field of battle was reflected back on the old Com- 
monwealth, where its lustre will long be preserved, not as an object of irritation 
between the sections which antagonized each other in the late civil war, but as 
an evidence of national devotion and personal valor which is destined in after 
3'^ears to be prized in grateful remembrance. 

Two hundred and eighteen of these flags have been returned to the State, and 
are deposited in a room specially arranged for their safe keeping in the Capitol 
at Harrisburg. They are enumerated by beginning with the lltli regiment, 
Colonel Richard Coulter's, to that used by the 215th, Colonel Thomas Wistar's. 
The condition of the standards impresses the beholder with the havoc through 
which they were carried. That of the 100th regiment now consists of only three 
small pieces of tattered silk. The flag of the 150th was captured at Gettysburg 
and afterwards recaptured among the baggage of the President of the so-called 
Southern Confederacy. That of the 90th has its staft' shot away; the 148th is in 
a similar condition, as well as greatly riddled by bullets. Two flags of the 51st 
are torn and riddled, having been carried in some of the fiercest struggles of the 
conflict. The original flag of the Buck-tail regiment (42d), with a portion of a 
buck-tail still on the top of the staff', is an object of much curiosity. The State 
possesses no more A^aluable deposit in its archives than these flags. The older 
they become the more valuable and more venerated they will be. 

Another subject growing out of the war was the adoption of the S3'stem 
of soldiers' orphans schools. Of the facts connected with their origin and 
growth we shall refer in brief terms. 

In the message of Governor Curtin, of January 7, 1863, he says: "In July 
last, I received, at Pittsburgh, by telegraph, an offer from the Pennsylvania 
railroad company of a donation of $50,000, to assist in paying bounties to 
volunteers. I declined this offer, because I had no authority to accept it on 
behalf of the public, and was unwilling to undertake the disbursement of the 
fund in my private capacity. I have since received a letter on the subject from 
the company, suggesting other modes of disposing of the money, a copy of which 
is annexed to this message." To Colonel Thomas A. Scott, then vice-president 
of that great corporation, are we really indebted for originating and suggesting 
the establishment of that system wliich led the way to provide for tlie edu- 
cation and maintenance of the destitute orphans of soldiers. At the request of 
the Governor, a bill was prepared by Professor J. P. Wickersham, then principa. 
of the State Normal school at Millersville, embodying the provisions necessary 



Q-TO HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

tor carrying into effect tlie measures proposed in the message concerning tliese 
wards of the State. This bill was not acted on for want of time, but a short act 
was passed authorizing the Governor to accept the donation of the railroad 
compan3-, and to use it, at his discretion, for the purposes designated. In order 
to accomplish this, the Governor, on the 16th of June, 1864, duly com 
missioned Thomas 11. Burrowes, Superintendent of Soldiers' Orphans. Dr. 
Burrowcs began at once to organize the system. A number of schools will- 
ino- to receive pupils were selected in different parts of the State, through the 
assistance of the patriotic and public-spirited citizens in the several counties 
who acted as superintending committees. By the 9th of February, 1865, six 
schools and five homes had contracted to receive two hundred and seventy-six 
orphans. 

The task of finding suitable institutions willing to receive soldiers' orphans, 
under all the circumstances attending the matter, was one of extreme difficulty; 
and a man less hopeful than Dr. Burrowes, one with more calculation and less 
faith, would not have succeeded in accomplishing it. He had but $50,000 at 
command, several of the Normal schools declined his request to erect additional 
buildings for the accommodation of such orphans as he might send to them, the 
prices asked for taking care of the orphans by a number of boarding schools to 
which he applied were higher than he could pay, and, worse than all, there was a 
general want of confidence in the permanency of the enterprise. Still, full of 
faith and zeal, the superintendent labored on in his good work, and, at last, had 
the good fortune of seeing the obstacles that at first stood in the way of his 
plans, in great measure overcome. 

The Legislature of 1865 passed an act, approved March 23, "establishing the 
right principle that the destitute orphans of our brave soldiers are to be the 
children of the State," and appropriating $75,000 to carry on the work for the 
year. Although this measui'e finally passed both Houses unanimously, it met in 
its progress some very strong opposition, and Dr. Burrowes says, "it owes its 
origination entirely to the wise forethought and untiring exertions of Governor 
Curtin." 

The expenses of the first j'ear amounted to $103,817 67, but no one appre- 
ciated even then the magnitude of the sj'stem building up. For nearly ten 3'ears 
the number of orphans under the care of the Commonwealth have been about 
eight thousand annually, at an annual expense of nearly half a million dollars. 

"No calculation," said Governor Geary in his message of 1868, "can 
furnish an estimate of the benefits and blessings that are constantly flowing 
from these institutions. Thousands of orphan children are enjoying their 
parental care, moral culture, and educational training, who otherwise would 
have suffered poverty' and want, and been left to grow up in idleness and neglect. 
Manj^ a widow's heart has been gladdened b}^ the protection, comfort, and reli- 
gious solicitude extended to her fatherless offspring, and thousands are the 
prayers devoutly uttered for those who have not been unmindful of them in the 
time of their aflliction. In making the generous disposition it has done for 
these destitute and helpless orplians, the Legislature deserves and receiA'es the 
heartiest thanks of every good citizen, all of whom will cordially approve a 
continuance of that beneficence. In shielding, protecting, and educating the 



GENEBAL HISTOBT. 



2t3 



children of our dead soldiers, the Legislature is nobly performing its duty. 
These children are not mere objects of charity or pensioners upon our bounty 
but the wards of the Commonwealth, and have just claims, earned by the blood 
of their fathers, upon its support and guardianship, which can only be withheld 
at tlie sacrilice of philanthropy, honor, patriotism. State pride, and every prin- 
ciple of humanity." 

As early as 1SG4, measures were taken by the Executive and Legislature 
looking to the preparation of a history' of the men who went forward in the 
armies of tlie country from this State in the great battles for the L^nion. Subse- 
quently, ISGG, Prof. Samuel P. Bates 

1866. was appointed to this work. Five im- 
perial octavo volumes of over one thou- 
sand pngcs each give a valuable history of every 
regiment from the State — an enduring monu- 
ment, not only of the bravery of the sons of 
Pennsylvania, but of the power and the glor3' of 
the Qiood old Commonwealth. 

On the 15th of January, 1867, Gene- 

1867. ral John W. Geary,* of "Westmoreland 
count}', was inaugurated Governor of 

the State, a i)osition iu which, by election to a 
second term, he served six 3'ears. During that 
period the debt of the Commonwealth was re- 
duced over ten millions of dollars. It was a 
time of unusual activity' in business, and the proper development of the indus- 
trial resources of Pennsylvania. 

During tiie war for the Union, the so-called "border counties," York, Adams, 
Cumberland, Franklin, Fulton, Bedford, and Perry, suffered severely, not only 
through the invasion of the Southern forces, but incidentally by the marching of 
the Federal trooi)S interposing to drive the former from the State. The citizens 

who til us sustained destruction and loss of property appealed to the 
1868 Legislature for aid. That body generously considered the matter and 

took measures to afford the citizens the necessarj^ assistance. The 
Governor appointed a board of commissioners agreeably to the act of April 9, 




JOUN W. GKAUr. 



••Joiix WiiiTK Gkary was born at jMonnt Pleasant, Westmoreland county, December 
30, ISID. He taught school, became a merchant's clerk in Pittsburj^h, afteruaril studied at 
JclVerson CoUc-c ; linally became a civil en;,'ineer, and lor several years was connected 
with the Alloglicny Portage railroad. He was lieutenant-colonel of the second Pennsyl- 
vania rej^iment in the Mexican war; wounded at Chapulleiicc, and for meritorious conduct 
was made lirst commander of the city of Mexico after its capture and colonel of his regi- 
ment. In 1S49 was nuule postmaster of San Francisco, soon after alcalde of that city, and 
its lirst mayor. In J85li returned to Pennsyh'ania and settled on his farm in Westmoreland 
county. From July, IS:>C), to March, ISJT, lie was Governor of Kansas. Farly in ISU raised 
ami ecinipped the 2Sth Pennsylvania volunteers; promoted brigadier-general of voUinteers 
April lio, 18G2; wonnded at Cedar Monntain; led the 'Jiul division of the Tith corps at 
Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wauhatchie, and Lookout Mountain; com- 
manded the 2d division of the 2Ulh corps in Sherman's march to the sea; appointed military 
governor of Savannah on its cipture, December 22, l.S(U; elected Governor of Pennsyl- 
vania, 1SG7, serving two terms, lie died suddenly, at llarrisburg, on February 8, 1873. 



274 



HISTOJIY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



1868, who were authorized to adjudicate the claims thereof, and although the 
amounts allowed were small, they served to afford temporary relief. 

By an act of the Assembly adopted April 22, 1858, a monument was erected 
this yeai', on the grounds of the Capitol at Harrisburg, to commemorate the 
heroic virtues of the " citizens of Pennsylvania who were slain or lost their 
lives in the late war with Mexico." 




TUE TEXMSYLVANIA MONUMENT TO TUE nEKOES OF MEXICO. 



At the session of the Legislature of 1810, an effort was made to take from 
the sinkinij fund of the State bonds to the value of nine and a half 

1870. millions of dollars, the proceeds of the sales of the public improvements 
formerly owned by it, in aid of certain railroads. . The Governor inter- 
posing his veto, prevented this contemplated outrage. 

In the month of Jul^-, lS71,a serious disturbance of the public peace 

1871. and order of the city of Williarasport took place, rendering the civil 
authority' powerless. Under this necessity a reliable military force was 

sent forward under command of General Jesse Merrill, to protect and aid the 
authorities in enforcing the civil processes. By the presence of the troops the 
law-abidino- citizens were encouraafcd and the lawless disheartened. This was 
termed at the time " the saw-dust war." 



GENERAL HISTORY. 



275 



1872 ^ Bureau of Labor Statistics and of Agriculture was established by 

an act of the Legislature of April 12, 18T2. 

General John F. Hartranft,* of Montgomery county, assumed the office of 
Governor on the 21st of January, 18Y3. 

The inland fisheries of nearly all the States having toward the middle of the 
century shown a very great falling off in consequence of the absence of all legal 
regulation, the New England States, commencing with Massachusetts, took tho 
subject in hand in 18G5, and immediately thereafter, on the 30th of March, 1866 
the State of Pennsylvania followed her example. 
Colonel James Worrall was appointed commis- 
sioner by Governor Curtin, to make an exami- 
nation of the streams of the State, the artificial 
obstructions to the passage of fish, and to 
report such measures as should be proper to 
re-stock and protect them. 

In the summer of 1868, several gentlemen of 
Ilarrisburg, to test the matter of propagating 
fish from other streams, introduced the black 
bass of the Potomac into the Susquehanna, 
and through appropriate legislation the result 
has been successful. Fish-ways were created in 
the dams which crossed the more important 
rivers — intended to facilitate the passage of 

anadromous fishes up and down the streams. The Legislature in 1873 
1873. made appropriations for carrying out this object, and the Fishery com- 
missioners have zealously devoted themselves to this work ; and 
Pennsylvania has advanced equally with the most energetic of the other 
States. 

The pernicious and alarming results of special legislation, with other evils 
connected with the working of the Constitution of 1838, demanded a reform in 
that instrument. On the 2nd of June, 1871, the General Assembl}-, to further 
that object, passed a resolution to submit the calling of a convention to the people 




JOHN F. HARTRANFT. 



"John Frrdrrtck frARXRANFT was born in New ILinovei- township, Montgomery 
county, December IG, 1S30. In liis seventecntli year he entered the preparatory depart- 
mentof Marsliall College, and suljsequently was transferred to Union College, Schcnectadj', 
wliere he graduated iu 18.JIJ; studying law, he was admitted to tho bar in ISoO. At the out- 
set of tho civil war he raised tiie 4lh Pennsylvania regiment. At the first Bull Run battle 
he served on General Franklin's stall', the period of enlistment of his regiment having 
expired one day previous. Upon the muster out of this "tliree months' " regiment. Colo- 
nel Ilariranft organized the 51st. He accompanied General I'nrnside in his expedition to 
Korlh Carolina in March, 18(12, and with his regiment was in all the engagements of the 
9th corps, including Vicksburg ; led the famous charge that carried the stone bridge at 
Antietam ; was made brig;idier-general May 12, I8!ll ; in command of the 3d division, 0th 
army corps, March 2o, IS!!'), gallantly recaptured Fort Steadman in the lines before Rich- - 
mond, for which he was breveted major-general. Was elected auditor-general of Penn- 
sjivania, in 1SG5, and on August 29, ]8G(), the President tendered him the position of colo- 
nel in the regular army, which he declined. In 18GS, General Hartranft was re-elected 
auditor-general. In 1872 he was chosen Governor of the Conunouwealth, and re-elected 
iu 1875 for the term of three years. 



I 



2T 6 HISTOIi Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

of the State. At the general election held in October following, the vote for 
boV.ling a constitutional convention was 328,354 to 10,205 against the measure 
The Legislature, b}' its act of April 11, 1872, made provision for the calling of 
the same, and to secure a full and free expression of opinion in the convention 
without party or political bias, the plan of minority representation was adopted. 
The delegates elected assembled at the State Capitol, Ilarrisburg, on Tuesday, 
November 13, 1872, adjourned from thence to Pliiladeli)liia on the 27th, 
where it assembled on the 7th of January, 1873. The draft of the Constitution 
having been adopted by that body, it was submitted to the qualified electors of 
the Commonwealth on Tuesday, the 16th day of December, and was approved 
by a vote of 253,500 for, and 10'J,198 against the measure. As thus adopted, the 
new Constitution of 1873 comprises the following reforms: An increase of tlic 
number of senators and representatives of tlie General Assembly'; biennial sessions 
of the Legislature; the election by tlie people of sundrs'- oflicers heretofore 
chosen; minority representation; modilications of the pardoning i)ower ; a 
change in the tenure and mode of choosing the judiciar^^; a change in the date 
of the annual elections ; piohibition of all special legislation, with other changes 
of vital importance to the interests of the people at large. The 
1874. Constitution went into eflect the first day of January, 1874. Although 
it is imperfect in certain points, the Constitution is considered a 
model instrument, and during the two years in which it has been in operation, 
given the greatest satisfaction to the i)eopIe. 

In March, 1874, owing to the seizuic of railroad trains b}' a mob at Susque- 
hanna depot on the Nevy York and Erie Railroad, troops were ordered forward by 
the Covernor, wdio succeeded in quelling the disturbance and restoring con- 
fidence. Disturbances in the mining regions occurred during this and the 
following year; but by the prompt calling out of the military by Governor 
Ilaitranft, order and peace were preserved. 

The new constitution providing for the election of a Lieutenant-Governor 
who was to act as President of the Senate, in November John Latta* of West- 
moreland county', was chosen for a period of four j'cars. 

The year 1876 being the Centennial of American Independence, it was 
1876, ushered in with demonstrations of joy in every city and lown of the Com- 
monwealth. On the 20th day of January, Governor Hartranft re-assumed 
the executive functions under the Constitution of 1873, and in his message referred 
with pride to the progress which a century had wrouglit in our State. " The popula- 
tion," he said, "has increased tenfold, the area under cultivation a hundred-fold, and 
wealth almost beyond comparison. Thousands of miles of canals and railroads inter- 
sect the Commonwealth. Immense mining, manufacturing, agricultural and carry- 
ing enterprises give employment to the toiling millions of the State. All the prod- 
ucts of the earth are within our reach ; fuel and provisions are brought to our doors ; 
gas and water are in our houses, and the news of the world of yesterday are laid on 
our breakfast-tables in the morning. Thousands of schools and colleges are scattered 

"Jonx TjATTa was born in Unity to\viis]iip, Westmoreland county, in ISSH. Ho 
received an academic cihication, ^I'liduated at Yale Law Scliool, admitted to the bar in 
18.")ft, and located at Greensburj^. Mr. Latta served in the Senate 1SG4-5, and in the House 
1872-3. Elected Lieutenant-Governor 1874. 



GENERAL HISTORY. 277 

ovei- the State, and the post is burdened cUnly with millions of letters attesting the 
general diffusion of knowledge. The people are more intelligent, freer and happier, 
more cheerful, tolerant and liberal." 

As early as 1870 the plan of holding an International Exhibition at Philadelphia, 
in commemoration of the Independence of the United States, was adopted and met 
with general approval. All previous exhibitions had been gotten up under the direc- 
tion of government, but this was an undertaking of the people at large, the co-ope- 
ration of Congress being really only formal. The State of Pennsylvania, in testimony 
of her high appreciation of the enterprise, liberally appropriated money for the erec- 
tion of a Memorial Hall or Art Gallery ; and on the 10th of May the great Cen- 
tennial Exhibition was formally opened. The ceremonies, simple and dignified, were 
characteristic of the Republic and of the Commonwealth. The exhibition proved as 
successful as it was grand and imposing. 

On the 19tli day of July, 1877, while Gov. Hartranft was on his way to 

1877. visit the Pacific Coast, a general strike was inaugurated by the employees of 
nearly all the railroads in the United States. Within the Commonwealth 
all attempts of the municipal and county authorities failed to restore traffic, and for 
several days the rioters, for such many proved to be, had control of affivirs. In this 
emergency the National Guard was called out and Gov. Hartranft summoned home. 
The outbreak at Pittsburgh at once assumed alarming proportions, followed as it was 
by the destruction of large quantities of produce and merchandise contained in the 
impeded freight cars, and the burning of all the rolling stock and railroad buildings 
of the Pennsylvania company at that point, simultaneously with aa attack upon the 
military by an armed mob, during which several of the soldiers were killed and 
wounded, as also a considerable number of the rioters. 

The disturbances spread rapidly over the State. In Philadelphia, by the courage 
and activity of the municipal authorities, supported by the great body of the citizens 
and the press, and in Harrisburg, through the coolness and promptness of the sheriff 
of Dauphin county and the mayor of the city and the public spirit of the citizens, 
who responded to the call of the authorities, quiet was soon restored. In Reatling 
the costly railroad bridge over the Schuylkill was burned on the evening of the 22d. 
but on the following day the National Guard had a severe street-fight, in which 
many of the military were injured by stones, eleven persons were killed and above 
fifty wounded, the rioters were dispersed. In the Luzerne coal region the miners, 
under the prevailing excitement, entered upon a general strike, but the prompt 
support of the civil authorities by the military checked the threatened serious dis- 
turbance. 

On the 24th of July the governor reached Pittsburgh, and, in obedience to his 
telegram of two days previous, the entire military force of the State was in mo- 
tion, together with such of the United States troops as then could be sent for- 
ward to co-operate with the National Guard. By the pronjpt and decisive measures 
of the Commander-in-chief, quiet was soon restored, and traffic resumed its regular 
channels. 

At the general election held in November, 1878, Henry M. Hoyt,* of Luzerne, 

* Henry Martyn Hoyt was born in Kingston, Luzerne county, June 8, 1830. He remained 
upon his father's form until liis seventeenth year, when, liaving finished his preparatory studies 
under the Rev. Dr. Eeuben Nelson, he entered Lafayette College. He finislied liis academic course 



278 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



1878. 




HENRY MARTYN HOYT. 



was elected Governor of the State, and Charles W. Stone,* of Warren, 
Lieutenant-Governor. On the 21st of January, 1879, with appropriate 
ceremonies, they were formally inducted into their respective offices. In his inaugural 

Gov. Hoyt, after alluding to the causes of the mone- 
tary crisis, thus spoke concerning national affairs : 
" The one great question yet to be solved is, shall 
government by the ballot be maintained in this 
country, with equal political lights for all legal 
voters? Pennsylvania's attitude on that question 
is known wherever her name is known. That she 
will insist on the enforcement of the authority of 
the National Constitution in every State of the 
National Union is as certain as that her mountain- 
peaks point toward heaven and her rivers roll to 
the sea. Under no circumstances can she ever re- 
cede from this position. Strong in herself, stronger 
in virtue of the constitutional relationship to her 
sister States, she will be magnanimous, conciliatory 
and patient." And thus at the close of another decade the Commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania, founded by deeds of peace, is steadily pushing forward to the lead 
of empire, first in whatever may constitute the greatness of a State. 

at Williams College, Mass., where he graduated in 1849. Opened a high school at Towanda, Pa., 
and was a Professor of Mathematics at the Wyoming Seminary in the Wyoming conference; read 
law with Chief-Justice George W. Woodward, and admitted to the bar in 1853. At the outbreak 
of the Civil W^ar he was active in the raising of the 52d regiment, P. V., and was appointed by 
Governor Curtin, lieutenant-colonel. Served in Naglee's brigade, army of the Potomac, until Janu- 
ary, 1863, when the brigade was sent to join the land forces intended to co-opei-ate with the naval 
attack upon Fort Simiter under Admiral Dupont. He was engaged in the siege of Morris Island 
under General Gillmore, and was captured in a night attack in small boats across Charleston Har- 
bor on Fort Johnson. Upon liis exchange he rejoined his conmiand, and at the close of the war 
was mustered out with the rank of brevet brigadier-general. In 1867 he held the office of Addi- 
tional Law Judge of the courts of Luzerne county, under appointment of Governor Geary. He 
was elected Governor in November, 1878, and was inaugurated in January, 1879. 

* Charles Warrior Stone was born in Groton, Mass., June 29, 1843, graduated at Williams 
College in 1863, studied law and admitted to practice in September, 1867 ; elected county superin- 
tendent of common schools in 1865, member of the House of Eepresentatives 1870-1, and member 
of the Senate 1877^8. 



1880. 



PART II. 



COUNTY HISTORIES 



279 



280 



mSTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



ORGANIZATION OF COUNTIES AND COUNTY TOWNS. 



COUXTIES. 



riiestoi* 

Kncks* 

I'liiladeliiliiu*.... 

J.:iM<';i5.ter 

York 

(.'iiiiiliL'i'laiiil 

JVcr k-i 

Ncil'lll.'llliptoli .... 

]tL'<ir(ii(l.. 

Noi'diiiiiilii^i land 
Wesiiiiori'laiidt.. 
Wasliiiiglou. ., 

Kayi'lif 

V'laiiUliii 

MiililHiilin:! y. ., 

l>:Hi|iliiii 

1/iizc-i lie 

I.liiiitiiiiKluii... 

Alle{,'li«iiy 

Dehiuaiu 

Miniin 

(SoiiiHiset 

iiycoiiiiiij; 

tiieeiie 

^\■ayllt■ 

Adams 

Ceil lie 

Aiiiistioiit; 

liiiller 

Heaver 

l.'iavvfoKl 

Kiie 

Mercer 

Veiiaugo 

\VniTeii 

Iiidiniia 

JeltVrsdii 

M'Keaii 

I'cittel 

Tiofja 

C'aiiiinia 

rieartield 

Uradtordt 

Siisciueliaiina. . 

Seliiiylkill 

J.ehiK'li 

Leijaiiiiii 

C'oliiiiiliia 

Uti'kiii 

IMke 

I'eriy 

Juniata 

Aloiiroe 

Claiioii 

Clinton , 

Wyoming 

Carbuii 

Klk 

Biair 

biillivan 

Koiesi§ 

Fulton 

Lawrence 

Montour 

Snyder 

t'anieron , 

Lackawanna ... 



From What Formed. 



Clicsler 

I.aiica.ster 

I .:i I icaster 

i'liiladelpliia, Itucks, Lancaster .. 

I Sucks 

cimiiierland zyy 

l.ancasler, Cninljerlaiid, Uerks, i;edfoid, and Norlli"n 

I'.IMl'Old 

\Veslinoreland 

West III oreland 

(Uiinlierland 

l'liiladel|ilna 

Lancaster 

Noriliiinilierlaud 

Hedloiil 

Westmoreland and Wasliiiigton 

Cliesler 

Ciimlierlaiid and Noitliuiuberland 

Bed lord 

Noriliiimlierland 

AVasliiiiKloM 

Noil ham p toil 

Voik 

Alilllm. Norlliuuilieilanil, l.yconiinpr, and }IuntinK<loii 

Allcfi'ieny. Wesimoreland, and l.ycoining 

Allejjiieny .. 

Allegheny and Washington 

Allegheny 



Alieahc 



AlieKlieny 

Allegheny and l..ycoming 

Allegheny and Lycoming 

Wesiinorelaiid and Lycoinlug 

Lycoming 

Lycoming 

Lycoming 

Lycoming 

Hum ingdoii, Somerset, and Itedford. 
Lycoming and N'orthiimlierland.... .. 

I..iizerne and Lycoming 

Luzerne 

lierks and Northampton 

Northamplon 

l)an|>liin and Lancaster 

NoriliumOeiland 

Norlliuniberland 

AVayne 

("ninlierlaud 

Mifllin 

Norlhampion and I' ike 

Venango ami Aimslrong 

Ijyc<imiiig and Centre 

Luzerne 

Northami>lon and Monroe 

.lefferson, Clearfield, and Al'Keau ... 

lliintingilon and lied lord 

Lycoming 

.letterson and Venango 

Hed ford 

Heaver ami Mercer 

Colimihia 

Union 

(Clinton, Elk, M'Keun, and I'otter... 
Luzerne 



AVnKW 

FOK.MKD. 



May 

Aug. 

■Ian. 

Mar. 

Mar. 

Mar. 

.Mar. 

I''eh. 

Mar. 

Sept. : 

Sept. 

Sept. 

Mar. 



.., lfiS2. . 
.., Iti.s2.. 
.., KW.:. . 

in, i7-.:m., 

I!l. 174!l. , 
27, 17-.0. , 
1M7.-.2., 

11, 17.V2. 
!t, 1771. 

27, 1772. 

2(i, 1778. 

2.S. 17H1. 

;ii, 17.s:i. 
!». I7.SI, 

10, 17jv1. 
4, 17.S5. 
Sept. 2.^), ]7Sli. 
Si-pt. 2(1, 17.-17. 
Sept. 21. 17W. 
Seiit. 2ti, 178!!. 
Sepl. lit, 17*1. 
April 17. 17!).i. 
April 13, 17!i(i. 
Feb. !l, 170(1. 
JIar. 21, 17118. 
.Ian. 22. ISno. 
Feb. 13, 1*1(1. 
.Mar. 12. isno. 
Mar. 12, ISdO. 
Mar. 12, 1S(XI. 

12. 1800. 
12, IhUO. 
12, 1800. 
12, 1800. 
12, 18(0. 
30, 18(J3. 

Mar. 2(!, 180-1. 
Mar. 2(1. 18(H. 
Mar. 2«, 1804. 

2(i, 18(1-1. 

20, 1804. 

20, 1804. 

21, 1810. 
21, 1810. 
11, 1811. 

G, 

k; 

22, 
22, 
2(! 
22 

2, 

1, 



C o i: X T Y 

'1X>W.NS. 



iMar. 
Mar. 
Blar. 
Alar. 
Mar. 
Mar. 



JMar. 
Mar. 
Mar. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Alar. 
Mar. 
Feb. 
Alar. 
Alar. 
Mar. 
Alar. 
Alar. 
Apiil 



1812. . 
1813. . 
1S13.. 
1813.. 
1S14.. 
1820.. 
1831.. 
183(i.. 



Mar. II, I83'.l. 
June 21, 183a. 
April 4, la42. 
Alar. 13. 1S43. 
April 18, 1843. 
Keb. 2fi, 184K. 
Mar. 1.5, 1847. 
April 11, 1818. 
Aiirilli), 135(1. 
Alar. 2r), lav). 
Alay 3, 18)0. 
Alar. 2, 1855. 
Mar. 29, 1860. 
Aug. 21, 1878.. 



West Chester... 

Koylcslown 

I'hiladelphia 

Lancaster 

York 

( 'arlisle 

lieading 

Kaslon 

liedroid 

Suiibiiry 

Ilieensliuig 

Wasbinglon .... 

Unionlown 

Chambei sbiirg.. 

Noil islown 

Ilai risbutg 

Wilkes-P.arre. . 

Iluntingdoii 

I'illsbiugh 

Media 

Lewistown.. .. 

Somersi^t 

Williain>^poit ... 
A\'ayiiesl>iirg .. 

llcinesdale 

(Jetlvsbiirg.... 

liellelonfe 

ICillaniiing 

liutler 

I!i-aver 

Aleadville .... 

Krie 

Alereer 

Franklin 

AVarreii 

Tniliana 

Itrookville 

Smethport 

Coudersport .. 

SV'ellsboio' 

F.bensbiirg 

Clearlield. 

'I'lnvainla 

Alontrose 

I'otlsville 

Alh'iitouii .... 

Lebanon 

l!lo(Uiisbuig. .. 
Lewisbiiig .... 

Anilord .. 

New liloomfield 
Mifflintown ... 
Slroudsburg. .. 

(/'lariiMi 

Lock Haven. .. 
'runkhaiinock. 
Mauch('lmnk. 

Hiilgway 

Uollidaysbuig .. 

Laporte 

Tionesta 

AlcCoiinellsbur 
New Castle.... 

Danville 

AFiddleburg ... 
Emporium .... 
BcraiitoD 



E^ 

li 



17iW 
17;d 
1(182 

17:«) 

1741 
1751 
1748 
]7;i3 
17«(i 
1772 
1782 
17.S2 
KB'J 
17m 
17,S4 
1785 
1783 
17(17 
17(15 
1819 
17U0 
1795 
179G 
I7!l(i 
1820 
1780 
1795 
1804 
1303 
1791 
1795 
1795 
1803 
1795 
1795 
1805 
1830 
1807 
1807 

isna 

1805 
1805 
1812 
1811 
1816 
1751 
1750 
1802 
1785 
1800 
1822 
1791 
1806 
18:19 
1833 
1840 
1815 
1833 
1812 
1850 
1852 
1786 
1802 
1790 
1800 
1861 
1840 



•Chester, Bucks, and rUiladelphla were the three original counties established at tlie flrst settlemeut of the 
I'rovince of Pennsylvania. 

t In 1785 part of the purchase of 17S4 was added to ■Westmoreland. 

X I'revious to Alarch 24. 1812, this county was called Ontario, but its name was changed to Bradford on that day. 

S Fart of Veuaugo added by act approved Uctober 31, 1866. 




ADAMS COUNTY. 

BY AARON SIIEELY, GETTYSBURQ. 
[TTiV/t acknowlcclr/mcnis to Edward McPherson, D. J. Bcnner, and Joseph S. Gitt.'\ 

DAMS count}' was originally included within the ample limits of Ciiestei 
county. Soon after the settlement of Pennsylvania by William 
Penn, in 1G82, the Province was divided by its proprietor into three 
counties, Bucks, Chester, and Philadelphia. Lancaster county was 
separated from Chester by act of May 10, 1729, and was the first county 
established subsequent to the formation of the three original counties. The first 
division of Lancaster county was by act of August 9, 1749, when York county 
was separated from it. York, which then included what is now Adams, was the 
first count}' erected west of the Susquehanna river, and embraced all that terri- 
tory bounded on the west and north by the South mountain, on the cast by the 
Susquehanna, and on the south by Maryland. The county being very large, and 
the distance from the upper end to the count3--seat being great, a movement 
looking to the formation of a new county was set on foot as early as 1790 
Much feeling was soon developed in reference to this matter. Those living 
within easy reach of the old county-town manifested their selfishness by violently 
opposing the measure, while those residing within the limits of the proposed 
nevv county were just as active and zealous in favor of a separation. Public 
meetings were held, petitions for and remonstrances against the erection of a new 
county were industriously circulated, signers to each obtained, and presented to 
the Legislature. Finally, after ten years of contention and strife, the separation 
took place by virtue of an act of Assembly dated January 22, 1800. The new 
county was named Adams, in honor of John Adams, who was President of the 
United States from 1797 to 1801. The commissioners to mark and run the line 
dividing Adams from York county were Jacob Spangler, deputy surveyor of 
York count}^, Samuel Sloan, deputy surveyor of Adams county, and William 
Waugh. 

In June, 1790, Avhen the formation of a new county was first agitated, James 
Cunningham, Jonathan Iloge, and James Johnston were appointed commis- 
sioners to fix upon a site for the county seat. After some deliberation the Com- 
missioners selected for this purpose a tract of one hundred and twenty-five 
acres, in Straban township, belonging to Garret Yanasdal, and described 
as "lying between the two roads leading from Hunter's and Gettys' towns 
to the Brick House, including part of each road to Swift run," and being in part 
the present site of Ilunterstown. In 1791 the subject was again agitated. The 
Reverend Alexander Dobbin and David Moore, Sen., were appointed trustees for 
the new county, with full powers, for them and their representatives, to take 
assurances of all offers for the payment of money, or for the conveyance or 
transfer of any property in trust, for the use of public buildings to be erected in 
the town of Gettysburg. 

281 



282 EISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Adams county is bounded on the north by Cumberland, east by York, south 
by the State of Maryland, and west by Franklin. Its length from east to west 
is 27 miles, and its breadtli from north to south is 24 miles. The area is 248 
square miles, or about 350,000 acres. 

The surface of tlie county is greatly diversified. The South mountain, the 
first great chain of hills west of the sea-board, extends along the entire western 
and northern borders. The other principal elevations are Round, Wolf's, 
Spangler's, Gulp's, and Harper's hills, with Big and Little Round Top, ill the 
central and southern parts. The principal stream is Conewago creek, which 
has its source in the South mountain, near the dividing line between Adams and 
Franklin, receiving in its course Opossum creek. Plum run, and Miley's run 
from the north ; and Beaver Dam run. Swift run, Little Conewago, Pine run. 
Deep run, and Beaver creek from the south, pursuing a winding north and 
north-east course into York count}', through which it passes, and finally finds its 
way into the Susquehanna near York Haven. 

Marsh creek, the second stream in size and importance in the county, also 
takes its rise in the South mountain, near the source of the Conewago, flows 
south-east to the Monococy river, in Maryland, draining the southern portions of 
the county and receiving in its course North Branch, Little Marsh creek, Wil- 
lougliby's run, Rock creek, and Little's run. The entire length of this stream is 
about 25 miles, and in its coui'se it furnishes excellent water power for ten grist 
and flouring mills, besides a large number of saw mills and several factories. The 
first-mentioned of its tributaries, North Branch, is interesting because of its sub- 
terranean source in the South mountain, in Franklin township, some fyur miles 
north of Cashtown. The sound of this underground stream is first heard in a 
wild and rocky ravine a short distance north of the public road leading from 
Hilltown to Buchanan valley, and near Black Sam's cabin, a rude hut once 
occupied by an old colored man, who here lived the lonely and solitar}' life of a 
hermit. After pursuing a southerly course for about two miles, now roaring 
and thundering among subterranean rocks, and anon moving so slowly and 
quietly that its direction can only be determined by a faint gurgling and trick- 
ling sound, it finally appears above ground. 

Geologically, Adams county belongs to the south-eastern or sea-board district 
of Pennsylvania, and is an undulating plain of reddish, sandy-cla}'' soil, in the 
northern and western portions, while in the eastern part a gray micaceous soil is 
foxmd. The Lawrentian system, the oldest known to geologists, is represented 
in the South mountain. The Mesozoic, or New Red Sandstone formation, 
spreads itself thinly over a portion of the county. The principal minerals of 
importance are copper, found both in a native state and as a carbonate, in the 
western and central parts of the county ; and crystalline iron ore, much of it 
magnetic, and some hematite. The central part of Franklin township, about a 
mile east of Cashtown, is particularly rich in magnetic ore of superior quality 
The belt of country stretching from near Littlestown to Hanover, York countj'^, 
near the line of the railroad, also yields annually immense quantities of iron. 
The great ore beds of the South mountain seem to lie at considerable depths 
oeneath the surface, and with few exceptions, have not been reached. They will 
undoubtedly, in the near future, become a source of great wealth to this part of 



ADAMS COUNTY. 283 

the State. Recent surreys and tests indicate that the iron ore of this count}- is 
not only excellent in quality but almost inexhaustible in quantit3\ Some of the 
beds of magnetic iron ore are traceable for many miles, having become decom- 
posed along their outcrops in places, thus affording extensive surface mines of 
brown hematite. 

Limestone occui's in large quantities in the northern, eastern, and western 
parts of the county, and has become a source of great wealth to the people. 
Thousands of tons of limestone are annually converted into lime, which is used 
largely by farmers all over the county in the improvement of their land. The 
liberal use of lime as a fertilizer by farmers has wrought a wondrous change in 
this county during the last twenty-five years. Broad stretches of worn-out lands 
that formerly did not produce sufficient to pay the taxes assessed against them, 
have been rendered fertile and productive b}^ the generous use of this agent. 
Hundreds of fields that were once too poor to grow even briars an 1 weeds have 
been, by its use, made to literally blossom as the rose. Many farms that, 3'ears 
ago, only impoverished those who cultivated them, now 3'ield the most abundant 
crops of grain, grass, fruits, and vegetables, enriching those who till them, and 
all by the judicious application of liine. 

The county exports annually large numbers of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, 
and poultr}^ ])esides immense quantities of farm and garden products, such as 
wheat, corn, rye, oats, timothy and clover seed, hay, apples, peaches, grapes, 
strawberries, butter, and eggs. Much iron ore is also sent out of the county 
every year, bringing in a good revenue. Though for a time an object of reproach 
for the poverty of its soil and for its limited resources, Adams county now 
compares favorably with any county of its size in the State in everything that is 
necessary to make a county prosperous and its people happy. 

Between 1736 and 1740 there were early settlements made by the Scotch- 
Irish who had previously been residing in the lower end of York count3^ Among 
these were William McClellan, Joseph Farris, Hugli McKean, Matthew Black, 
Robert McPherson, William Black, James Agnew, John Alexander, Moses 
Jenkins, Richard Hall, Richard Fosset, Adam Hall, James Wilson, John Steel, 
John Johnson, John Hamilton, Hugh Vogan, John McWharter, Hugh Sweeny, 
Titus Darley, Thomas Hosack, some of the Allisons, Campbells, Morrisons, Edies, 
etc. The majority of these early settlers located on an immense tract of land 
comprising about one-fifth of the available land of Adams county laid out for 
the Proprietaries' use, and named the Manor of Maske. When the Provincial 
surveyors arrived for the purpose of running its lines, the settlers upon it, not 
understanding or not approving the purpose, drove them off by force. Some of 
the settlers had taken out regular warrants, others had licenses, and some were 
there probably without either. As a result, the lines were not run till January, 
1766, and the return of them was made, on the 7th of April, 1768, to the land 
office. 

The Manor, as then surveyed, is nearly a perfect oblong. The southerly line 
is 1,887 perches ; the northern, 1,900 perches ; the western line, 3,842 perches ; and 
the eastern 3,954. It is nearly six miles wide, and about twelve miles long. The 
southern line is probably a-half mile north of Mason and Dixon's line, and the 



284 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA, 

northern is about mid-wa^^ between Mnmmasburg and Arendtsvillo, skirting a 
point marked on tlie county map as Texas, on the road from Gettysburg to Mid- 
dletovvn, does not quite reach the Ccnewago creek. The Manor covers the towijs 
of Gettysburg and Mnmmasburg, the liamlet of Seven Stars, and probably 
McKnightstown, all of the township of Cumberland, except a small strip of 
half a mile along the Maryland line, nearly the whole of Freedom, about one- 
third of Highland, the southeast corner of Franklin, the southern section of 
Butler, the Avestern fringe of Strabnn, and a smaller fringe on the west side of 
Mount Joy. Gettysburg is situated north of the centre, and on the eastern edge 
of the .Manor, and is thus about five and a-half miles from the northern line and 
seven and a-half from the southern. 

The Manor is separated by a narrow strip on the west from Carroll's Tract, or 
"Carroll's Delight," as it Avas originally called, and which was surveyed under 
Maryland authority on the 3d of April, 1732. It was patented August 8, 1735, 
to Chailcs, Mary, and Eleanor Carroll, whose agents made sales of warrants for 
many years, supposing that the land lay within the grant of Lord Baltimore and 
in the county of Frederick. As originally surveyed, " Carroll's Delight " con- 
tained 5,000 acres. 

From the period of the organization of the county to the breaking out of the 
civil war, Adams county presents no striking features in her histor\', and not 
until July, 1863, when that terrible conllict between the armies of the two sec- 
tions of the Union took place within her borders, are the details of sufficient 
general interest. Leaving these matters, avc proceed to narrate the events imme- 
diately preceding 

THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 

The month of June, 18G3, was probably the darkest period in the histor}' of 
the ffreat civil wai\ The conflict had been rnging for more than tAvo vcars with 

J5 CD CD ^ 

results wholly incommensurate with the means employed. Dissatisfaction with 
the conduct thereof was general. The conscription, Avhich had been resorted 
to in most of the States, increased the popular discontent. Rumors of foreign 
intervention began to darken the political horizon. Li the south-west, affairs 
were in a critical condition. The army of the Potomac had sustained repeated 
and severe reverses on the soil of Virginia. Such was the asj^ect of affairs Avhen 
the enemy, flushed with victor}', and his army augmented by large numbers of 
fresh troops, suddenly assumed the offensive by a bold invasion of the north. 

The Confederate army under General Lee left its position near Fredericks- 
burg on the 9th of June, moving in a north-westerly direction, and within a few 
days the valley of the Shenandoah was freed from the only opposing force by 
the dispersion of Milroy's command, at Winchester. 

On tlie 22d, Lee threw Ewell's corps across the Potomac, at Shepherdstown 
and Williarasport, with orders to advance upon Hagerstown, Maryland, Lee fol- 
lowing a few days later with the other two corps of his army, commanded respec- 
tively b}'^ Longstreet and A. P. Hill. From Hagerstown, General Ewell, with 
Rodes' and Johnson's divisions, preceded by Jenkins' cavalry, marched tc 
Chambersburg, and thence to Carlisle, where he arrived on the 27th. Early's 
division of Ewell's corps, which had occupied Boonsboro, moved to Greenwood, 



ADAMS COUNTY. 285 

a point on the turnpike leading from Cliambersburg to Baltimore, eight miles 
from the former place, whence in pursuance of instructions fiom Lee, Early 
marclied in the direction of Gettysburg. At Caslitown, eight miles from Gettys- 
burg, Early divided his force, sending Gordon's brigade to Gcttysburo- Avith 
directions to occupy the town, whilst with the remainder of his command betook 
the more direct road to York by way of Miimmasbui-g, where he encamped for 
the night. Soon after Gordon's brigade had taken possession of the town, Gen- 
eral Early, with his staff, came in from IMummasburg for the purpose of commu- 
nicating with the borough authorities in regard to subsistence for his troops. 
Pending these negotiations, it was discovered that several cars at the depot were 
filled with supplies for Colonel Jennings' 2Gth regiment, P. Y. M. These were 
at once captured and appropriated by the invaders, and thus the town was 
undoubtedly spared a burdensome levy. The railroad bridge across Rock creek, 
half a mile east of the town, was soon fi;ed by order of General Gordon, and 
whilst it was in a blaze a number of cars were ignited and started down the track, 
but they passed over the bridge and were consumed a short distance beyond. 
Altogether about twenty cars Avere burned, belonging to the Pennsylvania, 
Northern Central, and Hanover Branch railroad companies, besides three or four 
belonging to individuals. One of the cars contained a supply of muskets for 
Colonel Jennings' command, and these were also destroyed, their captors pro- 
fess! 112: to have no use for them. 

The Confederate advance consisted of "\Yhite's cavalry, numbering about 150 
men, and as they entered the town they charged up Chambersburg street at a 
rajid rate, in pursuit of a number of persons on horseback who were hurryino 
out York and Baltimore streets trying to escape. A few shots were fired, and 
the fugitives halted, in one instance a member of Bell's cavaliy was pursued 
out the Baltimore turnpike, for a distance of nearly two miles, by a Confederate 
cavali'yman, and, after being vainl}' halted several times, was shot and instantly 
killed. 

As early as June 11th, the War Depaitment at Washington, as a precau- 
tionary measure, assigned Major General AV. T. II. Brooks to the Department 
of the Monongahela, and Major General 1). N. Couch to the Department of 
the Susquehanna, with the headquaiters of the latter at Ilarrisbnrg. General 
Couch detailed jNInjor G. 0. Ilaller, of the 7th Regular Infantry, to duty at 
Gettysburg, with orders to assume command of militar}' operations in the 
county. His dispositions were made with i)romptness and energ}-. On the 
evening of the 20lh he addressed a large public meeting at the Adams county 
court house, urging the citizens of Gettysburg to prepare for the emergency, as 
it was evident their homes and firesides were about to be invaded. Sunday 
morning, the 21st, the City Troop of Philadelphia, inider command of Captain 
Samuel J. Randall, arrived and reported for duty. These men furnished 
their own uniforms and equipments, a most comi)lete outfit, and gave their 
services without pay. T'hey did excellent duty on the mountain as scouts, 
carefully watching and reporting the movements of the enem3'. The 2f)tb 
Regiment, P. Y. M., Colonel AV. W. Jennings, arrived from Ilarrisburg on tiie 
morning of the 2Gth. Immediatelv on their arrival the regiment was sent 
out on a reconnoitcring expedition in the direction of Cashtown, and after 



286 EISTOR Y OF FENNS YL VANIA. 

proceeding about three miles they were surprised by White's Confederate cavalry 
and thirty-six of their number captured. These were taken into Gettysburg as 
prisoners, and subsequently paroled at the Court House. The next morning, the 
27th, one hundred more of the regiment were taken prisoners about three 
miles out the Muramasburg road, where six hundred of them had encamped. 
These were paroled at Hunterstown later in the day. 

Bell's cavalry, a home company, accepted by the Governor, and formally 
sworn into the United States service for six months by Major Haller, on the 
24th, performed very efficient service as scouts, frequently coming in contact 
with the enemy, making narrow escapes, and bringing in much valuable infor- 
mation. 

On Saturday, the 27th, the enemy left for Hanover, East Berlin, and York. 
Sunday, the 28th, at 12 M., two regiments of Federal cavalry, about 2,000 strong, 
commanded by General Cowpland, entered Gettysburg from the direction of 
Emmittsburg. Tuesday, the 30th, at 9i a.m., a portion of General Hill's corps, 
comprising several thousand men, advanced on the turnpike from Cashtown 
to within two miles of Gettysburg, but being only on a reeonnoitering expe- 
dition they fell back within an hour. 

General Stuart, with the Confederate cavalry, did not cross the Potomac 
with the rest of Lee's army, but crossed near Harper's Ferry, and managed to 
elude every cavalry force sent after him, until he reached the town of Hanover, 
in Pennsylvania, where, on the 20th, he was defeated by Kilpatrick in a fierce 
engagement of eight hours, after which he moved in the direction of York. 

Meanwhile, on the 11th and 12th of June, the Union army had broken up its 
encampment and marched northward on a line nearly parallel with that of the 
encm3'. The route of the army was kept carcfull}' concotded, and it was not even 
known that it had crossed the Potomac until the 27tli, when the headquarters 
were at Frederick cit}', which had been abandoned by the enemy. On this day 
General Hooker was relieved from the command of the army, which was con- 
ferred upon General George G. Meade, of Pennsylvania. On the morning after 
assuming command. General Meade ordered the main body of his army to march 
northward into Pennsylvania, in the general direction of Harrisburg, and on a 
line parallel with the route taken by Lee, but on the east side of South moun- 
tain. ]SI;ijor-General Reynolds, commanding the 1st corps, occupied the ex- 
treme left of the army of the Potomac, and was instructed by Meade to feel 
Leo and carefully watch his movements, but not to bring on a general engage- 
ment unless it became imperatively necessary to do so. On Tuesday, the 30th, 
about noon, Buford's Federal cavalry, 6,000 strong, came in on the Emmittsburg 
road, passed through Gettyfiburg, and encamped in two divisions a few hundred 
3'ards beyond the borough limits, the one on the Chambcrsburg pike, and the 
other on the Mummasburg road, placing their artillery in position. The same 
afternoon the 1st corps of intantiy, 8,000 men, under General Reynolds, and the 
11th corps, numbering 15,000, commanded by General 0. 0. Howard, came from 
Emmittsburg to Marsh creek, five miles south-west of Gett3'sburg, where they 
encivmped for the night. It now became evident tlfat a great battle was about to 
be fought in the immediate vicinity of Gettysburg, invested as it was by 29,000 
Federal troops, and at least twice this number of Confederates. 



ADAMS COUNTY. 



287 



Gettysburg is situated on a beautiful plain between two slightly elevated 
ridges, wliich have become classic by reason of the important part they wero 
made to play in the grand drama enacted here. Tlie elevation west of the town, 
a gently rising ground, is known as Seminary ridge, the Lutheran Theological 
Seminary being located here, and is distant just one mile from the centre of the 
town, which it overlooks. This ridge extends many miles in a direction almost 
due north and south from the Seminary, and formed the main line of Confe- 
derate defences during the last two days of the battle. It was on this ridge, 
where the Chambersburg pike crosses it, that General Lee established his head- 
quarters after the first day's engagement. The elevation east of the town is 
called Cemetery hill, from the fact that Evergreen cemetery, a citizen's burying 
ground, occupies some 
eighteen acres of beau- 
tiful ground on its east- 
ern and western slopes, 
on the south side of the 
Baltimore pike, and about 
half a mile from the town. 
This ridge commences a 
few hundred yards north 
of the entrance to this 
cemeter}'^, and extends far 
to the south in a line 
parallel to Seminary 
ridge. Big and Little 
Round Top are both 
spurs of this ridge, which 
formed the main line of 
Federal defences during 
the second and third 
day's fighting. A short 
distance east of the ceme- 
tery this ridge curves sharply to the right, forming two rocky prominences, 
known respectively as Gulp's hill and Spangler's hill, and terminating in 
Wolf's hill a rough and thickly wooded knob east of Rock creek, wliich is a 
shioo-ish stream windina: among these hills. 

Not only does Gettj^sburg possess many natural advantages for the fighting 
of a great battle in its vicinit}^ but its numerous and excellent roads give it 
additional value in a strategic point of view, being situated at the conver- 
gence of .ten great roads, which radiate from it like the spokes of a wheel. The 
turnpike from Baltimore, by which the Gth and 12th corps were advancing, 
comes in on the south-east; the road from Taneytown, by which the 2nd, od, and 
5th were approaching, comes from the south ; that from Emmittsburg, by which 
the 1st and Uth were advancing, comes in from the south-west ; that from Hagers- 
town, used by Lee as one of his thoroughfares, approaches from the west; that 
from Chambersburg, by which the corps of Longstreet and II ill were marching, 
comes in on the north-west; those from Mumraasburg, Carlisle, Ilarrisburg, and 




GENEUATj I.EE'S HEAD-QUARTEUS at OKTTVSIJURO. 
[From a Photograph by W. 11. Tipton i Co., Gettysburg.] 



288 ins TOE T OF PUNNS YL VANIA. 

York, by which Ewell's troops were advancing, coming from the north and 
north-east ; and that from Hanover, used chiefly by the cavalry troops of Kil- 
patrick and Stuart, coming from the east. 

THE FIRST ray's BATTLE. 

On Wednesday, Jul}' 1st, at 9j o'clock in the morning, skirmishing began be- 
tween General Buford's dismounted cavalry and the advancing Confederates; 
and by 10 o'clock the artillery was brought into play. Willoughby's run flows 
imniediatel}' west of the position occni)icd by Buford. render's and Iloth's 
divisions of Hill's corps, numbering 20,000 men, had moved down the Chambers- 
bui'g road, and had posted themselves along the line of the stream just mentioned, 
followed by Anderson's division of the same corps, and occupied a position near 
the Ilagerstown road. Skirmishing soon brought on a battle, when sharp 
cannonading commenced on both sides, the gallant Buford bravely holding 
his ground against a superior force of the enemy. 

Meantime General Reynolds, on receiving intelligence from Buford of the 
presence of the Confederates in the vicinity of Gettysburg, hastily left his 
encampment on the Emmittsburg road at Marsh creek, Ave miles distant, and 
hurried up his corps, at the same time sending word back to General Howard, 
requesting him, as a prudential measure, to bring up the 11th corps as rapidly as 
possible. The 11th had also been coming up the Emmittsbui-g road, but finding 
it crowded with the Avagon train of the 1st corps, the^^ started off on a by-way 
leading to the Taneytown road, and were still on this by-way when Reynolds' 
messenger reached them. 

When the 1st had reached the Peach orchard, two miles from Gettysburg, 
and Avhile many of the men wei'e slaking their thirst and filling their canteens 
with water drawn from Wentz's Avcli, the sound of heavy and rapid cannon 
firing was heard in the direction of the Chambcrsburg road beyond Gettys- 
burg. Almost at the same instant Captain Mitchell, a gallant aid upon General 
Reynolds' stafl", came dashing down the road, Avith orders to the various division 
conunanders to push forward their divisions as rapidly- as possible. The 1st 
corps consisted of three divisions, and marched in the folloAving order: First 
division under General Wadsworth ; Second division under Gencial Doubleday ; 
next came five full batteries of artillery under Co'.onel AVainright; and bringing 
up the rear came the splendid Third division of General Robinson. The order 
Avas given to double quick, Avhich was instantly obeyed, the troops keeping the 
road until they reached the brick house to the right, on Codori's farm, Avherc 
they took to the fields and marched in the direction of the ridge to the left, which 
they reached a short distance south of the Seminary. AVadsworth's division, 
composed of Meredith's and Culler's brigades, had the advance, with Cutler on 
the right and Meredith on the left. Arriving at the Seminar}', the near presence 
of the enemy became at once manifest. General Reynolds i)romptly ordered a 
battery in position, and rode forward to select ground for a line of battle. Sadly 
unfortunate for him and for his country, that so sorely needed his AA-ell-tried ser- 
vices, he fell pierced through the head by a ball from a sharp-shooter's rifle, and 
A\-as boi'ue to the rear mortally Avounded. General Abner Doubleday immedi- 
ately assumed command of the corps, but there Avas no time to A\-ait for orders 



ADAMS COUNTY. 289 

from the new commander, Instantl3', right and left, Cutler, with his veterans, 
and Meredith, with his famous " Iron Brigade," wheeled into line on the double 
quick. Cutler, having the advance, opened the attack. Meredith became engaged 
a few minutes later. The fighting on the right was fearful for a while, and 
resulted in the capture of a portion of Davis' Mississippi brigade, which had 
taken refuge in an unfinished railroad cut. On the left the struggle was, if pos- 
sible, still more severe and bloody. A strong force advanced from the woods on 
the edge of which Reynolds had fallen but a short while before, and, though 
volley after volley was poured into the column, the men did not waver. The 
proximity and strength of the enemy at last became so threatening that the 
second division was ordered to make a charge, which was successful. Many 
of the enemy were shot, bayoneted, and driven to partial retreat, Archer's bri- 
gade of 1,500 men being captured on the banks of Willoughby's run. 

Our ranks suffered severely in this demonstration, and it was evident such 
fighting could not long continue. Wadsworth's brave men, who had been 
contending for two hours against a superior force of the enemy, began to show 
signs of exhaustion. Rodes' division of Ewell's corps, numbering 12,000 men, 
had come up on the right and was pressing the 1st corps so hard that the 
veterans, who had been holding their ground so long and so firmly against large 
odds, began to waver. But just at the critical moment, when tlie sun stood at 
high noon, General O. 0. Howard arrived with the llth corps, and, posting 
Steinwehr's division on Cemetery hill as a reserve, marched directly through 
the town with the divisions of Schurz and Barlow, and at once formed a line of 
battle to the right of the Chambersburg road along Seminary ridge. A charge 
was soon made by the entire force in front, comprising the corps of Hill and 
Ewell, 62,000 strong. The shock was awful. The superior numbers of the 
enemy enabled them to overlap both flanks of the Union army, threatening them 
with capture. Finally General Howard found it necessary to order a retreat, 
and the bleeding and exhausted remnants of the two devoted corps retired through 
the diflferent streets of the town to Cemetery hill, where they took up a new 
position, the 1st corps to the left and the 1st and 3d divisions of the llth corps 
to the right and rear of Steinwehr. The llth corps, being heavily pressed, 
lost about 2,500 prisoners in the retreat through the town. 

General Meade received intelligence of the engagement at Gettysburg about 
noon, while he was on Pipe Creek hill, near Taneytown, Maryland, about 14 
miles distant, selecting a line of battle. Shortly afterwards a second message 
arrived announcing the death of General Reynolds. Meade at once dictated an 
order to General W. S. Hancock, dated 1:10 p.m., directing him to turn his 
corps, the 2d, over to General Gibbon and proceed to the front, assume command 
of all the troops there, and make such dispositions as the exigencies of the case 
might require. Hancock arrived on the field at 3:30 r.M., while the retreat to 
Cemetery hill was in progress, and did much by his presence and influence to 
restore order and inspire the men with confidence in themselves and their new 
position. By half-past four p.m. the troops were securely posted in their 
new position, and the effective fire of artillery and sharp-shooters prevented 
further pursuit by the enemy. About 5 o'clock in the evening General Sickles 
arrived from Emmittsburg with the principal part of the 3d corps, and took 

T 



290 HISTOR r OF PENIfSTL VANIA . 

position on Cemetery ridge to the left of Howard, occupying nearly the 
whole of the line to Round Top. An hour later, Slocum's 12th corps came up 
the Baltimore turnpil^e and occupied the extreme right of the line, embracing 
Gulp's, Spangler's, and Wolf's hills. Thus ended the action of the first day 

THE SECOND DAY'S BATTLE. 

On the morning of the 2d, the following were the dispositions of the 
two armies. General Meade, who arrived on the battle-field about eleven o'clock 
the night previous, assuming the active direction of aflfairs : The 12th corps, 
General Slocum commanding, was placed on his right ; General Williams 

commanding the 1st 
division of the 12th 
corps took the extreme 
right, his right resting 
on Rock creek, with one 
brigade thrown to the 
east of the creek to 
occupy Wolf's hill, 
and to protect the ex- 
treme right flank. The 
remainder of Williams' 
division occupied an 
irregular line stretching 
from the creek to Gulp's 
hill, by the way of 
Spangler's spring. 
General Geary, com- 
manding the 2d divi- 
sion, occupied Gulp's 
hill, and joined unto 
the 11th corps in posi- 
tion on Cemetery hill. 
To the soutii of Cemeter}' hill were, first, the remnants of the 1st corps 
under Doubleday. Continuing the line toward the left, were the 2nd corps 
(Hancock's), the 3d (Sickles'), and later in the da}', the 5tli (Sykes') occu- 
pving the naturally entrenched heiglits of Little Round Top. On the part of 
the Confederates, General Longstreet's corps had the right, with Hood's and 
McLaw's divisions in order; General A. P. Hill's corps had the centre, Avith An- 
derson's, Heth's, and Pender's divisions in order; General Ewell's corps had 
the left, witii Rodes', Early's, and Johnson's divisions in order. The 6th corps 
(General Sedgwick's) did not arrive until late in the day, and was held in reserve 
and used where its presence was most needed. Lockwood's brigade of Mary- 
land troops arrived on the field with the 6th corps and was temporarily assigned 
to the 12th corps, and relieved one of Williams' brigades that had been protect- 
ing Wolf's hill. General Meade established his headquarters on the Taneytown 
road, a short distance to the rear of his line. General Lee had his headquarters 
on the Chambersburg road, a short distance to the rear of the Seminary ridge. 




GENERAL MEADE'S HEAD-QUAKTERR AT GETTYSBURG. 

[From a Photograph l)j W. H. Tipton & Co., Gettysburg.] 



ADAMS COUNTY. 291 

Both commanders were thus in superior positions to communicate promptly and 
easily with all parts of their lines. The Confederate forces were now all in posi- 
tion with the exception of Pickett's division, of Longstreet's corps, which had 
been detailed at Chambersburg to guard the wagon trains and to keep open Lee's 
communication with the Potomac against any flank movement from Harrisburg, 
by the Cumberland Yalle^'. 

Strategically the positions of the two armies were in accordance with the 
topography of the ground heretofore described ; the Federal army occupying 
Cemetery hill, as a centre, with flanks resting upon the elevated lines, on the 
right, to Wolf's hill, and, on the left, to Little and Big Round Tops, which ad- 
mirably and effectually protected the left flank of the army, as Wolf's hill and 
Rock creek did the right. The movements of troops on the right were fully 
mnsked by heavy timber, the left being more open. From Round Top to Cemetery 
hill the Union line generally faced the west, but from this hill to the extreme 
left the line curved back on itself so much that it faced nearly in the opposite 
direction. This curved line gave General Meade a great advantage in 
speedily moving troops from one flank to the other. The Confederates, on Semi- 
nary Ridge, had a line of very similar form, but necessarily much longer. A 
comparison of the two lines shows that the Federal line was only one-third of 
that of their adversaries. 

The night, and Thursday till mid-day, passed in comparative silence; what 
little firing was done was confined to the skirmish line. But the two armies were 
not idle ; artillery was brought up, the heavy guns that arrived with the 2d 
corps were put in position, regiments and brigades marched and counter-marched 
from one part of the line to another, weak points were strengthened, salients were 
covered with double lines, mattock and spade and shovel were in useful requisi- 
tion, rifle pits dotted the line, wood fences were swept away and combined with 
stone walls to give additional strength to the teaiporary defences, orderlies 
dashed from point to point bearing orders that were as promptl}' obeyed ; the 
heavy rumble of army wagons showed that provisions and ammunition were 
being distributed to the men, and ambulances hurrying to and fro pointed out 
plainly that the work of death was soon to begin. 

At 3 o'clock, the artillery on the Federal and on the Confederate sides was in 
position ; and everything seemed ready for the work of death to commence. It 
was only a few minutes before 4 o'clock when a gun from Seminary ridge was 
fired. In an instant both lines were a blaze of artiller}-- and musketr}-, and the 
action became general on the Federal left. It soon became evident that the ene- 
my's object here was to crush Sickles. Hood's and McLaw's divisions moved 
from under their cover on Seminary ridge, in solid columns, across an open 
space, and engaged Sickles, at the peach orchard, in a hand-to-hand fight. 
Ward's and DeTrobriand's brigades, of Birney's division, of the 3d corps, 
received ttie main force of the enemy's onset. The remainder of Birney's divi- 
sion was also hotly engaged. Gallantly the regiments and brigades met the 
attack — ably supported by a deadl3^ artillery fire — volley for volley of the enemy 
was returned, inch by inch they yielded the ground, back over the ridge into the 
meadows of wheat and corn were they driven, but so stubbornly did the}' contest 
it that they had to abandon many of their wounded. A new impulse — a rally, a 



292 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

clicer, and back their force was driven ; and the brigades re-occupied their first 
position. 

Fresh regiments filled up the gap made in the Confederate ranks — the shock 
of battle again was felt, the plain became enveloped in smoke, and the left of the 
3d corps (Birney's division) was once more driven back. Cheering his men 
on by his words, General Sickles did all that a brave commander could do. Pass- 
ino- towards the left of his corps, into the Peach orchard, General Sickles' foot 
was carried off by a cannon shot. The command of the corps now devolved on 
Birney. The retreat of Birney's left was accelerated by the fact that General 
Longotreet's right was prolonged b}^ the interval of two brigades beyond his 
(Birney's) left; and a quick flank movement of these brigades would have com- 
pletely enveloped his shattered troops. 

The right of the 3d corps fared no better. Birney's division having given 
way, exposed Humphreys' division and Graham's brigade on the right — still 
advanced to the Emmittsburg road — to the fiercest assaults of the enemy, both 
on flank and front. These officers saw that nothing but the best generalship 
could extricate their commands, as their right was separated from the 2d 
corps by half a mile of ground, their left was exposed by Birney's retreat, and 
the enemy was pressing them on all sides. Left without supports, Humphreys 
determined to do his best to get his command out of the dilemma. Drawing off 
his men by detail, reforming his line of battle, attacking the enemy at every van- 
tao-e o-round with overwhelming impetuosity, taking advantage of his enemy's 
weakness, with the skilled eye of an engineer, to increase his own chances of 
escape, Humphreys commenced his retrograde movement from the line of the 
Emmittsburg road with 5,000 men, and formed a line to the left of the 2d 
corps, on the extension of Cemetery Hill, with 3,000 men — a loss of 2,000 men 
bearin<y testimony in the language of blood to the desperation of the fight. 
Humphreys' division was now in the position originally contemplated for it by 
General Meade, in his general instructions to corps commanders. In its new posi- 
tion the division was still assaulted b}^ the enemy, but its right protected by the 
2d corps and its left by the timber stretching towards Little Round Top, it 
used its vantage of the high ground in such a manner as to repel every assault 
of the enemy, who at last retired beyond the Emmittsburg road. 

Even if the 3d corps was driven from its first position along its whole line, 
and the Confederates were left in possession of the field, yet one important efl"ort 
had to be made before Longstreet had performed satisfactorily the work assigned 
him by General Lee — and that was to occupy Little and Big Round Top. This 
was the prize that eclipsed all others in the eyes of the Confederate commander- 
in-chief, and to secure it was the main object of the fight of this day on his right. 
It was to accomplish this that Longstreet was directed to project two of Hood's 
brigades beyond the left of Sickles, and, forcing back the 3d corps with the 
remaining brigades and Anderson's division, these two brigades were at the 
proper moment to make a dash for these hills ; and once their rocky crests in pos- 
session, it would have been next to impossible to dislodge them. 

While these brigades were moving forward. General Meade was making such 
dispositions of his troops as frustrated the design of the enemy on these hills, and 
probably saved the army. General Meade had seen that Sickles could not maintain 



ADAIfS COUNTY. 293 

his isolated position at the commencement of the action, and immediately dis- 
patched aid from his reserves. General Warren, engineer-in-chief on General 
Meade's staff, noticing the nakedness of Little Round Top, and its importance as 
the key to the Federal left, hastly detached General Vincent's brigade, of the 5th 
corps, and ordered it into position on its summit. By a rapid movement General 
Vincent reached the height, and had scarcely time to advantngeously form his 
men on the rocky and broken summit, and construct a few hastily formed rifle-pits, 
before the exultant Confederates, debouching from the heav}' timber into the 
open space at the foot of the hill, and, with a yell and a rush, attempted to scale 
the rocky citadel. Like the ragged, weather-beaten rocks behind whose immov- 
able ramparts the men fought, Vincent's brigade met the enemy's shock. But 
the most determined bravery must yield before overwhelming numbers, and Vin- 
cent and his handful of men were borne down and would have become, together 
with the hill, the prize, had not General Weed, fortunately at that moment, 
arrived on the ground with his brigade. This new enemy was too much for the 
Confederates, and they retired from the hill — but not before both Generals Weed 
and Vincent had laid down their lives in its defence. 

Birney's old division, which was t'je first to retreat from the line of the 
Emraitsburg road, sought the cover of the two brigades of General Barnes' 
division — 5th corps — sent to its relief. These brigades joined battle witli the 
Confederates, in the woods some distance in front of Little Round Top, and so 
overwhelming were they assailed — the assailants encouraged by the prospects of 
an easy victory — that they were soon routed. Then Caldwell's division — 
temporarily detached from Hancock's corps, to relieve the pressing necessities of 
this position, but slightly more to the right, by a detour along the flanks of Lit- 
tle Round Top, entered the low skirt of woodland, where they became at once 
hotly engaged. With unparalleled courage, inch by inch, from rock to rock, and 
from tree to tree, this division disfiuted the ground, but the impetuosity of 
the Confederates was irresistible — human effort could not stand before it, the 
little advantage of one moment was swept away in the general disaster, and, 
broken, overpowered, the division sought safety in flight, with the loss of one-half 
their number, and having to lament the death of two of its brave brigade 
commanders — Cross and Zook, falling at the heads of their commands. 

General Ayers' division — mainly composed of regulars — now took the place 
that had been so disastrous to Barnes and Caldwell. This division stood like a 
wall of adamant to the fiercest shocks of the Confederates ; and had defied every 
attempt to break its ranks, until being out-flanked, it mano3Uvred so as to form 
a new front, and under this advantage covered its retreat to the defences of 
Little Round Top. 

The intermediate low ground from Round Top to the timber— the posi- 
tion of the Confederates — was now unoccupied. A long and hearty cheer arose 
from the Confederate lines, the dead in the woods behind them, the groans of the 
wounded around them, were alike forgotten in the thought tliat they had beaten 
the foe— that they had only to move forward to occupy the desired summit, and 
then they could rest their weary frames. The line was formed ; and debouching 
from the cover of timber, every eye sought the heights beyond ; and no wonder 
it is that a shudder passed over them and an involuntary " halt," for from the 



294 HISTOB Y OF PKJSJSS YL VA NIA . 

crest of the hill, in the rays of the setting sun gleamed the brightness of an 
impassable wall of steel, and from every accessible crag and spur frowned down 
the gaping mouths of light and heavy artillery. In addition to the artillerj', 
General Meade had thoroughly garnished the hill with fresh troops from the 5th 
and Gth corps. 

But the pause was only for a moment. General Crawford's division of the 
I'onnsylvania Reserves, with General McOandless' brigade in advance, moved 
quickly and in compact order down the slope of the hill ; and with a volley and 
an order to charge, his men rushed upon the enemy with that determination and 
steadiness that contributed to the decision of more than one battle field. But 
Longstrcet's troops were too used to success during the da}', and thought the 
final victory too near their grasp, to yield without a desperate struggle. With 
words of cheer and examples of daring the Confederate officers urged on their 
men ; for a few moments the result was in doubt ; just then McCandless' brigade 
poured a destructive volley into the enemy's ranks, and the figbt was decided at 
this point. Night was slowly settling down ; the Confederates sought the shelter 
of a wheat field some distance in the rear, and there passed the night. Crawford's 
men occupied the timber — under cover of a stone wall, that had been the scene 
of such bloody fighting during the day. 

But while the exciting scenes just mentioned were taking place in front of 
Round Top, while Sickles and Longstreet were massing their strength on a field 
tliat was favorable to the latter in all except the last grand struggle, it must not 
be thought that the remaining corps, divisions, and brigades were lying quietly 
on their arms uninterested spectators of the exciting scenes in their immediate 
vicinity. General Lee, in initiating the attack on the 3d corps, iiad otlier plans 
in view. The attack on Sickles and the possession of Little and Big Round 
Tops were the most important of Lee's plans, yet it was equally important that 
both Hill and Ewell should so threaten the Union lines that General Meade would 
not be able to weaken them by sending reinforcements to his left. Li succession 
after the attack on the 3d corps, the conflict extended along the Federal line, and 
the 2d corps with the left of the 1st became hotly engaged. The action was of 
short duration, and resulted in the repulse of the Confederates, but not before 
General Hancock was wounded in the thigh, and General Gibbon, upon whom 
the command of the 2d corps devolved after the fall of Hancock, was wounded in 
the shoulder. 

General Howard, already on the morning of the first day's fight, before the 
disaster to his own corps, saw the strategic importance of Cemetery and Gulp's 
liills, and immediatel}' detailed for their protection Steinwehr's division of his corps. 
As soon as General Meade arrived on the field, he at a glance saw that these two 
points were the keys to the Federal position, and felt the necessity of properly 
strengthening them by massed artillery in such positions as commanded the ap- 
proaches. In addition to the artillery, Cemetery hill was protected at this hour 
by tlie 11th corps, Gulp's hill b\' one brigade of General Gearj'^'s division of the 
12th corps, the remaining two brigades having at an earlier hour been sent to the 
left of the line and having not yet returned, and General Williams' division, of 
the same corps, deployed farther to the right, by Spangler's hill, to cover the ap- 
proaches by the way of Rock creek. 



ADAMS COUNTY. 295 

General Ewell had his whole corps by this time in position, and, in accord- 
ance with General Lee's plan of battle, detailed three brigades to carry the 
works on Cemetery hill, among which brigades were the celebrated Louisiana 
Tigers. Through the east end of the town and across the open field they came 
in solid column, exposcl to a murderous fire from artillery and musketry. Not a 
waver in their line, though under a deadly fire, up to the foot of the hill, then with 
a riisli they charged to the very mouths of the guns. Protected as the Federals 
were by hastily constructed earthworks, they poured volley after volley into the 
advancing ranks. For a few moments there was a hand to hand fight over the 
very guns, the Federal cannoniers even using rammers and handspikes when they 
were unable to serve their pieces any longer. So nearly were the Confederates in 
possession of this point, that they succeeded in spiking two guns. There is no 
doubt that the success of the Confederates in driving back the artillerymen, and 
thus capturing the point, was mainly due to the fact that the support of the artillery 
did not act with that promptness and determination that should characterize 
efllcient troops. These supports were the shattered regiments of the 11th corps. 

But just at the critical moment, when two guns were already spiked and the 
artillerymen were driven from more guns. General Richard Coulter's brigade, of 
the Gth corps, fell into a position commanding the threatened line, and at the com- 
mand " Charge," precipitated itself upon the eneni}'. The fight was renewed with 
increased fury ; the enem}^ were determined not to give up the victorj?^ so nearly 
won ; Coulter's men at the point of the bayonet pressed them backward inch by 
inch; again they rallied; again were they repulsed. Their reinforcements did 
not arrive, and at last Early and his brigades were beaten back, and sought 
safety inflight. Early in this attack lost one-half his men, and was compelled by 
the steady fire from the lately beleaguered hill, to abandon his dead and wounded 
where they tell. Thus the second attack on the Federal lines during the day had 
failed of success, though at one period both promised victor}^ for General Lee. 

General Lee had now attacked in detail every part of the Federal line except 
one, and that was the position of the 12th corps, extending from Cemetery hill 
to Ilock creek, with General Geary's division, now reduced to Greene's brigade, 
on Culp's hill, and Williams' division, on Spangler's hill, and Lockwood's Mary- 
land brigade, temporarily assigned, on Wolfs hill. Greene's position was the 
weakest, as he had with his brigade to cover the division front. General Gear}', 
with the remaining brigades, not yet having returned from the left. But his men 
were not idle, and pick and shovel were used to so good effect, that his men were 
protected by a line of rifle-pits following the line of the hills to the creek. 
The whole line was situated in a dense belt of timber. At 8| o'clock, p.m., 
Johnson's division, of Ewell's corps, advanced under cover of the darkness and 
timber close to the Federal lines, and began a vigorous and simultaneous attack 
on the r2tli corps from Culp's hill to AVolf's hill. The Federal batteries on 
Culp's Hill commanded to a certain extent an enfilading fire on the advancing 
enemy, and thus did admirable service from behind their earth-works in lifting 
the brunt of an overwhelming attack from Geary's line. Lockwood, on Wolf's 
hill, from among the rocky covers fought the enemy with success. Li conse- 
quence of the broken and irregular formation of the hill, the fight was more on 
the guerilla order, each man for himself. After several hours stubborn fighting. 



211(5 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

the Confederate left was driven back, except several small commands, which 
secured a lodgment in the timber near McAllister's dam, and surrendered a? 
prisoners the next morning when i\\e,y discovered that the}^ were isolated ana 
surrounded. 

Farther towards the left, Williams' division held the ground in the timber 
and open meadow around Spangler's spring. His right was pushed back to McAl- 
lister's dam, hy a superior force of the enemy, who tried to force his lines on the 
west bank of Rock creek, but being exposed to the fire of a Federal battery on 
the Baltimore road, they fell back out of reach of Williams' line. Between 
Williams' division and the batteries on Gulp's hili, lay Greene's brigade. As 
though knowing intuitively that this was the weakest point of the 12th corps, 
General Lee made this the principal point of attack, and to Generals Stewart 
and Walker, of Ewell's corps, was assigned the duty of directing the assault. 
Again and again did these Generals hurl their forces against Greene, and again 
and again were they repulsed. Greene's men, from behind their rifle-pits, 
delivered volley after volley into the rapidly-thiiming ranks of the foe. After 
several assaults. Walker and Stewart drew off their commands, reduced by the 
fight more than one-half, and left Greene in undisputed possession of the 
ground. 

Between Greene and Williams was a gap made vacant by the withdrawal of 
Geary's two brigades, and which was but poorly garnished by the details 
from Greene. This weak position was also shar pi 3^ attacked, and everything was 
carried away before the Confederates. Advancing through this gap by the 
southern flank of Gulp's hill, a considerable Gonfederate force passed around 
the flanks of the Federal lines, and, without any opposition, reached a position 
a little to the east of the Baltimore road and within a third of a mile of General 
Meade's headquarters. Probably fearing a trap, as they saw no enemy, they with- 
drew by the same way they came and took up their quarters for the remainder 
of the night under cover of the very rifle pits dug by their enemy. 

Thus closed the second day's battle. General Meade's losses had been heavy ; 
Sickles had been driven back from his first line ; Caldwell's, Barnes', and Ayers' 
divisions had been badly cut up ; Generals Hancock and Gibbon were wounded ; 
Generals Yincent, Weed, Zook, and Cross were killed ; two guns were spiked, 
but, on the other hand, the new line of the 3d cor]>s was infinitely better 
adapted to defence in front, and guarded by natural fortifications on its outer 
flank ; the enemy had failed in their assaults at all but one small gap between 
Greene and Williams; Meade's army was jubilant over its successes; the men 
felt as though the tide of invasion was again to be rolled back to the soil where 
treason first drew the sword ; his line was stronger now than at any previous 
hour of the engagement, and he felt more able to repel attack. 

THE THIRD DAY'S BATTLE. 

During the night, Pickett's division of Long-street's corps came up from 
Chambersburg and took position between Anderson and Heth, nearly opposite 
the Federal left centre. Rodes, also, withdrew the main part of his division 
from the town, uniting with Early's command in front of the Federal right in 
such a way as to take advantage, as soon as morning opened, of the break made 



ADA3fS COUNTY. 



297 



in the right of Geary's division tlie evening previous. McGowan's and 
Daniel's brigades, of Hill's corps, were moved to tlie support of Johnson's line 
in front of Gulp's hill, while Smith's and Walker's brigades, of Longstrcet's 
corps, were also sent to the Confederate left. 

At an earl}' hour Colonel Best, who had placed his artillery on Powers' hill, 
an advantageous position on the Baltimore road to the rear of Cemetery hill, 
opened a furious cannonade, to dislodge the Confederates from their position in 
Geary's line. For an hour the storm of shot and shell raged. There had been 




PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 



no reply yet from the enemy. Then General Gear}', having returned from 
Round Top with two brigades, and General Shaler, with a brigade of the 6th 
corps, began the attack, and for an hour and a half the battle raged with 
unexampled fury in the timber of Spangler's hill and spring. Steadily the 
Federals advanced, driving the enemy from point to point, taking advantage 
promptly of every defection in the foe's ranks, and ably supported by part of 
the 5th corps and Humphreys' division of the 3d corps. The ground was 
obstinately contested, and Geary was m^xking slow work in dislodging the enemy, 
when Greene executed a flank movement so as to give liis brigade a more 
commanding position, and Lockwood's brigade, on Wolf's hill, being reinforced 
and forming an advance line, secured an enfdade fire. Assaulted now in both 
flanks as well as in front, tlie enemy were compelled to fall back, but only to 
take up a new line— make n last stand. Geary, now being in possession ..i" ius 



298 SIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VAJS'IA. 

original line, made a bold dash on the new line of the enem)-, wno, failing of 
promised reinforcements, made but one effort to stem the tide of defeat and then 
sought safety in flight. Thus the Confederates were dislodged from their advan- 
tages of the evening before, but at a heavy loss for botli sides. General Meade's 
line was now again intact from extreme right to extreme left, the enemy having 
been repulsed at every point. Thus closed the battle on the Federal right. 

The next act in this bloody drama was the great duel with cannon between 
the two armies, preparatory to Pickett's grand charge. " The movements of the 
enemy (Confederates)," says the Annual Encyclopedia, "thus far had been made 
rather to cover up his designs than as serious efforts against General Meade. 
The battle of the previous da}' had demonstrated that the issue of the struggle 
turned on the occupation of Cemetery hill. To get this, therefore, was the 
object of General Lee. Early in the morning preparations had been made by 
General Lee for a general attack on General Meade's whole line, while a large 
force was concentrated against his centre for the purpose of taking by force the 
ground he occupied." With this object in view and for the purpose of prepar- 
ing for the infantry assault, General Lee massed his artillery in a line that 
enveloped more than one-half of the point against which the attack was to be 
directed, namel}-, Cemetery Hill, and the positions of the 1st and 2d corps on 
the prolongation of this hill towards Round Top. " General Longstreet massed 
a large number of long range guns — fifty-five in number — " sa3'S the corre- 
spondent of the Richmond Evquirer^ writing from the battle-field, " upon the 
crest of a slight eminence just in front of Perry's and Wilcox's brigades, and a 
little to the left of the heights upon which they were to open. Lieutenant- 
General Hill massed some sixty guns along the hill in front of Posey's and 
Mahone's brigades and almost immediatel}' in front of the heights." These 
parks of artillery were increased by batteries in position farther towards the 
flanks. 

General Meade had not been idle during these hours. Satisfied that General 
Lee's intentions were to make a general assault on Cemeter}- hill and the lines 
of the 1st and 2d corps, he did what an}^ good commander would have done, 
namely, strengthened this part of his position. He put his artillery in position, 
battery after battery forming in park, until he had at least one hundred guns 
in line. The infantry divisions and brigades were protected by reserve lines 
wherever it was thought there was the greatest danger of penetration in the 
anticipated charge. 

At 1 o'clock the signal gun was fired and the cannonading began — canno- 
nading that, for number of pieces, intensity of fire and duration, has never had 
its equal on the Western Continent and scarcel}'^ a superior in the annals of 
European warfare. It is thus described by a spectator in the Federal lines : 
" The storm broke upon us so suddenly that soldiers and officers, who leaped as 
it began from their tents or lazy seats on the grass, were stricken in their 
rising with mortal wounds, and died — some with cigars between their teeth, 
some with pieces of food in their fingers, and one at least — a pale 3'oung German 
from Pennsjdvania — with a miniature of his sister in his hands. Horses fell, 
shrieking such awful cries as Cooper told of, and writhing themselves about in 
mortal agon}^ The boards of fences, scattered by explosion, flew in splinters 



ADAMS COUNTY. 



299 



through the air. The earth, torn up in clouds, blinded the eyes of hunyin"' 
men ; and through the branches of the trees and among the gravestones of the 
cemetery a shower of destruction crashed ceasclessl}-." From Batchelder's 
Illustrated Tourist's Guide, the following account of the artillery duel and the 
movements of Federal troops is taken: "At one o'clock the artillery fire 
opened, and for tw^o hours the heaviest artillery duel ever experienced on this 
continent was kept up. When it closed, the infantry (Confederate) advanced 
and like an avalanche swept majestically across the plain. It was received with 
a fearful hurricane of missiles, solid shot, spherical case, shrapnell, shell, 
canister, and ever}- invention known to modern warfare. Still on it came, up to 
the ver}^ works behind which lay the Union troops. The Union line was broken 
at the ' copse ' of trees, and forced back over the ridge ; and for a moment of 
terrible suspense, victory hung trembling in the balance. Hall's brigade on 
Webb's left (Webb being in command of the temporarily broken line) rushed to 
his assistance, and Hays' division rose from the stone wall and delivered a 
perfect sheet of flame. Woodruff's battery, in the grove to our right, Avas run 
forward, turned to the left and swept the whole vallc}^ with canister. The 8th 
Ohio volunteers, on the skirmish line beyond the grove and the Emmittsburg 
road, ' changed front forward on left company;' Stannard's brigade, on Hall's 
left, moved by the right flank, 'changed front forward on first battalion;' 
Webb's first line united with his reserve, and all opened a converging fire of 
musketry, and the repulse was complete; 4,500 men thrcAV down their arms 
and came in as prisoners." 

The correspondent of the Richmond Enquirer gives the following graphic 
picture of the artillery duel and Pickett's charge which followed : " The fire of 
our guns was concentrated upon the enemy's line on the heights stormed the 
day before b}^ Wright's brigade. Our fire drew a most terrific one from the 
enemy's batteries, posted along the heights from a point near Cemetery hill 
to the point in their line opposite to the position of Wilcox. I have never 
3'et heard such artillery firing. The enemy must have liad over one hundred 
guns, which, in addition to our one hundred and fifteen, made the air 
hideous with most discordant noise ; the very earth shook beneath our feet, and 
the hills and rocks seemed to reel like a drunken man. For one and a half 
hours this mest terrific firing was continued, during which time the shrieking of 
shells, the crash of falling timber, the fragments of rock flying through the air 
shattered from the cliff's b^^ solid shot, the heavj^ mutterings from the valley 
between the opposing armies, the splash of bursting shrapnell and the fierce 
neighing of wounded artillery horses, made a picture terribl^^ grand and 
sublime, but which my pen utterly fails to describe. Now the storming party 
was moved up, Pickett's division in advance, supported on the right by Wilcox's 
brigade, and on the left b}' Ileth's division commanded by Pettigrew. The 
left of Pickett's division occupied the same ground over which Wright liad 
passed the day before. I stood upon an eminence nnd Avatched this advance 
with great interest ; I had seen brave men pass over that fatal valley the day 
before ; I had Avitnessed their death struggle with the foe on the opposite 
heights ; I had observed their return Avith shattered ranks, a bleeding mass, but 
with unstained banners ; now I saw their valiant comrades prepare for the same 



300 SIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

bloody trial, and already felt that their efforts would be vain, unless their 
supports should be as true as steel and as brave as lions. Now they move 
forward ; with steady, measured tread they advance upon the foe. Their banners 
float defiantly in the breeze, as onward in beautiful order they press across the 
plain. I have never seen since the war began (and I have been in all ihe great 
fiohts of this army) troops enter a fight in such splendid order as did this 
splendid division of Pickett's. Now Pettigrew's command emerge from the 
woods upon Pickett' sleft, and sweep down the slope of the hill to the valley 
beneath, and some two or three hundred yards in the rear of Pickett. I saw 
by the wavering of this line as they entered the conflict that they wanted the 
firmness of nerve and steadiness of tread which so characterized Pickett's 
men, and I felt that these men would not, could not stand the tremendous ordeal 
to which they would be soon subjected. These were mostly raw troops which 
had been recently brought from the South, and who had, perhaps, never been 
under fire — who certainly had never been in any very severe fight — and I 
trembled for their conduct. Just as Pickett was getting well under the enemy's 
fire, our batteries ceased firing. This was a fearful moment for Pickett and 
his brave command. Why do not our guns re-open their fire? is the inquiry 
that rises upon every lip. Still our batteries are as silent as death! But on 
press Pickett's brave Virginians ; and now the enem}' open upon them from 
more than fifty guns, a terrible fire of grape, sliell, and canister. On, on the}' 
move in unbroken line, delivering a deadly fire as they advance. Now they 
have reached the Emmittsburg road, and here they meet a severe fire from the 
heavy masses of the enemj^'s infantr}^, posted behind the stone fence, while 
their artillery, now free from the annoyance of our artillery, turn their whole 
fire upon this devoted band. Still they remain firm. Now again they advance; 
they storm the stone fence ; the Yankees fly. The enemy's batteries are, 
one by one, silenced in quick succession as Pickett's men deliver their fire 
at the gunners and drive them from their pieces. I see Kemper and Armistead 
plant their banners in the enemy's works. I heard their glad shouts of 
victory. 

" Let us look after Pettigrew's division," continues the same correspondent. 
" Where are they now ? While tlie victorious shout of the gallant Virginians 
is still ringing in my ears, I turn my eyes to the left, and there, all over the plain 
in utmost confusion, is scattered this strong division. Their line is broken ; they 
are flying, apparently panic-stricken, to the rear. The gallant Pettigrew is 
wounded, but he still retains command, and is A-^alnly striving to rally his men. Still 
the moving mass rush pell-mell to the rear, and Pickett is left alone to contend 
with the hordes of the enemy now pouring in on him on every side. Garnett 
falls, killed b}^ a minie ball, and Kemper, the brave and chivalrous, reels under 
a mortal wound and is taken to the rear. Now the enemy move around strong 
flanking bodies of infantrj^, and are rapidly gaining Pickett's rear. The order is 
given to fall back, and our men commence the rfiovement, doggedly contending 
for everv inch of ground. The enemy press heavily our retreating line, and 
many noble spirits who had passed safely through the fiery ordeal of the advance 
charge, now fall on the right and on the left. Armistead is wounded and left in 
the enemy's hands. At this critical moment the shattered remnant of Wright's 



ADAMS COUNTY. ;>q1 

Georgia brigade is moved forward to cover their retreat, and the light closes 
here." 

During this attack on General -Meade's left centre, Generals Longstreet and 
Ewell threatened the Federal flanks, but without any apparent success. With the 
repulse of Pickett closed General Lee's aggressive movements, and from this 
on he acted mainly on the defensive. 

The Federal' ammunition and provision trains had been placed m position to 
the rear of Round Top as a place of security. While the assault by Pickett was 
being made against the Federal left centre, Hood's and McLaw's divisions 
attempted to gain possession of these trains by executing a flank movement to 
the south of Round Top, by turning the flank of the 6th corps. The enemy 
advanced in three lines and were meeting Avith considerable success when General 
Kilpatrick, whose cavalry division had been on duty protecting the Federal left 
flank, made a vigorous attack on the flank of the rear line of the enemy. This 
threw the enemy in confusion, and Kilpatrick moving his left rapidly forward, 
exposed the foe to the danger of being completely enveloped and cut off from 
their supports. The Pennsylvania Reserves, under McCandless, pressed hotly 
upon the enemy in front of Round Top and drove them back in disorder, leaving 
part of a battery, three hundred prisoners, and five thousand stand of arms in 
the hands of this gallant command. At the same time General Greo-o- and his 
cavalry made an assault, in accordance with orders, on Ewell's left and Stuart's 
cavahy, and met with decisive success. 

Thus closed the battle of Gettysburg — a battle unsurpassed in desperate 
fighting, distinguished bravery on both sides, and heavy losses, in any of the 
many battles of the war — a battle than which none was as important in ultimate 
results. Up to this time the general average of«results was in favor of the Con- 
federate forces ; although defeated in numerous engagements, the troops of the 
Confederacy were handled in such a manner that victory resulted even out of 
defeat. Never had the chances of the Confederacy been so bright nor their hopes 
of success so apparently assured. All three of its armies were flushed with recent 
victories ; Lee's army with the victory of Chancellorsville ; the arm}' of the Ten- 
nessee with a series of out-manoeuvres of their Federal opponents, and General 
Grant's hammering away at Vicksburg it was confidently predicted would result 
in defeat. When General Lee decided on the Pennsylvania invasion, although 
undertaken contrary to the advice and far-seeing counsels of discerning South- 
erners, including even Mr. Davis, the President of the Confederacy, he felt, and 
the world endorsed it, that he was at the head of an army that had never known 
defeat. This confidence is further indicated by General Lee changing the char- 
acter of the war from a defensive to an aggressive one. Although not anxious 
to precipitate a general engagement, and manoeuvring in sucli a manner as to 
avoid it, yet General Lee did not wish the world to understand by this conduct 
that he entertained any doubts of the result of such an engagement. General 
Lee's plan of the invasion, no doubt, included the burden of the support of both 
armies by the Northern States, and at the same time to so manoeuvre his army 
and so take position that the Federal army would have to assume the attack and 
thus expose New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington to his control. 
He had fully weighed the military energy and capacities for moving large bodies 



302 SIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

of men with rapidity from one base to another, as shown by the previous Federal 
commanders; but Meade's promptness and celerity in following him upon the 
east slope of the mountains completely disconcerted his calculations. When 
Reynolds and Hill began the fight on Wednesday morning, and Ewell's corps 
crushed down all opposition, so that the advantages of the day were in favor of 
the Southern army, General I^ec had no idea that he was in front of the whole 
army of the Potomac. The result of the first day's fight confii-med this theory ; 
and the Confederate forces were inspired with such unbounded enthusiasm at the 
success of Wednesday's fighting that General Lee could not doubtlessly have 
prevented an attack by his troops even when he learned that he was confronted 
by the whole army of the Potomac. Howard's selection and Hancock's wise 
defences of Cemetery hill, and the lines on elevated ground both towards the 
right and left which were protected by Wolf's hill and Little and Big Round 
Top, did much to ensure the success of the Federal forces and repel the repeated 
assaults of the enemj^ Notwithstanding General Lee's orders and congratula- 
tions to his ti-oops shortly after the battle convinced his men even against the 
facts that their defeat was not so great as it was in reality, this battle was the 
great turning point of the war. The army of Northern Virginia, whose boast had 
been that it had never suffered defeat, received here a blow from which it never 
recovered, sustained losses which all the governmental machinery could never 
replace. From this date on to the close of the war, never was the Confederacj^ 
able to put such an army into the field, and was compelled after this time to act 
on the defensive instead of initiating campaigns. 

The following is as nearly an official list of the casualties of the battles as is 
obtainable. The Federal losses were four thousand eight hundred and thirty- 
four killed, including those who died in the various general hospitals located on 
the field by the surgeons in charge; fourteen thousand seven hundred and nine 
wounded, and six thousand six hundred and forty-three missing, of whom neaily 
four thousand were taken prisoners, mostly from Howard's corps in the first day's 
fight ; making a total loss of twenty-five thousand one hundred and eighty-six. 
Among the killed were Generals Reynolds, Vincent, Weed, Zook, Cross, and 
Farnsworth — the last named falling in Kilpatrick's charge on Hood's command 
on the extreme left, late on Friday afternoon. The list of wounded included 
Major-Generals Sickles, Hancock, Butterfield, Doubleday, and Birney, and 
Brigadier-Generals Barlow, Barnes, Gibbon, Hunt, Graham, Paul, and Willard. 

The Confederate loss was six thousand five hundred killed ; twenty-six thou- 
sand wounded ; nine thousand prisoners, and four thousand stragglers ; making a 
grand total loss of over forty thousand men, besides three guns, forty-one stand- 
ards, and twenty-five thousand stand of small arms. Their retreat was so hasty 
that many of their dead were buried by the Union forces, and their means of con- 
veyance so inadequate that several thousand of their wounded fell into the Federa. 
hands, an insufficient number of surgeons being left with the wounded to give them 
the proper surgical attention. Among the dead were Major-Generals Pender, and 
Brigadier-Generals Barksdale (died on the battle field), Armistead (died in Fede- 
ral hospital several days after), Garnett (in Pickett's charge), and Semraes ; the 
wounded were Major-Generals Hood, Heth, and Trimble, and Brigadier-Gene- 
rals Kemper, Scales, Andei'son, Pettigrew, wounded in the battle field and killed 



ADAMS COUNTY. 303 

at Falling Watei's, Hampton, Jones, and Jenkins. Generals Archer and Kemper 
were among the prisoners taken — the former captured with the Mississippi brig- 
ade in the first day's fight, the latter abandoned in the Seminary hospital as mor- 
tally wounded on the retreat of his command. The excess in killed and wounded 
among the Confederates is due to the fact that General Lee was compelled, being 
the attacking party, to fight his men on more open ground. The numerical 
strength of the two armies is rather difficult to determine, but it is a safe state- 
ment to put General Lee's army, when it crossed the Potomac, at one hundred 
and five thousand men, with ninetj'-five thousand actively engaged ; the Federal 
seventy-five thousand, with sixty-five thousand actively engaged. 

Friday night passed away without any alarms — the Federals in doubt whether 
the fight was to be renewed on the following day, while General Lee was per- 
fecting his arrangements to successfully conduct his retrograde movement to the 
Potomac and the valley of the Shenandoah. Under the cover of the darkness 
General Ewell's corps was withdrawn from its line through the town and placed 
in the works on Seminary ridge. At an early hour on Saturday morning strong 
details from both armies began the solemn work of burying the dead and collect 
ing the wounded into the general hospitals. The dead of both armies were 
interred after the usual hasty manner of such burying parties, on the field where 
the\^ fell. (Afterwards the Union dead were collected together in the National 
cemetery, with the exception of between one thousand and twelve hundred who 
were removed to their homes in the loyal States. The Confederate dead remained 
in their liasty graves, in the cultivated fields and rocky timber land, with very 
little eff"ort made to distinguish them from each other until after the war, when 
the bodies as far as possible wei'e raised, coffined, and removed to places of inter- 
ment among their friends in the South.) The morning was hazy, and for several 
hours the rain fell in torrents. From an early hour General Lee was sending 
towards Ilagerstown such of his Avounded as could bear transportation or had 
been removed within his lines during the progress of the battle. After noon, he 
began withdrawing, by the roads leading through the mountain passes, his artil- 
lery and wagon trains, with whicli latter he was heavily loaded down — the pro- 
duct of the rich Pennsylvania farms upon whicii contributions had been levied 
right and left. By dark the whole Confederate army was in motion in the same 
direction, its retreat concealed and protected by a heavy rear column. The route 
taken was by Fairfield and the Monterey mountain gap. On Monday General 
Lee reached Hagerstown, and took position with his army. 

The pursuit by General Meade is thus given in his report: " The 5th and 6th 
of July were employed in succoring the wounded and burying the dead. Major 
General Sedgwick, commanding the 6th corps, having pushed the pursuit of the 
enemy as far as the Fairfield pass and the mountains, and reporting that the 
pass was very strong — one in which a small force of the enemy could hold in 
check and delay for a considerable time any pursuing force — I determined to 
follow the enemy by a flank movement, and accordingly, leaving McLitosh's 
brigade of cavalry and Neil's brigade of infantry to continue harrassing the 
enemy, I put the army in motion for Middletown (Maryland), and orders were 
immediately sent to Mnjor-General French, at Frederick, to re-occupy Harper's 
Ferry, and send a force to occupy Turner's Pass, in South mountain. I subse- 



304 HISTOB Y OF PENJ^S YL VANIA. 

queiitly ascertained that Major-General French had not only anticipated these 
orders in part, but had pushed a cavalry force to Williamsport and Falling 
Waters, vviiere they destroyed the enemy's pontoon bridge and captured its 
guard. Buford was at the same time sent to Williamsport and Hagerstown. 
The duty above assigned to the cavalry was most successfully accomplished, 
the enemy being greatly harrassed, his trains destroyed, and many captures of 
o-uns and prisoners made. After halting a day at Middletown to procure 
necessary supplies and bring up trains, the army moved through South moun- 
tain, and by the 12th of July was in front of the enemy, who occupied a strong 
position on the heights near the marsh which runs in advance of Williamsport. 
In taking this position, several skirmishes and affairs had been had with the 
enemy, principally by the cavalry and the 6th corps. The 13th was occupied 
in reconnoisances of the enemy's position and preparations for an attack, but 
on advancing on the morning of the 14th, it was ascertained that he had retired 
the night previous by the bridge at Falling Waters and ford at Williamsport. 
The cavalry overtook the rear guard at Falling Waters, capturing two guns 
and numerous prisoners. Previous to the retreat of the enemy, Gregg's 
division of cavahy was crossed at Harper's Ferry, and coming up with the rear 
of the enemy at Charlestown and Shepardstovvn, had a spirited contest, in 
which the enemy was driven to Martinsburg and Winchester, and pursued and 
harrassed in his retreat." 

" The pursuit was resumed by a flank movement," continues General Meade 
in his report, " of the army, crossing the Potomac at Berlin and moving down 
the Loudon valley. The cavalry were immediately puslied into several passes of 
the Blue ride;e, and having learned from servants of the withdrawal of the Con- 
federate army from the lower valley of the Shenandoali, the army (the 3d corps. 
Major General French, being in advance), was moved into Manassas gap, in the 
hope of being able to intercept a portion of the enemy in possession of the gap, 
which was disputed so successfully as to enable the rear guard to withdraw by 
the way of Strasburg. The Confederate army retiring to the Rapidan, a position 
was taken with this army on the line of the Rappahannock, and the campaign 
terminated about the close of July." 

The history of this battle would be incomplete without recording the part 
taken in it by the raw troops organized mostly in the States of Pennsylvania 
and New York, and assembled at Harrisburg by orders from the War Depart- 
ment. General Couch, the commander of this department, did all he could to 
oi'ganize for active service these troops, in connection with General W. F. Smith, 
who was assigned to the command of the 1st division. This division took 
position opposite Harrisburg when General Lee's army was advancing b3^ the 
Cumberland valley, and constructed a system of earth-works for defence. As 
soon as Lee's retreat became known General Smith advanced up the valley with 
six thousand infantry, two batteries, and a small force of cavalry, and at Carlisle 
met General W. H. H. Lee, who expected to meet Ewell there. Lee attacked 
Smith with artillery, but the latter was so well posted that the attack was soon 
abandoned. General Smith advanced towards Chambersburg, followed by 
General Dana with the second division of Couch's command. General Couch 
now transferred his headquarters to Chambersburg, but General Lee soon after 



ADA31S COUNTY. 305 

this withdrew with his whole army to the south side of the Potomac, and these two 
divisions saw no further service at this time. 

Gettysburg, a post borough and the county seat, stands on a beautiful plain mid- 
way between two slightly elevated ridges a little more than a mile apart — the one to 
the west being known as Seminary ridge, while the one to the south-east is called 
Cemetery hill — and is within easy view of the South mountain, eight miles distant, 
which sweeps in a majestic curve far as the eye can x'each to the south and north- 
east. It is surrounded by a fertile and well cultivated country, Avhich exports an- 
nually large quantities of farm produce. It is noted for its pure and salubrious air, 
and has long been esteemed as one of the healthiest districts in the State. The town 
was laid out by James Gettys about the year 1780, and has been named after him. 
It became the county seat of Adams in 1800, and incorporated as a borough in 1807. 
The court house, jail, and almshouse are large and commodious buildings, and are 
well adapted to their several uses. The private dwellings are generally built in a 
neat and substantial manner, while a few of those more recently erected display much 
taste and elegance in their architecture and surroundings. Gettysburg branch of the 
Hanover Junction, Hanover and Gettysburg railroad has its western terminus here, 
and is doing a fair business. It has changed hands several times, and is at present 
owned and worked by the Hanover company. It was formally opened to business 
on Thursday, December 16, 1859. 

A Lutheran Theological Seminary is located here, and is in a flourishing 
condition. This highly important and useful institution, established by the Gen- 
eral Synod, was opened for the reception of students in 1826. Dr. S. S. Schmucker, 
who was the first professor, served in that position for almost forty years. Over 
five hundred men have been students in this Seminary. It is under the control of a 
Board of Directors, chosen by eight surrounding synods. The present faculty con- 
sist of Rev. James A. Brown, D. D., professor of didactic theology, and chairman of 
the faculty ; Rev. Charles A. Hay, D. D., professor of Hebrew and the Old Testa- 
ment exegesis, German language and literature, and pastoral theology ; Rev. E. J. 
Wolf, A. M., professor of Greek and New Testament exegesis, Biblical and ecclesias- 
tical history and archaeology ; Rev. J. G. Morris, D. D., lecturer on pulpit elocution 
and the relations of science and revelation. Through the liberality of Rev. S. A. 
Holman, A. M., a lectureship on the Augsburg Confession has been endowed, and 
also another on " Methods in Ministerial Work," by John L. Rice, Esq., of 
Baltimore. 

The Seminary edifice is a plain but handsome four-story brick building, 40 by 100 
feet, occupying a commanding eminence on a ridge about half a mile to the west of 
the town, of which it commands a beautiful view. A number of rooms have been 
furnished by congregations and benevolent individuals, by Avhich the expenses of in- 
digent students are materially diminished. At a short distance on each side of the 
Seminary are fine, large brick houses, occupied by professors in the institution. The 
lilDrary of the Seminary is one of the most valuable collections of theological works 
in this country, containing many volumes written in all the languages of Europe, 
and treating of every branch of theological science. A large number of these were 
procured in Germany by the Rev. Benjamin Kurtz, D. D., and many others, consist- 
ing of the latest and best works of English and American theological literature, were 

subsequently obtained through the personal exertions of Dr. Schmucker. 
u 



306 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Pennsylvania College is charmingly situated in the town. It had its origin 
in the wants of the community in general, and in those of the Theological 
Seminary in particular. Some of the applicants for admission to that institution 
beinor found deficient in classical attainments, it was resolved in 1827 to estab- 
lish a preparatory school, to be under the direction of the Lutheran Church, 
and appointed Rev. S. S. Schmucker, D.D., and Rev. J. Herbst to select a teacher 
and make the necessary arrangements for the establishment of the school. Rev. 
D. Jacobs, A.M., was chosen as teacher, and in June, 1821, the school went into 
operation, as a preparatory department of the seminary. From this humble be- 
ginning it gradually rose to importance and influence. The school building was 
sold for debt in 1829, and was purchased by Dr. Schmucker, who divided the 
price of the purchase into shares of fifty dollars each, which he induced promi- 
nent ministers iu different parts of the countrj'^ to purchase. Certain articles of 
agreement, which were duly executed, gave to the stockholders the management 
of the fiscal affairs of tlie school, and to the directors and professors of the 
Theological Seminary the selection of the teachers and the regulation of the 
course of study and discipline, and giving to the school the title of Gettysburg 
Gymnasium. Under the new management the number of pupils increased very 
rapidly. Rev. D. Jacobs died in 1830, and was succeeded in 1831 by Rev. H L. 




PENNSYLVANIA COLKEQE, QETTYSBURQ. 

Baugher, A.M., as Principal. The number of pupils continuing to increase, 
measures were adopted a few years later by which a charter was obtained from 
the Legislature incorporating the institution under the name of Pennsylvania 
College. The college was organized, under very favorable auspices, on the 4th 
of July, 1832, and went into full operation in October following. Professors in 
the different departments were at once appointed, Drs. Schmucker and Hazelius, 



ADAMS COUNTY. ■ 307 

of the Theological Seminary, serving teraporarilj' and gratuitously, the former 
as professor of intellectual and moral philosophy, the latter as professor of the 
Latin language. Rev. H. L. Baugher and Professor M. Jacobs, who had already 
established a high reputation as teachers in the Gymnasium, were regularly 
appointed, the former as professor of the Greek language and literature, and the 
latter as professor of mathematics and the physical sciences. Through the 
strenuous exertions of Thaddeus Stevens, who then (1833) represented 
Adams county in the Legislature, fifteen thousand dollars were appropriated by 
the Commonwealth to this institution, payable in five years. Without this 
opportune succor, it is doubtful if Pennsylvania College would have become an 
established fact. In October, 1834, Rev. C. P. Krauth, D.D., a gentleman of 
ripe scholarship, became president of the college. From this time the college 
entered upon a career of great success and prosperity, other teachers and 
professors being added from time to time, as the needs of the institution 
required and its means justified. A large and commodious building was erected a few 
years ago on Carlisle Street, several hundred yards east of the college, for the use of 
the preparatory department, and has been named Stevens Hall, in honor of Thaddeus 
Stevens, a life-long friend of the college, who donated $500 for that purpose. 

Through the liberality of some of the friends of the college, an observatory 
has been erected and furnished with a full equipment of astronomical and 
meteorological instruments. A large equatorial telescope has been mounted, a 
transit instrument, an astronomical clock, and chronograph have been purchased, 
and are freely used for the general purposes of class instruction. 

A large gymnasium has also recently been erected, aff'ording opportunity to 
students for exercise, recreation, and general physical cultui'e. The students 
attend, under such regulations as they themselves, in their Gymnasium Associa- 
tion, establish, and ample time is afforded for voluntary exercise. The college 
library contains 7,200 valuable works. Each of the libraries of the two literary 
societies contains 6,000 volumes of well selected and standard volumes, to 
which additions are constantly made by donations and by appropriations of 
money for that purpose. 

The Soldiers' National Cemetery is by far the most attractive and sadly beau- 
tiful of the many points of interest on the field of Gettysburg. Here, beneath 
the soil they defended so well, repose the brave men who, after surviving man}' 
a hard-fought engagement, came at last to die on these beautilul hills and plains. 
Here, under the sod which so many of them drenched with their life's blood, rest 
the heroes who saved a nation, and whose noble deeds will ever merit a grateful 
people's remembrance. This cemetery embraces seventeen acres of gently rising 
ground south of the Baltimore turnpike, and adjoining Evergreen Cemetery 
Owing to the necessary haste with which everything had to be done during the 
battle, and for some days subsequent to it, many of our brave soldiers were but 
insufficiently buried. Indeed, many of those who fell during the first day's fight 
remained unburied until Monday, the sixth day following after Lee's retreat, 
when decomposition had so far progressed as to render anything like proper 
interment impossible, A few bodies received no burial whatever, and were left 
to be devoured by hogs and birds. In many cases the bodies were left as they 
fell, and were covered only by heaping a little loose earth over them. The rains 



308 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANlA. 

soon washing off this meagre covering, the bodies were left exposed. As a gene- 
ral thing the marlis on the graves, where marked at all, were but temporary, and 
were liable to be speedily obliterated by the action of the weather. Such was 
the spectacle that presented itself to Governor Curtin, who, shortly after 
the battle, visited the hospitals in and around Gettysburg for the purpose of 
ministering to the wants of the wounded and dying. The Governor and a few 
friends, among whom was David Wills, of Gettysburg, at once conceived 
the idea of taking measures for collecting these remains and burying them 
decently and in order, in a cemetery to be provided for the purpose. Mr. Wills 
accordingly submitted a proposition and plan for this purpose, by letter dated 
July 24, 1863, to Governor Curtin. The Governor promptly approved the 
measure, and directed Mr. Wills to correspond with the Governors of the diffe- 
rent States with a view to securing their co-operation and aid. The project was 
seconded with great promptness "by all the executives addressed on the subject. 
Grounds favorably situated were selected by Mr. Wills, as agent for Governor 
Curtin, and purchased for the State of Pennsylvania, " for the specific purpose 
of the burial of the soldiers who fell in defence of the Union in the battle of 
Gettysburg, and that lots in this cemetery should be gratuitously tendered to 
each State having such dead on the field. The expenses of the removal of the 
dead, of the laying out, ornamenting, and enclosing the grounds, and erecting a 
lodge for the keeper, and of constructing a suitable monument to the memory of 
the dead, to be borne by the several States, and assessed in proportion to their 
population." 

The grounds embraced in this cemeter}^ are those on which the Federa. line 
of battle rested on the second and third days of July, and constitute the most 
urominent and important position on the whole battle-field. They have been 
tastefully laid out with walks and lawns, and planted with trees and shrubs. The 
oemetery proper is located on the central and highest portion of the grounds, 
next the citizens' burial-ground, and is in the form of a semi-circle, within which 
the bodies of the fallen soldiers are interred in sections, a large granite block 
with suitable inscription marking the section for each State respectively, with the 
number of bodies in each. The head-stones to the graves are all alike, and form 
a continuous line of granite blocks, rising nine inches above the ground, and 
having the name, company, and regiment, of each soldier sculptured on it. 

The entrance to the cemetery-grounds is on the Baltimore turnpike, through a 
large iron gateway, appropriately ornamented, with a beautiful iron fence the 
whole length of the front. 

The interments in the National Cemetery are as follows: Maine, 104; New 
Hampshire, 49 ; Vermont, 61 ; Massachusetts, 159 ; Rhode Island, 12 ; Connecti- 
cut, 22 ; New York, 861 ; New Jersey, 78 ; Pennsylvania, 534 ; Delaware, 15 ; 
Maryland, 22; West Virginia, 11 ; Ohio, 131 ; Indiana, 80 ; Illinois, 6 ; Michigan, 
111 ; Wisconsin, 73 ; Minnesota, 52 ; United States regulars, 138 ; three lots with 
unknown dead, 979 — total, 3,564. 

The care of the cemetery by commissioners from so many States being found 
inconvenient and burdensome, it was resolved by the board of managers, June 
22, 1871, to enter into negotiations with the Secretary of War for its transfer 
to the General Government. After some correspondence and several conferences, 



ADAMS CO VNTY. 309 

the cemetery was finally transferred to the United States, and on the 1st day of 
May, 1872, the National Government took formal and complete possession and 
control of it. 

The National monument, so grand in conception, so happy in design, and so 
beautiful in execution, occupies a commanding position near the semi-circle of 
graves, and was erected by the several States in memory of the brave men Avho 
here offered up their lives on the altar of their countr}'. The design of the 
monument is purely historical, and has been executed in a manner so strikingly 
natural and truthful that an}' discerning mind will at a glance compi'ehend its 
full meaning and purpose. 

The superstructure is sixty feet high, and consists of a massive pedestal of 
light grey granite, from Westerl}-, Rhode Island, twenty-five feet square at the 
base, and is crowned with a colossal statue of white marble, representing the 
Genius of Liberty. Standing upon a three-quarter globe, she holds with her 
right hand the victor's wreath of laurel, while with her left she clasps the 
victorious sword. 

Projecting from the angles of the pedestals are four buttresses, supporting an 
equal number of allegorical statues of white marble, representing respectively. 
War, History, Peace, and Plenty. . . . War is personified by a statue of 
an American soldier, who, resting from the conflict, relates to History the story 
of the battle which this monument is intended to commemorate. . . . 
History, in listening attitude, records with stylus and tablet the achievements 
of the field, and the names of the honored dead. . . . Peace is sj^mbolized 
b}'^ a statue of the American mechanic, characterized by appropriate acces- 
sories. . . . Plenty is represented by a female figure, with a sheaf of wheat 
and the fruits of the earth, tj^pifying peace and abundance as the soldier's 
crowning triumph. 

This beautiful monument and statuary were designed hy J. G. Batterson, of 
Hartford, Connecticut, and were executed in Italy under the immediate 
supervision of Randolph Rogers, the distinguished American sculptor. The 
main die of the pedestal is octagonal in form, paneled upon each face. The 
cornice and plinth above are also octagonal, and are heavily moulded. Upon 
this plinth rests an octagonal moulded base bearing upon its face, in high relief, 
the National arms. The upper die and cap are circular in form, tlie die being 
encircled b}^ stars equal in number with the States, whose sons gave up their 
lives as the price of the victory won at Gettysburg. 

This monument, as it stands, cost $50,000. The purchase of the ground, the 
removal and re-interring of the dead, the granite head-stones, the stone wall and 
iron fence, the gateway and the porter's lodge, and the laying out and orna- 
mentation of the grounds, cost about $80,000. The Reynolds statue cost 
$10,000 — thus making the cost of the cemetery, and everything pertaining 
to it, about $140,000. 

The first object of special interest tliat presents itself on entering the 
cemetery is the beautiful statue erected to the memory of Major-General John 
Fulton Reynolds, who fell early in the first day's action. It is of bronze, of 
heroic size, standing on a pedestal of Quincy granite. The right hand, holding 
a field glass, hangs loosely at his side, while the left grasps the hilt of his 



310 HISTOTIY OP PENNSYLVANIA. 

sword. The face is turned towards the north-west, the direction from which the 
enemy was advancing, and the direction in which he was looldng when he 
received his death wound. The statue was cast at the foundry of Messrs. 
Robert Wood & Co., Philadelphia, from a model furnished by Mr. J. Q. A. 
Ward of New York. The artist has given his subject an easy, graceful, and 
<life-Uke attitude, and makes him look every inch the true soldier that he was. 

The Katalysine 
~ springs, which have be- 

come so celebrated as a 
resort for iuA'alids, are 
situate two miles west of 
Gettysburg, near Wil- 
loughby's run, and are 
embraced within the area 
of the first day's battle- 
field. 

LiTTLESTOWN, for- 
merly called Petersburg, 
is the second town in 
size and importance in 
the county, and in 1870 
contained a population of 
84T. It is on the Gettys- 
burg and Baltimore turn- 
pike, and is ten miles 
south-east from the for- 
mer place. The Frede- 
rick and Pennsylvania 
Line railroad passing 
through the place, has added much to its business prosperit3^ The town is 
pleasantly located, in a fertile and highly improved country, and presents a fine 
appearance. The toAvn was formerly a part of Germany township, having been 
incorporated as a borough by decree of Court, February 23, 18C4. 

Petersburg, or York Springs, a post borough in the northern part of the 
count}^, between Huntington and Latimore townships, was incorporated by decree 
of Court of Quarter Sessions, August 20, 1868. It is on the Carlisle and Hano- 
ver turnpike, fourteen miles from the former and sixteen from the latter place. 
It is also fourteen miles from Gettysburg and twenty-one from York, the State 
road leading to Harrisburg passing through the place. A railroad from Dills- 
burg, York county, to this place has been graded but not completed. The town 
was laid out about the year 1803, by Peter Fleck, who, with Isaac Saddler, 
erected the first two houses in the place. Soon afterwards Jacob Gardner, Joshua 
Speakman, Yincent Pilkington, and others, added dwellings. Near by are the 
York sulphur springs, a favorite resort for many citizens of Philadelphia and 
Baltimore. Their medicinal qualities have been highly extolled. 

New Oxford, a post borough, and until recently embraced in Oxford town- 
ship, is on the railroad from Gettj'sburg to Hanover, ten miles from the former 




MONUMENT TO GENEBAIi REYNOLDS, GETTYSBURG. 

[From a Photograph by W. H. Tipton <t Co., Gettysburg.] 



ADA3IS COUNTY. ;jll 

and SIX miles from the latter place. It was laid out by Henry Kuhn, in 1792, 
and was erected into a borough by decree of Court, August 20th, 1874. It con- 
tains four churches belonging respectively to the Lutherans, the Reformed, the 
Methodists, and the Roman Catholics. A collegiate and medical institute was 
established here some years ago by Dr. Pfeiffer, but it never received sufficient 
patronage and support to justify its continuance. 

Abbottstown, or Berwick borough, is a post village on the turnpike lead- 
ing from York to Gettysburg, fourteen miles from either place. Two turnpikes, 
the one leading from York to Gettysburg, and the other from Hanover to East 
Berlin, intersect within the borough. The town was laid out in 1753 by John 
Abbott, The first lot sold here was purchased by Jacob Pattison, October 19, 
1763. Beaver creek, a tributary of the Conewago, flows near by the town, 
forming the boundary line between York and Adams counties. The town was 
incorporated as a borough in 1835. 

East Berlin is a pleasantly situated post town in the northern part of 
Hamilton township. It was laid out in 1764 by John Frankenberger, an eail}'' 
settler, who named it Berlin. Mr. Frankenberger, the proprietor, disposed of 
his interest, in 1774, to Peter Houshill, who, in 1782, sold to Andrew Comfort. 
In 1794 John Hildebrand became proprietor. The first house erected after the 
laying out of the town was built by Charles Himes, in 1765 ; the second, b}' James 
Sarbach, in 1766 ; the third, by James Mackej^, in 1767, who opened the first 
store. The first English school taught in this part of the country was opened 
here, in 1769, by Robert John Chester, an Englishman. The Conewago flowing 
hard by and affording excellent mill power, Peter Lane, a German, erected a 
grist mill at the west end of the town about the year 1769, which was swept away 
b}' a freshet thirty j^ears afterwards. 

Bendersville, formerly Wilsonville, is in Menallen township, ten miles north 
of Gettysburg, on the State road leading from the latter place to Newville, 
Cumberland county. It is near the base of the South mountain, five miles 
from Laurel forge, and the same distance from Pine Grove furnace. It was laid 
out about the year 1835, but did not thrive till 1840, when an impetus was given 
it by the erection of some twenty houses. Nestling behind a semi-circular ridge, 
the village presents a neat appearance. It is noted for its pure air, for its 
healthful location, and for its attention given to the cultivation of all kinds of 
fruits and vegetables, of which it has the best in the county. An association 
was formed here in the early part of 1860, called the Menallen Agricultural Club, 
the object of which was the consideration of subjects and topics of interest to 
farmers and fruit growers. The meetings of the society were held regularly in 
the public-school house, and soon created so much interest in the community 
that measures were adopted b}' the society, aided by the citizens, for the holding 
of an agricultural exhibition in the autumn of the same year. The exhibition 
proved so successful that it at once became permanent. After a few years the 
society, together with its buildings and fixtures, was moved to Gettysburg, 
where its meetings and exhibitions have since been regularly held, under the 
name and title of the Adams County Agricultural Society. 

HuNTERSTOWN, formerly called Woodstock, is a post village in the central 
part of Straban township, on the road leading from Gettysburg to East Berlin, 



8 1 2 HISTOJi Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

five miles from the former, and eleven miles from the latter place. . . Faib- 
FIELD, or Millerstown, is a post town of Hamiltonban township, on the Hagers- 

town and Gettysburg road, eight miles west from the latter place 

MiDDLETOWN, a post village of Butler township, is seven miles north of Gett3^s- 
burg, on the road leading from the latter place to Bendersville. The name 

of its post-office is Bigler Meciianicsville, or Bragtown, is a 

small village in the extreme northern part of the count^^, distant from Gettys- 
burg eighteen miles. It was laid out by Joseph Griest McSherrys- 

TOWN, a post village in Conewago township, is two miles west of Hanover, York 
county, on the road leading from the latter place to Gettysburg. It is one mile 

in length, being built chiefly along one street Hampton, a post 

town of Reading township, on the turnpike leading from Carlisle to Baltimore, 
twelve miles east from Gettysburg, six from Petersburg, and ten from Hanover, 

was laid out in 1814 by Dr. John B. Arnold and Daniel Deardorff. 

Heidlersburq, a small post town in Tyrone township, on the State road leading 
from Gettysburg to Harrisburg, is ten miles from the former and twenty-five miles 
from the latter place. The State road and the Menallen road, leading from 

Chambcrsburg to York, intersect at right angles at this place 

Mummasburg is a small village in Franklin township, at the terminus of the 
Gettysburg and Mummaoburg turnpike, five miles from the former place. . . 

. . Arendtsville, a handsome and thriving post town in the north-eastern 
angle of Franklin township, was laid out by a Mr. Arendt about the year 1820. 
It is pleasantly located at the intersection of the Menallen and Shippensburg 

roads, eight miles north of Gett3^sburg Beechersville, a small 

village about a mile east of Arendtsville, on the road from the latter place to 
Gettysburg, contains a woolen factor}^, a tanner^-, and about a dozen dwellings 

. . . . New Chester, or Pinetown, so called because of a belt of pine 
timber contiguous to it, is a post village in Straban township, and was laid out 
by Henry Martzsaal in 1804. It is nine miles east from Gettysburg, within several 
hundred 3'ards of one of the bends of the Big Conewago Cash- 
town, a fine village in Franklin township, at the foot of the South mountain, 
is eight miles north-west from Gettysburg, on the Chambersburg turnpike. 
. . . . IIiLLTOWN is a small hamlet, one mile north of Cashtown, on the 

road leading from Mummasburg to Chambersburg Keav Salem, 

ri pretty village on the Chambersburg and Gettysburg turnpike, six miles north- 
-rest from the latter place, was laid out in 1860 by John Hartman, who, in 
[a7iuary of that 3'ear, purchased of Albert Van Dyke, administrator of the 
VIcKnight estate, the greater part of the ground now embraced within the limits 
■)f the village, paying $6,000 for the same. A number of lots were soon sold, 
apon which improvements were commenced the following spring. The location 
being a good one, the village has steadily grown until it has become quite a 
thriving place Seven Stars is a small village on the Chambers- 
burg turnpike, four miles from Gettj^sburg, where the old " Tape Worm " 
railroad crosses the turnpike. 



318 




NATIONAL, MONUMENT AT GETTYSBURG. 
fFrom a Photograph by W. H. Tipton & Co., Gettysburg.] 



ALLEGHENY COUNTY. 



[With acknowledgments to Williavi M. Darlington and Thomas J. Bigham.] 




I HE county of Allegheny was organized by virtue of the act of Assem 
bly of September 24, 1788, which recites : " That all those parts of 
Westmoreland and Washington counties lying within the limits and 
bounds hereinafter described, shall be, and hereby are, erected into 
a separate county ; that is to say, beginning .at the mouth of Flaherty's run, on 
the south side of the Ohio river ; from thence, by a strait line, to the plantation 
on which Joseph Scott, Esquire, now lives, on Montour's run, to include the same ; 
from thence, by a strait line, to the mouth of Miller's run, on Chai'tier's creek ; 




ALLEGHENY COUNTY COURT HOUSE. 

from thence, by a strait line, to the mouth of Perry's mill run, on the east side 
of Monongahela river ; thence up the said river to the mouth of Becket's run ; 
thence, by a strait line, to the mouth of Sewickly creek, on Youghiogheny river ; 
thence, down the said river, to the mouth of Crawford's run ; thence, by a strait 
line, to the mouth of Brush creek, on Turtle creek ; thence, up Turtle creek, to 
the main fork thereof; thence, by a northerly line, until it strikes Puckety's 
creek ; thence down the said creek to the Allegheny river ; thence up the Alle- 
gheny river to the northern boundary of the State ; thence along the same to 
the Eiver Ohio ; and thence, up the same, to the western boundary of the State ; 
thence along the western boundary to the place of beginning; to be henceforth 
known and called by the name of Allegheny county." The commissioners to run 
the boundary lines were Eli Coulter, Peter Kidd, and Bejanraiu Lodge. 

In 1789 an additional part of Washington county was annexed; and by an act 
of April 3, 1792, upwards of 200,000 acres on Lake Erie, purchased by the State 
from the general government, was declared to be part of Allegheny county. 



3 1 f, HISTOB Y OF PENIfS YL VANIA. 

These extended limits of the count^'^ were subsequently reduced by the counties 
formed west and north of the Allegheny river. 

Allegheny county is bounded on the north by Butler ; east by Westmoreland ; 
south and south-west by Washington, and north-west b}' Beaver. The county 
forms an irregular figure about twenty-six miles in diameter, and contains an area 
of 754 square miles, or 482,560 acres. The surface of the county is undulating, 
and near the rivers and principal creeks, broken and hilly, many of the elevations 
oeing precipitous, and occasionally furrowed into deep ravines. The upland is 
rolling, and ver}^ little can be called flat, except the bottom lands along the 
streams. Within the limits of the county are comprised the very populous 
country around the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers with the 
Ohio, and of the Youghiogheny with the Monongahela. Besides these navigable 
streams there are, tributary to them, Chartier's, Peters', Turtle, Plum, Deer, and 
Pine creeks, with a number of less important streams. 

The county is situated in the heart of tlie bituminous coal formation of the 
-ippajitichian field; and it derives its chief importance from the inexhaustible 
supply and enormous development of this valuable fuel. The amount of capital 
invested in the mines of the county according to the census of 1870 was estimated 
at $12,169,000, and twenty-two thousand seven hundred and ten acres were under 
development. The value of these may be placed at $8,690,000 ; $438,000 was in- 
vested in cars, tools, and the articles necessary to mining. The live stock 
employed was valued at $287,000. Upwards of $1,200,000 were invested in 
houses. The various improvements, such as railvva}' tracks, trestles, etc., cannot 
be less than $1,625,000. The list embraces one hundred and thirteen collieries in 
active operation, employing eight thousand miners. The amount of coal mined 
annually is upwards of one hundred million bushels. Nearly thirty million 
bushels are consumed in and around the city of Pittsbu)gh, numbers of the manu- 
facturing establishments consuming from one to three thousand bushels of coal 
per day. From fifty to fifty-five million bushels are exported b}' river alone 
annually. The amount exported by rail approaches eighteen million bushels. 
Upwards of twenty million bushels of coke are made annuallj' in eight hundred 
and fiftj'-six ovens. 

In a review of the industrial resources of Allegheny county, we speak princi- 
pall}' of those developed in the cit}- of Pittsburgh and the towns in its immedi- 
ate vicinity. No other county in the United States contains two cities of the 
first class. It is not in coal alone that the strength of this section is shown 
In those things which coal enables artizans of Pittsburgh to produce, is her power 
equally apparent. As nearlj' as can be ascertained, one-half of the glass facto- 
ries in the United States are located at Pittsburgh, where there are forty firms 
engaged in the manufacture of glass, who run sixty factories producing the vari- 
ous descriptions of green, window, flint, and lime glass, employing over four thou 
sand workmen, and producing between four and Aa'c millions' worth of glass. 

In iron and steel Pittsburgh claims and maintains to be the great market of 
the country. The exact money market of this great trade has always been difll- 
cult to arrive at. Much of the iron has been shipped by rail to the various points, 
and much by river. By figures Ave have at command of the shipments of plate, 
bar, sheet, and rod iron and steel from Pittsburgh in the year 1875, it would seem 



ALLEGHENY COUNTY. 3I7 

that there were exported, by rail alorie, to twenty-four different States, over 
143,000 tons, and 80,000 kegs of nails between twenty different States. These 
railroad cxportations, it must not be forgotten, are not probably half the manu- 
facture. That of castings there were shipped by rail alone 5,143,008 pounds in 
1874 to twenty-two different States, and that by one railroad alone there was 
received in 1874 into the city, 107,000 tons of pig iron and blooms, exclusive of 
the yield of six or eight furnaces running in the city of Pittsburgh, nor the 
imports by river and other railroads. It is estimated that of shipments made 
from Pittsburgh, at least as much is sent by river as by rail. There are over 
thirty iron rolling mills in Pittsburgh, six steel mills, and between fifty and sixty 
iron foundries. These figures but feebly indicate the full extent of the great iron 
and steel trade of the city, of which the sales alone of articles made of iron sub- 
ject to tax, made and returned in the cit}'^, was, from March 1875 to March 1876, 
over $27,000,000. In 1876 the amount of capital invested was $70,000,000, and 
the annual value of the products $39,000,000. 

Oil is another great staple, and there are in Pittsburgh fift^'-eight refineries, 
in which is invested a capital of over $12,000,000 in buildings and machiner}', 
and in the tanks and barges necessary to the carrying on of the business, nearly 
$6,000,000 more. The oil trade for the three years from January, 1873, to 
January, 1876, amounted to about $50,000,000, or an average of about $11,000,000 
annually. During these three years the entire exportation of petroleum from the 
United States was 217,948,602 gallons, and the shipments east from Pittsburgh 
was 132,396,179 gallons, showing that Pittsburgh supplied over sixt}'' per cent, 
of the whole foreign exportation of petroleum in the period cited. 

The history of Allegheny count}^ presents a greater variety of startling inci- 
dents than almost an}^ other portion of tlie State. Great Britain, France, Great 
Britain ngain, Virginia, the United States and Pennsylvania have each in turn 
exercised sovereignty either over the Avhole or greatest part of the county. 
Since its first settlement was captured in war, first by Contrecoeur in 1754, and 
by Forbes in 1758 — once beseiged by Indians in 1763 — blown up and burned by 
the French in 1758 — it was the field of controversy between neighboring States 
m 1774, and finally the scene of civil war in 1794. 

When the white man appeared in the region around the head-waters of 
the Ohio river, the occupants of the soil were principally ShaAvanesc, with some 
roving bands of the Six Nations and scattered wigwams of the Delawares. It is 
more than probable that the "mound builders," whose traces were more notice- 
able in the Western States than in Pennsylvania, were the primeval inhabitants, 
judging from descriptions of the remains of ancient fortifications within the 
limits of Allegheny county, the principal one of which was located on Chartier's 
creek, about seven or eight miles from Pittsburgh. From the description of a 
traveler who passed through the western country in 1807, we learn that it 
consisted of an oblong elevated square two hundred feet long, one hundred and 
forty feet broad, and nine feet high, level on the summit and nearly perpendicular 
at the sides, the centre of each of the sides towards the stream projecting, 
forming gradual ascents to the top, equally regular and about six feet wide. 
Near the centre of the fort was a circular mound nearly thirty feet in diameter, 
and five feet high. At the corner near the river was a semi-circular parapet 



318 



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ALLEGHENY COf/A'iT. }M^) 

crowned with a mound which guarded an opening in the wall near by, Scarcel}- a 
vesticre now remains, but we have seen it recently stated that a small mound is 
•* still to be seen on the ridge at McKee's rocks below the mouth of the same 
stream. It was the locality of Shingas, the famous Indian warrior. 

There were numerous. Indian villages within the present limits of Allegheny 
county, but except in the historical details of one hundred and twenty years 
ago, nothing remains of the royalt}^ which swayed the inhabitants of the Ohio. 
The principal of these was Shannopin's town. It was situated, says Mr. 
Darlington, on the banks of the Allegheny river, now in the corporate limits of 
the city of Pittsburgh. It was small, had about twenty families of Delawares, 
and was much frequented by the traders. By it ran the main Indian path from 
the East to the West. In April, 1730, Governor Thomas, at Philadelphia, received 
a message from "the Chieffs of ye Delewares at Allegaening, on the main road," 
taken down (written) by Edmund Cartlidge, and interpreted by James Letort, 
noted traders. Among the names signed to the letter is that of " Shannopin his 
>< mark." The chief's message was to explain the cause of the death of a white 
man named Hart, and the wounding of another, Robeson, occasioned by rum, the 
bringing such great quantities into the woods, they desired the Governor to sup- 
press, as well as to limit the number of traders. Shannopin's name is signed to 
several documents in the archives of the State. He appeared occasionally' at 
Councils held with the Governor. He died in 1740. 

Towards the close of the seventeenth century the French, through the 
adventures and discoveries of LaSalle, Marquette, and others, gained a most 
excellent knowledge of the country of tiie Ohio and Mississippi, and at once 
measures were adopted looking to the extension of the French empire, claiming 
the vast territory west of the Alleghenies. As early as 1719 the French began 
actively to erect a line of forts for the purpose of connecting Canada with the 
valley of the Mississippi, but it was not until 1749 that measures were taken 
to extend their trade with the Indians on the Allegheny. The year previous a 
movement had been made towards a permanent settlement on the Ohio river by 
the English colonies. Thomas Lee, one of His Majesty's council in Virginia, 
formed the design of effecting a settlement on the wild lands west of the 
Allegheny mountains, through the agency of an association of gentlemen. 
Before this date there were no English residents in those regions. A few 
traders wandered from tribe to tribe, and dwelt among the Indians, but they 
neither cultivated nor occupied the land. Mr. Lee associated with himself Mr. 
Hanbury, a merchant from London, and twelve persons in Virginia and Maryland, 
composing the " Ohio Land Company." One half million acres of land were 
granted them, to be taken principally on the south side of tlie Ohio, between the 
Monongahela and Kanahawa, and on which they were required to settle one 
hundred families and erect and maintain a fort. The Englishmen claimed title 
under a charter of Charles II., strengthened by a treaty with the Six Nations. 

In 1749, Captain Louis Celoron, a French officer, was dispatched by the 
Governor-General of New France (Canada) to take possession of the country 
along the Allegheny and Ohio rivers. He performed that duty, and deposited 
leac'.en plates bearing inscriptions at the mouths of the prominent streams. 
Several of the plates were eventually secured. The one placed at Venango was 



320 HIETORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

dated 29th July, 1749,* at forks of the Ohio, 3d August, 1749, and at mouth of 
Kanahawa, 18th August, 1749. 

In 1750 Christopher Gist was dispatched by the Ohio Company to make 
explorations, and also an examination of the Ohio on the south side to within 
fifteen miles of the Falls. In June, 1752, a conference was held at Logstown, 
fourteen miles below Pittsburgh, on the right bank of the Ohio, with the Indian 
chiefs of the neighboring tribes. The commissioners, consisting of Colonel Pry, 
Captain Loamax, and Mr. Patton, desired an explanation of the treaty held at 
Lancaster in 1744, when the Delaware Indians ceded to the English the lands on 
the Ohio. The chiefs objected, stating that there was " no sale of lands west of 
the warrior's road which ran at the foot of the Allegheny ridge." The Commis- 
sioners finally induced them, by the offer of presents, to ratify the treaty and 
relinquish the Indian title to lands south of the Ohio and east of the Kanahawa. 

Soon after the treaty at Logstown, Gist was appointed survej'or of the Ohio 
Company, and directed to lay out a town and fort near the mouth of Chartier's 
creek. It seems, however, that this project was abandoned, and subsequently 
the location was changed to the forks of the Ohio. 

About this time (1753) the French, as referred to previously, were carrying 
out their grand scheme for uniting Canada with Louisiana, and it was decided 
to erect one fort at Logstown and one at the junction of the Allegheny and 
Monongahela. In the prosecution of this scheme, and to enforce their claim to 
the whole country on the Ohio, they seized the storehouse at the former place 
belonging to the traders, with all the goods and skins, amounting to the value of 
twenty thousand pounds. 

In the fall of 1753, accounts were received that a considerable French force 
had arrived at Presqu'Isle, on tlieir way to the Ohio; and in October of that 
3'ear, George Washington was selected as a messenger, to proceed by the way of 
Logstown to the French commandant, wherever he might be found, to demand 
information as to the object of the French troops. Washington departed imme- 
diately from Williamsburg, and arrived at the forks about the 23d or 24th of 
November, 1753. He examined the point, and thought it a favorable position for 
a fort. lie then proceeded to Logstown — and thence to the French comman- 
dant at Le Bosuf, from whom he received a very unsatisfactory repl}'. 

mmediately on the return of Washington to Virginia, Captain Trent, .with 
a company of troops, was directed to proceed to the Ohio, and establish himself 
at that locality. In the early part of 1754 was commenced the first building 
on the site where Pittsburgh now stands. Of the arrival of the French convoy, 
the capitulation and the retiring of the English, and of the important events 
which transpired in this section of Pennsylvania during the expeditions of Gene- 
rals Braddock, Forbes, and Bouquet, we have alluded in the general history. 
By reference thereto, it will be seen that the French retained possession of For*. 
Duquesne from the 17th of April, 1754, to the 24th of November, 1758. This 
position, of course, gave them an influence over the neighboring Indians, whicii 
was so used as to inflict upon the frontier settlers much distress and bloodshed. 
The importance of this position, in a military point of view, was duly appreci- 

*For translation of the one at French creek, see History of Veuango county. 



ALLEGHENY COUNTY. 321 

ated by the English, and early and energetic efforts were therefore adopted 
to expel the French. 

Upon its occupancy by General Forbes' army in 1158, the English proceeded 
to the erection of works for the defence of the post. A small square stockade 
with a bastion at each angle was constructed on the banks of the Monongahela 
between the present site of Liberty and West streets in Pittsburgh. This was 
only intended for temporary use, for in the year following. General Stanwix 
erected more substantial works, which in honor of the then British Premier, he 
named Fort Pitt. 

In 1764, Colonel Bouquet built a redoubt on the site of the fort which is stiL 
standing. It is simplj^ a square stone building, and is located north of Penu 
street west of Point street, a few feet back of Brewer}^ alley. 

The first town of Pittsburgh was built near the Fort, in 1160. It was divided 
into the upper and lower town. In a carefully prepared list of the houses and 
inhabitants outside of the fort, made for Colonel Bouquet, April 15, 1161, by 
Captain William Clapham, and headed "A return of tlie number of houses, of the 
names of owners, and number of men, women, and children, in each house. Fort 
Pitt, April 14, 1161," the number of inhabitants is two hundred and thirty-three 
men, women, and children, with the addition of ninety-five officers, soldiers, and 
their families residing in the town, making the whole number three hundred and 
thirty-two. Houses, one hundred and four. The lower town was nearest the 
fort, the uppei' on the higher ground, principally along the bank of the Monon- 
gahela, extending as far as the present Market Street. In this list of the early 
inhabitants are the well-known names of George Croghan, William Trent, John 
Orrasby, John Campbell, Ephraim Blaine, and Thomas Small. 

Settlements were also made along the Monongahela and its tributaries, and 
the inhabitants seem to have enjoyed comparative quiet, until the year 1163, when, 
during the Pontiac war. Fort Pitt was completely surrounded by the savage 
foe, who cut off all communication with the interior of the country, and greatly 
annoyed the garrison by an incessant discharge of musketry and arrows. The post 
was finally relieved by Colonel Bouquet, who in the following year retaliated by 
marcliing with a sufficient force to the Muskingum, and there dictated terms of 
peace to the hostile tribes of the north-west. 

The second town of Pittsburgh was laid out in 1165, by Colonel John Camp- 
bell, by permission of the commanding officer at Fort Pitt. It comprised the 
ground within Water, Market, Second, and Ferry streets. Campbell's plan of 
lots was subsequently incorporated unaltered in the survey made by George 
Woods for the Penns in 1184, and is known as the " Old Military Plan." Two 
of the houses built on lots in that plan are now standing on Water street, near 
Ferr3^ They are constructed of hewn logs weatherboarded. These, with the 
two on the southeast corner of Penn and Marbury (Third) street, formerly 
owned and occupied by General Richard Butler and his brother. Colonel 
William, are the oldest in Pittsburgh or west of the Alleghenies. Of course 
the old brick redoubt of Colonel Bouquet before referred to, between the Point 
and Penn street, is excepted. It, however, was not originally built for a dwel- 
ling-house, but as an outwork or addition to Fort Pitt. 

From this period until the close of the Revolutionary war but little improve- 

V 



322 EISTOR T OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

nient was made at Fort Pitt. The fear of Indian hostilities, or the actua. 
existence of Indian warfare, prevented immigration. In 1715, the number of 
dwelling-houses within the limits of Fort Pitt did not, according to the most 
authentic accounts, exceed twenty-five or thirt3\ 

During the Revolution, the Penn family being adherents of the British 
government, the Assembly confiscated all their property except certain manors 
&c., of which surveys had been actually made and returned into the land-office 
prior to the 4th of July, 177G, and also except any estates which the Proprieta- 
ries held in their private capacities by devise, purchase, or descent. Pittsburgh, 
and the covmtry eastward of it and south of the Monongahela, containing 5,766 
acres, composed one of these manors (survej^ed in 1769), and of course remained 
as the pi'operty of the Penns. In the spring of 1784, arrangements were made 
b}^ Tench Francis, the agent of the Proprietaries, to lay out the Manor of Pitts- 
burgh in town and out-lots, and to sell them without delay. For this purpose he 
engaged George Woods, of Bedford, an experienced surveyor, to execute the 
work.- The manor lots found a ready sale, and in 1786, Judge Brackenridge, 
then a young attorney in the new town, estimated the number of houses at one 
hundred, and the population at about five hundred. Previous to this there were 
no buildings outside the fort, except those already noticed occupied by Indian 
traders and a few mechanics and soldiers' families. 

The inhabitants of Allegheny county took a conspicuous part in the " Whiskey 
Insurrection " of 1 794. Liberty poles were erected and people assembled in 
arms and compelled the officers of the Excise to leave the country or resign. 
Their object was to compel a repeal of the law and not to subvert the govern- 
ment, but they unfortunately pursued the wrong course to effect their object. 

From 1790 to 1800, says Harris, the business of Pittsburgh and the West was 
small, but gradually improving. The fur trade was the most important. Con- 
siderable supplies of goods were received from the Illinois country by barges. 
On the 19th of May, 1798, the galley President Adams was launched at 
Pittsburgh. She was the first vessel built then competent for a sea V03'age, and 
was constructed by order of the government of the United States, in its prepa- 
rations for the threatened war with France. In July, the Senator Ross was ready 
to launch, but on account of low water it was not accomplished until tlie spring 
of 1799. 

In the spring of 1797, arrangements were made by James O'Hara and Isaac 
Craig, for the erection of the first glass works in Pittsburgh, and William Eich- 
baum, superintendent of glass works at the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia, engaged 
to direct the building of the works. This was the beginning of that business 
now so extensively carried on. So many difficulties, however, were encountered 
that after a few years Major Craig retired. General O'Hara persevered, and 
after a very large expenditure of money and labor succeeded in the manufac- 
ture of glass. During this year the first paper-mill west of the AUcghenies 
was erected at Pittsburgh. 

In 1802-3 Pittsburgh and the country around it were greatly -excited by the 
impeachment and subsequent removal of Alexander Addison, then president 
judge of the judicial district. This was owing to party spirit which during the 
administration of the elder Adams ran exceedingly high. 



ALLEGHENY COUNTY. 323 

From 1802 to 1805 four ships, three brigs, and three schooners were built at 
Pittsburgh, while two vessels were constructed at Elizabethtown. 

On the first day of January, 1804, a branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania was 
established here in a stone building on the east side of Second Street, between 
Ferry Street and Chancery Lane. During that year the first iron foundry was 
erected by Joseph McClurg. 

The year 1811 inaugurated a revolution in the commerce and noted an epoch 
in the history of Pittsburgh well worthy of commemoration. In this year the 
genius of Fulton and the theory of Fitch had a practical and successful test in 
the application of steam as a propelling power to vessels against a strong cur- 
rent. The year previous [1810], Messrs. Fulton, Livingston, and Rossevelt, 
constituting a firm, organized for the purpose of testing Fulton's plan, com- 
menced the building of a boat, the dimensions of which were — keel, a hundred 
and thirty-eight feet ; burden, some three Imndred tons, cabin below deck, port- 
holes, bow-sprit, &c. Forty thousand dollars were invested in this enterprise, 
and in March, 1811, the first steamboat ever built or run on western waters was 
launched at Pittsburgh, and duly christened the New Orleans. On the 24th of 
December this steamboat left for the Crescent city. The New Orleans arrived 
safel}^ at her destination. Shortly after she went into the regular packet trade 
between Natchez and New Orleans, in which she continued two ^^ears, clearing 
$20,000 the first. In 1814 she was snagged and lost near Baton Rouge. 

The second stcamLjat constructed at this port was the Comet, launched in 
1813. In 1814 the Mississippi steamboat company built the Vesuvius and 
JEtna. From this time onward, for a period of fifty 3'ears, the number of boats 
constructed at Pittsburgh was immense, and the progress and development of the 
place was rapid. 

During the war of 1812, Pittsburgh sent a company into the North-western 
territory to join the command of General Harrison that won a lasting fame for 
its bravery. It was named the Pittsburgh Blues, and was under the command 
of Captain James R. Butler. Tiie Blues fought at Fort Meigs and Mississineway, 
losing a number of their men in those contests. 

Pittsburgh, by an act of Assembly at the sessions of 1815-16, became a cit^^ — 
taking its date from March 18, 1816. At the first election for municipal ofl^icers 
under the city charter. Major Ebenezer Denny was chosen mayor. 

In August 1825, a convention of the friends of internal improvements, con- 
sisting of delegates from forty-six counties of the State, met at Harrisburg, and 
passed resolutions in favor of " opening an entire and complete communication 
from the Susquehanna to the Allegheny and Ohio, and from the Alleghenj' to 
Lake Erie, by the nearest and most practicable route." The Juniata and Cone- 
maugh was reported the " most practicable route " by the commission appointed 
by the Governor in 1824, to explore a route for a canal from Harrisburg to Pitts- 
burgh. The report was adopted and the work let. In the fall of 1827 water 
was let into the levels at Leechburg from the " seven-mile " or Leechburg dam, 
but the inexperience of the contractors and workmen who had built the canal 
below caused innumerable difficulties. To remedy the evil occupied the balance 
of the fall and winter. 

The first canal boat ever built or run west of the mountains, was the General 



324 HISTOB Y OF PEKNS YL YANIA. 

Abner Lacock. She was built at Apollo, Armstrong county, by Philip Dally, 
under the auspices of Patrick Leonard of Pittsburgh. Siie was intended as 
a freight and passenger packet, had berths and curtains, after the style of the 
steamboats of those days. 

In the fall of 1834, the Philadelphia and Columbia, and the Allegheny 
portage railroads were completed, giving a through line to Pittsburgh, and the 
same month an emigrant's boat from the North Branch of the Susquehanna, 
passed over the inclined planes on trucks with the family in it, was launched 
at Johnstown, reached Pittsburgh, was run into the Ohio, and pursued its course 
down that river to Cairo, and was towed up the Mississippi to St. Louis. 
The completion of this through route gave to Pittsburgh a fresh impetus, and 
tended largely toward the opening up of the mineral resources of Western 
Pennsylvania. The salt of the Kiskiminetas soon became an important branch 
of traffic and barter in the east, and gave employment to a large number of 
men. Blast furnaces, bloomeries, etc., sprang into existence along its line, 
and a general life and thrift was manifest from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. In 
Pittsburgh, for a time, the forwarding and commission business absorbed all 
other branches of trade with capitalists. The business man who had not stock or 
some kind of an interest in some of the lines of boats on the canals, or the 
steamboats or other modes of transportation on the rivers, was not regarded 
as either wealthy or enterprising. 

In 1834, an experimental trip was made from Pittsburgh to Johnstown with a 
little steamboat, but not proving satisfactory for many reasons, all ideas of 
applying steam to canal boats was abandoned. 

In 1835 the Erie canal, or tlie greater portion of it, was put into operation, 
opening up another large mineral and agricultural field to Pittsburgh, where the 
products found a read 3^ market, and augmented the amount of business done 
there. The boats reached Pittsburgh by being towed by steam-tugs up the Ohio 
from the mouth of Beaver creek, twentj'-six miles below the city. Soon 
after this a canal called the Cross-cut was built, connecting the Erie with the 
Ohio canal at Akron, Ohio. The junction of the Erie and Cross-cut was made 
at the mouth of the Mahoning river, in tlie Beaver valley, some four miles below 
New Castle. By this connection, long before there was a railroad in the West, 
freight could be shipped to Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo, Detroit, Portsmouth, 
Chillicothe, and other intermediate p")ints, without breaking bulk. All these 
advantages, taken in connection with the fact of Pittsburgh being the head 
of navigation of the western and south-western waters, it is little to be wondered 
at that she became a nucleus for all branches of trade, and a power in the manu- 
facturing world. 

In 1836 was commenced the improving of the Monongahela b}^ locks and 
dams, to meet the efforts of Marylanders east of the mountains, and opening a 
'channel of commerce with Pittsburgh by way of the Potomac canal to Cumber- 
and, and the Cumberland pike to Brownsville. After much opposition the work 
was completed in 1844, and it proved to be one of the greatest features of the 
Iron City's success. The pools or slack water offered ample harbors for the 
loadino; of coal boats and baro-es, and the coal trade of the Monongahela has 
ever since been the source of great rcA'^enue to the company which, under the 



ALLEGHENY COUNTY. 



325 



lead of General James K. Moorhead, constructed it, to the exporters and the 
public generally. In 1839 the Valley Forge, the first iron steamboat made in 
the United States, was built at Pittsburgh. 

On the tenth day of April, 1845, occurred the great fire at Pittsburgh, burning 
over a space of fifty-six acres. The aggregate loss of property amounted to over 
five millions of dollars, and many families were rendered homeless. Aid came in 
freely from the neighboring towns and cities, while the Legislature, then in 
session, made an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars to relieve the distressed 
inhabitants, of which amount, however, only thirty thousand dollars was drawn 
from the Treasury. On the 29th of March, 1872, the consolidation of the 
Southside with Pittsburgh was effected by an act of the Assembly, which bill 
received the sanction of the Governor on the 2d of April, following. The 
Southside included eleven boroughs, having a population of 35,000 — Birmingham, 
East Birmingham, Ormsby, Allen- 
town, St. Clair, South Pittsburgh, 
Monongahela, Mt. Washington, 
Union, West Pittsburgh, and 
Temperanceville. Although the 
details herewith given are in fact 
the history of Pittsburgh itself, 
there are other matters connected 
with that city to which we will 
make reference. 

Pittsburgh is the second city 
of Pennsylvania in population and 
importance. It is substantially 
and compactly built, and con- 
tains many fine residences, par- 
ticularly in the east section. A 
large number of the principal 
avenues are graded and paved. 
Horse cars run through the 
principal streets and to the 

suburbs. Seven bridges span the Allegheny river and five the Monongahela. 
From its situation, Pittsburgh enjoys excellent commercial facilities, and has 
become the centre of an extensive commerce with the Western States ; of its 
industrial resources we have referred to in full. The extent of its iron 
manufactories has given it the appellation of the " Iron City," while the heavy 
pall of smoke that constantly overhangs it, produced by burning bituminous coal 
in all the dwelling-houses and manufacturing establishments, has caused it to be 
styled the "Smoky City." Smithfield street is the principal business thorough- 
fare, and trade is very active in Penn and Liberty streets and Fifth avenue, 
which contain many handsome retail stores. Among the public buihUngs are 
the municipal hall, corner of Smithfield and Virgin streets, costing seven 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, with a granite front and a massive central 
tower ; the Court House, a solid stone edifice, corner of Fifth avenue and Grant 
street, with a columned portico, and surmounted by a dome ; the custom house 







=r 0*°^' 



CITY HALL, PITTSBURGH. 



326 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



and post office, a commodious structure of stone, corner of Smithfield street and 
Fifth avenue; and the United States Arsenal, a group of spacious buildings 
standing in the midst of ornamental grounds in the northeast section of the city. 
The new and elegant building of the Mercantile Library is in Penn street; it cost 
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and contains fifteen thousand volumes 
and a well supplied reading-room ; the Young Men's Christian Association has a 
good reading-room at the corner of Penn and Sixth streets. There are in the city 
two theatres, an Opera House, an Academy of Music, and several public halls. 
The Western University, founded in 1819, has a handsome building in the south- 
east part of the city, near the Monongahela, and in 18t6 had seventeen 
instructors and two hundred and fifty-two students; it has a library of twenty- 
five liundred volumes, extensive philosophical and chemical apparatus, and a 




WESTEKN PENITENTIARY, ALIiEGHENY CITY. 



cabinet containing over ten thousand specimens in geology, mineralogy, 
conchology, and zoology. The Pittsburgh Female College (Methodist) is a 
flourishing institution. Several of the public school buildings are large and 
substantial. Among the principal charitable institutions within the limits of 
the city, are the City General Hospital, the Homoeopathic Hospital and Dispen- 
sary'', the Mercy Hos])ital, the Episcopal Church Home, and the Roman Catholic 
Orphan Asylum. The Convent of the Sisters of Mere}' is the oldest house of 
the order in America. 

The Western penitentiarj'^, in the ancient Norman style, situated on Ohio 
street, Sherman avenue, and West Park, Allegheny City, was erected by authority 
of the Legislature of March 8, 1818. It was completed for occupancy about 
1827, and cost over half a million dollars. It was originally intended to be con- 
ducted on the solitary confinement principle, but recently the " congregate " 
system lias been adopted. 



ALLEGHENY COUNTY. 327 

The Western Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane is at Dixmont. It is 
properly a private institution, although the State has constructed the buildings, 
which are capable of accommodating over four hundred patients, and otherwise 
aided it. The area of the grounds connected with it is three hundred and fifty 
acres. The buildings cost half a million dollars. Indigent insane have by law 
the preference of " paying " patients. 

The Western Reform school located at Morganza on the Pittsburgh and 
Washington railroad has recently been completed. It is designed for incorrig- 
ible or vagrant girls and boys. The ground and buildings cost half a million 
dolhirs. One main building for boys and another for girls. This institution is 
hereafter to bo conducted on the family system. The entire arrangement when 
in full operation will make it the finest institution on this plan in the United 
States. It is managed by a board of trustees, of which Thomas J. Bigham is 
president — appointed by the Governor. 

Besides the foregoing public institutions there are several other establishments 
of similar character — Allegheny City poor-house at Claremont, seven miles from 
the city; City farm for Pittsburgh, situated on the left bank of the Monongahela 
about two miles above the cit}^ limits, containing 149 acres, and extensive build- 
ings ; Allegheny county home, situated near Chartiers' Valley railroad about 
seven miles from Pittsburgh, on a farm of two hundred and five acres ; 
and the Allegheny count}' workhouse, situated on the right bank of the 
Allegheny, about seven miles above Allegheny Cit\'-, at Claremont station. West 
Pennsylvania railroad, on fifty acres of land. The latter institution has been 
self-sustaining. It has been under the superintendence of Henry Cordier, who 
has been the most successful in managing an institution for stubborn persons. 

Allegheny City is situated on the west bank of the Allegheny river, 
opposite Pittsburgh, with which it is connected by several fine bridges. Its 
manufacturing interests are large, and the elegant residences of many Pittsburgh 
merchants may be seen here occupying commanding positions. The city has 
now a population of 15,000. The City Hall is on the square at the crossing of 
Ohio and Federal streets, and the Allegheny Library is close by. Theological 
Seminary (Presbyterian) was establislied here in 1827. It is situated on a lofty 
insulated ridge 100 feet above the river, and affords a magnificent prospect. 
The Tiieological Seminary of the United Presbyterian Church, established in 
1826, and the Allegheny Theological Institute, organized in 1840 by the synod of 
the Reformed Presbyterian Church, are also located here. The Allegheny Observ- 
atory, situated on an elevated site north of the city, is a department of the 
Western University of Pittsburgh. The Public Park lies around the centre of 
tbe city; it contains 100 acres, and is adorned with several tiny lakelets and a 
monument to Humboldt. On a lofty crest near the Allegheny, in the east part 
of the city, stands the Soldiers' Monument, erected to the memory of the 4,000 
men of Allegheny county wlio lost their lives in the civil war. It consists of 
a graceful column, surrounded at the base with statues of an infantry man, a 
cavalryman, an artillerist, and a sailor, and surmounted by a bronze female 
figure of colossal size. 

MgKeesport is laid out upon a wide plain which affords ample room for 
a large city. Situated at the junction of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny 



328 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

rivers, it enjoys the business derived from the extensive coal trade on both 
streams, and under its influence has increased rapidly in population and wealth. 
The town is well laid out with fine wide streets, and a large proportion of the 
houses are well constructed of brick. The population numbers now about 
12,000; in 1842 it had only 500. It is one of the principal stations of the 
Pittsburgh and Connellsville railroad, and by that road and its connections its 
inhabitants have easy access to all the Eastern and Western cities. Surrounded 
on all sides by a fine basin of coal, and possessed of superior advantages by 
either the Monongahela slack- water or the railroad for transportation to any of 
the cities of the United States, it is a choice spot for the location of manu- 
facturers of such articles as find their market elsewhere than at the places where 
they are made. The near access which is had from this point to the fine iron ores 
and forests which abound further up the valley of the Youghioglien}', the supe- 
riority of the coal, its abundance and low cost, with the transportation 
advantages before mentioned, seem to point out this location as one in which 
must eventually gather a large number and variety of manufacturing in metals 
and wood. Perhaps no other town in Western Pennsylvania has so many 
elements of future growth. The close of the present century may show a city 
of 40,000 inhabitants. 

East and Wkst Elizabeth boroughs are six miles above McKeesport — one 
on each side of the Monongahela river. They have in a less degree the same 

elements as McKeesport. Population nearl}^ 5,000 Braddock 

borough is on the north bank of the Monongahela river, located upon the site 
of the famous battle ground of July 9, 1755, known in history as the defeat of 
Braddock. This town is situated eight miles above Pittsburgh and four miles 
below McKeesport, and receives the overflow from both points. The Pennsylvania 
and Baltimore and Ohio railroads both pass through it. Though only commenced 
as a village some eight years since, it has already a population of over 5,000. 
The Edgar Thompson steel works for the manufacture of steel rails, in successful 
operation, is located here The boroughs of Etna and Sharps- 
burgh, five or six miles above Pittsburgh on the Allegheny river, contain a 
population of some 10,000, chiefly engaged in the manufacture of iron. The 
offices are in Pittsburgh, but the mills are located in these boroughs. The 
furnaces of the Isabella company consume immense quantities of iron ore, chiefly 
brought from the Lake Superior region. Three rolling mills are also located here. 

The borough of Tarentum, twelve miles above, is also of late 

growing into importance. Population about 3,000 Natrona 

borough, some three miles above, is the result of the Pennsylvania Salt Manu- 
facturing company. This company produces several important products, and have 
built up a village of 2,000 inhabitants, chiefly employed in its industrial depart- 
ments Commencing about seven miles below Pittsburgh, on the 

north side of the Ohio river, the villages of Dixmont, Haysville, Sewickly, and 
Lutsdale, dot the line of the Chicago railway. These are the dwelling-places 
of Pittsburghers whose days are spent in the city and nights in these villages. 
They cover a space of some eight miles, and probably include a population of 

10,000 Mansfield, and its suburbs on the line of the Pan-Handle 

railroad, six miles south of Pittsburgh, is an important mining, and will become 



ALLEGHENY COUNTY. 



3 2 'J 



a manufacturing point. Tlie Cliavtiers' Valley railroad connects this village 
with Washington, Pennsylvania, and the Pan-Handle railroad with Cincinnati 
and St. Louis. The development of coal mines along the route of these two 
railroads is likely in the near future to build up a large mining and manufactu- 
ring population, with Mansfield as its centre. 



POPULATION OF PENNSYLVANIA BY COUNTIES— 1790 to 1870. 



COUNTIES. 


1790. 


1800. 


1810. 


1820. 


1830. 


1840. 


1850. 


1860. 


1870. 


Aflams 




13,172 

15,087 

2, 399 

5,776 

12,039 

32,407 


15.152 
25,317 
6,143 
12,168 
15,746 
43,146 


19,370 
34,921 
10,324 
15.340 
20,248 
46,275 


21,379 

50,552 
17,701 
24,183 
24,502 
53, 152 


23,044 
81.235 
28,365 
29,368 
29,335 
64,569 


25,981 
138,290 
29,560 
26,689 
23,052 
77,129 
21,777 
42,831 
30,346 
56,1191 
17,773 


28,006 
178,831 
35,797 
29,140 
26,736 
93,818 
27,829 
48,734 
35,594 
63,578 
29, 155 


30,315 

262,204 
43,382 
36, 143 
29,6:i5 

106,7111 
38,051 
53 '•04 


Allpirhpn V 


10,309 




Ucjiver 




Bedtoid 


13, 124 

30, 179 


Kyrks 


Blair 


Hradford 








11,554 

10, 193 

37,842 

3,287 


19,746 
14,681 
45,745 
. 7,076 


32,769 
22,378 
48,107 
11,256 


Butler 




3,916 
27, 496 


7,346 

32,371 

2,117 


36,510 
64 336 


Bucks 


25,401 


(yfinihrin. 


36,569 
4.273 






















15,686 
23,355 
66,438 
23,565 
12,586 
11,207 
17,710 
37,849 
34,327 
35,754 
24,679 

3,531 
38,742 
39, 112 
39,904 

7,567 


21,033 
27,000 
74,578 
24,988 
18,759 
17,723 
25,065 
48,755 
40,098 
46,756 
30,597 

5,915 
49,432 
39,909 
42,126 

9,131 
898 
24,343 
28, 100 
33,687 
18,270 
16,980 
116,314 
22,999 
31,831 
-3,7.53 
10,244 
: 7,399 

8,8.59 
36,856 
16,340 
16,758 
70,600 
13.053 
47,904 
28,922 
22,793 
565,529 

7,165 
11,470 
89,510 
26,778 
15,03.5 

5.637 
36,267 
31,044 
14,145 
25,043 
19,190 
46.805 
32,239 
53,736 
12,540 
68,200 


28 144 


(Jeiitre 


7,562 
27,937 


33,609 
32,093 


10,681 
39,596 


13,796 
44,451 


18,879 
50,910 


20,492 
57,615 


34,418 

77,805 
26 537 




Clarion 


Clearfield 






875 


2,342 


4,803 


7,834 
8,323 
24,267 
31,724 
30,953 
30,118 
19,791 


25,741 
23 211 


Clinton 






Columbia ...... .•• 








17,621 
9,-397 
23,606 
21,653 
14,810 


20,6.59 
16,030 
29,226 
25,243 
17,323 


28 766 






2,346 

25, .386 
22,270 
12,809 


6,178 
26,7.57 
31,883 
14,734 


63,832 
43,912 
60,740 
39,403 

8,488 


Ciiiiihprland 


18,243 

18, 177 

9,483 


Dauphin 




Elk 


Erie 




i,468 
20,159 
19,638 


3,758 
24,714 

23,083 


8,541 
27,285 
31,892 


17,041 
29, 172 
35,037 


31,344 
33,574 
37,793 


65,973 


Fayetie 


13,325 
15,655 


43,284 


Franklin 


45.365 


Fulton. 


9,360 
4,010 


Forest 














Cxreene 




8,605 
13,003 


12,544 

14,778 

6,214 

161 


15,554 

20,139 

8,882 

561 


18,028 
27,145 
14,252 

2,025 


15,147 
35,484 
20,782 
7,253 
11,080 
84,203 


22,136 
24,786 
27,170 
13,518 
13,029 
98,944 
21,079 
26,071 
32,479 
56,072 
26,2.57 
5,254 
■33, 172 
14,980 
13,270 
58,291 
13,239 
40,235 
23.272 
20,088 
408,762 
5,881 
6,048 
60,713 
24,416 


25,887 


Hun tinirdon 


7,565 


31,251 
36,138 










21,656 


Juniata 






17,390 


Laucaster 

Lawrence 


36,147 


43,403 


53,927 


67,975 


76,631 


121,340 

27,298 


Lebauou 








16,975 
18,895 
20,027 
13,517 
728 
11,681 
16,618 


20,557 
22,256 
27,379 
17,636 
1,439 
19,729 
21,690 


21,872 
25,787 
44,006 
22,649 

2,975 
32,873 
13,092 

9,879 
47,241 


34,(196 


Lehigh 








56,796 




4,904 


12,839 
5,414 


18,109 

11,006 

142 

8,277 

12,132 


160,915 


Lvcouiiiig 


47,626 


M'Kean 




8,825 


Mercer 




3,228 


49,977 


Mifflin 




17.. 508 


Monroe 






18,362 




22,929 


24,150 


29,703 


35,793 


39,406 


81,612 


Montour « 


15,344 


Northampton 

Northumberland 

Herry 


24.250 
17,161 


.30,062 
27,797 


38, 145 
36,327 


31,765 

15,424 

11,284 

135,637 

2,890 

186 

11.311 

13,974 


39,482 

18, 133 

14,261 

188,797 

4,843 

1,265 

20,744 

17,762 


40,996 

20,027 

17,096 

258,037 

3,832 

3,371 

29,053 

19,650 


61,432 
41,444 

25,447 


Philadelphia 


54,391 


81,009 


111,210 


674,022 


[•ike 


8,4.36 


Potter 






29 


11,265 


Schuylkill 






116,428 


Somerset 




10,188 


11,284 


28,226 


Snyder .... 




15,6(16 


Sullivan 














3,694 
28,688 
23,987 
26.083 
18,310 
13,671 
44,939 
21,890 
51,726 
10,6.55 
57,450 


6,191 


Susq uehaniia 








9.960 
4.021 

18,619 
4,915 
1,976 

40,038 
4,127 

30,540 


16,787 
8,978 

20,795 
9,470 
4,697 

42,784 
7,663 

38,400 


21, 195 
15, 498 
22,787 
17,900 
9,278 
41.279 
11,848 
42,699 


37,523 


Tioga 






1,687 


35.097 


Union 






15.566 


Venango 




1,130 
233 

28,298 

2,562 

22,726 


3,060 

827 

36,289 

4.125 
26,392 


47,925 


Waiien 




23,897 


Washington 


23,866 


48,483 


Wayne 


33, 188 


W est moreland 

Wyoming 


16,018 


58,719 
14,585 


York 


37,747 


25,643 


31,958 


38,747 


42,859 


47.010 


76,134 






Totals 


434,373 


602,305 


810,091 


1,047,507 


1,348,233 


1,721,033 


2,311,786 


2,906,215 


3, 21,951 







ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 



BY A. D. 



GLENN, EDDYVILLE. 




RMSTRONG county was formed by the act of 12th of March, 1800, 
from parts of Lycoming, Westmoreland, and Allegheny. It 
received its name from General John Armstrong, who commanded 
the expedition against the Indians at Kittanning in 1T56. In 1802 
commissioners were appointed to locate the county seat, and upon their report 
in 1804 the present site was laid out. James Sloan, James Mathews, and 

Alexander Walker were 
appointed the first commis- 
sioners to locate the county 
seat and organize the coun- 
ty, but the latter declined 
to sei've. The county was 
full3'- organized for judicial 
purposes in 1805. Since 
the establishment of the 
county, its size has been 
considerably curtailed by 
the formation of Clarion. 
Average length, 25 miles ; 
breadth, 25 miles; area, 
about 625 square miles. 
It is bounded on the north 
by Clarion, on the east by 
Jefferson and Indiana, on 
the south by Westmore- 
land, and on the west by 
Butler. The surface of 
the county is diversified, 
particularly those parts lying adjacent to 




AEMSTRONG COUNTY PUBLIC BUILDINGS 

[From a Photograph by Shadle, Kittanning.] 



hilly. 



but generally rolling or 
streams of water. 

The Allegheny river is the largest stream of water flowing through the 
county. It forms the eastern boundary of a narrow strip of territory belonging 
to Armstrong countj^, extending from above Parker to the mouth of Redbank 
creek, where the Allegheny river first enters the county, flowing a distance of 
about thirty-six miles through the county, separating it into two somewhat 
unequal parts, and passing out of the county at the confluence of the Kiski- 
minetas. It was considered by both the aborigines and the French as identical 
with the Ohio, and the Monongahela an affluent. 0-hee-o in the Seneca, and Alle- 
gheny in the Delaware language, having the same signification, /atr water — hence 

330 



ABMSTBONG COUNTY. 331 

the French name, La Belle Riviere. Before the construction of the Allegheny 
Valley railroad, this river afforded by means of steamboats an easy and rapid 
transit between various towns along the river, but tiie days of steamboats are 
past on this river except those used in towing oil barges. The Kiskiminetas 
river forms the southern boundary of the county empt^^ing into the Allegheny 
one mile north of Freeport, The Pennsylvania canal passed along this river and 
was fed by it, but now canal, aqueduct, and dams, are among things of the past 
— the use of the canal being superseded by the more rapid means of transit 
afforded b}- the West Pennsylvania railroad. Redbank creek forms the northern 
boundary. Mahoning creek, formerly called by the Indians Mohulbucteetam, 
enters the count}' near Milton, separating Wayne and Redbank townships, 
flowing through Mahoning township separating Madison and Pine, falls into the 
Allegheny river ten miles north of Kittanning. Crooked creek rises in Indiana 
county, flows in a westerly direction and empties into the Allegheny five miles 
below Kittanning. It is exceedingly crooked, hence its name. Cowanshannoc, 
Pine, Buffalo, Plum, Sugar, and Bear creeks, all tributaries of the Allegheny, 
with numerous smaller streams, furnish abundant water. 

In addition to water ti'ansportation there are three railroads: the Allegheny 
Valley, which extends along the left or eastern bank of the Allegheny river ; the 
West Pennsylvania, which passes along the southern boundary, but on the 
opposite side of the Kiskiminetas river ; the Low Grade Division of the 
Allegheu}' Valley railroad, which passes along the northern boundary, but on 
the north side of Redbank creek. 

Bituminous coal is found in all parts of the county; the usual thickness of tie 
vein being about four feet. Very extensive coal works are in operation in 
Mahoning township, about one and a half miles from the borough of New 
Bethlehem, in Clarion count}', and the same distance from the Low Grade 
Division of the Alleghenj' Valley railroad, with which it is connected by a 
branch road constructed by the Redbank Mining Land coal compau}'. The prin- 
cipal vein consists of cannel coal, with an average thickness of nine feet. Operations 
were commenced in LS70, but no coal was shipped until 1872. The coal is of an 
excellent qualit}', and is forwaided to all the eastern cities. It is said there are 
but four other veins of similar coal in the United States. Thirty-eight thousand 
tons have been shipped the last two years (1874-75). In addition to this vein 
of cannel coal, the company own two veins of bituminous coal, one four feet, 
the other three feet nine inches; all three in 70 feet perpendicular of the hill. 
The capacity of the works is three hundred tons per day. A somewhat similar 
vein to this is found on the Thompson farm in Redbank township; it is about 
six feet. Another extensive works the Mahoning Coal company is operating 
at the mouth of Mahoning on the Allegheny Valley railroad. It has bitumi- 
nous coal alone. 

Iron ore is found in the creeks and river hills in the northern part of 
the county. Caldwell's and Stewartson's furnaces on Mahoning, and Pine creek 
furnace on Pine creek, are now (1876) in operation. These produce pig iron, as 
also did Monticello at the mouth of Cowanshannoc, but it has ceased operations. 

That part of the county lying north of Brady's Bend and between Butler 
county and the Allegheny river, is included in what is generally termed " The 



232 SIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Lower Oil Fields." The first attempt to develop the oil resources of this 
territory were made in 1860 by Thomas McCouncll, W. D. Robinson, Smith K. 
Campbell, and Colonel J, B. Findlay, of Kittanning, but oil was not "struck" 
until October, 1865. The following account of the drilling of the first well at 
Parker's Landing is taken from Henry's " History of Petroleum : " 

" In the winter of 1864-5 the oil excitements of the upper and lower Oil 
creek regions were at their height, and Mr. William D. Robinson very earnestly 
conceived the idea that oil deposits existed in the region of his third of a century's 
residence. He had examined and carefully noted the then generally received 
opinion of "surface indications," and soon reached the conviction that oil could 
be found there. He purchased thirty-six acres of the old homestead farm, lying 
on the Allegheny river and now forming a portion of Parker's Landing. This 
thirty-six acres of land he made the basis of a stock company. In the spring of 
1865 he commenced his first well under the auspices of this company, and this 
was the first oil-well drilled at Parker^s Landing. The embarrassment attending 
the first eff'ort to find oil at Parker's Landing may be estimated by those familiar 
with new territory. All the machinery for the well had to be boated from Pitts- 
burgh or Oil City, and there was neither derrick nor development between these 
two points, fifty and sixty miles from a machine shop, if a break occurred. 
Pittsburgh, Oil City, or Titusville, were the nearest points for repairs. It 
required the entire summer of 1865 — nearly six months — to complete this well. 
In October, 1865, the sand pump brought up the unmistakable evidence of a 
' third sand ' or oil-rock. The well was tubed and started oflf at about ten barrels 
per day. It averaged the first year nineteen barrels per day, and oil was sold 
from it during its first two or three months' production at eight dollars per 
barrel. The well continued to produce for a long time, and was a source of much 
profit to the company." 

This was the beginning of the oil development, but afterwards the hills 
around Parker became dotted over with derricks, and a vast quantity of the 
oleaginous fiuid has been obtained. Large wells were afterwards struck in Perry 
township, at Armstrong run, near Queenstown, and on the head-waters of Pine 
run. There was a burning well at the latter place. On both runs towns were 
rapidly built, but soon disappeared when the oil territory gave out. At 
Armstrong run a school-house was built for the use of the new town, and by the 
close of the first term the town had mostly been removed and the school-house 
itself emigrated to a different locality. 

In former years considerable salt was manufactured in the county, but at 
present nearly all the works have ceased to manufacture. Salt water at various 
depths is found in different sections. A vein of what is supposed to be 
roofing-slate has been discovered in Redbank township. Limestone has been 
found in all parts of the county. According to a tradition of the Cornplanter 
Indians, a lead mine on the Mahoning creek was known to their fathers. So 
strong are they in this belief, some thirty years since they sent two of their 
number to find the mine, but without success. 

The site of Kittanning was originally occupied by an Indian village of that 
name. From this point a path crossed the mountains to Black Log valley, 
Standing Stone (now Huntingdon), and other places in the central part of the 



ARMSTBONG COUNTY. 333 

State, along which the Indians passed to and fro. It was to this place that in 
September, 1756, the expedition of General John Armstrong was sent, the details 
of which, resulting in the destruction of the town and the overthrow of the 
Indians, we have previously given. Subsequently, in 1180, another fierce encounter 
with the natives took place within the limits of the county at Mahoning, ten miles 
distant from Kittanning. At this period General Brodhead was in command of 
Fort Pitt, and Captain Samuel Brady was frequently sent out with a scouting 
party into the Indian country north and west of the fort to watch the movements 
of the savages. Captain Brady was a native of Cumberland county, born in 1758, 
but soon after removed with his father to the West Branch of Susquehanna, a 
few miles above Northumberland. Cradled amid the alarms and excitements of 
a frontier exposed to savage warfare, Brady's military propensities were very early 
developed. He eagerly sought a post in the Revolutionary army ; was at the 
siege of Boston; a lieutenant at the massacre of the Paoli; and in 1779 was 
ordered to Fort Pitt with the regiment under General Brodhead. A short time 
previous to this both his father and brother had fallen by the hands of Indians ; 
and from that moment Brady took a solemn oath of vengeance against all Indians, 
and his future life was devoted to the fulfilment of his vow. His success as a 
partisan had acquired for him its usual results — approbation with some, and env}^ 
with others. Some of his brother officers censured the commandant for affordino- 
him such frequent opportunities for honorable distinction. At length open com- 
plaint was made, accompanied by a request, in the nature of a demand, that others 
should be permitted to share with Brady the perils and honors of the service 
abroad from the fort. The General apprised Brady of what had passed, who 
readily acquiesced in the propriet}' of the proposed arrangements, and an oppor- 
tunity was not long wanting for testing its efficiency. The Indians made an 
inroad into the Sewickl}' settlement, committing the most barbarous murders of 
men, women, and children ; stealing such propert}' as was portable, and destroy- 
ing all else. The alarm was brought to Pittsburgh, and a party of soldiers, under 
the command of the emulous officers, despatched for the protection of the settle- 
ments, and chastisement of the foe. From this expedition Brady was of course 
excluded ; but the restraint was irksome to his feelings. The da}' after the 
detachment had marched, 'Brady solicited permission from his commander to take 
a small party for the purpose of "catching the Indians;" but was refused. By 
dint of importunit}', however, he at length wrung from him a reluctant consent, 
and the command of five men; to this he added his pe^ Indian, and made hasty 
preparation. Instead of moving towards Sewickly, as the first detachment had 
done, he crossed the Allegheny at Pittsburgh, and proceeded up the river. Con- 
jecturing that the Indians had descended that stream in canoes, till near the 
settlement, he was careful to examine the moutlis of all creeks coming into it, 
particularly from the south-east. At the mouth of the Big Mahoning, about six 
miles above Kittanning, the canoes were seen drawn up to its western bank. 
He instantly retreated down the river, and waited for night. As soon as it was 
dark, he made a raft, and crossed to the Kittanning side. He then proceeded 
up to the creek, and found that the Indians had, in the meantime, crossed the 
stream, as their canoes were drawn to its upper or north-eastern bank. 

The country on both sides of Mahoning, at its moutli, is rough and moun- 



334 HIiiTOliy OF P^I^NSYLVANLA. 

tainous; and the stream, which was then high, very rapid. Several ineffectual 
attempts were made to wade it, which they at length succeeded in doing, three 
or four miles above the canoes. Next a fire was made, their clothing dried, and 
arms inspected ; and the party moved towards the Indian camp, which was pitched 
on the second bank of the river. Brady placed his men at some distance, on the 
lower or first bank. The Indians had brought from Sewickly a stallion, which 
they had fettered and turned to pasture on the lower bank. An Indian, probably 
the owner under the law of arvis, came frequently down to him, and occasioned 
the party no little trouble. The horse, too, seemed willing to keep their com- 
pany, and it required considerable circumspection to avoid all intercourse with 
either. Brady became so provoked that he had a strong inclination to tomaliawk 
the Indian, but his calmer judgment repudiated the act, as likely to put to hazard 
a more decisive and important achievement. At length the Indians seemed quiet, 
and the Captain determined to pay them a closer visit. He had got quite near 
their fires ; his pet Indian had caught him by the hair and gave it a pluck, 
intimating the advice to retire, which he would not venture to whisper; but 
findino- Brady regardless of it, had crawled off — when the Captain, who was 
scanning their numbers and the position of their guns, observed one throw off 
his blanket and rise to his feet. It was altogether impracticable for Brady to 
move without being seen. He instantly decided to remain where he was, and risk 
what might happen. He drew his head slowly beneath the brow of the bank, 
putting his forehead to the earth for concealment. His next sensation was that 
of warm water poured into the hollow of his neck, as from the spout of a 
teapot, which, trickling down his back over the chilled skin, produced a feeling 
that even his iron nerves could scarce master. He felt quietly for his tomahawk, 
and had it been about him he probably would have used it ; but he had divested 
himself even of that when preparing to approach the fires, lest by striking 
against the stones or gravel, it might give an alarm. He was compelled, there- 
fore, nolens voleas, to submit to this very unpleasant operation, until it should 
please his warriorship to refrain, which he soon did, and returning to his place 
wrapped himself up in his blanket, and composed himself for sleep as if nothing 
had happened. Brady returned to and posted his men, and in the deepest silence 
all awaited the break of day. When it appeared, the Indians arose and stood 
around their fires, exulting, doubtless, in the scalps they had taken, the plunder 
they had acquired, and the injury they had infiicted on their enemies. Preca- 
rious joy — short-lived triumph! The avenger of blood was beside them I At 
a signal given, seven rifles cracked, and five Indians were dead ere they fell. 
Brady's well-known war-cry was heard, his party was among them, and their guns 
(mostly empty) were all secured. The remaining Indians instantly fled and 
disappeared. One was pursued by the tyace of his blood, which he seems to have 
succeeded in staunching. The pet Indian then imitated the cry of a young wolf, 
which was answered by the wounded man, and the pursuit again renewed. A 
second time the wolf cry was given and answered, and the pursuit continued into 
a windfall. Here he must have espied his pursuers, for he answered no more. 
Brady found his remains there three weeks afterwards, being led to the place by 
ravens that were preying on the carcass. The horse was unfettered, the plunder 
gathered, and the party commenced their return to Pittsburgh, most of them 



AEMSTEONG C GUILTY. 335 

descending in the Indian canoes. Three .days after their return, the first detach- 
ment came. They reported that they had followed the Indians closely, but that 
the latter had got into their canoes and made their escape. 

It was not therefore until the danger of savage encroachments ceased, almost 
the close of the century, that settlements were made within the present limits of 
Armstrong county. The land in the neighborhood of Kittanning remained in 
possession of the Armstrong family; and when the establishment of the county 
was proposed, Dr. Armstrong, of Carlisle, a son of the General, made a donation 
of the site of the town to the county, on condition of receiving one-half of the 
proceeds of the sales of lots. Robert Brown and David Reynolds were among 
the first who erected dwellings at the old Indian town. The former went there 
in 1198, with several hunters. He first settled on the opposite bank of the 
river. At that time there were very few settlers in the region. Jeremiah 
Lougher^^, an old frontiersman, who had been in Armstrong's expedition, lingered 
around the place for many years. He had no family-, and wandered from house 
to house, staying all night with people, and repaying their hospitality with 
anecdotes of his adventures. The early settlers of that day found it necessary 
to be alwa3'S prepared for Indian warfare, and for hunting the beasts of the forest ; 
indeed, tlieir character generally throughout the surrounding region was a 
mixture of the frontiersman, the hunter, and the agriculturist. All wore 
hunting shirts, and went barefoot, or wore moccasins. 

The early pioneers were from the eastern sections of the State, many of them 
Germans who, through their thrift and frugality, soon transformed the wilderness 
into a garden of beauty. Upon the treaty of Fort Mcintosh, peace spread her 
benign influence over the forests and fields of Armstrong, and the peaceable 
pursuits of the agriculturist gave confidence to emigration, and gradually, without 
any of those incidents that comprise an eventful history of a locality, Armstrong 
county has progressed in all the essentials which go to make up an influential 
community — population, enterprise, industry, and wealth. 

Until after the lapse of almost three-quarters of a century, little of moment 
transpired within the limits of the county to be placed on record. Then the 
great civil conflict created such a powerful revulsion in popular feeling that Arm- 
strong county presents its history in the great Rebellion. During that struggle 
she performed her duty nobly. Captain William Sirwell organized a company 
of three months' men, and was mustered in as Company 13, 9th Regiment Penn- 
sylvania volunteers, at Ilarrisburg, April 22, 1861. In the same year a camp 
was formed on the old fair-ground on the banks of the Allegheny river immedi- 
ately above Kittanning. It was named Camp Orr, after General Robert Orr, an 
old and prominent citizen of the county. There were two regiments (three-years' 
men) and a company of cavalry recruited at this camp. The first regiment, 78th 
Pennsylvania volunteer infantry, under the command of Colonel Sirwell, left 
Kittanning on the 14th of October, 1861, arriving in Pittsburgh that afternoon. 
On the 18th of October, accompanied by the 7Tth and 70th regiments, Pennsyl- 
vania volunteers, and Muehler's battery of artillery, under command of General 
James S. Negley, they moved to Louisville, Kentucky, via the Ohio river. From 
Louisville they moved south along the Louisville and Nashville railroad, first 
camping nearNolin creek. The 78th was attached to the army of the rurnbr,- 



336 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

land, iind so remained till the close of its term of service, when It returned 
to Kittanniug to be mustered out. This regiment participated in many engage- 
ments, and made for itself a highly honorable record. Of this regiment 
Companies B, F, G, 1, and K, were from Armstrong county. 

The second regiment, 103d Pennsylvania volunteers, left Camp Orr for 
Harrisburg, on the 24th of February, 1862. This regiment, under command of 
Colonel Theodore F. Lehman, joined the army of the Potomac, but was subse- 
quently sent further south, sutfered severely through sickness in camp, death in 
battle, and starvation in Southern prisons. But a small percentage of the 
regiment ever returned. Only one entire company (Captain Hamilton's) belong- 
ing to this regiment was recruited in Armstrong county, though a large number 
of the men in several of the other companies were citizens of Armstrong. 

The following fully organized companies served in different regiments : 
Company M, 2nd Pennsylvania cavalry; Company D, 62nd Pennsylvania 
infantry; Companies B and C, and part of E and F, 139th infantry ; Company 
K, I4th cavalry ; Battery No. 204 (5th heavy artillery) ; and Company H of 
the 10th, and Companies A and G, 22nd militia (1862). Besides these there 
were a great many of the citizens of the county scattered in different regiments 
of this and other States. 

Since that period little of moment has transpired, save the excitement and 
incidents due to the discovery and development of oil. 

KiTTANNiNG, the county seat, is situated on the left bank of the Allegheny 
river, forty-five miles north-east of Pittsburgh. It is pleasantly located on the 
bottom land adjoining the river. Kittanning was laid out in 1804, and incorp-^ra- 
ted as a borough in 1821. It contains the usual county buildings, one of which 
— the jail — deserves special mention. The jail and sheriff's house are built 
together, the entire length being 114 feet by 50 feet in width. The jail is 
two stories in height, contains twenty-four cells, each 8x14, 13 feet in height, 
hall 18x68. A cast-iron balustrade three feet in width projects from the second 
tier of cells and extends entirely around the hall. The sheriff's house contains 
nine rooms, including dining-room and kitchen ; flooring of 3'ellow-pine, doors 
four inches thick, made of oak with boiler-iron between firmly bolted together ; 
the windows are protected by H inches round iron. The foundations — seven 
feet in width — are sunk to the solid rock twenty-four feet below the surface. The 
entire structure, including cornice, window caps, and tower, are of fine-cut stone 
from the Catfish quarry in Clarion county. The sheriff's house is furnished with 
all the modern improvements — bath-rooms on both floors, gas, and hot and cold 
water throughout the building. The cupola rises 108 feet from the ground. 
James McCullough, Jr., of Kittanning, was the architect, and superintended 
the erection of the building. It was erected in 1 870-73 at a cost of $268,000. 
From its cost and color it has been euphoniously dubbed the " "White Elephant." 
The court house is a plain, substantial structure. 

The Brady's Bend (or Great Western, as it was formally called) iron works 
arc situated on the right bank of the Allegheny, twenty-five nailes above Kittan- 
nina:. The rolling-mill is on the river at the mouth of the creelr the furnaces 
about a mile up the stream. Their lands and the village built thereon stretches 
out three or four miles up the valley of the Sugar creek and its branches. A rail- 



ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 



337 



road extends from the depot of the Allegheny Valley railroad in East Brady, on 
the opposite side of the river, three miles up the Sugar creek ; another runs from 
the furnaces to the coke yard on the summit. On the former, locomotives draw 
the cars ; on the latter, the empty cars are drawn to the top by horse-power, which 
return loaded by the force of gravitation. There was a population of about 
8,000 here at one time, and about $400,000 paid out annually to employees, but 
for some cause — probably the reduction in price of railroad iron — the company 
fiiiled, and the works at present stand idle. The place affords, when the works 
are in operation, an excellent home-market for produce. The place derives its 
name from a large bend in the river named after Captain Samuel Brady, who had 
an encounter with Indians near the present site of the rolling-mill. This seems 
to be the southern limit of the lower oil fields, as oil has never been found south 
of thi,5 point in the county. About a mile north of the furnaces, up a dee}) ravine, 
is the borough of Queenstown, a smart village which has received quite an 
imi)etus from the discovery of oil within and adjoining the borough limits. 

Manorville, about one mile below Kittanning on the Allegheny river, with a 
population of 330, has an oil refinery, tannery, brick works, and an extensive 

lime-stone quarrj^ Wortiiington is situated six miles west of 

Kittanning, on the Butler turnpike. Near it are the Buffalo woolen-mills, a 
tannery, and some minor enterprises. 

Parker City is situated on the Allegheny river, eighty-two miles north of 
Pittsburgh, and is the centre of the Armstrong, Butler, and Clarion county oil 
regions. During the years 1818 to 1822, when the Bear creek furnace was built, 
quite a flourishing town grew up in the part now known as the Second ward ; it 
was then, and until the incorporation of Parker City, known as Lawrenceburg. 
When this furnace blew out about 1840, the town rapidly disappeared until only 
two or three houses remained. About the year 1869 the part known as the First 
ward had but two or three dwellings. In this 3^ear the oil excitement began, and a 
town sprung up as if b}^ magic. These developments spread rapidly and people 
flocked to the place, and in 18*73 the town of Parker's Landing and borough of 
Lawrenceburg were incorporated under the name of the City of Parker. The 
Parkers were the original inhabitants, and owned the greater part of the land on 
which the city now stands. This family gave the city its name. It contains 
flve churches. Population about 3,500. The principal business is that of pro- 
ducing oil ; the traffic in petroleum is carried on at this place very largel}- ; 
the bulk of the vast product of the region is handled at this place. The first 
well was put down in 1805 by W. D. Robinson for the Clarion oil company, 
but not much was done until 1869. Parker is on the line of the Allegheny 
Valley railroad, and is the eastern terminus of the Parker and Karns City rail- 
road, a narrow gauge road running into the Butler comity oil regions. 

Freeport, situated on the west bank of the Allegheny river at the mouth oi 
Buff"alo creek, was laid out by David Todd, about the year 1800. The Penn- 
sylvania canal crossed the Allegheny about a mile above Freeport, at the 
confluence of the Kiskiminetas river, and passed through this town. It added 
much to its prosperity, but the closing of the canal gave Freeport a check, from 
which it has scarcely recovered. The West Pennsylvania railroad, crossing the 
river at the junction of the Kiskiminetas and Allegheny rivers, passes through 
w 



358 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Freeport ; also the Butler Branch railroad connects with the main line at this 
place. These improvements have aided somewhat in restoring its former vigor. 

Apollo is situated on the Kiskiminetas river, about ten miles from its 
confluence with the Allegheny. It was laid out in 1815, by William Johnston 
and J. R. Speer, and named Warren, after an old Indian chief of that name — 
the site of the village being called Warren's Sleeping Ground. The first 
settlers were Isaac McLaughlin, Robert Stewart, Abraham Ludwick, and 
Catharine Cochran, mother of ex-Judge Cochran. In 1848 it was incorporated 
as a borough, and its name changed to Apollo. Until 1827 the citizens of 
Apollo (or, as then called, Warren) had to go to Greensburg, Westmoreland 
county, or to Kittanning, Armstrong county, for their mail matter. In that 
year a post oflHce was established. Milton Dally was the first postmaster. The 
first store was kept by John Mcllvaine, the first hotel by Peter Risher. The 
cemetery is supposed to be located on an old Indian burjnng ground. Of the 
Indian chiefs who made this their stopping place the name of but one — 
Raughnewag — is remembered. The Pennsylvania canal passed through this 
town and aided much in building it up. The canal was permanently closed in 
1864. The town now possesses the facilities offered for transportation by the 
Western Pennsylvania railroad, which passes on the opposite side of the river. 
The present population is about 1,000. 

Leechburgh is situated on the Kiskiminetas river, seven miles from its mouth. 
It was settled about the opening of the Pennsylvania canal. After the canal 
was closed it seemed at a stand-still for several years, until Rogers & Burchfield, 
proprietors of the iron works in Apollo, started a works in this place. This gave 
the town new life, and it became quite a thrifty, enterprising village. A few 
years since, some parties desiring to test the territory for oil, drilled a well several 
rods from the Westmoreland end of the bridge. No oil was found, but a heavy 
flow of gas. This gas ran to waste for some time, but at length Messrs. Rogers 
& Burchfield, conceiving it might be utilized, conveyed it by means of iron 
pipes from the well across the bridge to their rolling-mill, and introduced 
under their furnaces. It was found to work admirably, and resulted in a large 
saving in fuel, not only famishing heat and light for the works, but a pipe 
projecting far above the roof of the establishment sends forth with great 
force a constant stream of gas, which burns night and da}^, illuminating the 
whole town. 

Dayton, a thriving village in Wayne township, is situated in the midst of a 
fine farming countr}'. The first settlers were Peter Kammerdinner, Jesse Cable, 
James M'Quown, Guyer & Laughlin, Dr. Goodheart, James Coleman, and 
Thomas H. Marshall. The town was never regularly laid out, but lots sold to 
suit purchasers. It was named about 1853 ; incorporated as a borough in 18Y3 ; 
present population, 575. Near to the limits of the borough is the Glade Run 
(Presbyterian) Church, and Glade Run Academ . Glade Rini and Dayton 
Academies were opened about twenty-five years ago. The Soldiers' Orphan 
school, established in 1866, is beautifull}^ situated on a small eminence over- 
looking the town and surrounding country, and near to a fine grove — belonging 
to the school lot — of natural forest trees. 

Elderton borough (formerly called Middletown) is situated on a high hill 



ABMSTRONG COUNTY. 



339 



just midway on the pike between Kittanning and Indiana, containing three 
churches, an academy-, school house, bank, several stores, two hotels, foundry, 
etc. It has an elevated and healthy location, and contains some fine private 
residences Wiiitesburgh post village, a small collection of houses, is on the 
pike five miles west of Elderton. Blanket Hill post office is about midway 
between Whitesburgh and Kittanning. 

Rural Village is situated on the Kittanning and Clearfield turnpike, twelve 
miles cast of Kittanning, in one of the healthiest and best grain-growing 
sections of the western part, of the State. It was settled in 1835 by John 
Patterson, Alexander Foster, Sr., Hamlet Totten, and others, and contains a 
population of 200. 

Middlesex (Cowansville post office), is situated eight miles from Kittanning, 
on the Brady's Bend road, and contains twenty or twenty-five dwellings. Its 
first residents were William McClatchy, Solomon Bruner, and R. G. Porterfield. 
The post office was established in 1848, through the influence of John Cowan, 
hence the name. The town was laid out by William McClatchy about 1850. 

Oakland (formerly called Texas) is nine miles from the mouth of Mahoning, 
on the Brookville road. It was settled o.bout 1843 by Joseph Baughman, 
Samuel Copenhaver, Isaac Sanderson, and William R. Sanderson, by whom it 
was laid out. 

PuTNEYViLLE was Settled by David Putney in 1834, and who now lives in 
the village at the advanced age of 85, At that time it was a laurel thicket. 
It is on Mahoning creek, about twenty miles from the county seat. Two miles 
above this, on Mahoning creek, is Eddyville post office, a small village. 

Slate Lick is located at the cross-roads leading from Kittanning to 
Pittsburgh, and from Freeport to Brady's Bend, in South Buffalo to-wnship. The 
place derived its name from a deer lick in the immediate vicinity. 




CENTENNIAL MEDAL — OBVERSE. 




BEAA^ER COUNTY. 

BY JAMES PATTERSON, BEAVER FALLS. 

EAYER COUNTY was erected March 12, 1800. It was formed out 
of parts of Allegheny and Washington counties. Jonathan Coulter, 
Joseph Hemphill, and Denny McClure, were named as commis- 
sioners for tlie erection of public buildings. Beaver town was 
named in the act as the county seat. 

The county was organized for judicial purposes April 2, 1803. The first 
court was held February 6, 1804, at the house of Abner Lacock, on tlie lot in 
whicli John Clark for many years kept a hotel. Jesse Moore was the first 
president judge ; Abner Lacock, John H. Kcdick, and Joseph Caldwell, were 
the first associates, and sat with Judge Moore. David Johnson was the first 
prothonotary, and was the first teacher in Canonsburg academy, July, 1791. 
Willinm Henry was the first sheriff. .Tudge Moore was succeeded by Samuel 
I\ol)erts, and he by William Wilkins; then came Charles Shaler, followed 
by John Bredin ; then Daniel Agnew, etc., etc. At the first term, 1804, 
the following named attornies were admitted to practice in Beaver county. "viz. : 
Alexander Addison, Thomas Collins, Steel Sample, A. W. Foster, John Bannis- 
ter Gibson, Sample S. King. Obediah Jennings, William Wilkins, Henry Haslet, 
James Allison, John Simmonson, David Bedick, Parker Campbell, David 
Hays, C. S. Sample, Henry Baldwin, Thomas G. .Tolinston, Isaac Kerr, James 
Mountain, Bobert Moore, William Ayrs, and William Sarwell. Many of these 
became afterwards distinguished men in the State and nation, holding high and 
responsible positions. Judge Moore's circuit included fiA'e counties ending at 
Erie, and holding court in each five weeks in the year. 

The county is bounded on the north by Mercer county, on the east by Butler, 
on the south-east by Allegheny, on the south by Washington, and on the west by 
the States of Ohio and Yirginia. 

The Ohio river flows through the southern portion of the county, which 
it enters fourteen miles below Pittslnirgh. and runs a northerly course for about 
twelve miles, where the Beaver river falls into it, and then turns south-west and 
crosses the county by that course fifteen miles, receiving the Big Sewickly aboA'e 
tlie mouth of Beaver river, and the Baccoon creek below it. 

The Mahoning river and Shenango. uniting in Lawrence county, form the 
Bf.Aver river, with the Sliiipery Bock and Conoquenessing creeks, which flow into 
it near to the dividing line from Lawrence county, flows southward througji 
nearly the middle of the county, and empties into the Ohio at Bochester, and 
near the borough of Beaver. Within the first five miles from its mouth there is 
a natural fall and rapids in quick succession of sixty-five feet in the aggregate, 
which natural fall, with a dam erected at the head (making a i)ool or "slack 
water," reaching back some seven miles to the mouth of the Conequenessing 

.■540 



BEAVER COUNTY. 34I 

creek), make the whole fall of water for manufacturing uses eighty to eighty-five 
feet. Besides these rivers and creeks there are many important streams in this 
county, which form collectively an almost incalculable amount of water power 
for factories, work-shops, &c. 

The population of the county when formed in 1800 was, as per the census of 
that year, 6,716, almost all of which was found to be on the south side of the Ohio, 
and engaged in agriculture. The length of the county north and south is 2Gf 
miles ; width east and west, 18| miles ; area in acres, 298,240— square miles, 44r. 

Beaver county belongs to the secondary geological formation. Valuable and 
extensive beds of bituminous coal, with strata of limestone, occur in almost 
every part of the county. Near Darlington is a bed of cannel coal, eight or ten 
feet thick and greater, under which is a foot or more of good common bituminous 
coal. This cannel coal is also found in other parts of the county, and near to the 
Beaver and Ohio rivers. Cannel coal is light, compact, ignites easily and 
quickly, and burns with a strong blaze. Much of it is sent, during the naviga- 
tion of the Erie canal, to New York city for the making of gas. 

Coal No. 4, known as the Cannel coal vein, can be almost always found when 
sought at the proper horizon ; but with few exceptions is thin and of no value — 
or of but little. In the valley of the Little Beaver river it lies near tlie grade of 
railroad, and near Cannelton there is a " pocket " varying in thickness from tliree 
to twenty-two feet of cannel, underlaid with one foot of bituminous of such 
purity that it is hauled by wagons for use by blacksmiths for twenty miles 
around. The quality of the cannel is such as to compete with the English and 
Pe^'tonia cannels, and for its cheerfulness and cleanliness has become the favorite 
household fuel of New York City. The sales to that city alone will aggregate 
ten thousand tons annually during the past twenty 3'ears. The cannel coal was 
first discovered here in 1832, and was known as slate coal commonly, and a 
mine opened. The selling price was so low for a number of years as to suppl}' 
the place of wood, having twice the heating-power of wood, and igniting as easil3^ 
About the year 1850 a railroad was built from the mine to the Pittsburgh, 
Fort Wayne, and Chicago railroad, and during the past twenty-five years the 
mine has been steadily worked. During the forty-three 3'ears' operation, 
over one hundred acres have been mined out ; and still the supply seems to be 
inexhaustable. The coal is underlaid with a " mother " shale which is literally 
full of fossil remains, fishes and mollusks. Suites of beautiful preserved fossils 
from this mine form the pride of many cabinets in Euroi)e as well as in our own 
countr}'. Iron ore of various kinds has been and is to be found in many parts 
of the county. 

That ])art of the county which lies on the south side of tlie Ohio river is 
somewhat hilly, but generally more of a rolling character, much cut with 
streams of water, and relieved by many fine valleys of good, rich bottom lands, 
and altogether well suited for sheep husbandry and the cultivation of wheat and 
the cereal grains. That pa it being on the north side of the Ohio is of a rolling, 
gently undulating surface, excepting points immediately upon the banks of 
the rivers, and the soil is well ad;ipted to every variety of farming and stock 



raismg. 



The county has been justly distinguished since the year 1830 for the quantity 



342 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

and quality of its wool. Bituminous coals of excellent quality, cannel coal 
limestone in inexhaustable quantities, fire clays, suitable for making fire bricks 
for furnaces, etc., superior free sandstone, for building, are to be found 
in man}'- localities in great abundance, and at the most advantageous 
points for economical use and for transportation abroad. There are few 
places to be found anj'where where so many and great advantages are off'ered for 
manufacturers as are possessed by Beaver countj'. Among these maj^ be named 
that which first attracts the attention of strangers, viz., the greatness of the 
water power — particularly of the Beaver river, and the great ease with which it 
can be made available for manufacturing and mechanical purposes ; and its 
other advantages for the economical manufacture and transportation of raw 
material and various articles of merchamlize. The Ohio river affords one of the 
cheapest modes of transportation to and from the largest extent of country and 
population than by any other river or mode of conveyance of raw or manu- 
factured goods. Railroads, running to all points of the compass, afford addi- 
tional facilities for speedy travel and transportation, the advantages of which to 
manufacturers are steadil}' ou the increase. 

It is onl_y recently, and since the close of the late war, that the great advan- 
tages of this count}^ for economical manufacturing have been generally or widely' 
appreciated by manufacturers or capitalists. This was owing to several causes ; 
a few of the most prominent and influential of which may be stated : In tlie 
first place, danger from the Indians prevented settlers and enterprising people 
from venturing into the territorj'^ west of the Ohio until after ItDG, and compai'a- 
tively few even of those who had i')reviously bought from the State and paid it 
for tracts of land, dared venture to make improvements for some 3'ears after 
that time ; and those who first entered were mostly farmers. And another cause 
was that, until after the j-ear 1830, and the completion of the Pennsylvania 
public improvements from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, the great travel and 
transportation of merchandise, etc., between the great cities of the east and the 
country west of the Alleghenies were b}' the way of the New York canals to the 
lakes, or south \)y way of Baltimore and the national turnpike to Wheeling, 
Virginia, and partly over the Pennsylvania turnpike roads from Philadelphia to 
Pittsburgh, and from Pittsburgh down the Ohio by steamboats. And all these 
missed an}- sight of Beaver comity's natural beauties and advantages. The 
price of passage in a stage coach from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, for some time 
before and after 1830, was $18 to $20 and $22 ; and freight charges by Conestoga 
wagons were, from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, from three cents to five cents per 
pound ; and the time occupied in travel between the two cities in the fastest 
stage line was three and one-half to four da^'S and nights ; and even until the 
railroads from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh were in operation, or until telegraphic 
lines were established, an answer to a letter sent from Beaver post office could 
not be received at that office in less time than eight to ten days. And even 
after the completion of the public works, and until about the close of our last 
war, the close proximit}^ of Beaver to Pittsburgh, instead of working to 
promote the growth of Beaver county, operated to its disadvantage in various 
ways. Tiie Pittsburghers labored to impress upon strangers from the East and 
elsewhere who were looking and inquiring for sites to engage in the erection ol 



BEAVER COUNTY. 343 

works, factories, &c., that coal in Pittsburgh was so cheap, and an engine of 
sufficient power for their purposes would cost so little, and could be got upon 
such terms there, and which could all be paid out of their daily profits, and had 
so many hard things to urge against water power generally, and there particularly, 
that they — seekers — were deterred from locating in Beaver county. 

Another fact — as argued — which operated against establishing industrial 
works in Beaver, was that Beaver county had no banking accommodations ; 
whereas, Pittsburgh had a great abundance of banking and exchange facilities ; 
that while a business man or a manufacturer wishing to get his bills of exchano-e 

cashed would be required, under the rules, if living out of the county city to 

furnish two acceptable city endorsers, or go to a broker and pay him according 
as he could make terms. 

Before the Pennsylvania public improvements were completed, the market 
for flour, grain, manufactured goods of all kinds, was the "home market" and 
the Ohio river and western waters, up to the year 1830. 'I'he war of 1812 with 
Great Britain caused a check upon the growth and prosperity of the count,y in 
population and business. Many of the citizens entered the army and went to 
the frontiers, and generall}' supported the government most zealously. 

The law of April, 1792, opened up the " territory north and west of the Ohio " 
to occupanc}', which was previously an uninhabited wilderness, and had been 
in possession of the Indians until after General Wayne's treaty of Green- 
ville in 1795, and for a year or more thereafter considered to be unsafe for 
families to settle in. Under this law of 1792 great troubles arose, and great 
litigation and almost never-ending lawsuits grew out of disputes between those 
claiming " title under purchase from the State," and those claiming under 
"settlement and improvement." This retarded the growth and impi'ovement of 
Beaver for more than lift}' years. One case may be named as a proof for this. 
General Daniel Brodhead, an officer in service under General George Wash- 
ington, when in command at Fort Pitt, became well acquainted with the " Falls 
of Beaver and the Black Walnut Bottom on the west side of Beaver river." 
Aware of tlie great value of tlie site for manufacturing purposes, when this law 
of April, 1792, was passed, he, on the day of its passage, made purchase of 
warrants for two tracts of four hundred acres each, covering the Black Walnut 
Bottom and the" middle falls of Beavei-." In August, 1801, he sold these two 
tracts of land to David Iloopes, of Chester county, for three thousand 
dollars, receiving one hundred dollars on account, binding himself to make 
good title and give possession at a fixed time. David Hoopes, with a company 
of friends, went out the same 3'ear to take possession of tlie land, and to begin 
building mills, etc., but found it in possession of " settlers," claiming the land 
under " settlement and improvement." He was obliged to buy fifty acres, 
embracing some of the bottom and water power, and the next year began making 
improvements. An iron-blast furnace was built, also a grist-mill, saw-mill, &c. ; 
and in 1806 a town plot was made, lots sold, and under various firms — Hoopes, 
Townsend & Co. ; J. Wilson & Co. ; Barker, Greege & Co. ; and 0. Ormsby. 
Until the year 1818, a large business was done in the " Brighton " estate, when, 
owing to the general financial depression, the furnaces could not be worked 
with profit, and the mills, furnace, forge, &c., were permitted to become dilapi- 



34 4 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

dated iiiid ruinous. Previous to this time, tlie Harmony Societ}^, then located in 
Butler county, would have purchased the place — these two tracts of land and 
the improvements thereon — for $32,000, but for the disputes about the title of a 
large pai-t thereof. Had it not been for this defect in title, this numerous and 
influential society would liave talven and improved it instead of removing to the 
State of Indiana, which they did short!}' afterwards. General Brodhead institu- 
ted suit in the United States Court of Equity in Philadelphia, and obtaining a 
judgment, in his favor dispossessed the original settlers, some of them leasing 
pirG of tlie land from him and others leaving the place altogether. 

The population in 1810 was 12,168, which had increased at the census of 1820 
to 15,340. The most important event during the decade thereafter, causing the 
increase of population, business, etc., was the coming into the county of the 
Harmony Society from Harmon}-, Indiana, in the j'ear 1825, and locating upon 
a large tract of land on the Ohio river, possessing one of the most beautiful of 
the ver}' many sites for a town or city, upon whicli the}^ laid out the tow^n of 
Economy, and erected factories, mills, and workshops. The Society added 
largely to the population, and made a market for many agricultural products, 
wool, etc. Their industry, economy in gardening, and in fruit culture, had a 
most inspiring and stimulating effect, constantly growing to the present time. 

The population had increased b}' the census of 1830 to 24,20G. The influence 
of a protective tariff and the United States bank, which had done so much for 
Eastern Pennsylvania, had for good reached even west and north of the Oliio 
river to Beaver county. James Patterson, a citizen of Philadelphia, on a visit 
to Pittsburgli and the West, was by an accident induced to visit Beaver count}'^, 
in the spring of 1829, and falling in love with the water-power, etc., at Brighton, 
on the Beaver river, purchased the estate embracing about thirteen hundred acres. 
The old works were in a state of ruin and deca}^ He removed his family, 
machiner}', etc., the same year, and began some improvements of the property. 
He erected a floui'-mill, in which, during a number of years, he did a thriving 
business in purchasing wheat in the country around, making extra family flour 
for the Philadelphia market. During the working of the Pennsylvania public 
improvements, large quantities were sent to the East. He also built a 
cotton factory, spinning coarse yarns for a market, and much of which he had 
made by local weavers into plaids, checks, etc., and giving employment to 
many work-people, spreading more money through the country than had ever been 
done before. At this time, and until the good effects of the working of tlie 
canals, etc., after completion were felt, the price of wheat at the Falls was forty 
to fifty cents per bushel — fifty cents per day for a laboring man, or a country 
carpenter ; very good coal delivered for four and one-half to five cents per 
bushel. The price paid the digger was one cent and five-eightlis per bushel. 
The purchase and cash price paid to Mr. Oliver Ormsb}^, of (near) Pittsburgh, 
Allegheny county, made quite an impression, and was the cause of much real 
estate in the county changing hands and many improvements of importance being 
made. The progress and completion in the county of the State canal to New 
Castle, produced a sensible effect upon the spirits of the people and upon 
values generally. 

The people of the county received with great approval the public school law, 



BEAVER COUNTY. 345 

and put it in force by building school-liouses, etc., early after its passage, and it 
has grown with the people since, until it is now a great power for good. 

The chartering by the State of Pennsylvania of the United States Bank, 
and establishing a branch thereof in New Brighton, had considerable influence at 
the time and for a few years thereafter, in stimulating and promoting real busi- 
ness and improvements, as also of all manner of wild speculation. Manufac- 
turers and owners of real estate were induced not only to enlarge their fac- 
tories, and work shops, but to build additional ones, and to embark in new 
and large business operations, requiring much money, which they were led to 
believe they could obtain abundantly from their branch bank. " Everything went 
on swimmingly till the mother bank in Philadelphia failed, and assigned the in- 
debtedness due to the branch in New Brighton to Philadelphia Bank "Trustees," 
when great distress and ruin fell ui)on many of the people and the business of 
the count}', and values of real estate and other property were prostrate and almost 
entirely without a price in the market. The effects of the so-called panic of 1873 
are not to be compared with the consequences of this failure of the United States 
Bank in Beaver county. 

Under the labor, influence, and cost of a citizen of the county, a very large 
amount of these debts due in Beaver count\% approximating $200,000, was 
compromised and paid, by the assignments of cash, real estate, bank stocks, etc., 
to the very great benefit of debtor and creditor. By these compromises, most of 
the manufacturers were enabled, at least in a small wyy, to resume operations and 
gradually', but slowly, confidence and business revived again. 

The population of the county, as per census of 1840, had grown to be 29,368. 
During the time from 1840 to 1850 the county interests continued to labor under 
tlie bad influences of the failure of the bank referred to, and the general de[)res- 
siou of business and losses incurred b}' some of her manufacturers b}'^ the great 
fire of 1845 in Pittsburgh, but trade and population gradually improved. 

The census of 1850 showed the population to be 26,G89. This reduction in 
the number of inhabitants was caused by the act of the Legislature, March 20, 
1849, by which a part of Beaver county territory was taken to form Lawrence 
county, and Beaver lost thereb}' 9,130 of her citizens. The contract for build- 
ing the Ohio and Pennsylvania railroad through this county was made April 
24,1850. The first locomotive passed up Beaver creek as far as Block House 
run, July 30, 1851. The first "excursion train " came from Pittsburgh, 23d 
October, 1851, and passed beyond the summit towards Alliance, Ohio. 

Under the influence of general prosperity in the East, and under the hopes 
inspired by the railroad enterprises in and through the county, an eastern 
compan}' purchased, in 1853, through a real estate agent, James Patterson's 
estate, mills, etc., at Brighton, on the Beaver, and also from Ovid Pinney his 
large property at Rochester, on the Ohio. Great expectations were formed 
of the good results to the general interests from this purchase and the improve- 
ments which were expected to follow. But after a very sickly existence and 
unwise management, and the loss of the cotton factory and the original 
machinery therein from fire, by the act of an incendiary, and much damage tc 
the property otherwise, the company utterly failed, and the owner, holding a 
mortgage for most of the purchase money, had a long and most vexatious suit 



346 EISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VA NIA. 

at law to dispossess them, and was sued for $70,000 damages, because in the 
deed of mortgage it was stipulated that one per cent, should annually be paid, 
over six per cent., to cover State or municipal taxes upon money at interest. 

The census of 1860 finds the population to be 29,140. The panic of 1851 had 
a very bad influence upon business in the county, as had also the two first years 
'of our late war. 

The great majoi'ity of the people sustained the Government in the war with 
great zeal and spirit, promptly furnishing volunteers and recruits for the army 
as required of them, and as promptly paid all taxes and income. Each 
borough and township was made a military district, and furnished its quota of 
men as they were called, and paid their recruits in cash at the time, the bounty 
agreed upon to each, the county incurring no debt or obligation for this purpose. 
And owing to this fact the county has for a number of years past been free from 
debt. There is probably no count}^ in the State which in proportion to popula- 
tion put more soldiers in the arni}^ than did Beaver. 

An effort was made during two sessions of Congress, in the years 1861-2 and 
1862-3, to induce the government to purchase the Brighton estate, with its great 
water powers, for the erection of a National armor}^ for making large and 
small guns, and for which a committee of National engineers, appointed b}' the 
government in 1825, had recommended it after careful examination of many 
sites in the West — but which, owing mainl}^ to the opposition of the Pittsburgh 
" Board of Trade," which pressed for its location in Pittsburgh — was unsuccessful. 
Failing to induce manufacturers or capitalists from abroad to buy and improve 
the property for their own and the general benefit, the Harmony Societ^y of 
Economy undertook the task to induce private manufacturers to buy lots, 
water powers, etc., and in that way do in a retail way what Mr. Patterson had 
failed to do by wholesale. The Societ}^, accordingly, in the year 1866, had made 
a new survey of the town — Brighton — very much enlarging its boundaries, and 
appointed H. F. & J. Reeves, real estate agents, to offer for sale building lots, 
water lots, houses and lots, etc., etc., at low prices to improvers. Tiie lots sold 
quickl\' under this management, and the town grew in population and 
business very rapidly, and the people asked to be incorporated into a borough, 
and were so in the j-ear 1810. It is now believed to be the largest manufac- 
turing town in this county, and one of the largest in Western Pennsylvania, 
outside of Pittsburgh. The population as per the census of 1810 was 3,112. The 
taxables assessed in December, 1815, were 1,104 (eleven hundred and four); 
number of children enrolled January 1, 1816, was 182 (seven hundred and 
eighty-two). The whole i)opulation will not therefore be less than 4,500. 

The census of 1810 makes the whole population of Beaver 31,612, and it is at 
this time [1816] over 45,000. The population increase per cent, from 1850 to 
1860 was nine (9) per cent. ; from 1860 to 1810 it was twenty-five (25) per cent. 

The old Pennsylvania Beaver division of the canal owned by the Erie canal 
company, which for many years had been doing no good to the company or the 
people, was sold, and the Harmony Society finally became the owner of the title, 
then sold off the dams, canal-bed, and tow-path, from the lower end of New 
Brio-hton up the river to the mouth of the Conequenessing creek — which makes 
the water power available for manufacturing purposes much greater at Beaver 



BEAVEB COUNTY. 347 

Falls than ever before. The Erie canal used for passing boats very much of the 
water, and wasted much more needlessly, and doing little good most of the time. 

Much is said and oftjen repeated of the hardships and sufferings endured by 
"the early pioneers" who first settled upon our frontiers to clear up the land 
and make themselves a home and a farm ; but their lives and fortunes are 
most happy and successful when compared with the lives and fortunes of those who 
first undertook the task of improving the natural advantages and to build up a 
business for their own and the countrj^'s best welfare in this county. The whole 
history and experience of those who first began the improvements on the Beaver 
at Brighton, from Hoopes, Townsend & Co., until Oliver Ormsby became the 
owner, showed nothing but a continual contest with adverse circumstances and 
obstructions- of all sorts, and of troubles, and discords, and opposition from their 
neighbors, and while being friends were themselves very «?7friendl3' one with 
another ; and which continued as long as most of the parties lived, and exists 
with some to this day. A gentleman who was one of the firms owning and 
operating the works, and the best business man of them all, left Beaver count}' 
with so strong a hatred and antipathy to those people and the place, that he 
would not put his foot ashore in Beaver county, when he came up to receive a 
certain sum of money from Mr. Patterson, and to deliver an important title 
paper which he had held. 

The future prospects for the county are most promising. A railroad, 
the Pittsburgh and Erie, has been recently located, from Pittsburgh coming 
down tlie Ohio through this count}^ on the south side, crossing the Ohio 
at Beaver, and running up the Beaver from there through Fallston, Beaver Falls, 
etc., up to the junction of the Mahoning river, beyond, westward and northward. 
In the not far distant future, the valleys on the sides of our rivers presenting 
the routes of iron railways built at Ioav grades, and being made at a cheaper cost 
than they have been hitherto, will carrj' freights at all seasons, at a rate and 
under circumstances which shippers will prefer to any thing which could be 
offered even upon an improved navigation of the Ohio river. This, too, would 
work greatly to the benefit of Beaver county, where exist so many of the 
elements required for economical manufacturing. In a short time, too, the coal 
now sent down southward by the Ohio from Pittsburgh will not be required there, 
which will work much in favor of manufacturers in Pittsburgh and vic'.nit^'. 

Beaver borough was laid out by the State surveyor and approved and con- 
firmed by the Assembly', March 6, 1193. The site is that upon which General 
Mcintosh built the fort named after him in 1*118. The town was first named 
Mcintosh, but subsequently called after the name of the stream. General 
Washington, on an exploring expedition down the Ohio, A.D. 1710, stopped 
at the mouth of Beaver, and speaks of the site in his diary as a fine bod}' 
of land. It was also the site of a so-called French built town as carl 3' as 1154. 
The lots of ground as laid out were sold on the 12tli day of July, b}' commis- 
sioners appointed for the purpose, viz., David Bradford, James Marshall, and 
Andrew Swearingen. The sale began in Washington, Pa., and continued from 
day to day, and finished August 12, 1193, nearly all of the lots being sold. 

Among the first purchasers, and who afterwards moved to the town, were 
James Allison, Robert Jv-im, and Char]'^« Davidson, Guion Greer, Thomas 



348 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Henry, David Johnston, Samuel Johnston, Joseph Lawrence, and James Lyon. 
The town was formed into a borough, March 29, 1802, and originally extended 
east of the Beaver, including much of what is now Rochester and all Bridgewater. 
Heaver is beautifully situated on a high plateau of land, giving a arge view of 
tlie Oliio on both sides above and below the town, which is rarely equalled. It 
i5 favored with very good and never-failing springs of water, conveyed in pipes 
generally through the streets; the at'iiosphere is pure and he iltliy, as the 
county generally is proved to be; and tin population by the censuo of 1810 was 
1.120. It has recently' made rapid increr.sc in numbers and in value of general 
iin])rovements. There is no place on the river better suited as a place for a home, 
churches, and schools, with quiet and goad order prevailing. Prior to 1829, the 
/'resbyterian brick church, now standing-, was the only one south of Darlington 
and for many miles up or down the rive? . In this church the Rev. A. B. Quay 
was pastor, and alternated his labors bet Tveen it cid the service of the Coloniza- 
tion Society as their agent, accordini'- as his healtij. permitted. He was a 
scholar and Christian minister of zeJ and great service to Lis church and 
society. He died here worn out in th' service, mucli respected and regretted. 
The first Methodist church was erected about 1830. The present building is of 
recent construction. There are also Tlnited P?'esbyterian and Roman Catholic 

churches. The " Beaver 
^^ College a. id Musical In- 

stitute," A^ell-known and 
very higldy appreciated, 
is located here, of which 
the Hci3- Daniel Agnew 
is president, and Rev. R. 
T. Taylcr i)rincipal. At 
the upper end of the town 
is the '-Beaver Female 
Seminal y,'' under the 
charge of the Rev. Tlio- 
inas Kennedy, and is in 
a prosperous and promi- 
sing condition. 
Bridgewater borough was foimed from a portion of "Beaver, a part of 
Sharon, and another small part o !" Fallston, and lies along the Beaver from 
Fallston line down to the Ohio ri^ or. The population by the census of 1870 
was 1,119, and it is estimated by resident citizens to have nuch increased in 
nninbers since that time. There are three iron foundries, two saw, and one 
UTist mill ; two wagon factories, three tanneries, and many minor industries. 
The first bridge across the Beav jr river is at this place, and is a good, solid 
IN'unsylvania bridge. Robert \)t .'ragh, a very early pioneer in Beaver county, 
opened a store at this locality. He served one term as State Senator from 
Beaver and Washington. He d od at the advanced age ^ f ninety-five. The 
Hon. John Dickey lived in the bcunds of this borough many years, and died in 
it. Wm. Davidson, George Hi;,ds, and John Boles, settl< d here at an early 
date. 




BEAVER COLIiEGB AT BEAV55R, 



BEAVER COUNTY. 349 

The "Beaver Point," on the Ohio end of the borough, is a beautiful location 
at the junction of the Ohio and Beaver rivers. It was for many j^ears a great fo.-- 
warding place for agricultural products down the river Ohio, and the landing aiid 
storing of goods from New Orleans, upwards, and from Pittsburgh, further east. 
The land at this point was bought earl}^ aftfr 1803 by the Harmony Socleiy, 
upon vvliich they built a warehouse for storing goods received and shipped by 
the river, and which they sold before their removal from Butler county, AVest 
It was used for the same purpose as late, at least, as 1850. Upon the locka of 
tlie canal entering the Ohio, was erected the first steamboat built for carrying 
passengers to and from Beaver to Pittsburgh, by John Dickey and others, of a size 
as they calculated would pass through those locks. It did pass through once, and 
was found to be too tiglit a fit, consuming too much time in the transit. She ran 
for a time from below the locks, and it being found that she was too small for 
that trade, was sold to go down the river, and the steamboats Beaver, Falls- 
ton, and New Castle were subsequently built and put in successful operation, 
landing for a time at this place, nnd also at Rochester, where large warehouses 
were erected to accommodate the trade. 

Fallston is built on the west bank of the Beaver on a narrow bottom, at 
the foot of a high blufi' or hill, and was as early as 1830 famous for the variety- 
of its manufactures. It was at that time the chief and almost only point of 
mechanical and manufacturing industry in the county, excepting at Economy. 
Wool, paper, linseed oil, scythes, baskets, carpets, lasts, etc., were among the 
manufactures of the town in that day, but do not now exist there, and are 
superseded by larger and more important works. 

A road under the hills, called the " narrows," about a mile long, lies between 
this place and Beaver Falls. A good substantial covered bridge divides it from 
New Brighton, which last named place owes much of its population and wealth 
to the people and industries of this always busy and industrious town. About 
one-third of the distance between Beaver Falls and Fallston there is a dam 
Duilt across the Beaver for the common use of New Brighton and Fallston. The 
water power which this dam and the race-way affords is immense, each side being 
entitled to one-half thereof. A race-way is conducted down the narrows through 
the town to the works where it gives some seventeen or eighteen feet fall for use. 
It was among the first to improve the power of these water-falls for manufactur- 
ing purposes. John Pugh and Evan Pugh, David Townsend, Benjamin Town- 
send, Abel Townsend, and Thomas Thorniley, were among the early settlers. 

Miner, Champlin & Co., in 1828, established a factory for making buckets, 
tubs, etc., which became in time a great business, and at a later da}' under the 
firm of Miner & Merrick, was one of the very best managed and most successful 
works of the kind in this country. Owing to the nature of the enterprise and the 
development of the West the enterprise could no longer be made to pay, and it is 
dead. In 1826 a wire-works was erected and started by Reese, Townsend & Co 
William P. Townsend & Co., the present proprietors, have in recent years built 
a solid and perfect stone building of large capacity for the business. A large 
business has been successfully carried on for some years past in making 
superior white lead kegs. Besides these establishments, there are the extensive 
saw-mills of Miner & Co. ; M. & S. H. Darragh's machine and engine works 



350 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Herron & Kennedy's flour and grist-mill ; and John Thorniley's stove foundry. 
The town has grown and extended over the second bench or plateau, south of 
the water-power works. In 1831 an acadoray was built which was used foi 
educational and religious purposes. The Presbyterians of the Falls of Beaver 
generally were organized into a church body, and had children baptized in it 
shortly after its erection by the Rev. Mr. Hughs, of Darlington, before the 
church building was erected in New Brighton. 

The history of manufactures in this place is very suggestive, particularly in 
an economical view. In 1830, and for a short time before and after that period 

wool carding for the far- 
mers was a large business 
of the place. The far- 
mers would bring their 
wool here to be carded, 
and when done would 
take it home and spin it 
into yarn, and either 
weave it at home or bring 
it, which was most com- 
monl}' the case, to the 
woolen-mills to be made 
into goods for male and 
female wear. In a short 
time, however, they came 
to believe it best to sell 
their wool for cash, and 
trade in the stores for 
goods for wearing apparel. 
This ruined the business 
of wool carding, and in a 
great degree the business 
of the woolen factories. 
New Brighton is situated on the eastern side of the Beaver, and is con- 
nected with Beaver Falls by a covered toll bridge built and finished by Le 
Barron in 1833-4, and is a solid structure. A short distance above this the 
iron bridge of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago railroad company 
crosses it also. In 1829 David Townsend purchased from Thomas Bradford, 
of Philadelphia, the tract of land. No. 93, upon which the best part of the town 
has been since built. Mr. Townsend had purchased this tract by articles of 
agreement from the latter, some considerable time previous, but paid no money 
on it, but was to pay 2,000 dollars on a fixed day in the summer or early 
autumn of 1829. As early as 1801, David and Benjamin Townsend bought tract 
No. 94. Tract No. 95 was bought by James Patterson in July, 1829, from 
Oliver Ormsby, the title to the tract being then in the name of David Shields, 
of Allegheny county, as it had been from an early day. In 1829 the only 
improvement upon No. 94 was the house of W. Webster and that of the large 
stone flour mill, unfinished, and perhaps a small one story house near where the 




VIEW OF NEW BRIGHTON. 

[From a Photograph by H. Noss, New Brighton.] 



BEAVER COUNTY. 35I 

Novelty Works now are, and back east of the rising ground. Benjamin Town- 
send had then built the house where E. P. Townsend now lives. 

The town, as it now stands, covers the western end, or part of the two 
" benches," of them, Nos. 95, 94, 93, 92, and 91. The manufacturing business of 
the counties was then mainly done in Fallston, and the owners of the works 
lived there. After the purchase of No. 93, David Townsend laid it out as the 
streets, etc., are now ; the No. 94 was previously laid out as it is now. The 
first improvements, except the stone mill, were begun on No. 92. This town 
has its water powers under the control of a water company, as has the 
Fallston owners their water powei-s ; and they both joined a short time ago in 
building a strong and safe new dam, and made also improvements in their 
race-way and head-gates. They have now under good and safe command a very 
large water power of about eighteen feet fall. There were built and started many 
works upon this race-way for various kinds of manufacture. Circumstances 
have changed the character of many of them ; fire destroyed some, and for 
various reasons the business in others has been altered. When David Townsend 
died, liis executors sold the lots at public sale, and many of them were purchased 
by business men in Fallston, who built and improved upon them and themselves 
occupied them. By the progress of the canal to completion and when completed, 
through the town, a great impulse was given to its growth. The establishment 
of the U. S. Branch Bank here also helped it greatly, but the finishing of the 
Ohio and Pennsylvania railroad to the town, with the great partiality of the 
engineers and officers shown to it, made a wonderful addition to its business and 
advancement. To all these good influences may be added the fact, that large 
tracts of land, north-west of New Brighton, owned by the heirs of Benjamin 
Chew, Senr., were put into market and sold rapidly to good, industrious settlers, 
who cleared the lands and improved the markets and business of the town ; to 
this also was added the same effects caused by the sales of large tracts of land 
owned by Thomas Bradford, by his grandson, B. R. Bradford, as agent resident 
in Beaver count}' . 

New Brighton suflTered severely, as did the whole of the county, by the fail- 
ure of the United States Bank. Adversities from various causes were visited, 
and fell upon some individuals and business firms ; but the general course of the 
town has been very successful, much mox'e so than usual with young towns in 
a new country. 

There lived, and yet are living, in this town numbers of persons who deserve 
to be mentioned and gratefully remembered for their influence upon the indus- 
tries and growth of this town, Fallston, and the county generally, prominent 
among whom was John Pugh. He was a professional miller, and did much, in his 
purchase of wheat for his mills in Fallston, to promote the agricultural inte- 
rests of the county ; and as a president of the Branch Bank, in co-operation with 
the cashier, Dr. W. H. Denny, did much to promote business at the Falls and 
in the county generally. Kobert Townsend was a model business man, and a 
friend to the Falls. David Townsend, William Townsend, Benjamin Wilde, 
John Miner, Silas Merrick, W. T. Kennedy, and others, both living and dead, 
were most influential. 



352 IIISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

The town is now lighted by gas, and is steadily improving, and is altogether 
a delightful place of residence, and destined to a much larger growth. 

The industries of New Brighton are deserving of special notice in a descrip- 
tion of the town, but our limited space forbids. In 1842, the Keystone woolen 
mills w^as established for the manufacture of cloths and cassimeres, by William 
Wilde, who for a period of over thirty years successfully managed the enterprise. 
It is now owned by Mr. Bancroft, of New York, who proposes to devote the 
manufacture chiefly to flannels and water-proof. In addition to these works, 
there are the Novelty Works, employed in the manufacture of knitting machines, 
fclirye large flouring mills, the Pennsylvania bridge and machinery works of 
White & Sons, Merrick's grate and front works, and the Pioneer flax mills of 
Bently & Gerwig. all giving employment to a large number of persons, and by 
their success adding much to the prosperity of this enterprising borough. There 
are nine churches of as many denominations. 

The site upon which Brighton and Beaver Falls was in part first laid out had 
the first improvements made upon it in the summer of 1801 by David Hoopes & 
Co., who had made the purchase previously referred to, but were obliged to pur- 
chase again from the occupant fifty acres, and some time thereafter another fifty 
acres, on which the erection of a grist and saw mills, forge, charcoal furnace for 
pigs, hollow-ware, stoves, etc., was commenced and put into successful operation. 
In 1806, Isaac Wilson & Co., now the owners, had surveyed and laid out a plot 
of a town and sold lots to improvers, built dwelling-houses, etc., and a large 
business was done, to the great benefit of the county, by the four or five firms 
which succeeded each other as owners in quick succession. They called the new 
town " Brighton." Oliver Ormsby kept the works in operation, under the super- 
intendence of James Glen and John Dickey, until about 1818, when, owing to the 
general depression in business, caused by the peace of 1814 with England, which 
removed all let and hindrance to English and other foreign iron and other manu- 
factured goods flooding our country, to the ruin of home industry and all values, 
and to other causes, it suspended. Thus this place and its work, for so many 
years the chief and almost the only point of manufacturing industry in the count}-, 
remained dead in ruins, until the year 1829, when it was purchased by James 
Patterson, long a citizen of Philadelphia, from Mr. Ormsby, and under his labors 
and expenditures it again was rebuilt, and became a point from which considerable 
money was spread abroad through the county and country around in the 
payment of labor, wheat, wool, etc., for twenty years and more. Mr. Patterson 
had great difficulty in consummating the purchase with Ormsby, inconsequence 
of he and the other owners of Gen. Brodhead's title to the land, having brought 
in a bill of $1 0,000 damages against the General for money they had been obliged 
to pay to those in possession for wool, ores, land, etc., which thc}^ held 
against the balance due the General for the original purchase from him — he not 
having given them possession, as he was bound to have done. The General's 
heirs would not make deed without the balance due being paid them. Mr. Pat- 
terson, to avoid law suits and trouble, agreed, finally, to pay the amount due the 
General's heirs. Notwithstanding all this, he was destined to contend at law 
through many vexatious and costly damaging suits, to make good his titles and 
become free from his opponents, who were many and influential. 



BEAVER COUNTY. 353 

The suits growing out of the disputed parts of the two portions of land sold 
by General Brodhead to David Hoopes & Co., in 1801 — and which the former 
began in the United States Court in Philadelphia in 1812, and obtained a judg- 
ment in his favor and had the United States marshal dispossess the occupants — 
were, unfortunately, not terminated finally until about the year 1865 or '6, when 
the United States Supreme Court in banc decided the last of them in favor of 
James Patterson, which made General Brodhead's title good ; after there having 
been in his favor one verdict in Beaver County Court, affirmed in the State 
Supreme Court, and twice in the United States District Court of Pennsylvania. 
It was the same case in which, when one of the lawyers was pleading before 
Judge David Green, for a new trial, a verdict having been rendered for Mr. 
Patterson, the judge on the bench said to him, " that in all his experience, which 
whether as a surveyor, a lawyer, or a judge, in Pennsylvania State, county'', 
and in the United States courts, he had never known a case of land ejectment 
come into court so weak in every respect as this one which he was attornej^ for, 
nor one so strong and clear as that of the plaintiff, Mr. Patterson." These suits 
were costly and more vexatious and ver}' injurious to the best interests of the 
countr}^, and were prosecuted not by the original settlers, or claimants, but by 
neighboring proprietors, who,whileimproving their own properties, were tempted 
to disregard " party lines" in doing so, owing to the absence and neglect of the 
owner of the Brighton estate. 

In the year 1830 Brighton had no post office. In 1831 James Patterson was 
appointed postmaster, when by law it was entitled to a mail by horse twice a 
week. The postmaster carried it at his own expense daily for many years from 
Beaver town. There are now thirty-eiglit post otFices in the count}^, and Beaver 
Falls receives two mails daily from the East by rail and one from the West. 
Lease & Robertson, paper makers, made agreement with Mr. Patterson to build a 
paper mill in Brighton, in 1831, to be driven by steam power, for which, and heat- 
ing purposes, the latter agreed to supply the coal from his coal banks, delivered 
at the mill, for ten 3^ears time for four and a-half cents per bushel. Experience 
proved the fact to Mr. Robertson, after running his mill by steam power some 
years, that he could make paper much more economically by water power than 
by tliat of steam, even witli coal costing under four and a-half cents per bushel, 
when he bought land and water-power at the head of the Falls, and built a paper 
mill, which he operated successfully many years, allowing his steam mill to 
go to decay and ruin, after removing such paper machinery as he could use in 
his new mill. Mr. P^obertson, in the manufacture of paper and wall paper, gave 
employment to many, thereby aiding in promoting the general interest. 

Having failed in- his last efforts to make sale of the whole property to the 
United State government, for an armory and foundr}^ for big cannon, Mr. 
Patterson surrendered the property to the Harmony Society, who undertook the 
task of inducing private parties to bu^^ by retail lots for dwellings, water lots for 
mills, etc. They revised the plot of Brighton, very much enlarging it, extend- 
ing it along the Beaver nearly if not quite, three miles, over ground remarkably 
well suited by nature for a town or city, and changed its name from Brighton to 
that of Beaver Falls. One reason for this change was that the place had been 
fenown by the name of Beaver Falls in the count}- in its earliest da3'S ; and 
'I 



354 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



another reason, that New Brighton having, under the influences of the canal 
passing through it, and afterwards by the Ohio and Pittsburgh railroad stopping 
in it and passing through its streets and mucli favoring it, grown much larger 
than "-Brighton" — people were in the habit of dropping ''New" and calling 
their town Brighton, and calling Brighton proper " Old Brighton." This made 
confusion, and the people of Brighton were willing to adopt a name about which 
there could be no other " claimant " — at least in the county. 



^--^=s 




rKol A-^IP 



VIEW OF BEAVER FALLS. 

[From a Pencil Sketch, bj Robjobns.] 



Beaver Falls has now grown to be one of the most important and well-estab- 
lished manufacturing and successful business towns, not only in the county, but 
in Western Pennsylvania. In the census of 1870 the population was found to be 
3,112, which at present exceeds 4,500. There has been built upon a triangular 
lot, surrounded by sixt_y-feet streets — the gift of the Society — a large, thi*ee- 
story school-house, at a cost of somewhere near $30,000, for the public schools. 

The town begins south of the toll bridge across the Beaver, connecting 
Beaver Falls with New Brighton, and just at the mouth, or northern end, of the 
road called the " narrows," on the banks of Beaver, between Fallston and Beaver 
Falls, the hills bearing to the north-west for some distance, and then turning to 
bear north-eastward, and the Beaver shore bearing from the bridge north-east- 
wardly for some distance, and then bending north-westward, makes the plot of the 
town and valley much in the shape of a pear — the narrows being the stem. In it 
is the toll bridge — the bridge of the Pittsburgh and Chicago railroad. The 
width of the Beaver where this railroad bridge crosses the river is five hundred 



BE AVER COUNTY. j;55 

feet. The first Jam above this bridge across the Beaver is seven hundred and 
forty feet long, giving a fall of water for mill purposes of about twenty feet, 
flowing the water back nearly two miles, near to another dam across that stream 
affording a fall of about the same value, and flowing a pool of water back about 
seven miles to the mouth of the Conequenessing creek. The town extends 
north of this clam for a considerable distance. These two dams can and will at 
a very early day be made to give jointly not less than forty feet of fall, with a 
much greater supply of water than was ever at command for mill and manufac- 
turing purposes. 

In the hills lying west of the town are veins of very good bituminous coal. 
Those mostly now worked are a little over tliree feet thick. The hills also on 
the east bank of the river have the same veins with a greater thickness. The 
Pittsburgh and Chicago railroad runs at the foot of the hills on the west side of 
the town. 

There is a gas company, which supplies the borough with gas for the town 
lamps, etc., etc. There is also a water company, which may be said at present 
to consist of the Harmony Society, which has put up water works, pumping 
the water for general use from a very large suppl}^ under the rocks underlying 
'the town, by improved machinery and great power. Pipes are laid through 
most of the streets, and many houses supplied thereb^^ 

The industries of Beaver Falls are on such a large scale and of such vast 
importance that although it would be desirable to describe them fulh% we can 
merely allude to them, to show how extensive are the manufacturing facilities 
of the town, a very Pittsburgh in miniature, and rapidly growing in wealtL 
and consequence. Steel works of Abel Pedder & Co., started in 1875; Beaver 
Falls cutler}', one of the first enterprises built in the town, giving employment 
to over three hundred persons, including one hundred Chinese brought from 
the Pacific in 1873; the Pittsburgh hinge company and Western file compan}' 
have large and extensive works ; the axe and hoe works of Joseph Graff & Com- 
pany ; Beaver Falls company's operative foundry ; saw works of Enaerson, 
Ford & Co.; Economy stove and hollow ware works; shovelworks, H. 
M. Meyers & Co. ; and the Beaver Falls fiour mills. 

In addition to the foregoing extensive manufacturing establishments, there 
are quite a number which, although of miner importance, in the aggregate 
employ many hands, such as planing mills, casket works, machine shops, foun 
dries, paper mill, carriage and glass works ; and beside all these industries, 
there are several coal mines — the whole going to make up such varied manu- 
facturing enterprises, that show the active means of the prosperity of Beaver 
Falls. 

Economy. — The site of this town of economy and industrj^ was purchased by 
Rev. George Rapp for the Harmony Societj^, then living in Ncav Harmony, 
Indiana, and to which the Society removed in the year. 1825, having lived 
ten years, increasing in numbers and wealth during their residence there, 
although previously, as a Society, living in Harmony, Butler count}^. Pa., ten 
years prior to their moving to Indiana. This site, upon which they built 
their new town of Economy, is one of the most beautiful anywhere upon the 
banks of the Ohio or elsewhere. It is on elevated ground, sloping gently back 



356 HUSTOB Y OF PF.NNS TL VANIA . 

from the river. Their number then above seven hundred souls; and at oneo 
began the erection of dwellings, mills, and factories, such as are usually 
necessary for so large a yjopulation in a busy manufacturing town. Rev. 
George Rapp, as spiritual head, '^ Father," and Frederick Rapp, as temporal 
business manager, were still with them as in Butler county and in Indiana 
State. Their thus coming again into Pennsylvania had very great influence upon 
the general interests and prosperity of this county, which continued to increase 
by their enterprise and their power for good to all. They built an extensive 



4i ? 



MWik 




ASSEMBLY HALL, AT ECONOMY, 



woolen factory, where a very large quantity of wool was manufactured into 
blankets, sattinets, etc., for which they purchased large quantities of the wool 
raised in the county; they erected a cotton factory, spinning coarse cottons 
for sale, and weaving much of it into sheetings, shirtings, and many other 
branches of manufactures; and cleared and cultivated many acres of good 
lands. Everything went on prosperously until the appearance in the society of 
a man calling himself Count Leon— an enthusiast and impostor, as he finally 
proved himself to have been — when, under his influence and that of the women 
and others brought with him, discord and ill-feelings arose, which ended in 
a division of the society, about one-third of their number leaving the Society 
with Count Leon, under the wise counsels of Father Rapp, by a compromise, 
paying them in cash one hundred and five thousand dollars ($105,000) to 
leave the place altogether, which they did. They purchased and formed a new 
society, under Leon, at what is now known as Phillipsburg, on the Ohio, opposite 
Beaver. The Society, after the departure from among them of the discontented, 
lived prosperously and happy under the lead of " Father Rapp " until his death, 
which occurred on the tth of August, 1841. He was a most remarkable man in 



BEAVER COUNTY. 357 

many respects. " He made and left his impress on the Society, which still exists 
as he left it, only with diminution in numbers." And it may be further said, 
that this impression was even more remarkable upon those of the Society who 
left it with Leon, after having been long years under his training and spiritual 
influences — that while going out with Leon and into the world to do for them- 
selves, as many did from the time of first leaving, and all of them afterwards, 
each and all of them continued without exception to conduct themselves as good 
citizens, moral and upright, and many of them to-day are among the best people 
of the count3\ 

The influence of the Society was all good and influential in all the country 
around them, in economy, gardening, farming generally, sheep raising, etc. 
Upon the death of George Rapp, R. L. Baker and Jacob Henrici were formally 
elected trustees of the society, and took charge of all temporal interests. Under 
their administration, as the numbers of the society decreased naturally, and 
their factories ceased to be operated at home, they extended their attention, under 
the special care particularly of Mr. Jacob Henrici, to outside enterprises, as had 
not been done during the lifetime of Father Rapp, and with great and marked 
benefit to the interests of the Society and to the objects and neighborhoods 
where this attention and influence were directed. During the lifetime of Mr. 
Baker, the reputation and respect for these trustees as good business men, of 
large and liberal views, were generally very much increased. The influence of 
the Societ}-, under their trusteeship, extended far and wide. They showed them- 
selves ready and willing to aid ever}'- good work which promised to promote the 
public welfare. Though conscientiously non-combatants, they were most zealous 
and hearty supporters of the government during the war, and not only contri- 
buted money for the relief of the soldiers, but paid large bounties for sub- 
stitutes for any who were drafted for the army, or called for from their 
military division of the country. Under their direction the Darlington 
cannel coal field was developed, and a very superior railroad made, some 
six or seven miles long, from the mines extending to New Galilee, connecting 
with the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago railway. Their means and enter- 
prise were mainly instrumental in making the Little Saw-Mill railroad, which 
brought and brings yet out such large quantities of good coal of so much benefit 
to the many rolling mills and other interests in that neighborhood and for 
export. But in tlie midst of this beneficial labor, R. L. Baker, that faithful 
trustee and good Christian man, died, much beloved and regretted in and out of 
the Society. He lived devoted to what he believed to be religious dut}', self- 
denying, and faithful to all duties. 

After the death of their beloved " Baker," the Harmonists elected Jonathan 
Lenz as a trustee with Jacob Henrici — the latter as senior and spiritual leader. 
Mr. Lenz had been one of the first in the Society, and was greatly respected. 
Beaver Falls had made much progress in the development of its natural advan- 
tages, under the care and nursing of Baker and Henrici, in which Mr. Baker had 
taken great interest, and to whom it owes its name of Beaver Falls ; and this 
eflficient care and interest have been since extended, to the immense benefit of the 
town and its various interests, and to the whole county, and with a good and 
'j€rtain prospect of valuable pecuniary benefits, in the near future, of the Society. 



358 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



And it is firmly believed that "• Beaver Falls " will prove to be in all time, as it 
is now, the most material monument in the memorj^ of the '' Harmony Society " 
and its trustees, of any other which they may or can leave of the good they have 
or may do on earth. 

The members of the Society are now all old or elderly men and women, with 
quite a number of persons, mainly young, who live with them. They are the same 
economical, industrious, frugal people they ever were. Their church is a fine 

. building, which has a 

large clock in the 
steeple, with bells ; and 
durins: the whole of the 
existence of this church 
and the society at 
Economy it would have 
been and would now be 
a good lesson of how 
Christian people should 
conduct themselves in 
entering the " House of 
God," while they re- 
main there, and for 
their departure. In this 
church, upon the bell 
ringing, the people en- 
ter, and in a very short 
time all are quietly 
seated, are grave and 
soberly attentive during the services, and after, depart orderly, none entering or 
departing during the time of worship. The trustees, Messrs. Henrici and Lenz, 
are fully and actively occupied in the discharge of all their various and special 
duties and cares. Their and the Society's whole lives have been examples worthy 
of study, and, in almost all things, of imitation. 

Rochester borough is situated on the east side of the Beaver river, at the 
junction of that stream with the Ohio, and contains about 2,500 inhabitants. 
It has an extensive front upon the Ohio river, with a very good landing for 
steamboats to load and unload freights and passengers. It is favorably situated 
for manufacturing, which is now being carried on to a considerable extent. The 
Rochester Tumbler company's glass works is located here, and doing a large 
business; also the Rochester casket manufactory; the Rochester foundry ; Pen- 
dleton & Bros.' fire-brick works; Scott, Boyle & Williams' lumber yard and saw 
mill company; L. H. Oatman's lumber yard, saw and planing mills; Monroe 
Miller & Co.'s planing mills, sash and door factory ; William Miller's planing mill 
and sash and door factory ; Whitfield & Co.'s planing mill and sash and door 
factory ; which, together with otlier minor works, give employment to a large 
number of employees. Tiie advantages of shipping to all points of the country 
are unsurpassed. In addition to the Ohio river, there are the Pittsburgh, 
Fort Wayne and Chicago railroad, the Cleveland and Pittsburgh railroad, the 




CHURCH OF THE HARMOXISTS, ECONOMY. 



I 



BEAVEB COUNTY. 359 

Erie and Pittsburgh railroad, the Mahoning Valley railroad, the New Castle 
and Franklin railroad, all passing and stopping here each way. 

The attention of capitalists was first attracted to this point about 1835. Ovid 
Pinney came here about that time and purchased a large amount of land, and 
laid out a town, but owing to the crash of 1838 to 1840, a damper fell on the 
place, from which it did not recover till 1850, when the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne 
and Chicago railroad and the Cleveland and Pittsburgh railroad were com- 
menced, and a new impetus given to the place. The earl}^ pioneers here were 
the Rev. Francis Keno, and his sons Lewis and William, Atlas E. Lacock, 
William Porter, George Hinds, Sylvester Dunham, Samuel and John Stiles, 
Wilson Frazer, John Boles, Charles and John M. Lukens, Hamilton Clark, Clark 
Parks & Co., James A. Sholes, Frederick C. H. Speyerer, George C. Spej'erer 
The proprietors of the tumbler glass works deserve much credit, for in their 
enterprise and public spirit, have drilled wells for gas for manufacturing uses 
at their works, which they have succeeded in obtaining. 

Philipsburg is situated on the south side of the Ohio river, opposite the 
mouth of the Beaver river, and was occupied and improved as a boat yard for 
building steam boats, keel boats, etc., for quite a number of years before 1832, 
when they sold the lands and improvements, as stated, to Count Leon. Their 
purchase included some eight hundred acres of land, which were purchased for 
the scceders from the Economy Society and others. They changed their name 
to New Philadelphia Society, and their town New Philadelphia. They erected 
a hotel, factories, etc., and proposed to rival Economy in manufacturing. They 
organized a society, and Count Leon as president, and a board of twelve 
managers, which lasted some eighteen months, and then dissolved and the 
property divided. Those that remained after the dissolution of the society 
formed a company, and carried on a woolen and grist mills for eight years, 
and then dissolved. Count Leon with his followers went southward. The 
large buildings were sold to Dr. Acker, who opened a water cure, which was 
highly successful for years. He sold to Dr. Baels, who also met with success. 
Here for ten years has been located one of the State's Soldiers' Orphan schools 
— Pennsylvania's great charity — under the superintendence of Rev. W. G. 
Taylor, D. D. This school has been considered among the best and most suc- 
cessful of the schools in the State. The school building is 40x44 feet, three 
stories, with wings 30x3G feet. The dwelling is 110x44 feet, four stories. The 
arrangement and adaptation of these buildings are complete. There are two 
hundred and ten acres of ground connected with the school. The buildings and 
grounds were furnished at the private expense of Dr. Taylor. The present popu- 
lation of the village is about six hundred, of which two hundred are in the 
Orphans' Home. Philipsburg is a fine site for manufacturing, and will no doubt 
be so improved if the railroad from Pittsburgh comes down on the south side 
and crosses the Ohio from there to Beaver. 

Freedom borough is situated on the north-west bank of the Ohio river above 
Rochester and adjoining it. It was founded in 1832, by Stephen Philips and Jona- 
than Betz, who entered into partnership for steamboat building, for which the 
place was deemed well suited, and where a great many good and large and small 
boats have been built by this firm and that of Philips and Graham. By the 



360 



JIIS'IOIIY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



census of 1870 the population was six hundred and thirty-four, and as the place 
is prosperous and growing, the present number may be estimated at eight bun. 
dred. The chief business of the place is steamboat building. The Excelsior 
Oil Company is located here and do a large business. There is a saw mill, lath, 
shingle, sash, and door factory, five brick works, and other minor industrial 
establishments. 

Darlington is a village nine miles north-west of Beaver, and was a thriving 
place in stage coach times and before railroads. Since then it has barely held its 
own. It was many years well and favorably known for its church and academy, 
where many received from the Rev. Mr. Hughs and other teachers a good 
education. It is situated on the Little Beaver, in the midst of a thriving country 
and mining district. 

There is on the Ohio river, above Freedom, the town of Baden, through 
which passes the railroad, and also Remington ; and. below Beaver, on the 
Ohio and the Cleveland and Pittsburgh railroad, the large and prosperous town 
of Industry, and another equally so, Smith's Ferry, at the mouth of Little 
Beaver, up which creek there are in operation one hundred and fifty producing 
oil wells, total production of oil being one hundred and ten barrels per day. A 
pipe three and a half miles long with a branch brings the oil to Smith's Ferry. 
There are three refineries, two at Smith's Ferr3\ A growing town. New 
Galilee, is on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago railwa}^, some seven 
miles north-west from Beaver Falls, and near to Darlington. 

Above Beaver Falls on the Beaver and the railroad to Erie and the West, 
there are Homewood, Clinton, etc. In fact it may be said that along the Ohio 
through the county and on the railroads, population and towns arc almost, and 
ultimately will be, continuous ; and so in the county up and on the Beaver river, 
from its mouth to the Lawrence line. 

A thriving town near the Washington county line should be mentioned. 
— Frankfort, near which is the Frankfort Springs, a favorite resort for health 
and recreation in the summer months. 




CENTENNIAL MEDAL — REVERSE. 



BEDFORD COUNTY. 

BY CHARLES N. HICKOK, BEDFORD. 

[In consenting to furnish a synopsis of the early history of Bedford county, the writer 
anticipated difficulties in producing a full and reliable paper, but until he had fairly 
commenced the work, he had not the most remote idea of the many obstacles there were 
in the way of a conscientious performance of this duty, and nothing but the fact that his 
word had been given to his friend, the general Editor of this work, prevented the relin- 
quishment, at an early da3^ of a task, to say the best of it, very discouraging. The data, 
rendered by the lapse of time obscure and meagre, could be found, even for this short 
sketch, only al'ter much and laborious search. Circumstances, the occurrence of which 
were evident, required sometimes weeks of patient labor to establish as facts by the 
records, and others were substantiated only by incidental and collateral proofs, almost as 
legendary as the occurrences themselves. While what has been here recorded as history 
is, we think, reliable, many things interesting, if only they could have been proven true, 
have been rejected, because the author was not sure upon which side of the doubtful line 
that divides romance from history they were located. In the labor incurred, the writer 
gratefully acknowledges the aid of the following named friends, without whose kind co-ope- 
ration he is conscious his efforts must have proved abortive, viz.: William P. Sc'hell, John 
Cessna, Samuel L. Russell, John Mower, John P. Reed, Joseph W. Tate, and Samuel Ket- 
terman, Esquires, and others.] 

FIE county of Bedford was created March 9, 1771, by an act of the 
General Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, entitled "An 
act for erecting a part of the county of Cnmberland into a separate 
county ;" and the commissioners appointed to " run, mark out, and 
distinguish the boundary lines between the said counties of Cumberland and 
Bedford," were Robert McCrea, William Miller, and Robert Moore. The 
reason assigned for the erection of the new county was " the great hardships the 
inhabitants of the western parts of the county of Cumberland lie under, from 
being so remote from the present seat of judicature and the public offices." 
The boundary lines were defined as follows, " that is to say, beginning where 
the Province line crosses the Tuscarora mountain, and running along the summit 
of that mountain to the gap near the head of Path valley ; thence with a north 
line to the Juniata; thence with the Juniata to the mouth of Shaver's creek; 
thence north-east to the line of Berks county ; thence along the Berks county 
line north-westward to the western boundaries of the Province ; thence south- 
ward, according to the western boundary of the Province, to the south-west 
corner of the Province; and from thence eastward with the southern line of the 
Province to the place of beginning," embracing, as the reader will perceive, the 
entire south-western portion of the State, from the West Branch of the Susque- 
hanna and the Cove, or Tuscai'ora mountain, westward to the Ohio and Yirginia 
line. The lines thus set forth, by the act passed " in the eleventh year of the 
present reign " (George III.), not being considered sufficiently explicit, a subse- 
quent act was passed, March 21, 1772, in which the limits were more definitely 
explained, " to the end that the boundaries of the county of Bedford may be 

,^r.l 




3 g2 BIS TOE Y OF PEMNS YL VANIA. 

certainly known," and George Woods, William Elliott, Robert Moore, and 
Robert McCrea were appointed to carry the order of the General Assembly into 

effect. 

The area of this county, once so immense, has been gradually restricted, by 
the erection of Northumberland county, in 1772, Westmoreland in 1773, Hun- 
tingdon in 1787, Somerset in 1795, Cambria in 1804, Blair in 1846, and Fulton 
in IsSO ; and the one jurisdiction has, in time, been divided and sub-divided, 
until some twenty counties, or portions of counties, now occupy the territory of 
the original county of Bedford. 

The name it bears was evidently given to it from the fact that the town of 




THE PKOVINCIAIj COURT HOUSE AND JAIL AT BEDFORD, 

[Prom a Sketch by John Mower, Esq., taken from memory.] 

Bedford was selected as its county seat. The town was doubtless so called from 
the fort of that name there located. In fact, this name was assigned to the town 
by Governor John Penn, when, by his order, it was laid out in 1766, although it 
was commonly so designated as early as 1759 or 1760, and there is some reason 
for believing at a still earlier period. The reasons for thus naming the fort are, 
so far as we can leai'u, only traditionary. It is more than probable, however, that 
the tradition, in one instance, is correct, viz. : That the fort erected at Raystown, 
during the latter part of the reign of George II., received its name in honor of 
one of the dukes of the house of Bedford, in England. Various other reasons 
are assigned, but they are, to say the least, questionable. 

The reasons the writer of this paper has for concluding that the defence 
known as Fort Bedford was erected toward the close of the reign of King 



BEDFORD COUNTY. 



363 



George II., viz., not earlier than 1755 nor later than 1759, are as follows: 
There is circumstantial and incidental evidence almost as conclusive as positive 
proof, that protective and defensive works of some kind existed at Raystown 
(Bedford) for several years prior to General Braddock's expedition in 1755. 
The earliest traditions are very obscure as to the date of the first settlement of 
the locality. One Rea, whose previous or subsequent history is unknown, 
settled there in 1751, and the hamlet and the branch of the Juniata on whose 
banks it was built, doubtless derived their name from him, but there are intima- 
tions that there were settlements in the vicinity earlier still, and that fully a 
decade before Forbes' expedition in 1758, it was a defended settlement, or there 
was there a defence of some kind to which the settlers, scattered within an area 
of thirty or forty miles, could fly for protection against the incursions of the 
savages. Always, prior to that year (1758), so far as we can discover, all 
letters and official papers 
were dated at " Rays- 
town," " Camp at Ra^^s- 
town," or " Fort at Rays- 
town." General Forbes, 
while encamped there 
when on his expedition 
for the relief of the gar- 
rison at Fort Duquesne, 
dates his letters from 
" Camp at Raj'stown." 
In 1759 and thereafter, 



these dates change. In 
August of that year, 
General Stanwix, on his 
way to the borders of the 
Province on Lake Erie, 
dates his oflflcial papers 
at " Bedford," and " Fort 
Bedford." This is the 
earliest mention we have 
discovered of " Fort Bed- 
ford." In July, 1755, immediately after Braddock's disaster, Colonel James 
Burd proposed cutting a road from Fort Cumberland to " Ray's Town," and 
suggested erecting a fort at that place, " to shut up the other road and save the 
back inhabitants." While this proposition of Colonel Burd's might, as isolated 
evidence, be considered as indicating that no work of defence was in existence 
at Raystown at that time, there is ample collateral evidence that a fort of some 
kind was then standing, but from lack of size, or strength, or from decay, it 
was insufficient for the exigencies of the time, and hence his proposal to build. 
A fort, such as he suggested, must have been erected prior to 1759. In fact, 
the "Old Fort House," a view of which we present to our readers, and 
which is still standing (1876) in good condition, and a large and commodious 
building for the period in which it was erected, is known to have been 




THE OLD FORT BEDFORD HOUSE. 
[From a. Photograph by T. R. Gettys, Bedford.] 



364 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

the officers' quarters in the fort before that time, and was designated as the 
" King's House." 

The act of 1771, providing for the erection of Bedford county, also contained 
the folloAving clause, to wit : " That it sliall and may be lawful to and for Arthur 
St. Clair, Bernard Dougherty, esquires ; Thomas Coulter, William Procter, and 
George Woods, gentlemen ; or any of them, to purchase and take assurance to 
them and their heirs of a piece of land situate in some convenient place in said 
town (Bedford), in trust and for the use of the inhabitants of the said county, 
and thereon to erect and build a court house and prison, sufficient to accommo- 
date the public service of said county, and for the use and conveniency of the 
inhabitants." 

In pursuance of the foregoing, a purchase was made and the deed recorded as 
the " Deed of James McCashlin to Arthur St. Clair, Bernard Dougherty, George 
Woods, and William Procter, esquii-es ; and Thomas Coulter, gentleman, trustees 
appointed by the General Assembly of the Province to erect a jail and court 
house in the county of Bedford, for lot No. 6, bounded partly by the public 
square, dated November 10, 1771, consideration one hundred pounds." The lot 
No. G referred to, is that now occupied by the residence of Mrs. Samuel H. Tate, 
on the north-east corner of the square. Why the public buildings were not 
placed there, as at first intended, and were built instead in the north-west 
quarter of the square, is not now and probably never will be known. There was, 
however, so I am informed by several old citizens, a log structure on the corner 
of this lot (No. 6) temporarily occupied as a court house, and probably built to 
be used for that purpose, while the more permanent one was in the slow process 
of erection, and between this building and the north line of the lot, and standing 
back from Juliann street, to the rear of where H. D. Tate's law office now is, was, 
in the recollection of many of the present citizens, a low, one-story log house 
that was built for and xised as a jail for several years. A letter we have just 
been shown by Chief Burgess Sansom, written many years ago by his uncle. Rev. 
James Sansom, speaks of his father (Rev. James) having delivered the logs for 
the first court house. 

The permanent "court house and prison," built on the portion of the square 
in front of where the Lutheran church now stands, was an unusually extensive 
and substantial building for that day, being massively constructed of the blue 
limestone of the vicinity. It was demolished about the j^ear 1838, by order of 
the court, it having been declared a nuisance, after a greater and much less 
excusable nuisance had been perpetrated in the erection of the present public 
structure on the opposite quarter of the square ; thus, so long as it shall be 
permitted to stand, deforming what is otherwise one of the most beautiful town 
parks in the Commonwealth. 

The engraving of the old provincial buildings is a reproduction of a pencil 
sketch, by John Mower, Esq., the oldest living member of the Bedford bar, and 
the only individual, who was contemporary with it, whose fine artistic taste and 
skill could have been brought to bear to rescue it from oblivion. A number of 
the old citizens who remembered the building, but could not recall it in detail, 
pronounce this sketch perfect. The jail, with its dark dungeon for convicts, 
its cell for ordinary criminals, and its debtor's prison with the grated window, 



BEDFOBD COUNTY. 355 

occupied the lower story to the left of the centre door. The balance of the first 
floor, on the right, was the jailor's residence, in the wings of which, in early 
days, the elections were held. The court room comprised the entire second 
stor}^, and was entered by the stair-case from without. In one corner of the 
court room a flight of steps led to the third story, or attic, under the hio-h 
roof, in which were the grand jury and other jur}^ rooms. 

The early courts of the county were not held as now by " men learned in 
the law," but by "justices nominated and authorized by the Governor for the 
time being, by commissions under the broad seal of the Province." The first 
"court of quarter sessions of the peace and jail delivery" was held April 16 
1771, "before William Procter, Jr., Robert Cluggage, Robert Hanna, George 
Wilson, William Lochery, and William McConnell, Esquires, justices of our 
Lord the King, to hear and determine divers felonies and misdemeanors com- 
mitted in said county." The other justices appointed and commissioned by 
George III., with the above, were John Frazer, Bernard Doughert}^, Arthur St. 
Clair, William Crawford, James Milligan, Thomas Gist, Dorsey Penticost, 
Alexander McKee, and George Woods. The first commissioners were Robert 
Hanna, Dorsey Penticost, and John Stevenson. The first grand jur}^ were 
James Anderson, Charles Cessna, James McCashlin, Thomas Kenton, Allen 
Rose, George Milliken, John Moore, Robert Culbcrtson, George Funk, John 
Huff", Rinard Wolfe, Valentine Sliadacer, Thomas Hay, Samuel Drennin, Edward 
Rose, Samuel Skinner, William Parker, Christopher Miller, Thomas Croyal, 
Adam Sam, Jacob Fisher, and David Rinard. William Procter was the first 
shcrifi". Arthur St. Clair was appointed first prothonotar^^, recorder, and 
clerk of court, by Governor John Penn, March 12, 1771, and deputy register 
for the probate of wills, 18th of same month, by Benjamin Chew, Register 
General. 

Tlie first deed recorded in the archives of the county is that of George 
Croghan to John Campbell, Esq., merchant of Fort Pitt, dated 29th November, 
1770. It recites, that " Whereas Johonoissa, Scanayadia, and Caseantinica, chiefs 
or sachems of the Six Nations of Indians, did by the deed dul}' dated August, 
A.D. 1749, sell to the said Croghan in fee a certain tract of land on the south 
side of the Monongahela river, beginning at the mouth of Turtle creek, and 
thence down the said river to its junction with the Ohio, computed to be ten 
miles," etc. The second paper recorded is an affidavit of James Pollock, on 
the 4th April, 1771, that he lost a note for three pounds. The third paper 
recorded is a "mortgage made 14th Januar}^, 1771, between Francis Howard, 
now of Fort Pitt, ensign in his Majesty's 18th reg't of Foot, and Edward 
Hand, of the same, surgeon mate in said reg't, on both sides of Chartier's creek, 
for 1G36 acres of land. Acknowledged before Charles Edmunston, Capt. 18th 
Reg't. commanding." 

The next record is of the deed heretofoi-e mentioned of lot No. 6, to the com- 
missioners. Then comes a deed of John Hardin, dated 15th February, 1772, to 
John Hardin, Jr., " in consideration of natural love and affection, for his lands 
this side of Laurel Hill, negroes, stock, and other substances, moveable and 
immoveable." 

The last paper we shall mention as throwing some vague light upon the early 



366 HISTOBY OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

settlement of Bedford county, is a deed of the Indians to Garrett (Gerrard ?) 
Pendero-rass. We give a copy of the deed in full, as interesting, not alone from 
the fact that it is a conveyance of the ground on which Allegheny City now 
stands, then in Bedford county, but also that this conveyance was in lieu, as the 
reader will see, of the ground on which Bedford is built, and which having 
belonged to Pcndergrass at a very early day — he was evidently dispossessed of 
previous to the settlement of Ray at the place. This is one of a number of the 
incidental proofs which justify the reader in believing that the early settlement 
of Bedford was even earlier than we have been accustomed to suppose. The 
deed is as follows, viz : 

" Know all men by these presents, that whereas a certain Garrett Fender- 
grass, Senior, of Bedford settlement, in the Province of Pennsylvania, and 
County of Cumberland, was settled some number of years past by leave of the 
chiefs and deputy's of the Six Nations of Indians, on a Tract of Land where Bed- 
ford is now situate, while the said land was yet the property of us and our said 
Chiefs and deputy's. Said Pendergrass being dispossessed of said lands In the 
time of the war between the French and English, and before Said Pendergrass 
could saifly return to live on said land it was Entered upon by people who 
have from time to time and yet continues to keep said Pendergrass from the 
enjoyment of said tract of Land, and said Pendergrass, at the last treaty held at 
Fort Pitt with the representatives of the Six Nations, informed our said chiefs 
or their representatives or deputy's that he was deprived of the above tract of 
land as above mentioned, whereupon us and our said deputy's did then at the 
said treaty, give him, the said Pendergrass, our leave in writing under our hands 
to settle on a tract of land called the Long Reach near the mouth of the Yau- 
ghj^again, but the said last mentioned tract bo:-4ig at the time of the said treaty, 
or before it, improved b}^ some other person or persons, contrary to our expec- 
tations, for which reason the said Pendergrass has not obtained possession of 
the latter mentioned tract and cannot quietly enjoy neither of the two above 
mentioned Tracts ; Know ye, therefore, that we the under or within bound subscri- 
bers, who have hereunto caused our names to be set, and have put our marks, 
the first of us assigning being one of the chiefs and the other two deput3^'s off 
the said Six nations, do give and grant to the said Garrett Pendergrass, his 
heirs and trustees forever, our full leave and liberty of us, and for and in behalf 
of the said Six Nations to settle on a tract of land on the north side of the 
Aligania River opposite to Fort Pitt, in form of a Cemi Circle from said land- 
ing ; hereby granting to him and his heirs, trustees, and assigns, full liberty to 
build houses, make improvements, and cultivate the said tract of land or any 
part thereof, and that he, the said Pendergrass may the more quietly enjo}' the 
said land, and any benefit that him, his heirs, or assigns shall make or can make 
thereb}', we do for ourselves and in behalf of the said Six Nations discharge all 
people whatsoever from molesting or disturbing him the said Pendergrass, his 
heirs, trustees, or assigns, in the possession or quiat enjoyment of the said land, 
or an}^ part thereof, and we do by these presents, firmly engage and promise to 
answer all objections that any Indian tribe or tribes may have to the making of 
the above settlement. 

" In witness whereof we have caused our names to be subscribed, and have 



BEDFOBD COUNTY. 367 

hereunto set our marks, in the month of February, in the year of our Lord God 
one thousand seven hundred and seventy. 
Anonguit, (mark), a turtle. 

Enisiisiiera, or Captain Henry Mountare, (his | mark). 
CoNNEiiRACA-iiECAT, or the White Mingo, (his mark), a circle, 0. 
"Signed and agreed to before James Elliott. 

" Garrett Pendergrass, Jr." 
"Bedford, ss. 

" Came before me, the subscriber, one of his Majesty's justices of the peace of 
said county, the within named Indians, viz. : Anonguit, Enishshera, or Captain 
Henry Mountare, and Connehraca-hecat, or the White Mingo, and acknowledged 
the within instrument of writing, or bill of sale, to be their act and deed, and 
desired the same might be recorded as such. Given under my hand and seal in 
the month of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and 
seventy. "James Elliott. 

" Recorded 19th September, 1772." 

The first attorney sworn in was Robert Magraw, at the first session of the 
courts of the county, April 16, 1771, on motion of Bernard Dougherty, one of 
the justices, there being no attorney to make the motion. Afterwards, at the 
same session, on motion of Robert Magraw, the following were admitted to 
practice, viz.: Andrew Ross, Philip Pandleton, Robert Galbraith, David Sample, 
and James Wilson, and at the ensuing term, July 16, 1771, David Grier, David 
Esp3', and George Brent were admitted. 

The names recommended to the Governor for license as tavern-keepers in 
1771, were Margaret Frazer, Jean Woods, Frederic Naugel, George Funk, John 
Campbell, Joseph Irwin, John Miller, and Samuel Paxton. The old inns, or 
tavern-houses of Frederic Naugel and George Funk are still standing on West 
Pitt Street, and were famous in their day as sjnionyms of good cheer for " man 
and beast." That of George Funk was the aristocratic inn (hotels were un- 
known at that da}'), and the headquarters of the judges, lawyers, and military 
officers. The last of the Funk family died about fifteen years ago, and the 
descendants of Frederic Naugel are still with us, one of them (Frederic) still 
living on the farm, adjoining the town, owned by his ancestor. The first judge 
" learned in the law " appears to have been James Riddle, who died in Cham- 
bersburg in 1838, leaving an honorable record. 

The members, from Bedford county, of the convention which adopted the 
State Constitution of September 28, 1776, -were Benjamin Elliott; Thomas 
Coulter, ancestor of Judge Coulter of Westmoreland ; John Burd ; John Wil- 
kins, father of Judge Wilkins ; Joseph Rhoads ; John Cessna, great-grand- 
father of Hon. John Cessna of Bedford ; Thomas Smith, and Joseph Powell. 

The members of the State Constitutional Convention of February 5, 17^ 
were Joseph Powell, and John Piper, afterward member of the House of Rpj e- 
scntatives of Pennsylvania, of whom it is recorded that he made a leap acru&s 
the open circle beneath the dome of the State House at Harrisburg, while it was 
unfinished as to the railing around it. From numerous traditions he was a 
remarkable athlete. 

It will hardly be considered an unpardonable digression to mention here a 



368 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



number of names intimately associated with tlie history of Bedford county, in its 
courts and offices, who, at various periods, have become prominent in State and 




VIEW AT BEDFORD SPRINGS. 



National affairs, viz. : Hon. Thomas Smith, who held several appointments of 
trust under the government, and was afterwards judge of the Supreme Court; 
Hon. Jonathan Walker, judge of the court, father of Hon. Robert J. Walker, 



BEDB'ORD COUNTY. 3fi9 

United States Senator from Mississippi, and Secretary of the National Treasury, 
who resided here in his boyhood, and received his early education here; Hon. 
Charles Huston, judge, afterwards supreme judge ; Hon. John Tod, judge, after- 
wards supreme judge, lived and died here; Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, judge, 
afterwards supreme judge, Secretary of State of United States, Secretary of War, 
and Attorney General United States; Hon. William Wilkins, judge, United States 
Senator, Minister to Russia, and Secretary of War of United States, lived in 
early life with his father in the house one mile north of Bedford, on the Holli- 
daysburg road, now occupied by Samuel Carney ; Hon. John S. Carlisle, United 
States Senator from West Virginia, is the son of a Bedford lawyer ; General 
Arthur St. Clair, of Revolutionary fame, was the first prothonotary and register 
of Bedford county ; Hon. David Mann, father of William F, and D. F. Mann, a 
gentleman of sterling worth, was appointed prothonotary in 1809 by Governor 
Snyder, and reappointed b}^ Governor Findlay, serving twelve years, was State 
senator in 1821, and Auditor-General under Govexmor Shulze, 1824-27. Hon. 
Job Mann, nephew of the above, was prothonotarj' for twelve years, afterwards 
State Treasurer of Pennsylvania and representative in Congress ; Hon. Alexander 
Thompson, judge, and member of Congress, a man of remarkable uprightness, 
purity, and simplicity of character; Hon. James M. Russell, nephew of the first 
law judge of the county (Riddle), was a lawyer here for over fifty years, a repre- 
sentative in Congress, and a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1837- 
'38 ; Hon. S. M. Barclay, a prominent lawyer and senator of the State ; Hon. 
Alexander King, judge of the district and State Senator; Hon. Francis Jordan, 
Secretary of State of Pennsylvania, is a native of Bedford count}', studied law, 
was admitted and practiced in early life at the Bedford bar ; Hon. Alexander L. 
Russell, son of James M., member of the Bedford bar, afterwards Secretary of 
State and Adjutant- General of Pennsylvania; Hon. Samuel L. Russell, brother 
of the above, a member of the Bedford bar, and member of Congress, and of the 
Constitutional Convention of 1872-'73 ; Hon. John Cessna, member of the bar, 
speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1851 and 1868, member 
of the forty-first and forty -third Congress, and filled many other important public 
and party offices ; Hon. William P. Schell, auditor-general of Pennsylvania ; Hon. 
William Maclay Hall, president judge of the court ; with many others whom Bed- 
ford might claim, who have had honorable influence in public afiairs, but we are re- 
stricted by want of space to the above mentioned. 

The original townships, several of which will be recognized as now belonging 
to other localities, were Ayr, Bedford, Cumberland, Barree, Dublin, Colerain, 
Brother's Yalle}', Fairfield, Mt. Pleasant, Hempfield, Pitt (now Allegheny county), 
Tyrone, Spring Hill, Rosstrcvor, Armstrong (now Armstrong county), and 
Tullileague. The present townships are Bedford, Broad Top, Colerain, Cumber 
land Valley, Hopewell, Harrison, Juniata, Londonderry, Liberty, Monroe, 
Napier, East Providence, West Providence, East St. Clair, West St. Clair, 
Southampton, Snake Spring, Union, Middle Woodbur}-, and South Woodbury. 

The early record of Bedford county abounds in the fearfid incidents usual to 
wild and perilous border life, which if narrated here would make this sketch, 
albeit veritable histor}', seem a romance. Our space, howevei*, is limited, and we 
must forbear. Often and terrible were the visitations of the savages to the 

Y 



370 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

homes of the early settlers, and the obliterations of entire families, and the 
dispersion or destruction of settlements were of not infrequent occurrence. One 
incident of the kind — the massacre of the Tull family — is an illustration of the 
remark, and we allude to it to the exclusion of others as thrilling and dire, 
because the circumstance has been perpetuated in the memories of the inhabitants 
from the locality, having ever since borne the name of the fated family. Every 
school child in the county knows of or has heard of " Tull's Hill." It lies on the 
Pittsburgh turnpike, six miles west of Bedford, and has its name from the 
murder in 1777 by the Indians of a family of that name, consisting of the parents 
and nine children. The writer many years ago saw an old citizen, who when a 
young man of nineteen years, passed the smouldering ruins of the Tull cabin the 
day of the massacre, and saw the mutilated remains of the victims. He made 
his escape to Fort Bedford. We give the following extract of an account of this 
massacre, which was written by John Mower, Esq., some thirty years ago. 
"There were ten children, nine daughters and a son; but at the time referred 
to the son was absent. At that time the Indians were particularly troublesome, 
and the inhabitants had abandoned their improvements and taken refuge in the 
fort; but Tull's family disregarded the danger and remained on their im- 
provements. One Williams, who had made a settlement about three miles west 
of Tull's, and near where the town of Schellsburg now stands, had returned to 
his farm to sow some flaxseed ; he had a son with him, and remained out about a 
week. The road to his improvement passed Tull's house. On their return, as 
they approached Tail's, they saw a smoke, and coming nearer, discovered that it 
arose from the burning ruins of Tull's house. Upon a nearer approach, the son 
saw an object in the garden, which by a slight movement had attracted his atten- 
tion, and looking more closely, they found it was the old man just expiring. At 
the same moment, the son discovered on the ground near him an Indian paint- 
bag. They at once undei'stood the whole matter, and knowing that the Indians 
were still near, fled at once to the fort. Next day a force went out from the fort 
to examine, and after some search, found 'the mother with an infant in her arms, 
both scalped. A short distance in the same direction, they found the eldest 
daughter also scalped. A short distance from her, the next daughter in the 
same situation, and scattered about at intervals, the rest of the children but one, 
who, from circumstances, they supposed had been burned." 

The following extract from the Pennsylvania Gazette of August 30, 1764, 
incidentally explains the perilous state of aff'airs at that time, and this continued 
to be the condition of things, at intervals, until 1780. The extract is as follows : 
" All appears quiet at present along the frontier, except about Bedford, where 
there are, according to intelligence from thence, some of the savages lying in 
wait for opportunity of doing mischief. They attempted, verj- lately, to take a 
man that was fishing, but he got off. The people are returning over the hills to 
their places, which we are afraid is too soon." 

General Bouquet writes to Governor Penn, August 25, 1764, as follows: "A 
party of thirty or forty Indians have killed, near Bedford, one Isaac Stirable, an 
industrious inhabitant of Ligonier ; taken some horses loaded with merchants' 
goods, and shot some cattle, after Colonel Reed's detachment had passed that 
post." 



BEDFOBB COUNTY. 



3n 



We learn, also, from Rev. Dr. Dorr's Historical account of Christ and St. Peter's 
churches, Philadelphia, that in July, 1763, the "back inhabitants," Bedford, with 
other points, were in such distressed condition from the "inroads of the savages," 
that the congregations of Christ and St. Peter's Episcopal churches of Philadel- 
phia, at the instance of their Rector, Rev. Richard Peters, contributed the sum 
of £662 3s. for their relief, and after corresponding with the minister and war- 
dens of the Episcopal church, at Carlisle, for information, sent "supplies of flour, 
rice, medicine, and other necessaries, together with two chests of arms and half 
a barrel of powder, four hundred pounds of lead, two hundred of swan shot, and 
one thousand flints." 

The inhabitants of Bedford county have always been with the advance of their 
fellow-citizens of other localities in furnishing brave men for the defence of the 
rights of their country. 

Reference to the archives and records of the Commonwealth shows that in 
the early French and Indian 
wars, the war of the Revolu- 
tion, the late war with Eng- 
land, the Mexican war, and 
the recent civil war, Bedford 
county has always furnished, 
never less, and often more, 
tnan its full quota of those 
who voluntarily gave their 
services, in the camp and in 
ttie field, to their country. 

We are indebted to Hon. 
William P. Schell for the data 
of the following geographical 
and geological description of 
the county : 

All of the geological strata 
within the limits of Pennsyl- 
vania, from the Trenton or 



lower limestone up to and in- 
cluding the coal formation, 
are found in the county. The 
great Apalachian chain of mountains have their tread north-east and south- 
west through the county. The western boundary is formed by the Great 
and the Little Allegheny mountains, which abound in coal, iron ore, and 
fire-clay. The eastern boundary is formed by Ray's Hill and Broad Top moun- 
tains. They contain a very superior coal, known as the Broad Top, semi-bitu- 
minous, and also iron. 

The central portion of the county is traversed by several mountain ranges — 
Terrace, Tussey's, Dunnjng's, Evit's, Will's, and Buffalo mountains, all of which 
contain one or more valuable seams of fossil iron ore, excepting the first named, 
which contains an excellent red hematite ore. There are over two hundred square 
miles of fossil iron ore within the limits of the county. Embosomed in these 




ESPY HOUSE — WASHINGTON'S HEAD-QUARTERS, 1794. 

fFrom a Photograph by T. R. Gettys, Bedford.] 



372 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

mountain ranges are some of the most beautiful and fertile limestone valleys to 
be found anywhere. Many of them are of the same geological formation as 
Lebanon valley, the great Cumberland valley, and the limestone land of Lancas- 
ter county. 

Morrison's cove is some eight miles in width, and extends some twelve miles 
in this county and through Blair and Centre counties. The land is as fertile 
and as well improved as any part of the " garden spot of the State " — Lancaster 
county. Snake Spring valley, Friend's cove, and Milligan's cove are also 
composed of the Trenton or lower strata of limestone. These valleys are 
generally underlaid with a very rich brown and red hematite iron ore. There are 
also several very beautiful and fertile valleys of the upper or Hilderberg limestone 
formation, to wit: Bedford, Cumberland valley, Dutch Corner, St. Clair, and 
Will's Creek valleys. Chestnut ridge, near Schellsburg, is also of the same 
formation. Within a distance of ten miles, on an east and west line, may be 
found every geological stratum within the State, except those beneath the Tren- 
ton limestone. 

Bedford county is, without doubt, one of the richest iron counties in the 
State, as it contains almost every variety of ore — the fossil, the hematite, and 
the carbonaceous ores. Iron can be made at lower rates than elsewhere in 
the Slate, as coal, iron ore, and limestone are found in great abundance in close 
proximity, and these are all intersected by a railroad running diagonally north- 
east and south-west, through the entire length of the county. 

The natural scenery of Bedford county is perhaps unsurpassed for pictu- 
resqueness and variety. The wild mountain views alternate with rare rural 
scenes. The valleys especially attract the attention of tourists, and some of the 
landscapes are pronounced, by persons traveled in this and other lands, as 
beautiful as any the sun shines upon. The climate is pure and healthful. 

The manufacturing facilities of the county are as yet comparatively unde- 
veloped. There are several extensive iron furnaces, some of which have been 
nearly a century in operation. One, the Bloomfield furnace, in Morrison's cove, 
furnishes iron of such peculiarly excellent and tenacious qualitj'^ that it was 
exclusivel}^ used during the recent war for the manufacture of the immense 
cannon used by the government. There are several manufactories of woolen 
goods, planing mills, and a large number of extensive steam tanneries, but in all 
these industries, especially the iron interest, the reserve supply of material 
untouched is simply inexhaustible. 

The town of Bedford was laid out in June, 1766, by order issued by 
Governor John Penn to the Surveyor-General of the Province, John Lukens, 
and it was incorporated as a borough, by act of Assembly of the State, 13th 
March, 1795. The original plan of the town, which has been enlarged by sub- 
sequent additions, was similar to all the old towns of the Penns, having equally 
sized squares, divided by streets intersecting each other at right angles, and a 
central park or square. It had three streets running east and west, viz., Penn, 
Pitt, and John, the two latter being on the north and south, and each sixty feet 
in width, and the first named being central, between the other two, and eighty 
feet in width. These are crossed at regular intervals bj'^ six other streets, 
running north and south, named respectively, Juliann, Thomas, Richard, Bed- 



BEDFORD COUNTY. 373 

ford, East, and West streets, each of the width of sixty feet. The personal 
names, feminine and masculine, perhaps more home-like than euphonious, which 
some of these streets bear, were given (so says tradition) by John Lukens in 
honor of members of the Governor's family. The limits of the borough have 
been gradually enlarged, until to-day it covers an area of one mile from east to 
west, by one and a quarter miles north to south. 

At the time of the survey by John Lukens, the streets of Raystown, viz., the 
road from the east to Fort Pitt and the path south to Fort Cumberland, entered 
the hamlet on lines parallel with the Old Fort, or King's house. Tlie survey of 
Lukens changed these courses, for his orders were to '' lay out the streets 
parallel with and at right angles with Colonel Bouquet's house." This house is 
the large limestone mansion known as the " Woods house," that stands on Pitt 
street, directly opposite the Old Fort house, and is now the residence of A. B. 
Carn. It is, even for the present day, a spacious, elegant mansion, massive and 
durable in style, and unless it should be removed to make way for business 
houses, will be as strong and secure a century hence as it is now. Wh^^ it was 
called Colonel Bouquet's house is not now known, unless it being his head-quar- 
ters in 1158, when he remained some time at Bedford with his force of 7,850 
men, and his again occupying it temporarily in 1163, associated his name with 
it. It is sure he never owned it, nor had his permanent residence in Bedford. 
The house was built prior to 1158, tradition says by a Captain Klem, a Scotch- 
man, and at an early day came into the possession of George Woods, Esquire, 
one of the King's justices, and was for several generations the residence of 
himself and descendants, having passed out of ihe family within the last thirty 
years. 

The only buildings contemporary, or nearly so, with it now standing are the 
Old Fort or King's house ; the Funk and Nawgel taverns, on West Pitt street ; 
the old Barclay house in the south-east suburb, known as the " Grove ;" the 
" Esp3'^ house," a picture of which is given, interesting as Washington's head- 
quarters in October, 1194, when he came to Bedford on his expedition to the 
western counties during the Whiskey Insurrection. It is also a matter worthy 
of note that General Arthur St. Clair had his first prothonotary's office, in 1111 
and 1112, in the basement of the rear building of the Espy house. The Old 
Fort, or " King's house," stands at an angle eccentric from the town lines, facing 
a private square at the intersection of Pitt and Juliann streets. It is a somewhat 
singular circumstance, in this land of change, that this property is now owned by 
a descendant (David F. Mann) of one of the first home officers commissioned in 
the war of the Revolution, Captain Andrew Mann, father of the late Hon. David 
Mann. The old house is built of oak logs, and is yet substantial and in good pre- 
servation. It had a smooth clay floor on the first story, still to be seen under 
the modern flooring, and split logs flooring the second story. The building is 
now covered with weather boarding, but the clap-boarding of the gable ends is 
still to be seen from the inside, fastened with immense wrought-iron spikes. 
In the old Nawgel tavern, the old split oak floor, nailed with the same huge home- 
made spikes, is to be seen. 

Lying to the eastward of the King's house, and sloping downward to what is 
now East street, was th*' " King's orchard," some fifteen acres planted in apple 



374 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

trees, the last one of which was standing as lately as about 1855, having sur- 
vived its companions many years. This orchard seems to have been used in 
early times as a burial-place for the settlers and soldiers of the fort, the graves 
being scattered without regard to order all over the space alluded to, some 
singly, others in small clusters, as evidenced by the frequent exhumation ol 
human remains, from the early years of the borough to the present time, in 
excavating for buildings and other purposes. These remains are still occasion- 
ally brought to the surface in the ordinary work of cultivating the gardens in 
the compactly built portion of the town which was once the King's orchard. 
But a dozen years ago, in digging the cellar for the brick house on the north 
side of Penn street, immediately east of the Presbyterian church, the workmen 
discovered what were evidently the remains of two adult persons in early man- 
hood and womanhood, probably man and wife, who had, from indications shown 
by the appearance of the bones, met deaths of violence. In the forehead of the 
female skeleton was the perforation made by the leaden bullet which was found 
in the cavity of the skull. After the town was surveyed in 1166, the interments 
seem to have been principally confined, for some thirty years, to the Episcopal 
burial-ground on Penn street, east of Richard, also a part of the King's orchard, 
which, at the laying out of the town, was donated by Governor Penn to " the 
Church for a burial-place." In removing the remains of the dead from this old 
grave3^ard to the new cemetery, some ten years since, remains of several, sup- 
posed to be British officers, were among those taken up. In the grave of one, 
thought by the old inhabitants to be that of a Colonel Campbell, were found, 
besides the massive coffin handles, a breast-pin containing a lady's miniature, 
and a pair of very rich, old fashioned, gold linked sleeve-buttons. The remains 
of Justice Bernard Dougherty, Judge Scott, and others of the early pioneers, 
were deposited in this gTOund. 

In the old graveyard on Juliann street, south of the original borough line, 
also donated by order of Governor Penn to the " Lutherans and Culvinists of the 
town," commonly known as the Presbyterian graveyard, also lie the remains of 
many of the first settlers. It is in this ground that John Tod, judge of the Su- 
preme Court, is buried. There is also another tomb in this enclosure, around 
which cluster interesting memories — it is that of Colonel Levin Powell, of Virgi- 
nia, who died in Bedford while visiting the springs for his health in 1810. He 
was the Colonel Powell in connection with whose name the following characte- 
ristic anecdote is narrated. Colonel Powell was a candidate for Congress in the 
district in which Washington resided, and they were not on amicable terms, 
although of the same party. As the General aliglited from his horse and walked 
up to the polls to announce his vote, as was the custom of the time in Virginia, 
the crowd, curious to know how he would vote, under the circumstances, followed 
lam. Washington observing this, exclaimed, in words that have passed into a 
proverb: "Gentlemen, I vote for principles, not men," and then directed the 
clerk to record his vote for Colonel Levin Powell. 

The early settlers of Bedford were principally English, also the Scotch-Irish, 
and the German element were largely represented. The descendants of a number 
of the pioneers still reside here, and many of tliera are among our first citizens. 
For many years the society of the town was characterized by English customs 



BEDFOBD COUNTY. 375 

and hospitality, and like Carlisle, Chamhersburg, and some other of the colo- 
nial towns, was intelligent, select, refined, and aristocratic. 

The town is beautifully situated on the Raystown branch of the Juniata, 
in the midst of a most charming landscape, in a valley the beauties of which 
have formed the theme of many a poet's verse and tourist's praise. For health- 
fulness of location, exquisiteness of scenery, and salubrity of climate, it has few 
rivals. It is well built, has wide streets well paved, and is much remarked upon 
for the beauty and number of its shade trees. Its public edifices, court house, 
churches, and school buildings, are handsome and in good architectural style, 
and its private residences are uniformly good, and some of them quite beautiful; 
these are for the most part brick and stone. The town stands upon what for 
many years was the great thoroughfare between the East and West — the turnpike 
leading from Philadelphia and Baltimore to Pittsburgh and Wheeling ; and until 
the completing of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad on the south, and the Penn- 
sylvania Central on the north, the entire road, from Chamhersburg to Pittsburgh, 
was teeming day and night with coaches, Conestoga wagons, and private convey- 
ances, and every interest of the town and country was prosperous. After the 
opening out of the railroads above mentioned, the old place was figurativel}' " laid 
on the shelf," until the completing, in 1872, of its railroad connecting the Penn- 
sylvania and Maryland railroads, since which time its prosperity has been on the 
increase. Its population has since then doubled, its inhabitants now numbering 
2,500. The Bedford and Bridgeport railroad runs on the north side of the river, 
about two hundred yards from its main street, with which it is connected by two 
bridges, one of them an iron bridge of remarkable durability and beauty. There 
is considerable wealth concentrated here, and there is little of poverty. The 
citizens, as a class, are industrious, moral, and prospei'ous. It has one of the 
finest graded schools in the State. Its churches are, the Presbyterian, Catholic, 
Reformed, Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, and two African Methodist. 

Everett, formerly Waynesburg and Bloody Run, the second in size of the 
towns of Bedford county, is a thriving borough of twelve hundred inhabitants, 
situated on the Raystown branch of the Juniata, and the Chamhersburg and Bed- 
ford turnpike, eight miles from the latter place. The Huntingdon and Broad Top 
railroad, wliich connects with the Bedford and Bridgeport railroad at Mount 
Dallas, one mile west of the town, has a depot here. The town is handsomely 
built, and improving rapidly, and is inhabited by a moral, energetic, intelligent, 
and hospitable people. The private residences are principally built of brick 
and frame. 

Colonel Joseph W. Tate writes to me concerning its early history : " In 
reference to the borough of Bloody Run, now Everett, I find the facts to be as 
follows: In a deed dated 7th March, 1787, from John Musser, of Lancaster, Penn- 
sylvania, to Michael Barndollar, of Frederick county, Md., there was conveyed 
four hundred acres of land. This was comprised in two warrants, one in the 
name of William Thompson, for 250 acres, the other in name of James Elliott, 
for 150 acres, which includes the creek or branch called Bloody run. On the first 
day of February, 1800, under articles of agreement, Michael Barndollar conveyed 
eighty acres of the western part of the above warrants unto Samuel Tate, of 
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. The above eighty acres included the Juniata river 



376 HIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

and the stream Bloody run, from its mouth to a survey in the name of Robert 
Culbertson. On 13th October, 1800, Samuel Tate was by Michael Barndollar 
constituted attorney to procure patents for the above described lands." 

This was the beginning of the hamlet of Bloody Run, which finally grew into 
a village, and afterward was incorporated as a borough. The name was changed, 
a few years ago, for one perhaps more euphonious — Everett, which at times has 
caused some embarrassment to tourists who were in search of the historic battle- 
ground of Bloody Run. 

Colonel Tate goes on to remark that " the battle with the Indians, from which 
the old town derived its name, was fought on the Culbertson tract, a short dis- 
tance east of the steam mill, and south of Spring's. Traces of the old road can 
yet be seen on Culbertson's hill, west of where J. W. Barndollar's railroad ware- 
house now stands. The first Methodist church and grave3'ard were on the 
boundary of R. Culbertson's survey. Prior to building the Methodist church, 
the gi'aveyard was west of the old stone church, and near the old log school- 
house. There was another gravej-ard at an early daj', on the point west of 
where Blooly run empties into the Raj'stown branch." 

There are various and conflicting accounts as to the affiiir which gave the 
name of Bloody run to this stream and for many years to the town. The follow- 
ing, published in a London (England) paper in 1165, is perhaps as authentic as 
any other, viz. : " The convoy of eighty horses, loaded with goods, chiefly on his 
Majesty's account, as presents to the Indians, and part on account of Indian 
traders, were surprised in a narrow and dangerous defile in the mountains by a 
body of armed men. A number of horses were killed, and the whole of the goods 
carried away by the plunderers. The rivulet was dyed with blood, and ran into 
the settlement below, carrying with it the stain of crime upon its surface.'''' 

The foregoing is as explicit as a report borne across the Atlantic from the 
wilds of the west at that day could well be. It was not in a mountain defile, 
however, that the melee occurred ; it was in a hollow among the hills, near the 
river, and not far from the base of the mountain, and the truth, as far as we can 
gather, is about this : The traders above referred to were doing, as some are 
doing in our western border to-day, gratifying their passion for lucre at the sac- 
rifice of the public good, viz., surreptitiously furnishing the savages with the 
implements and materiel of war, by which they were enabled to carry on more 
readily their predator^' and murderous attacks upon the settlers and their fami- 
lies. It were well, perhaps, if there were now, as then, stern men who, on their 
own individual responsibility, would correct the evil by visiting summary ven- 
geance upon the sordid knaves. 

ScHELLSBURG. — I am indebted to John P. Reed, Esq., grandson of the founder 
of Schellsburg, for the following sketch : " Schellsburg, ' the loveliest village of 
the plain,' is situated on the eastern slope of Chestnut ridge, one of the foot- 
hills of the Allegheny mountains, nine miles west of Bedford, on the turnpike 
leading to Pittsburgh. It was laid out by John Schell, a native of Goshenhoppen, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, in the j-ear 1810, who was forced to leave 
his early home on account of the ' alien and sedition law,' and his ' liberty pole ' 
proclivities. He came to Bedford county about the 3'ear 1800, and stopped at 
'Nine Mile town,' west of Bedford, and bought the tract of laud patented as 



BEBFOED COUNTY. 377 

'Nine Mile town,' and an adjoining tract patented in the name of ' Pekin,' about 
live hundred acres, from Samuel Davidson and John Anderson, of Bedford, in 
1801, and on these lands, on the road leading from Bedford to Fort Pitt, he laid 
out the village of Schellsburg. It grew apace, and the Legislature, by act of 19Lh 
of March, 1838, made it a borough. It is a beautiful and substantial villao-e of 
about five hundred inhabitants, situated near the foot of a picturesque ridge, sur- 
rounded by beautiful meadows and fields, forming quite an extended plain, with 
a fine view of the distant Buffalo ridge and the Wills mountains. John Schell 
donated several lots for church and educational purposes, and some ten acres of 
level land, on the summit of the ridge, for a church and cemetery. Here was 
built, mainly through his efforts, the first church (a union church of the German 
Reformed and Lutheran denominations) in that part of the county, which remains 
to-day a relic of the labors of the pioneers of this section, and is used now only 
as a mortuary chapel of the beautiful burial-ground that surrounds it. In the 
village, the Reformed, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian people are repre- 
sented by churches, and a creditable brick school-house supplies the wants of the 
villagers in that regard. A town hall is now also in process of erection. At an 
earl}'- day the town was the centre of business for thirty miles in a westerly and 
northerly direction ; now the business is more diffused." 

The other boroughs of the count}^ are Woodbury, in Morrison's cove ; St. 
Clairsville, ten miles north of Bedford, named in honor of Arthur St. Clair ; 
Ratnsburg, in Friend's cove, nine miles south-east from. Bedford ; Saxton, on 
the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad, in the north-east end of the count}^ ; 
CoALDALE, on Broad Top mountain ; Pleasantville, in the north-west section, 
where are located a large steam tannery and grist mills ; and Bridgeport, at 
the junction of the Bedford and Bridgeport with the Pittsburgh and Connells- 
ville railroad. 

The medicinal springs of Bedford are so widely and justly celebrated, that 
no sketch of this locality can be complete without some reference thereto. 
These springs rank foremost in Penns3dvania on account of their mineral pro- 
perties and medicinal effects, and their mountain elevation and scenery. They 
are a mile and a half from the town of Bedford, from which they derive their 
name. Besides the mineral spring, as it is called, there are found in close 
proximity a chalj^beate spring, a powerful limestone one, a sulphur, and two 
sweet springs. The discovery of the remedial virtues of the Bedford waters 
only dates half a century back. In the j'ear 1804, a mechanic of Bedford, Jacob 
Fletcher, when fishing for trout in the stream near the principal fountain, was 
attracted by the beauty and singularity of the waters flowing from the bank, and 
drank freely from them. They proved purgative and sudorific. He had suffered 
many years from rheumatic pains and formidable ulcers on the legs. On the 
ensuing night he was more free from pain, and slept more tranquilly than usual ; 
and this unexpected relief induced him to drink dailj'' of the waters, and to bathe 
his limbs in the fountain. In a few weeks he was entirely cured. The happy 
effect Avhich thej^ had on this patient led others, laboring under various chronic 
diseases, to the springs. In the summer of 1805, many valetudinarians came in 
carriages and encamped in the valley, to seek from the munificent hand of nature 
their lost health. Since that period the springs have become widely famous. 



BERKS COUNTY. 



BY J. 



LAWRENCE GETZ, READING. 




ERKS county (named after Berkshire in England, where the Penn 
family held large landed estates) was originally formed from parts 
of Philadelphia county cast of the river Schuylkill, and from parts of 
H Chester and Lancaster west of the same river, by an act of the 
General Assembly, approved March 11th, 1752, by the Hon. James Hamilton, 
Governor of the Province. By the same act, Edward Scull, of Philadelphia 
county, Benjamin Lightfoot, of Chester, and Thomas Cookson, of Lancaster, were 
appointed commissioners to run the boundary lines. Its subdivisions at that 




BERKS COUNTY COURT HOUSE, READINO. 

[From a Photograph by Saylor, Reading.] 

time consisted of sixteen townships, of which Albany, Alsace, Amity, Colebrook- 
dale, Douglass, Exeter, Hereford, and Oley, were taken from Philadelphia 
county; Bern, Bethel, Caernarvon, Cumru, Heidelberg, Robeson, and Tulpe- 
hocken, from Lancaster county ; and Union township from Chester county. 

Berks was reduced to its pi'esent limits by annexing the extreme northern 
part to Northumberland, 1172; and by the erection of Schuylliill county out of 
an additional northern part of its territorj^, 1811. It is bounded on the north by 
Schuylkill ; on the north-east by Lehigh ; on the south-east by Montgomery and 
Chester; and on the south-west b}'^ Lancaster and Lebanon. Average length, 32 
miles; breadth, 28 miles ; area, 927 square miles, embracing 593,280 acres. 

By the petition which was presented to the General Assembly, February 4th, 

378 



BERKS COUNTY. 379 

1752, asking for the erection of a county to be called Berks, the population of 
the territory included within the then proposed limits was estimated at seven 
thousand. By the several decennial censuses of the United States government, 
taken from 1790 to 1870, inclusive, the population of the county was enumerated 
as follows : 1790, 30,179 ; 1800, 32,407 ; 1810, 43,146 ; 1820, 46,275 ; 1830, 53,152 ; 
1840, 64,509; 1850, 77,129; 1860, 93,818; 1870, 106,701; 1876 (estimated), 
120,000. 

The topographical features of the county are diversified. Broad fertile 
plains and valleys intermingle with rough hills and mountains incapable of culti- 
vation by the plow. But as compensation for the sterile surface of the latter, 
many of them contain enormous mineral wealth in the shape of iron, which 
awaits development, and will yet become the source of incalculable profit to the 
future inheritors of the soil. The southern portion of the county is traversed in 
a south-westerly coui'se by the South mountain range, here and there broken into 
irregular spurs. In the northern part there are several elevated ridges. The 
Kittatinny or Blue mountain forms the boundary line between Berks and 
Schuylkill. 

The principal stream in Berks county is the river Schuylkill (" hidden 
creek "), so named by the Dutch, who were the first explorers of this region, 
and who, it is said, in their explorations of the Delaware river, passed the 
mouth of the Schuylkill without perceiving its existence. The Indian name of 
the river was Man-ai-unk. It rises in the carboniferous highlands of Schuylkill 
county, and flowing in a south-easterly direction, breaks through the Blue ridge 
at Port Clinton, and flows down by Hamburg, and passing Reading, becomes 
the dividing line between the counties of Montgomery and Chester a few miles 
above Pottstown. Several of its large tributaries flow through Berks county, 
the principal one of which is the Tulpehocken creek, rising in Lebanon county, 
and flowing E.S.E., empties into the Schuylkill near Reading. The Maiden 
creek, another tributary, rises in the north-eastern part of the county, and flows 
into the Schuylkill six miles above Reading. The Manatawny rises in the 
south-eastern part of the county, and empties into the Schujdkill at Pottstown. 
There are several smaller streams in the county, viz. : Saucony, a branch of the 
Maiden creek; Northkill, which empties into the Tulpehocken near Bernville ; 
Cacoosing and Spring creeks, which are branches of the Tulpehocken ; and 
Allegheny and Monocasy creeks, emptying into the Schuylkill below Reading. 
The Little Swatara rises at the foot of the Blue mountain, and flows in a south- 
westerly direction, through Lebanon county, and unites with the Great Swatara 
near Jonestown. These streams furnish ample water power for mills, furnaces, 
forges, and other manufactories. 

The agricultural resources of Berks are very large, and the county ranks in 
this respect as the third in the State, being excelled only by Chester and Lan- 
caster. The soil generally (with the exceptions noted on a preceding page) is 
of good quality, and under thorough culture. One-third is fertile limestone 
land, very productive in wheat and other cereals. In the southern part the red 
shale formation prevails. Well cultivated fields in every section testify to both 
the fertility of the soil and the persevering industry of the large rural popula- 
tion which is principally engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1870 the total 



380 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



estimated value of all farm productions, including betterments and additions to 
stock, was $9,150,7s9. The surplus agricultural products are sent principally to 
the markets of Philadelphia, New York, and the Schu^dkill coal regions. 

The chief mineral wealth of Berks consists in iron ore, which occurs in 
various parts of the county. At Mount Pleasant, in Colebrookdale township; 
in Oley township ; at Boyertown ; at Moselem, in Richmond township; and at 
several other points, beds of good quality of ore are profitably worked. The 
products of these mines form the principal supply for the numerous furnaces in 
the county. 

An approximate idea of the extent and productive value of the various 
manufactories of iron in Berks county is given in the following table, compiled 
from the census of 1870, which contains the onl}'- reliable data accessible to the 
writer : 



MAKUFACTORIES. 



Blooraeries 

Forged and rolled . . . 
Bolts, nuts, etc. . . . 
Nails and spikes . . . 
Wrought tubes .... 

Pig iron 

Castings, all kinds . . . 
Machinery (not specified) 
Engines and boilers . . 

Total 



p 




o 


-c '"' 


l-b 


ti-:a 


^ 


O C3 


O 


n IP 


*"; 


&. 


?r 




in 




3 


16 


19 


1,027 


2 


26 


3 


140 


1 


241 


17 


1.244 


15 


492 


6 


68 


3 


112 


69 


3,306 



Capital. 



$62,500 

2,199,659 

110.000 

180,000 

750,000 

2,878,600 

626,500 

72,990 

95,500 



"Wages. 



$5,133 

681,260 

13,564 

66,250 

108,410 

332,945 

211,623 

23,090 

40,600 



$0,475,749 



$1,382,875 



Yalue of 
materials 
consumed. 



$40,415 

2,196,684 

52,309 

288,472 

437,206 

1,415,166 

403,890 

14,480 

42,350 



$4,890,972 



Products. 



$59,220 

2,983,755 

71,000 

383,500 

569,634 

2,041,025 

718,559 

68,750 

107,640 



$7,003,083 



PUINCIPAL INDUSTRIES OF THE COUNTY OTHER THAN IRON. 



MANUFACTORIES. 



Canal boats .... 
Boots and shoes . . 

Bricks 

Carriages and wagons 

Clothing 

Cotton goods . . . 
Flouring mill products 
Hats and caps . . . 
Leather tanned . . . 
Do. curried . . . 
Malt liquors .... 

Sash, doors, and blinds 
Cigars . ... . . . 

Woolen goods . . . 



CO 



B 



3 
11 

29 

54 

59 

5 

63 

16 

38 

39 

5 

6 

38 

13 



Cb 



o p 



121 
177 

386 
185 
307 
341 
154 
432 
113 
7* 
66 
130 
282 
227 



Capital. 



$59,500 

70,900 

191,160 

67,950 

88,375 

198,400 

557,550 

391,188 

180,765 

111,525 

421 ,000 

56,500 

89,500 

197,780 



Wages. 



$46,470 
60,150 
81,416 
40,846 
54,647 
77,450 
29,555 

177,460 
26,191 
15,777 
30,720 
61,417 
49,910 
57,473 



Value of 
materials. 



$106,401 


$155,801 


89,622 


170,417 


97,915 


260,110 


44,064 


137,233 


137,143 


228,801 


175,574 


299,550 


1,127,265 


1 ,308,233 


458,299 


951.880 


281,499 


348,564 


250,961 


314,831 


150,715 


257.679 


112,852 


211,861 


86,198 


196.543 


158,795 


285,435 



Products. 



BERKS COUNTY. 381 

The number of manufacturing establishments of all descriptions in Berks 
county, as returned by the census of 1870, was 1,440. Total number of hands 
employed, 8,991 ; capital invested, $11,182,603 ; wages paid annually, $2,711,231 ; 
materials consumed, $10,646,049; value of products, $16,243,453. Estimated 
value in 1875, being 50 per centum added, $24,365,179. 

It has been the fashion with writers for the press, for the most part unac- 
quainted with the history and character of the inhabitants of Berks county, to 
represent them as an ignorant people, inimical to education. To siicli an extent 
has this misrej^resentation been carried, that, up to a very recent period, the 
" Dumb Dutch " of Berks had become a by -word of reproach against this people 
indiscriminatel}'. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In every settlement 
of Berks county, from the earliest dates, the school house was reared contempora- 
neously with the church ; secular education went hand in hand with religious 
instruction, and the schoolmaster was regarded as second only to the pastor in 
the im.portance of his functions. It is true that the Germans of Berks county, 
with their characteristic jealousy of all innovations upon their established 
customs and institutions, were slow to adopt the provisions of the common school 
law of Penns}- Ivania, which they looked upon with suspicion, as an attempt by the 
State to usurp authority in a matter which they believed to belong exclusively to 
themselves as a local and domestic regulation of which they were best qualified 
to have the control. Whether right or wrong in this view is no longer a question 
of practical importance. Suffice it to say that, when the school system came to 
be fairly understood, it was readily accepted and faithfully administered, and in 
no county in the State do its operations and results to-day present a more 
gratifying exhibit. Exclusive of the city of Reading, the county is sub-divided 
into fifty school districts, Avilh four hundred and twenty-five schools, which are 
kept open upon an average of six months in the year. The number of teachers 
employed during the school year just closed was 430; average number of pupils 
in attendance, 12,374. The annual taxation of the people for the support of 
these schools amounts to nearly $105,000, and no tax is more willingly paid. 
The school houses are all substantially built, and many of them have been 
constructed after the most improved models of school architecture. 

The earliest internal improvements which brought Berks county into direct 
communication with other sections of the State were the three great turnpike 
roads, namely, the Reading and Perkiomen, from Philadelphia to Reading, fifty- 
two miles ; the Centre, an extension of the former, from Reading to Sunbury, 
eighty-two miles ; and the Berks and Dauphin, from Reading to Harrisburg, 
fifty-two miles. These highAvays have been preserved in good repair at a very 
small annual expenditure, and attest the wisdom and engineering skill of the old 
surveyors by whom they were constructed. The turnpikes were succeeded by the 
canals, of which the Union canal is the oldest, having been projected in 1821, 
and opened to navigation in 1826. It commences at Middletown, on the Susque- 
hanna, and enters the Schuylkill at Reading. The Schuylkill canal, although 
projected at a later date, was completed about the same time. It extends from 
Port Carbon, in the Schuylkill coal region, follows the course of the river down 
through Reading, and terminates at Fairmount, Philadelphia. Its whole length 



382 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

is one hundred and eight miles. It is now operated, under lease, by the Reading 
railroad company. 

The county is intersected by railroads in almost every direction, chief of 
which is the main line of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, completed 
through from Philadelphia to Pottsville, ninety-three miles, in 1842. All the 
other lines of railway, with one exception, although constructed by independent 
companies, have now passed under the control of that great corporation, either 
by cousolidation or lease. The Lebanon Yalley branch, from Reading to Harris- 
buro-, fifty-four miles, connects with the Pennsylvania railroad at the latter city. 
The East Pennsylvania branch, from Reading to Allentown, thirty-six miles, 
connects with the Lehigh Valle}^ railroad at that station, and forms a link in 
what is known as the Allentown route from New York to the West. The Read- 
ing and Columbia, and Lancaster branch, forty miles, connects at Columbia 
with railways to York and Port Deposit. The Berks and Lehigh branch, 
forty-three miles, from Reading to Slatington, connects at that point with the 
Lehigh Valley railroad. The other branches are the Colebrookdale, twelve 
miles, from Pottstown to Barto, and the Kutztown, four and one-half miles, 
from Topton to Kutztown, which are elsewhere noticed. The exception referred 
to is the Wilmington and Reading railroad, sixty-four miles, connecting with 
the Pennsylvania railroad at Coatesville, and with the Philadelphia, Wilming- 
ton, and Baltimore railroad at Wilmington. 

The South Mountain and Boston railroad, now under construction, and a 
portion of the Pennsylvania division of wliich has been graded, passes in a direct 
line from east to west, through the northern portion of Berks county, along the 
fertile valley of the Tulpehocken. This road will extend from the Susquehanna 
river, near Harrisburg, on the south-west, in a north-easterly course to the 
Hudson river, opposite Poughkeepsie, New York. When completed, it will 
form a connection with Reading by means of the Straustown branch, twenty 
miles in length, from the main line which takes Straustown in its route. This 
branch passes through the borough of Bernville. 

The first settlements within the present limits of Berks county were made 
between the years 1104 to IT12, by some English members of the Society of 
Friends, French Huguenots, and German emigrants from the Palatinate, in 
Wahlink^ or Oley, a name which signifies, in the Indian tongue, "a tract of land 
encompassed by hills." Among the Friends who first domiciled here were 
Arthur Lee and George Boone, the ancestor of Daniel Boone, the famous pioneer 
of Kentucky. Prominent among the first German settlers at or near Oley was 
Hans Keim, the ancestor of the Keim family of Reading. The Huguenots who 
settled in Berks fii'st endeavored to find a home in New York. Abraham De 
Turck, of Ole}', one of their descendants, in a letter dated March, 1844, to I. D. 
Rupp, author of the " History of Berks County," wrote : 

" My ancestor, Isaac Turk, or De Turck, lived in France, and being a 
Huguenot, was obliged to flee to Frankenthal in the Palatinate. He emigrated 
to America in the days of Queen Anne (1709), settled in the State of New York, 
in the neighborhood of Esopus, and removed to Oley 1712. The patent of my 
land is dated 1712." 

About 1714 or 1715, a few Swedes settled in Amity township. There still 



BEEKS COUNTY. 



883 



stands a relic of this settlement — a two story bouse, built of the native sand- 
stone, on the east bank of the Schuylkill, at the village of Douglassville, in the 
front wall of which there is a stone bearing the initials and date " I. M. I., 
1716." 

A settlement was begun in Tulpehocken, in 1723, by some Germans who had 
fled from the Palatinate in 1708 or 1709, and taken refuge in England at the 
invitation of Queen Anne. In December, 1709, three thousand of these refugees 
embarked at London in ten ships for New York. Nearly one-half (5f them 
perished on the voyage. The survivors arrived at New York in June, 1710, and 
settled at various points on the Hudson, In the winter of 1712-13, about fifty 
families took up lands and established their homes on the Scoharie, within the 
limits of the present county of Scoharie. Others soon joined them there, and 
after encountering the various trials and hardships incident to the immigrant 
for several years, they brought much of the land under culture, and founded 
flourishing hamlets in the midst of rich fields of corn and productive gardens. 
But while rejoicing in the prospect of peace and prosperity, they were suddenly 
notified that the lands which they had improved belonged to the State, and that 
they must relinquish them to the lawful claimant. Submitting patiently to 
adverse fate, the}^ sadly left their homes on the Scoharie for Pennsylvania, where 
they found an asylum among the Indians. Piloted by a friendly Indian, in the 
spring of 1723, they finally reached the head of the Tulpehocken creek, and 
settled on Indian lands about eighteen miles west of Reading. Having pro- 
vided temporary shelter for their wives and children, their next care was to send 
deputies to Lieutenant-Governor Keith, to ask permission to settle on the Tulpe- 
hocken creek. He granted their petition on condition that they would, as soon 
as possible, make full satisfaction to the Proprietary or uis agent, for such 
lands as should be allotted them. A few years later, fifty other families 
removed from the Scoharie to Tulpehocken. This new accession aroused the 
hostility of the natives. At a council, held June 5, 1728, in Philadelphia, in the 
presence of a large audience, one of the chiefs, Allummapees, otherwise Sassoo- 
nan, king of the Delawares, plaintively alluded to the encroachments upon his 
people which had been made by the Germans. In addressing James Logan, 
president of the council, he said : " I am now an old man and must soon die ; 
my children may wonder to see their father's lands gone from them, without 
receiving anything for them, and they left with no place of their own to live 
on. This may occasion a difference between their children and us hereafter. 
I would willingly prevent any misunderstanding that may happen." 

In 1729 there was another accession of Palatines, prominent among whom 
was Conrad Weiser, who afterwards played an important part in the colonial 
history of Berks county. To quiet and fully satisfy the Indians, Thomas Penn, 
son of the Proprietary of Pennsylvania, purchased the lands in this region from 
the Indians in 1732, and from him the settlers derived valid titles to the lands 
they occupied. 

But the attempts to preserve peace between the German settlers of Berks 
county and the Indians were all unavailing. To relate in detail all the 
atrocities committed by the natives from 1744 to 1764, would exceed the 
jompass of this limited sketch. In 1744, when war was declared between Great 



384 HISTOJIY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Britain and France, tlie latter easily succeeded in exciting the hostility of the 
Indians against the English, and the French found them not only willing but 
eager to join them in their acts of plunder and rapine. Soon after Braddock's 
defeat at Fort Duquesne, in July, 1755, the Indians made marauding incursions 
into Berks county from the direction of the Blue mountain. They devastated, 
by fire and slaughter, many parts of the county. Hundreds of houses were laid 
in ashes, hundreds of persons were scalped and slain, and many, without 
distinction as to age or sex, were taken captives by the savages, and subjected 
to tortures from which death was a blessed release. Conrad Weiser, who was 
then commander of the Provincial forces in Berks, wrote numerous letters 
which are still in existence, to Lieutenant-Governor Morris, giving thrilling 
accounts of the deplorable condition of the settlements. In one letter, dated the 
latter part of 1755, he wrote : " This country is in a dismal condition. It can't 
hold out long. Consternation, poveitj^, confusion everywhere." Alarms of 
this kind continued in Berks and other counties till 1778, when the Indians 
were finally driven beyond the Allegheny mountains. 

Although the first settlers of Berks county were chiefly Germans, the 
colonial records show that emigrants of other European nationalities also 
sousfht and found homes here. Reference has been made to the settlements of 
Friends and French Huguenots in Oley, and of Swedes in Amity. Besides 
these, there were settlements of Huguenots in Alsace township, contiguous to 
Reading, and in Greenwich, on the border of Lehigh county ; in Bern, of Swiss ; 
in Brecknock, Caernarvon, and Cumru, of Welsh; in Maiden Creek, of Friends; 
in Robeson, of Friends, English, and Welsh ; and in Union, of Swedes, English, 
and Welsh. A few Dutch families settled in Pike township, about 1730, and their 
descendants still reside there upon the ancestral estates. John Pott, a descend- 
ant of one of these families, built the first furnace in Pottsville, and gave the 
name to the town, which has since become the great depot of the Schuylkill coal 
region. He is also credited with having been the discoverer of the utility of 
anthracite coal. • Hereford township, in the extreme eastern corner of the 
county bordering upon Montgomery and Lehigh, was settled principally by 
" Schwenkfelders," a religious sect founded by Kaspar von Schwenkfeld, a 
nobleman of Silesia. His adhei'ents were persecuted hy both Roman Catholics 
and Protestants, and in 1734 a considerable number of them emigrated to 
Pennsylvania, and settled on contiguous lands in Berks, Montgomery, and 
Lehigh. Their descendants in these counties still number about three hundred 
families and eight hundred members, and have five churches and school- 
houses. 

The inhabitants of Berks, being for the most part composed of immigrants, and 
the descendants of immigrants, who had either been driven from or voluntarily 
left their native country to escape from civil oppression or religious persecution, 
it was natural that they should have been among the first to espouse the cause 
of the Colonies in resisting the usurpations of the British Crown. In June, 1775. 
after the first blood had been shed for American freedom in the battles of Lex- 
ington and Bunker Hill, the Assembly, in session at Philadelphia, recommended 
to the commissioners and assessors of Berks county "to immediately provide four 
hundred firelocks with bayonets, cartridge boxes with twenty-three rounds of 



BERKS COUNTY. 385 

cartridges in every box, and knapsacks for the immediate use of drafted soldiers." 
This recommendation was pi'omptly adopted. 

At a meeting hehl at Reading, January 2, 1776, Edward Biddle, Jonathan 
Potts, Mark Bird, Christopher Schultz, John Patton, Sebastian Levan, and 
Baltzcr Gehr, were appointed delegates to a convention, held at Philadelphia, 
January 22, 1776, to devise measures for effectual resistance to the mother coun- 
try ; and Edward Biddle, Jonathan Potts, William Rehrer, Christopher Witman, 
and Mark Bird, were constituted a committee of correspondence. When, on July 
4, 1776, the delegates of the "Associators of Pennsylvania " met at Lancaster, to 
choose two brigadier-generals to command the battalions and forces of Pennsyl- 
vania, Berks county was represented by Colonels Bird, Patton, and Levan ; 
Majors Gabriel Hiester, Jones, Lindemuth, and Locfller; Lieutenants Cremer, 
Lutz, Rice, and Miller; Adjutant S. Eby ; Captains Keim and May; and pri- 
vates Hartman, Filbert, Morgan, Tolbert, Spohn, Wenrich, Mosei', Seltzer, Win- 
ter, Lerch, Wister, and Smack. 

While tliis convention was being held, the representatives in Congress unani- 
mousl}' declared the thirteen Colonies free and independent States. This act 
gave an impetus to tlic struggle which induced the patriots of Berks to make 
common cause with their brethren already in arms, by enlisting for active service 
whenever their country should call them into the field. 

During the winter of l776-'77, when the British were in possession of Phila- 
delphia, Reading Avas the resort of many fugitive families from the metropolis, 
and it is related tliat, notwithstanding the gloomy prospects of the army under 
Washington, the little town became the scene of much gaiety. The society of 
the refugees received accessions of visitors from time to time — officers of the 
arm}', and others, who found relief from the contemplation of the common suffer- 
ing in card parties, balls, sleighing excursions, and kindred pleasures. General 
Mifflin (afterwards Governor of the Commonwealth) held a country-seat named 
"Angelica," three miles south-east of Reading, which subsequently became the 
property of the county, and is now occupied by the alms-house and county hos- 
pital buildings. He was out of command in the army at this time, and was 
residing here. It was during this dark interval of the war that Reading became 
the head-quarters of the " Conway Cabal," which had for its object the deposi- 
tion of Washington as Commander in-Chief, and the substitution of General 
Gates. General Mifflin was, for a time, a leading spirit among these malcontents, 
but subsequently regretted the step he had taken, apologized for his conduct, and 
was restored to favor. 

During the same period, a body of Hessian prisoners, who had been captured 
at Trenton in December, 1776, together with some British, and the principal 
Scotch Royalists who had been captured in North Carolina, were brought to 
Reading, and confined in a sort of rude barracks on Penn's Mount, east of the 
town, where they remained some time. To protect themselves against the incle- 
mency of the winter, they built huts from the stones which they found there in 
great abundance, the ruins of which may still be traced by the curious antiquary. 
These prisoners were under the command of Captain Philip Miller, of Reading, 
who fought in the battle of Trenton. 

At the beginning of the year 1777, the number of avaUable efficient men in 
z 



386 in:i TO R V OF FENNS YL} M NIA . 

Berks was reported at about four thousand. On the 5th and 6th da3'S of May, 
in that year, they met at convenient places to elect field officers, and formed 
themselves into companies and classes, agreeably to law. 

July 28, ITIT, the Council of Safety at Philadelphia, in the exigency of 
aflfairs, when the invasion of Pennsylvania by the British was apprehended, 
ordered Colonel Jacob Morgan, of Berks, forthwith to embody one class of the 
militia of the county and send them to Chester. The command was promptly 
complied with, the militia exhibiting the warmest zeal in the cause upon which 
the future fate of the American States depended. Some of the inhabitants, 
however, here as elsewhei'e, were not equally zealous, assigning as a reason for 
not responding to the call, that they were unprovided with arms, ammunition, 
and other necessaries. 

In August following, a second class of the militia of Berks were ordered out, 
the force, including oflicers and privates, aggregating six hundred and fifty-six 
" hearty and able men." In November, the fifth and sixth classes were notified 
to appear at Reading, with all the arms, accoutrements, and blankets they could 
procure. There was at this time a great want of arms and ammunition. In this 
exigenc}'', proper persons were appointed by the commissioners to go from 
house to house to collect anus, blankets, and whatever could be made available 
for the service, and forward them to the commissioners. 

In July, 1180, a requisition was made upon Berks to furnish, monthly, six 
hundred barrels of flour, six hundred tons of forage, two hundred horses, and 
twenty wagons. 

The last order from the Council of Safety was issued September 11, 1*781, 
for three classes of the militia of Berks county. This, as well as the several 
previous requisitions, both for men and munitions of war, as well as for supplies 
for subsistence, were promptly complied with. 

During the entire period of the Revolutionary struggle, from lTt5 to 1783, 
Pennsylvania furnished 29,555 "effective men." Of these, 1,351 were militia, 
and 22,198 were regular Continental troops. Of this number Berks county 
furnished its full quota. 

In the Whiskey Insurrection of 1194, the town of Reading furnished a com- 
pany of volunteers to aid in subduing the malcontents in the west. 

In the war of 1812-14, Berks county furnislied two full regiments of militia 
and volunteers, which constituted the Second Brigade Pennsylvania Militia, 
under command of General John Addams, of Reading. Jeremiah Shappell and 
John Lotz were Colonels of the First and Second regiments respectively. The 
captains of the sevei'al companies were: George Zieber, Jacob Marshall, Tho- 
mas Moore, John Mauger, George Marx, George Ritter, Jonathan Jones, 
Henry Willotz, John May, John Christian, Gabriel Old, Daniel De B. Keim, 
and William Hain. These troops marched to the defence of Baltimore in the 
fall of 1814, when that city was threatened by the British, and remained in camp 
there until the conclusion of peace. 

When war was declared between the United States and Mexico (1846) three 
companies of volunteers were recruited in Reading and the vicinity, and 
tendered their services to the goveimment. Only one of them was accepted, the 
Reading Artillerists, Captain Thomas S. Leoser, which became Company A of 



BERKS COVNTY 



387 



the Second Peunsylvania regiment, and did gallant service under General Scott 
in all the engagements from Vera Cruz to the capture of the citj^ of Mexico. 

In the late war of the rebellion Berks county attested her devotion to the 
cause of the Union by sending into the field forty-eight full companies of volun- 
teers, who served in various regiments, chiefly in the Army of the Potomac, and 
many of these gallant men, officers and privates, yielded up their lives a willing 
sacrifice upon the altar of their country. In every sanguinary engagement of the 
campaign their names were found in the list of killed, wounded, and prisoners. 
The future historian will do justice to their memories. The drafts of 1863, 
which were obnoxious to the people of many districts and resisted in some, met 
with no obstacles to their enforcement here, and two full regiments of drafted 
men were obtained, who willingly submitted to the decrees of war, and faithfully 
served out the term for which they were recruited. It deserves to be noted here 
that the Ringgold Light Artillery of Reading, Captain James McKnight, was 
the first company that reported at Harrisburg in response to President Lincoln's 
proclamation of April 15, 1861, calling for 15,0U0 men, and was one of the five 
Pennsylvania companies that first arrived at Washington for the defence of the 
Capital. 

The territorial subdivisions of Berks consist of the city of Reading, eight 
boroughs and forty-one townships. The following table gives the date of 
formation, population, and valuation of taxable property of each : 



Districts. 



Albany, 

Alsace, 

Amity, 

Bern, 

Bern, Upper, 

Bernville (bor.), 

Bethel, 

Birdsboro (bor.). 

Boyertown (bor.), 

Brecknock, 

Caernarvon, 

Centre, 

Colebrookdale, 

Cumru, 

District, 

Douglass, 

Earl, 

Exeter, 

Fleetwood (bor.), 

Greenwich, 

Hamburg (bor.), 

Heidelberg, 

Heidelberg, Lo'r, 

Heidelberg, N'th, 

Hereford, 



^ 


P— 1 


^M 


V 

o 


^ '^ 


00 c 


'" a 


•<! 1 — ' 


<n- 


O P 


T^'O 


c-^ 


O 1-15 


t— •• 




O 




M 


1752 


1,510 


1752 


1,294 


1752 


1,646 


1752 


2,124 


1821 


2,008 


1850 


457 


1752 


2,285 


1872 


*],UOU 


1866 


690 


1752 


813 


1752 


927 


1842 


1,529 


1752 


1 ,660 


1752 


2,573 


1759 


724 


1752 


1,072 


1781 


1,022 


1752 


2,239 


1873 


*600 


1759 


2,151 


1803 


1,590 


1752 


1,193' 


1842 


2,480 : 


1842 


979! 


1752 


1,260 



Valuation 



$1 ,048,365 

882,273 

1,465,158 

1 ,501 ,092 

1,774,227 

220,053 

1,898.955 

660.066 

602,619 

534,990 

797,125 

1,405,590 

1,107,981 

1,785,877 

503.358 

813^555 

516,135 

2,(176.834 

326,871 

1,462,620 

773,100 

1 ,601 ,625 

2,302,926 

772.000 

1,277;904 



Districts. 



Jefferson , 

Kutztown (bor.), 

Longswamp, 

Maiden Creek, 

Marion , 

Maxatawny, 

Muhlenberg, 

Oley, 

Ontelaunee, 

Penn, 

Perry, 

Pike, 

Heading, 

Richmond, 

Robeson, 

Rockland, 

Ruscomb Manor, 

Spring, 

Topton (bor,), 

Tulpeliocken, 

Tulpehocken, U., 

Union. 

Washington, 

Windsor. 

Womelsdorf (bo.), 



o 



O ^-S 



O Ms 



1851 
1815 
1759 
1752 
1843 
1752 
1850 
1752 
1850 
1841 
1849 
1813 
1783 
1752 
1752 
1759 
1759 
1850 
1876 
1752 
1820 
1752 
1839 
1759 
1837 I 



(—1 ?" 



1,133 

1,045 
2,910 
1.615 
1^440 
2,531 
1,547 
1,986 
1,339 
1,515 
1,680 
925 
33,930 
2,874 
2,458 
1,451 
1,408 
2,253 
*400 
2.013 
1,196 
2,165 
1,009 
1.211 
1,031 



Valuation 



858,405 

572,643 

1,310,366 

1,803,966 

1,641,957 

2,863,344 

1.626,228 

2,875,161 

1,382,259 

1,243,998 

1,282,035 

480,177 

34,700,000 

2,067,936 

l,260,u37 

967,170 

682,974 

2,217,398 

1,431,669 

845,865 

1.109,625 

1,483,221 

683,094 

531,699 



* Estimated population, 1876. 
Hamburg was settled as early as 1720, by emigrants from the free State of 



388 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Hamburg, Germany, and hence when incorporated as a borough, it was appro- 
priately so named. It is beautifully situated on the east bank of the Schuylkill 
river, sixteen miles north-east of Reading, and has become one of the principal 
stations on the Philadelphia and Reading railroad between Reading and Potts- 
ville. The projected South Mountain railroad will span the Schuylkill at this 
point, and run through the northern portion of the town. It has considerable 
trade and manufactures, and contains many fine buildings, including five 
churches and three large school houses. 

KuTZTOWN was settled by Germans about the year 1733. It is situated on 
the old post road between Reading and Easton, seventeen miles north-east of 
Reading. It is now connected with the East Pennsjdvania branch of the Phila- 
delphia and Reading railroad at Topton station, by a branch of the (uncom- 
pleted) AUentown railroad. Since 1860 Kutztown has increased rapidly in 
population and business. It is now the most flourishing borough in the county. 
The Keystone State normal school is located upon a commanding site over- 
looking the town, and is one of the finest educational institutions in the country. 
It consists of a central building of simple, but imposing, architectural propor- 
tions, crowned with a tower and flanked by wings, the whole presenting a front 
of two hundred and forty feet. The surrounding grounds have been beautifully 
improved with parterres of grass and shrubbery, with walks shaded by numerous 
trees. The main building was originally the " Maxatawny seminar^'," which 
was enlarged to its present dimensions during the years 1865-'66. September 
13, 1866, the school was officially recognized as the State Normal School 6f the 
Third District of Pennsylvania. It has boarding accommodations for three 
hundred, and school accommodations for four hundred, students. The number 
of students enrolled in the catalogue of 1875 was five hundred and sixteen, of 
whom four hundred and seventy-one were males. The whole cost of the build- 
ing>< and grounds was about $85,000. 

WoMELSDORF was Settled in 1723, by some of the German families who had 
originally found homes in Scoharie count}'. New York, but were obliged to 
surrender their lands there in consequence of defective titles. It was laid out 
as a town by John Wommelsdorfi", from whom it derived its name. It is situated 
near the Tulpehocken creek, on the Berks and Dauphin turnpike road, fourteen 
miles west of Reading. Conrad Wciser settled near Womelsdorf in 1729, and 
his remains were interred there in the family burying-ground, which is still 
preserved intact as a venerated spot. Up to the date of its incorporation as a 
borouo-h, Womelsdorf was included in Heidelberg township. The Rethany 
Orphans' Home, founded by the Reformed church, is situated in a beautiful 
grove of eighty-eight acres of land, near Womelsdorf station on the Lebanon 
Valley branch of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, about half a mile south 
of the borough. The building is large and commodious, and is abundantly sup- 
plied with the purest water from the South Mountain spring. Previous to the 
purchase of the property for the Home, in 1868, it was known as " Manderbach's 
Springs," and was much frequented by stranger's as a summer resort. There is 
a tradition among the inhabitants of Womelsdorf that Washington tarried there 
over night, in October, 1794, on his way to take command of the troops who had 
rendezvoused at Carlisle to march to suppress the Whiskey Insurrection in 



BERKS COUNTY 



389 



Western Pennsylvania, and that, on this occasion, accompanied by General 
Joseph Hiester and other persons of note, he visited the grave of Conrad 
Weiser. 

BiRDSBORO, formerly included in Robeson township, is a flourishing manu- 
facturing town on the Schuylkill, eight miles south-east of Reading. It is an 
important station on the main line of the Philadelphia and Readino- railroad and 
the Wilmington and Reading railroad. The extensive iron works of Messrs. E. 
& G. Brooke, consisting of furnaces, rolling mill, and nail factory, are situated 
here, and make it the centre of a large trade. It has several fine churches and 
many elegant private residences. 

BoYERTOWN, set off tVom Colebrookdale township, is situated on the Cole- 
brookdale railroad, about eight 
miles from Pottstown, where 
the latter connects with the 
Philadelphia and Reading 
road. Its inhabitants are prin- 
cipally interested in the min- 
ing of iron ore, large deposits 
of rich magnetic ore lying in 
the immediate vicinity, some 
of the veins of which extend 
under a i)ortion of the ground 
on which the town has been 
built. The Colebrookdale iron 
works, two miles distant, are 
engaged extensively in the 
manufacture of castings of va- 
rious kinds, principally wagon- 
boxes and sad-irons. Boyer- 
town contains two large aca- 
demies and boarding schools, 
and is a favorite summer re- 
sort for Philadelphians. 

Fleetwood, set off from 
Richmond townsliip, is a sta- 
tion on the East Pennsylvania 
branch of the Reading railroad, 
eleven miles east of Reading, and since the completion of that road in 1858, has 
grown into a thriving manufacturing town. 

Bernville is situated on the Union canal, fourteen miles north-west from 
Reading. It has an industrious population, and several manufacturing establish- 
ments of note. The South Mountain railroad, now in process of construction, 
will pass through the borough, which will give a new impetus to the business of 

the vicinity. 

ToPTON, the youngest borough in the county, set off from Longswarap town- 
ship, February 12, 1876, is situated eighteen miles north-east of Reading, on 
the East Pennsylvania railroad, at its junction with the Kutztown branch. 




THE OLD HAIN'S CHURCH, NEAR WERNERSVILLE. 
[From a Photograph bj Lcaman & Lee, Readiag.] 



390 HISTOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Leesport, on the Schuylkill river, and also a station on the Philadelphia and 
Reading railroad, nine miles north of Reading, is a flourishing village. A large 
anthracite furnace, owned by the Leesport Iron company, is in operation here. 

MoiiGANTOWN, a village in Caernarvon township on the Conestoga turnpike 
road, thirteen miles south from Reading, was settled about 1*740, by emigrants 
from North Wales, principally workers in iron, and is one of the few places in 
Berks county where the German language has never prevailed. It was named 
after its founder. Colonel Jacob Morgan, a distinguished soldier of the Revolu- 
tionary war, and is noted as the birthplace of many men who have become 
prominent in the publifc affairs of the country, among whom may be named the 
Hon. J. Glancy Jones, ex-Member of Congress and Minister to Austria, and the 
Hon. Hiester Clymcr, ex-State Senator and now Member of Congress. 

The first inhabitant of Caernarvon was David Jones, a Welsh iron-master, 
who purchased about one thousand acres of land in 1T35, and was the lirst to 
successfully develop the iron industry of Pennsylvania. The mines now known 
as " Jones's Mine Holes," are upon a portion of the original purchase of this pio- 
neer, and for many years were a source of wealth to him and his descendants. 
An old mansion is still standing on the turnpike, two miles from Morgantowu, 
which was built in 1752 by his son, Jonathan Jones, who afterwards had a colo- 
nel's commission in the Revolutionary army. These were the ancestors of the 
Hon. J. Glancy Jones. 

ViRGiNSViLLE, hitlicrto an obscure village in Richmond township, four miles 
from Kutztown, has become a place of note since the discover}^ in 1871, of a 
remarkable natural curiosity now known as the " Cr3^stal Cave." This subter- 
ranean wonder was disclosed by some men engaged in quarrying stone, and is 
regarded with admiration by all who have examined it. The cave is of vast 
dimensions, and crystal formations of every shape and color are found within its 
recesses. Chief among these is a splendid wing-shaped brace of pendants 
hanging from a lofty projection, and most appropriately named the "Angel's 
Wings." A large hotel has been built near the cave, and since the village has 
become a railroad station by the completion of the Berks and Lehigh road, 
numerous strangers and parties of pleasure visit the place during the summer 
season. 

The whole territory of Berks count}' is dotted with numerous villages, beau- 
tiful in situation, thriving in business, and delightful as rural retreats ; but it is 
the province of the gazetteer i-ather than the historian to describe them. 

CuMRU township is entitled to notice under this head, as being the seat of the 
county almshouse and hospital buildings, upon a large and highly cultivated 
farm of over five hundred acres, which was formerlj'- the property of Governor 
Thomas Mifllin, and where he resided during his intervals of retirement from the 
public duties of his eventful life. The new hospital for the insane, completed in 
1875, is a large and commodious structure, in which all the modern appliances 
for the con) fort and relief of this afflicted class have been introduced. An 
averai2,e of five hundred inmates are subsisted here, mainly from the products of 
the farm. It is easily accessible from the city, from which it is three miles 
distant, over an excellent macadamized road. 

Reading, the seat of justice of Berks county, was named after the ancient 



BERKS COUNTY. 39] 

boiough of Reading and market-town of Berkshire in England, which it is said 
to resemble in some of its geographical environs. It was laid out in the fall of 
1748, by the agents of Richard and Thomas Penn, then Proprietaries of the Pro- 
vince of Pennsylvania. Settlers were invited to it " as a new town of great 
natural advantages of location, and destined to become a prosperous place." In 
1Y52, when the county of Berks was erected, and Reading was made the capital, 
it contained 130 dwelling houses, 106 families, and 378 inhabitants. The 
original settlers were principally Germans, who had emigrated from Wirtemberg 
and the Palatinate, although a few Friends who settled here under the patronage 
of the Penns had control of the government prior to the Revolution. The 
Germans, however, being the more numerous, gave character to the town both in 
language and customs. For many years the German tongue was almost exclu- 
sively spoken, and it is still used in social intercourse and religious worship 
by a considerable portion of the present population. Reading was incor- 
porated as a borough in 1783, and as a city in 1847. It is beautifully 
situated on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill rivei-, fifty-two miles east 
(fifty-four by railroad) of Harrisburg, and fifty-two miles north-west (fifty 
eight by railroad) of Philadelphia. It is built upon a plain sloping gently 
from Penn's Mount, an eminence on the eastern side, to the river, which gives it 
great natural facilities for drainage. The streets are wide and well graded, and 
generally intersect each other at right angles, and form in their course almost 
exact indices of the cardinal points of the compass. Reading is abundantly 
supplied with pure water from various mountain streams which have been from 
time to time conducted into reservoirs on Penn's Mount, and thence distributed 
tiiroughout the city. The first spring water was introduced by the Reading 
water company, a private corporation, in 1822, whose property and franchises 
were purchased by the city in 1865, for the sum of $300,000, and since then they 
have been under the supervision of a board of four commissioners elected at 
stated terms by the city councils. The Reading gas company was chartered 
in 1848. The works are situated on the Schuylkill canal, at the foot of Fifth 
street. 

The present boundaries of Reading comprise an area of about four thousand 
acres, extending three and one-tenth miles north and south, and two and four- 
tenths miles east and west. Its municipal subdivisions consist of eleven wards, 
nearly equal in territorial extent and population, each of which elects one 
member of the select council for a term of three years, and four members of 
common council (or more, according to the ratio of taxable inhabitants) for a 
term of two j^ears. The mayor is elected biennially, and has the appointment 
of the police force of the city, which now consists of a chief, one lieutenant, two 
sergeants, and thirty-five patrolmen, subject to confirmation by the select council. 
All l:iws and ordinances of councils must have the approval of the mayor. 

Reading has an efficient volunteer fire department, consisting of ten compa- 
nies — seven steam-engines, two hook-and-ladder, and one hose companj- — which 
are mainly supported by appropriations from the city treasury, at an average 
annual cost of $17,000. The councils have general control of the property and 
apparatus of the companies ; and their immediate direction, when in service, is 
committed to a chief engineer and two assistants, who are elected annually by 



392 HISTOR r OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

the Firemen's Union, an incorporated body composed of delegates representing 
the several companies composing the department. The lire-alarm telegraph, 
adopted 1875, has proved of incalculable service in saving the city from destruc- 
tive conflagrations, by the promptness with which the discovery of fires is 
signaled, and the exact indication of the locality where the services of the 
firemen are needed. 

Reading was among the first districts in the Commonwealth to accept the 
provisions of the Common School law of 1834, and although the progress of the 
new system of education was at first slow, it gradually grew into favor, until the 
public schools of Reading attained to a rank entitling them to be classed among 
the best in the State. The city now constitutes an independent school district, 
under special laws, and is governed by a board of controllers, composed of four 
members from each ward. The schools consist of a high school, in charge of a 
principal and eight assistants, seven grammar schools, six intermediate schools, 
thirteen secondary schools, and forty primaries. A corps of one hundred and 
thirty-two teachers are required to conduct these schools — all females except the 
principal of the high school and four of his assistants. The general supervision 
of the schools is committed to a city supei'intendent, elected annually by the 
board of controllers. Number of school-houses in 1876, twenty-two. Pupils 
of all grades in attendance, 7,000. 

Prior to 1830, the compilers of the gazetteers found nothing worthy of 
remarlc in relation to Reading, except that many of its inhabitants were engaged 
in the manufacture of wool hats. The hat manufacture still constitutes a branch 
of its productive industry, but it has been long since exceeded by other manu- 
facturing industries, chief among which are the various products of iron • 
although cotton and woolen goods, boots and shoes, agricultural implements, 
furniture, leather, bricks, carriages, and indeed almost every article that 
ministers to the necessity or convenience of man, are produced here for the supplj^ 
of home and distant markets. The principal workshops of the Philadelphia and 
Reading railroad company are established here, consisting of forges, rolling 
mills, foundries, locomotive works, car shops, and others, which give employ- 
ment to about three thousand laborers and skilled mechanics. 

The first public buildings erected in Reading were the court house (1762)i 
the jail (1770), and the State house (1793). The court house stood in the open 
square, at the intersection of Penn and Fifth streets, which was then the 
geographical centre of the town. It was a small two-story structure of rubble 
work, painted red, with nothing pretending to ornament, if we may except a 
diminutive belfry which contained a small bell and the town clock, the dials of 
which w^ere never known within the memory of the oldest inhabitant to mark 
the hours correctly. There was a tradition among the " old wives," that the 
clock was bewitched, and that no human skill ever could make it go right. 
Whatever might have been the cause, the fact was so. The ol<l court house was 
demolished in 1841, having been superseded in 1840 by the completion of the 
present court house, a large and elegant structure, composed in the Ionic order 
of Grecian architecture, with basement and portico of sandstone, and a cupola 
twenty-four feet in diameter at the base, and eighty-four feet in height above the 
roof. This building was enlarged a few years ago by an addition to the rear, and 



I 



BEEKS COUNTY. 



393 



now contains two spacious court rooms, commodious offices for the several county 
officers, a large law library room, jury rooms, vaults, etc. The old jail, a long, 
low, heavy two-story stone structure, built for durability, certainly if not for 
ornament, is still standing on the north-east corner of Fifth and Washino-ton 
streets, with very little alteration in its original appearance, and is occupied for 
business purposes. If not disturbed by the onward march of improvement, it 
bids fair to endure for another century. The new county prison, designed and 
erected in 1840 by the celebrated architect, John Tlaviland, stands on a command- 
ing site on the south-western slope of Penn's Mount, at the junction of Pcnn 
street and Perkiomen avenue. It is built of red sandstone, in the castellated 




THE PROVINCIAL COURT HOUSE AT READING. 

Erected in 17G2, Deuiollslied In 1841. 
IFrom a Drawing by F. A. Iloluwart, 1838.] 

Gothic style, and is a conspicuous ornament of the city, if, indeed, a penal insti- 
tution can be viewed in an ornamental light. The State house, which, pri )r to 
1840, was occupied by the public offices of the county, and as a town hall, was a 
plain but substantial two-story brick building, on the north-east corner of Penn 
and Fifth streets. It was converted into places of business after ceasing to be 
used for public purposes, and was destro3'ed by fire, January, 1872. 

Reading contains many other large and elegant public edifices and private 
mansions, which give it the appearance of a metropolitan city. Among the 
former are the Academy of Music, Grand Opera House, market houses, the Key- 
stone Hall, Library Hall, City Hall, Masonic Temple, now in course of erection? 
St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum, under the charge of the Roman Catholic Sisters 



394 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



I 



of Charity, the diocesan school of the Protestant Episcopal church, parochial 
school of St. Paul's Roman Catholic church, and others. The new passenger 
depot of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad company, in the northern section 
of the city, where the several branches of this great corporation connect with 
its main line, is, in convenience of arrangement, architectural taste, eligible loca- 
tion, and beautiful park-like surroundings, one of the most complete structures 
of the kind in the United States. It has been truly denominated " the pride of 
the city and the admiration of all travelers." 

One of the few houses of ante-revolutionary date, which still stands as a monu- 
ment of the colonial era of Reading, is the two-story stone building on the 
north-east corner of the public square at Fifth and Penn streets, now occupied 
by the Farmers' National Bank. It was erected in 1164, and was originall}'^ kept 

as a public-house or tavern (the " hotel" is 
an institution of later times). Tradition 
says that Washington was entertained here 
when on his way to join the troops which 
had been called out to suppress the Whiskey 
Insurrection in 1794, and this incident has 
been so well authenticated that it may be 
set dovv'n as a fact. The building has under- 
gone some alterations and improvements, 
but is well preserved in nearly its primitive 
form. 

The Friends were the first to make pro- 
vision for religious instruction in Reading. 
In 1750 they erected a meeting-house and 
school-house, plain log structures, on "a lot 
set apart for the purpose in the locality now 
known as the corner of Washington and 
Ash streets. These relics of the past cen- 
tury have long since disappeared, and the 
present generation knows nothing of their 
existence, except from the photographs of them which have been fortunately pre- 
served. The next house of religious worship was the German Reformed cliurch, 
erected about 1762, on the site of the present large and beautiful First Reformed 
churcli on Washington street, above Sixth. The Lutheran " Church of the 
Trinity," on tlie north-west corner of Washington and Sixth streets, was erected 
in 1791, and, with the exception of the graceful tapering spire which rises from 
the tower on the western gable-end to the height of two hundred and one feet six 
inclies, and various improvements in the interior arrangements, stands to-day 
almost as it stood in its original form. The Roman Catholics built a chapel liere 
in 1791, on the east side of Seventh street, between Franklin and Chestnut, wliich 
was occupied for worship until the year 1846, when St. Peter's church, on South- 
Fifth street, was erected. Up to the year 1824, when the Presbyterian church 
was organized, the religious services of the churches were conducted exclusively 
in the German language. The English portion of the inhabitants, whose number 
was then small, assembled on every alternate Sunday, in the Reading academy. 




TKINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



BERKS COUNTY. 



595 



which stood on the south-west corner of Seventh and Chestnut streets (now occu- 
pied by one of the railroad machine shops), where the Rev. John F. Grier, D.D. 
principal of the academy, ministered to them in their own tongue. The Epis- 
copal church, which occupied the site of the present Christ cathedral, was erected 
in 1826. The Methodists, although existing as a society previous to that, date, 
erected their first church in 182S ; the Baptists about the same period ; and the Uni- 
versalists in 1830. Reading now contains more than thirty church edifices, of 
which five are Lutheran, five Reformed, four Methodist, three Presbyterian, two 
Protestant Episcopal, two Roman Catholic, two Baptist, and others representing 
the various religious denominations in the United States. 

The Charles Evans cemetery, founded in 1846 by a munificent donation of 
land and money from 
the late Charles Evans, 
Esq., long a distin- 
guished member of the 
Berks county bar, is 
beautifull3' situated on 
an eminence in the 
northern suburb of 
Reading. It is adorn- 
ed with an imposing 
fi'ont and gateway on 
Centre avenue, of dark 
sandstone, in the point- 
ed Gothic style, and a 
chapel of red freestone 
in the same style, de- 
signed and constructed 

by the late Jolin M. Gries, of Philadelphia (a major in the Union arm}-, killed 
at the battle of Fair Oaks), which is universally admired as one of the purest 
gems of Gothic architecture. 

In 1810, according to the first official census of record, Reading had a popu- 
lation of 3,462. During the thirty years following, its increase was very gradual, 
and the census of 1840 reported the number of its inhabitants at 8,392 But 
from that lime onward it took a new departure, and the enumeration of 1850 deve- 
loped the fact that it had nearly doubled its population wdthin the preceding 
decade. In 1850, the little rural borough had expanded into the prosperous 
city of 15,T43 inhabitants. Thus, in just one century from the date of the 
foundation of the town, the prediction of the Penns that it was "destined to 
become a prosperous place," was fully verified. By the census of 1870, the 
population was enumerated at 33,930, which may be safely estimated to have 
increased by this time (1816) to 40,000. To predict the future of Reading is 
beyond the power of human foreknowledge. Notwithstanding the prevailing 
depression of its manufacturing industries, resulting from the universal financial 
panic of 1873, the destiny of this city is assured, and should it increase in the 
same ratio as it has advanced in the past, a decennial addition of fifty per centum 
will give it a population of not less than 250,000 fifty years hence. 




THK CKMETKRY GATE AT READING. 

[From a Photograph by Saylor, Reading.] 







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30G 



BLAIR COUNTY. 




BY A. K. BELL, D.n., HOLLIDAYSBURG. 

LAIR COUNTY was formed from parts of Huntingdon and Bedford 
by an Act of Assembly, approved the 2Gth day of Fel)ruary, 184G- 
The act declares that on and after the fourth Monday of July, 184G 
the territory within the townships of North Woodberry and Gi-een- 
field, in the county of Bedford, and the territor}^ within the townships of Alle- 
gheny, Antis, Snyder, Tyrone, Frankstown, Blair, Huston, Woodberiy, and a 
portion of Morris, in the 
county of Huntingdon, 
should constitute a new 
county, to be known as 
Blair Count3\ 

The county takes its 
name from Joim Blair, or 
rather John Blair, Jun., 
whose home was some 
four miles west of Holli- 
daysburg, on the Hun- 
tingdon, Cambria, and 
Indiana turnpike, former- 
I3' known as the " North- 
ern pike." He was in his 
day a man of mark, fore- 
most in every public en- 
terprise, and well de- 
served the honor thus con- 
ferred upon him. Holli- 
da^'sburg was made, from 
the beginning, the county 
seat. 

The general surface of 
the countv is mountain- 

ous. Bounded on the west b}' Cambria, it takes in the eastern slope of the 
Allegheny mountains. It has Clearfield and Centre counties on tlie north, 
Huntingdon on the east, and Bedford on the south. It has within its borders. 
Brush, Canoe. Dunning's, Short, Cove, and Lock mountains, more or less, one 
and the same mountains, and all running north and south. These mountains 
are all rich in minerals, while the valleys are well watered and fertile. 

Iron is the principal manufacture of the county. It is an old iron region. 
Formerly there were a large number of small charcoal furnaces and forges. Prior 

397 




BLAIR COUNTY COURT HOUSE. 
[From the Design of the Architect, David S. Oendell.1 



398 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

to the building of the canal, the iron was hauled in wagons to Pittsburgh, at a 
cost of some thirty dollars per ton. Most of the old furnaces and forges are no 
longer worked, giving place to larger furnaces, worked with coke, to rolling mills, 
and nail fiictories. The present number of furnaces in use is ten, capable of pro- 
ducing one thousand tons of metal per week, with four rolling mills and two 
nail factories. The furnaces are known, as Etna in Catharine township, 
Juniata at Williamsburg, Springfield in Woodberry, Rodman in Taylor, Gap or 
Martha in Freedom, Frankstown at Frankstown, Number One and Number Two 
in Hollidaysburg, Allegheny and Bennington in Allegheny. Hollidaysburg has 
two rolling mills, and two nail factories ; Duncansville, a rolling mill and nail 
factory ; and Logan township, a rolling mill. The iron ore of the county, though 
not specially rich, is abundant and of a superior quality; large quantities are 
shipped elsewhere. 

The agricultural products of the county are considerable and varied, yet not 
sufficient for the population, which in 1870 was 38,051, and is now, 1876, perhaps 
44,000. The farmers ai'e intelligent, enterprising, and well to do. Perhaps in all 
the State there is not a finer farming neighborhood or better farms than are 
found in Morrison's Cove and Sinking Spring Valley. 

The great Pennsylvania railroad passes through the county, entering its 
borders some three miles east of Tyrone ; and to this road the county owes very 
largely its prosperity. A branch road leaves the main line at Altoona, running to 
Hollidaysburg, Newry, Williamsburg, Martinsburg, and Henrietta. This branch 
is among the most profitable belonging to this great corporation, doing a heavy 
freight and passenger business. At Bell's Mills, a narrow gauge road connects 
with the main line, extending some seven miles to Lloydsville, in Cambria county. 
This is among the first, if not the first, narrow gauge roads in the country, and is 
a complete success. The scenery along this road is wild beyond description, far 
superior in every respect to that along the main line from Altoona to Gallitzin. 
Other branch roads leave the main line at Tyrone, running to Clearfield and Lock 
Haven. Indeed, " Little Blair " is almost a railroad county, with Altoona, the 
chief of railroad towns, in her very centre. 

The usual Indian troubles, incident to the first settlement of the Janiata 
valley, marked the early history of what is now Blair county. The stories per- 
taining thereto have been written and re-written. No doubt the early settlers 
endured great hardships and privations. The Indians were savage, cruel, and 
treacherous, sparing neither women nor children. From one standpoint we can 
but regard them, and rightly, as savages. And yet we must not forget the 
circumstances surrounding them, and mourn that no one lives to tell the story of 
their wrongs. That they were wronged and cheated no one doubts ; and could we 
have the story of these wrongs, we might feel that if they did inhuman deeds, 
they had, at the hands of the whites, great provocations. 

The politics of Blair county from its organization have been moderate 
Republicanism, while many of the most worthy citizens have been and are of 
Democratic tendencies. Neither party, as a general rule, are able to carry a bad 
man into office. Good and true men have usually filled the county offices, and 
fill them this centennial year. Some townships in the count}- have not for years 
had a house licensed to sell intoxicating drinks. The common schools, though 



BLAIIl COU-NTV. 



399 



not all lliey should he, are, nevertheless, cherished by the people — their joy and 
their pride. 

Originally, the entire Juniata valley was settled largely by Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians, and after them the Lutherans. Both denominations have still a 
strong hold throughout the valley. Methodists, Baptists, and otliers, have come 
in since the first settlements, and have a habitation and a home. In Blair count}^ 
the Presbyterians would seem to lead in numbers, influence, and wealth. The 
Lutherans and Methodists are both numerous and active, while the Baptists, the 
3^oungest of the leading denominations, are not behind in ever}"- good word 
and work. All in all, we claim for " Little Blair " in her mountain home, an 




DISTANT VIEW OF THE ALLEGHENIES. 



intelligent, enterprising, and upright citizenship, loyal to themselves, the State. 
and the Union. During the war for the Union, they may have dilTered as to 
measures, but treason found no home in Blair county. The blood of her first- 
born helped to fill the baptistry of the Nation's second baptism. 

Sinking Spring valley is noted as the place from whence the Government 
received lead in the early stages of the Revolutionary war. The mines were 
most likely known to the French as long ago as 1750. The Indians of this region, 
after they had obtained fire-arms, could always secure abundance of lead, but 
from whence was long a secret. General Daniel Roberdeau, member of Congress 
from Pennsylvania, was appointed in 1778, to proceed to the valley and superin- 
tend the mines. They were worked perhaps until the fall of 1779, or until a 
supply was received through the French. 

The Arch Spring and Cave in this valley are among the greatest curiosities to 
be met with anywhere. The spring comes forth from an opening, arched OA-er 
by nature, and with a sufficient supply of water to drive a large grist-mill. A 



400 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

little below the mill the spring disappears; coming again to the surface, it runs 
some distance and enters a cave, passing under Cave mountain, it flows into the 
Juniata at Water Street. The locality thus named by the early settlers is 
frequently alluded to in the Provincial records. 

Logan's valley, a valley extending from Tyrone to Altoona, takes its name 
from Captain Logan (not the Mingo), an Indian chief of the Delaware tribe 
who, for several years, resided in the locality. One of his homes was at the 
big spring adjoining Tyrone, and the other at the spring on the farm of David 
Hcnshy, Esq., in Antis township. Logan had been deposed by his tribe on 
account of the loss of an eye, before coming to the Juniata valley. The springs 
still bear the name of Logan, and are in themselves very fine. The entire valley 
has felt the quickening influence of the railroad, and do honor to the old Indian 
chief, who was a true friend of the white man. 

Scotch and Canoe valleys are parts of Frankstown and Catharine townships, 
and are very fertile. Scotch valley is somewhat noted as one of the earliest 
settlements in the county, and as the home of the Moore family, many of the 
descendants still residing there. The Moores came from Scotland — the father, 
Samuel Moore, seven sons, and two daughters. They stopped for a time in 
Kishacoquillas valley, and then came to Scotch valley, five miles beyond the 
nearest habitation.. This was in 1768. Some time after they were joined by the 
Irwins, Crawfords, Fraziers, Bells, Stewarts, and others, all Scotchmen. Their 
descendants are in all the region round about and in parts beyond. 

We may not forget as among the valleys of Blair county, its Morrison's cove, 
but another name for valley. You enter it cither at Williamsburg or through 
the gap at Roaring Spring, itself a curiosity', and the largest spring in the 
county. Around it, within a few years, a thriving village has sprung up, having 
a fine paper-mill, foundry, and several churches. And now, in the cove, and as 
you pass along, you are ready to ask, wherein is old Lancaster better than this 
before my eyes ? Such farms, buildings, deposits of limestone and iron ore, are 
but seldom met. All in all, Morrison's cove has few equals, viewed from what- 
ever standpoint 3'ou ma}^ take. In 1749 a few Scotch-Irish families settled in 
the cove, most of whom perished at the hands of the Indians. The entire cove 
was afterwards purchased b3^ the Penns for £400, or $2,000. In 1755 a colony 
of Dunkards, or German Baptists, settled in the cove, and many of their de- 
scendants are still there, retaining well-nigh the same simplicity which marked 
their fathers — '' non-resistants — producers — non-consumers." 

HoLLiDAYSBURG Still remains the county seat, and for years it was the chief 
town in all this region. The town takes its name from William and Adam 
Holliday, who settled here in the year 1768. They were on their way West, but 
on reaching this point they decided to stop and settle. As Adam drove the first 
stake in the ground, he remarked to William: "Whoever is alive a hundred 
years hence will find here a considerable sized town," all of which has been 
realized. The town took its start Avith the building of the canal, it being the 
head of canal navigation east of the mountains. Here for years all goods going 
east and west were transhipped to boats and cars. The basin, in these d;iys, 
presented a lively, busy scene. But all this has passed away. The basin has 
been filled up, and the boatman's horn is heard no more. Nevertheless, Holli- 




SCBNE AT ALLEGRIPPUS, ON TUK PENN'S V I.V \ V I A UAll.UO.VI). 

2 A— 401 



402 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

da3^sl)urg remains a pleasant, prosperous town, with a population, embracing 
Gaysport and environs, of fully 5,000. The county buildings are among the best 
in the State, erected at a cost of some $225,000. Hollidayburg has, moreover, 
six fine houses of worship — two Catholic, one Baptist, one Lutheran, one 
Methodist, and one Presbyterian; a superior female seminary, a large hall, and 
other public buildings. The iron works in the place give employment to a large 
number of hands, while the local trade is considerable. 

Altoona is the metropolis of the county, a city of no mean pretentions, and 
as a railroad town, second to none in the Union. On the location of the Penn- 
sylvania railroad in 1849, the present site, then a farm owned by David Robeson, 
Esq., was selected for the shops, offices, etc., of this young but now giant corpo- 
ration. The company now occupy all of one hundred and twenty-two acres, and 
is still extending its improvements. The Logan House, the grand railroad hotel, 
is a model establishment. All the Pennsylvania railroad buildings are of the sub- 
stantial kind, the machiner}'^ the very best, giving emplo3'ment to thousands of men, 
and turning out such work as is seldom met with elsewhere. Some twelve church 
buildings speak well for the morals of the town, while the large and commodious 
school-houses assui'c the strans^cr the children are not forj^otten. Altoona has 
three banks, one public hall, one daily and three weekly newspapers. Population 
in 1870, 10,G10, increased in ISIG to perhaps 13,000. All in all, the "Mountain 
City " is the city of all this region. 

Tyrone is another town, the outgrowth of the railroad, and laid out about the 
same time with Altoona. It is located some fourteen miles east of Altoona, at 
the mouth of Bald Eagle valle}', and takes its name from an old iron works in 
the neighborhood, known as T^'rone Forges. The rapid growth of Tyrone is 
owing to two branch roads connecting with the main line at this point, the one 
running to the coal and lumber region of Clearfield count^^, the other connecting 
with the Philadelphia and Erie railroad at Lock Haven. A large coal and lumber 
trade is here brought upon the main line, making Tyrone station one of the most 
important between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The place has a good local 
trade, with a population in 18T0 of 1,800 ; has eight churches, two public halls, 
two banks, three planing-mills, and a steam tannery. A ncAV railroad from 
T^a'one to Lewisburg is in course of construction, which when completed will 
somewhat add to the importance of the "little cit_y " among the hills, while it 
will open up a direct route to the anthracite coal regions. 

WiLLiAMSGURO, a villngc in the south-eastern part of the county, in Wood- 
berry township, pleasantly located on the south branch of the Juniata. It was 
laid out in 1794, by a Germnn named Jacob Ake. One of the finest springs of 
water to be met with anywhere flows through the town, furnishing water power 
for a grist-mill, furnace, and other machiner}'. Population some 900. 

Frankstown, on the Juniata, two miles east of HoUidaysburg, is perhaps the 
oldest village in all this region, having been originally an Indian town known as 
Assunnepachla. Its present name is derived from an old German Indian trader, 
Stephen Franks, who made this place his home. The Indians remained here 
until 1755, when the}' went West, joined the French, and made war on Father 
Onas, or William Penn. The}' did so because the year previous the Penns, for 
a paltry sum, had bought the whole region of the Juniata from the Iroquois a< 



BLAIB COUNTS. 403 

Albany, N Y. Prior to the building of the canal, Frankstown was a place of 
some note on the route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh ; since then it has made 
but little progress. One of the Cambi'ia iron company's furnaces is at this point, 
and gives employment to a goodly number of the residents. 

Martinsburg is an old town, beautiful for situation, in Woodberry township, 
otherwise Morrison's Cove, and distant some twelve miles from Hollidaysburo-, on 
the llollidaysburg branch road. It contauis several churches, a bank, a planing- 
raill, a high school, and a foundry. In the midst of one of the finest farmino- 
districts, it has considerable local trade. 

Newry is another old town, situate in Blair township, some four miles west of 
llollidaysburg. It has a railroad connecting with the llollidaysburg branch at 
Y switches. Newry, prior to the building of the turnpike, was on the main 
road east and west. At present it has but little trade, yet, withal, it is a 
pleasant, quiet place, having for many years the only Roman Catholic church in 
the county. 

Organization of Townships — Allegheny was, prior to the formation of Blair 
county, in 1846, a township of Huntingdon county. As it then existed, it joined 
Antis on the north. In 1852, Logan was formed out of Allegheny and Antis ; 
hence, Allegheny is now bounded on the north by Logan, on the west by Cam- 
bria country, on the south by Blair and Juniata, and on the east by Frankstown. 

Antis, like Allegheny-, was a part of Huntingdon county. It is said tlie name 
is that of a somewhat noted Tor^^ who resided here during the Revolutionary 
War. In 1852, the southern portion of the township was taken to form Loo-an. 
As Antis now stands, it is bounded on the north by Snyder, on the east by 
Tyrone, on the south by Logan, and on the west by Cambria county. 

Blair came out from Huntingdon county, and surrounds llollidaysburg, the 
county scat. It original!}^ was taken from Alleghen^^ and Frankstown, and as 
now organized is bounded on the north by Allegheny and Frankstown, on the 
east by Frankstown and Taylor, on the south by Freedom, and on the west by 
Allegheny'. 

Catharine was part of Morris in Huntingdon count}^ and became a township 
in 184(5, by the organization of Blair county. It is bounded on the north and 
east by Huntingdon connt}-, south by Woodberiy, and west by Frankstown and 
Tyrone. 

Frankstown was a township of Huntingdon county, until the formation of Blair 
county in 184G. Some changes have since been made in its boundaries, but none 
of any importance. As it now stands, is is bounded on the north by Tj'rone and 
Catharine, on the east by Woodberiy and Huston, on the south bj' Taylor, and 
on the west by Blair, Allegheny, and Logan. 

FiiEEi^OM belonged originally to Bedford county, and as part of Greenfield 
First, in 1841, Juniata was formed out of Greenfield, and in 1857 Freedom was 
created out of Juniata. It has Greenfield on the south, Juniata on the west, Blair 
on the north, and Taylor on the cast. 

Greenfield, an old township of Bedford county, became part of Blair county 
in 184G. Since then both Freedom and Juniata have been taken from it. It is 
bounded on the south by Bedford county, on the west b}^ Somerset county, on the 
north by Juniata and Freedom, and on the east b}' Taylor. 



404 HISTOJl Y OF PENNS YL VAN I A. 

Huston was originally a township of Bedford county. It is bounded on the 
south by Bedford county, on the east by Huntingdon count}', on the north by 
Woodberry, and on the west by Frankstown. 

Juniata, taken from Greenfield and organized as a township in 1841. It has 
Cambria county on the West, Allegheny on the north, Freedom on the east, and 
Greenfield on the south. 

Logan was formed in 1850 out of Allegheny and Antis, and lies around 
Altoona. It is bounded on the north by Antis, on the east by Tja'one and 
Frankstown, on the south by Alleghenj^, and on the west by Cambria county 

North Woodberry originally belonged to Bedford county. It has Bedford 
county on the south, Taylor on the west, Huston on the north, Huntingdon 
count}' on the cast. 

Snyder came from Huntingdon county, and is bounded on the north by 
Center county, on the cast b}' Huntingdon county, on the south by Antis, and 
on the west by Cambria count}'. It has within it the borough of Tyrone. 

Taylor was formed in 1855, out of North Woodberry and Huston. It has 
Bedford county on the south; Greenfield, Freedom, and Blair, on the west; 
Frankstown on the north, and North Woodberry on the cast. 

Tyrone an old township of Huntingdon county, and until incorporated into 
Blair county in 1846. It has Logan and Antis on the west, Snyder on the 
north, Catharine on the east, and Frankstown on the south. 

Woodberry came from Huntingdon county, and has within it the town of 
Williamsburg. It is bounded on the south by Huston, west by Frankstown, 
north by Catharine, and on the east by Huntingdon county. 

Fifteen townships in all, Allegheny, Antis, Blair, Catharine, Fi'ankstown 
Snyder, Tyrone, and Woodberry, originally from Huntingdon county ; Green 
field, Huston, North Woodberry, from Bedford county; and Freedom, Juniata, 
Logan, and Taylor, formed since the organization of Blair county, in 1846. 



BRADFORD COUNTY. 




BY REV. DAVID CRAFT, WYALUSINO. 

IIAT part of Pennsylvania now known as Bradford connty, was 
formerly included in Northampton. At this time, however, it was 
the home of the red man, there being not more than two or three 
white families residing within the county limits at the formation of 
Northumberland in 1772. By the act of Assembly erecting the county of 
Luzerne, its boundaries were made to include nearly all of present Bradford, 
leaving a small triangle in the northwestern part of the count}-, whose base was 
about six miles on the State line, and its vertex at the southwestern angle of the 
county, which was subsequently included in Lycoming. 




VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF TOWANDA. 

[From a Photograph by (i. H. AVoo'l, Towauda.] 

For the purpose of legislating Colonel John Franklin out of the Asserabl}', 
to which the people of Luzerne persisted in sending him, and where his earnest 
and persevering advocacy of the claims of the Connecticut settlers rendered 
him exceedingly obnoxious to those holding Pennsylvania titles in his district, 
and to the Pennsylvania Landholders' Association, which exerted great inlhicncc 
in the Legislature, an act was passed April 2, 1804, setting off so much of 
Luzerne as lies north and west of a line run from the East Branch ol the 
Susquehanna river, where it crosses the State line, thence southerly to the 
northeast corner of Claverack (one of the townships of the Susquehanna 
Company), thence by the northwest nnd southwest sides of Claverack to its 
southwest corner, which was near the present village of Monroeton, thence by a 

405 



406 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

line running due west to the line separating the two counties, and attaching it 
to Lycoming. 

On the 21st of February, 1810, an act was passed to erect parts of Luzerne 
and Lycoming counties into separate county districts, in which the first section 
provided that " such parts of those counties included withai the following lines, 
to wit:. Beginning at the fortieth milestone standing on the north line of the 
State ; thence running south to a point due east of the head of the Wyalusing 
Falls in the Susquehanna river ; thence southwesterly to the nearest point in 
the Lycoming count}' line ; thence in a direct line to the southeast corner of 
Tioga county, at the Beaver Dam, on Towanda creek ; thence northerly along 
the east line of Tioga county to the eightieth milestone standing on the north 
line of the State ; thence east along said line to the fortieth milestone, the place 
of beginning — be and is hereby erected into a separate county, to be henceforth 
called Ontario county, and the place of holding courts of justice in and for said 
county shall be fixed by three commissioners to be appointed by the Governor, 
at any place at a distance not exceeding seven miles from the centre of the 
county which may be most beneficial to and convenient for the same." 

The Governor appointed Samuel Satterlee, Moses Coolbaugh, and Justus 
Gaylord, trustees of the new count}', who emplo3'ed Jonathan Stevens, Esq., 
then deputy survc^'or for this district, to survey the bounds thereof. 

By an act passed March 28, 1811, the trustees of the county of Ontario "are 
hereby authorized and required to establish a point east of the Slippery Rocks, 
(so called), at the head of Wj-alusiug Falls, in the river Susquehanna, for the 
southeast corner of Ontario county ; from thence a line run west to the said Slip- 
pery Bocks ; fj-om thence a southwesterly course to the nearest point of Lycom- 
ing count}', is hereby established as the southern boundary of the said county." 
The remaining lines were left unchanged, and form the present boundaries of the 
county 

On the 24th of March, 1812, an act was passed which provided for the elec- 
tion of county officers at the regular election of the next October, for -organizing 
the county for judicial purposes, and for changing its name from Ontario to that 
of Bradford, in honor of William Bradford, formerly Attorney-General of the 
United States, and directed the courts to be held at the house of William 
Means, Esq., of Meansville, in Towanda township, until suitable county build- 
ings should be erected. 

Bradford was united with Tioga, Susquehanna, Wayne, and Luzerne 
counties, to form the Eleventh Judicial District. John Bannister Gibson, after- 
ward one of the judges of the Supreme Court, was appointed president judge ; 
John McKean and George Scott were his associates. The other county officers 
were, Abner C. Rockwell, sheriff;. Charles F. Welles, prothonotary, clerk of 
the sessions and Oyer and Terminer, register and recorder, and clerk of the 
Orphans Court; William Myer, Justus Gaylord, Jr., and Joseph Kinney, commis- 
sioners ; Henry Wilson, prosecuting attorney ; John Horton, coroner ; Ilarry 
Spalding, ti-easurer. 

The venires were issued for a jury, and the whole machinery of the organiza- 
tion was put in motion January 18, 1813, the day fixed by law for the new 
county to go into operation. On this day the commissions of the several officers 



BRADFOED COUNTY. 407 

were read, and the oaths administered with great pomp and ceremony- 
There was considerable strife in the neighborhoods around the gcogruphical 
centre of the new county for the county seat, especially between W3'sox, 
Monroeton, and Towanda, but in consideration of the donation of ample grounds 
for county buildings, the commissioners located the county seat at Meansville, 
as it was then called, and the new county commissioners were instructed to 
proceed with all diligence to erect suitable buildings for the accommodation of 
the county offices. 

As the counties are now organized, Bradford is bounded on the east by 
Susquehanna, on the east and south by Wyoming, on the south by Sullivan and 
Lycoming, and on the west by Tioga. Its average length from east to west is a 
trifle less than forty miles, and its mean breadth from north to south about 
twenty-nine and one half miles, and includes within its boundary lines one 
thousand one hundred and seventy-four square miles, or seven hundred fifty-one 
thousand, three hundred and sixty acres, being in area the third county in the 
Commonwealth. 

The north-east branch of the Susquehanna enters the county from the State 
of New York, between the fifty'-sixth and fifty-seventh mile-stones, and, running 
about six and a half miles in a south-westerly direction, receives its principal 
affluent, the Tioga, which finally enters the county near the sixty-second mile 
stone. The peninsula between the two rivers has been called Tioga-Point from 
the first settlement of the country. From the junction, the river pursues, with 
many windings, a mean south-easterly course, and leaves the county at the 
north-western angle of W3^oming county. Besides these, the principal streams 
m the west are Seeley's, South, Bentley's, and Orcut's creeks, flowing north 
into the Tioga; the Sugar creek, the Towanda, Durcll's creek, and the Sugar 
run, which empty into the Susquehanna from the west. On the east are the 
Wappusening, which runs north ; Horn creek, the Wysox, and the Wyalusing, 
running west into the Susquehanna. These creeks, with their numerous 
branches, the waters of the Apolacon in the north-east, of the Tuscarora in the 
south-east, and of the Loyal Sock in the south-west, and many smaller streams, 
make Bradford one of the best watered counties in the State. 

The surface of the county is uneven, being broken by numerous ridges of 
high hills, whose general course is from the south-west to the north-east, with 
spurs running north, which make the water sheds of the streams flowing in that 
direction. E]ast of the river are high table lands in Tuscarora, Pike, Herrick, 
Orwell, and Warren townships, which are excellent grazing lands and produce 
good crops of summer grains, but there are no peaks of any considerable height. 
In the west are Mt. Pisgah and Mt. Elizabeth, and near the south-eastern corner 
of the county are the Tyler and Round Top. The principal ranges are the 
Armenia mountains, in the western part of the county, and the Barclay moun- 
tains—the Burnett's hills which formed part of the boundary in the Indian pur- 
chase of 1*768— between the main and Schraeder branches of the Towanda creek. 

The Susquehanna, in its passage through the county, instead of following 
a natural valley, like most large rivers, breaks through successive ranges of hills, 
whose precipitous escarpments in some places tower hundreds of feet above the 
stream, so that on each side it is bordered with alternate sections of hills with 



408 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

their intervening valleys, thus affording a pleasing variety of landscape to the 
traveler, and many views of picturesque beauty for the artist. This peculiarity 
of the Susquehanna valley, if valley it can be called, has produced a scenery 
which a celebrated Scotch essayist describes " beautiful as the gates of para- 
dise," of almost worldr-wide reputation. 

Tlie flats along- the river, usually at the mouths of the larger ci-eeks, are 
rich bottoms, frequently intersected by a gravel ridge running parallel with the 
river, and were seats of Indian villages, who had made partial clearings for 
corn patches long before the country was known to the white man. Along the 
creeks are fertile alluvial flats of varying width, which, as the river is 
approached, are bounded by steep hill sides. On the higher lands the soil is 
heavier, sometimes clayey, but productive. 

Agriculture is the chief employment of the people. The county is well 
adapted to grazing, especially in the northern and western portions of it, where 
butter is the chief production, for which the county is justly celebrated. 
Bradford county butter commands a ready sale and the highest price in any 
market to which it is sent. In some portions of the county considerable atten- 
tion has been given, of late, to improved varieties of stock, both of horses, cattle, 
and sheep, and the stock now seen on many of the farms of the county will 
compare favorably with the finest cattle herds of the country. 

Oats, corn, and buckwheat are the principal grains. Good crops of wheat 
are usually raised on the river and creek flats, but the amount is seldom suffi- 
cient for home consumption. Barley, millet, and hops have been grown in small 
crops, but the experiment has not as yet proved successful. Potatoes are 
largely cultivated, and many thousands of bushels are annually sent to the 
market. Within a few years past, hay has become an important article of 
export, and every season thousands of tons are sent to the coal-producing 
regions of the State. 

The principal mineral productions are coal and flagging. The coal Is found 
on the Barclay mountain, geologically the highest land In the county. It Is of 
the seml-bltumlnous varlet3^, and Is peculiarly adapted to manufacturing, black- 
smlthlng, and locomotive uses. At present the mining is carried on by the Erie 
rallwa}^. Fall Creek, and Carbon Run companies. A railroad from the mines 
connects with the Pennsylvania and New York railroad, at Towanda, and 
brings several thousand tons annually to the mai'ket. Most of the flagging 
quarries are found along the creeks a short distance from the river. There are 
also some beds of building stone. These are of the blue-stone variety, easily 
worked, but enduring a great amount of wear and exposure. The quarrying 
and shipping of stone has of late become an Important Industry. 

At Austinville, Columbia township, in the western part of the county, 
considerable quantities of Iron ore are mined, which is claimed to be of a 
superior quality. Iron has been found in other parts of the county, but as yet 
no attempt has been made to bring It Into market. 

The whole of Bradford was originally covered with heavy forests. In some 
parts of pine and hemlock, in others of beech and maple. There were magnifi- 
cent walnuts along the river; black ash, birch, and oak were frequent!}^ found in 
the forests. For many years the manufacture of lumber and shingles was largely 



BRADFORD COUNTY. 409 

carried on. These were hauled to the river or larger creeks, rafted and floated 
down the river to the several markets below. Every spring the river would be 
thickly dotted with rafts of various kinds and sizes, bearing the fruits of the 
winter's work, running the hazard of being stranded or being crushed by some 
mismanagement, to lind a market at Ilarrisburg, Middletown, Baltimore, or Pliila- 
delphia, when many times the proceeds would scarcely be sufticient to pay for 
the rafting and running. The first saw-mili built in the county was by Anthony 
Rummerfield, on the creek Avhich bears his name, before the Revolutionary war. 
Since then, there has been a time when they could be counted by the thousand. 
With the disappearance of the forest, this branch of industry has correspond- 
ingly diminished, and the greater facilities of transportation furnished by rail- 
roads have made rafting a thing of comparatively rare occurrence. Except from 
the south-western part of the count}^, very little lumber is now sent to the mar- 
ket. The water power furnished by the creeks affords facilities for manufactur- 
ing of various kinds, but as yet, except for running of grist and saw-mills, it has 
remained unused. Within a few 3'ears past a variety of manufactures have been 
initiated, which will be noticed under the sketches of the towns where they are 
located. 

When the white people first began to visit this county, Tioga — Diahoga, as it 
is more frequentl}^ written in the journals of the earlier travelers — was the "fore 
town " of the Iroquois, who at that time held all the Indian tribes of Pennsylva- 
nia and New Jersey in subjection, and assigned the Susquehanna valley to the 
Delawares, whose lands they were selling from time to time to the whites. Tioga 
was the southern gate to the Confederacy, through which, or by the Mohawk, all 
strangers must enter their territory or be treated as spies and enemies. Here 
was stationed a sachem, whose business it was to examine all who applied for 
admission into the Iroquois country, and whose decision upon all such requests 
was final. To this point all the great paths led, which were frequented b}'^ 
warriors, hunters, and travelers. 

At the mouth of the Sugar creek, Oscului (meaning the Fierce) was also an 
old Indian town, second in importance to Tioga, standing at the junction of the 
path leading from the West Branch to the Susquehanna, with the great Warrior 
path down the river. It was a convenient resting place for travelers, and a 
rendezvous for hunting and war parties. At this place are the remains of what 
appears to be an ancient fortification, which from its construction and the relics 
found in it, would indicate that it was constructed by a people allied to the mound 
builders of the West, and point to an occupancy anterior to that of the Iroquois 

At Wyalusing was an ancient Indian town, traces of which were visible as late 
as 1750, called Gahontoto, inhabited by a people who were neither Delawares nor 
Iroquois, called by the latter Tehotitachsae, against whom the Cayugas made 
war and exterminated them, before the Indians knew the use of fire arms, when 
they fought with bows and arrows. 

At Towanda and Wysox were at various times Indian settlements, but they 
do not, at least within historic times, seem to have been permanent places of 
abode. Subsequently Towantla was one of the national burying places for the 
Nanticokes, after their removal among the Iroquois. 

In 1152, Papunhank, a Minsi chieftain of some importance, with about twenty 



4 1 HISTOIi Y OF PENl^S TL VANIA. 

families, built at Wyalusing. Their houses for the most part were constructed of 
split logs, one end of which was set into the ground, and upon the other were 
placed poles which were covered with bark. The description given of this town 
Iw travelers would indicate that not only in the structure of their houses, but in 
the general character of the people, they were far in advance of most of the 
native settlements. Papunhank frequently visited Philadelphia, where he became 
acquainted with several Quakers, and acquired some knowledge of Christianity, 
and, at length, set himself up as a teacher to his people. 

In the month of May, 1760, Christian Frederick Post, on his way with a 
message from the Governor of Pennsylvania to the great Council at Onondaga, 
stopped over night at the town, and at their request, gave them a sermon from 
the text, " Behold I bring you tidings of great joy," etc. — Luke ii. 8-11. This 
without doubt was the first gospel sermon preached in the county. In the mean- 
while some other families had come into the town, among whom were Job Chilla- 
way, who had at times acted as government interpreter, and Tom Curtis, both 
men of intelligence and influence. 

Papunhank's people losing confidence in him as a religious teacher, on 
account of his own bad life, began to consult about taking measures for inviting 
a white teacher to settle among them. In their councils however, they were 
divided in opinion, one party being in favor of the Quakers, and the other of the 
Moravians, and so equal was the strength of the two parties that neither was dis- 
posed to yield to the other. Their ditferences were compromised by agreeing to 
accept the first teacher who came. 

John Woolman, the prominent Quaker evangelist, having made the acquain- 
tance of some of the Wyalusing Indians at Philadelphia, probably of Papunhank 
himself, after much deliberation, set out in company with Benjamin Parvin, 
to visit the town, in May, 1763, purposing, if he should be well received, to 
remain with them and teach them the gospel. 

In the meanwhile, news of the awakened interest in religion at Wyalusing 
coming to the ears of David Zeisberger, the celebrated Moravian apostle to the 
Indians, he left Bethlehem on the 18th of Ma^', passing Woolman on the 
mountain below Wilkes-Barre, where they dined together, reached Wyalusing 
on the 23d, two da^^s before him. Above the Lackawanna, Zeisberger was met 
by Job Chillaway, who informed him of the conclusion of the council, and 
accompanied him to Papunhank's town. Here he was received as the divinely 
sent messenger, to teach them the great words of the Christian religion, 
and though wearied from the long journey, at once, that very day, set about 
preaching the gospel to his waiting and anxious hearers. Never had the great 
preacher a more attentive audience, and never did he speak " the great words " 
with more fervor and zeal. 

Woolman, on his arrival, was kindly received, but was informed that, accord- 
ing to the decisions of their council, Zeisberger must be regarded as their 
accepted teacher. After remaining five days to assist in inaugurating the good 
work, and witnessing the kind reception of the gospel, he departed, with manj'^ 
prayers for the abundant success of the mission. This opportune arrival of 
Zeisberger was the occasion of founding one of the most important and success- 



BEADFORD COUNTY. 411 

ful missions ever established among our Nortli American Indians. On such 
apparently trifling events do important results turn. 

Zeisberger being so well received, was appointed resident missionary at 
Wyalusing, .by the Mission Board at Bethlehem, and with great success 
prosecuted his labors here and at Tawandaemenk, an Indian village, consisting of 
twelve or fourteen Delaware families, relatives of Anthony, his helper, on the 
flats at the mouth of the Towanda creek. 

Scarcely had a month elapsed from the time of Zeisberger's first visit to 
Wyalusing, before the Pontiac war broke out, and the messengers of that 
celebrated chieftain were visiting every village on the Susquehanna, urging 
the Indians to again dig up the hatchet they had so recently buried. Already 
the emissaries were at Wyalusing before Zeisberger was commanded to leave the 
town. All was now excitement and commotion; and the intrepid missionary 
was compelled to suspend the work so auspiciously begun, and of which 
there seemed such bright prospects of abundant success, but not before he had 
baptized Papunhank, who received the name of John, and another Indian 
who was called Peter. 

The Moravian Christian lu'Iians, for their greater security during the war, 
in which they refused to take any part, were removed first to a settlement near 
Bethlehem, and then to Province Island, in the Delaware river, a little below 
Philadelphia, where they were sheltered in government barracks during the war. 
Thither Papunhank and twenty of his followers, who determined to have nothing 
to do with the war, hastened. Here, cooped up in narrow quarters, subsisting 
on food to which they were not accustomed, harassed by a multitude of fears, 
threatened more than once with death, their numbers decimated once and ao-ain. 
after a most distressing confinement of more than seventeen months, at the very 
first dawn of peace, they emerged from their prison, for such it had proved to be, 
and again sought a home in the forest. Papunhank invited the whole company 
to settle in his town on the Susquehanna, and hither, after due consultation, they 
turned their steps, led by their beloved teachers, Zeisberger and John Jacob 
Schmick. 

On the 3d of April, 1765, the company, consisting of eighty adults and 
upwards of ninety children, set out from Bethlehem, and after a tedious journey 
of thirty-six days, arrived at Wyalusing, May 9th. With devout thanksgiving 
they set the stakes for their new town, and their houses were reared amid joyous 
songs of praise to Jehovah, for his abundant mercies. During the season, thirty 
bark covered huts, four log cabins, a mission house, and church, were erected. 
This town, which was built on the east side of the river, about two miles south 
of the present village of Wyalusing, and near the Sugar Run station, on the 
P. and N. Y. railroad, was regularly laid out in lots, on each side of the street, 
cight}^ feet in width, running east and west, with an alley ten feet wide between 
every pair of lots. When the settlement was abandoned, it consisted of thirty- 
nine log cabins, some of these with shingle roofs, and thirteen huts. In the 
centre of the town, and in the middle of the street, stood the church, built of 
square pine logs, with shingle-covered roof and glazed windows, surmounted by 
a belfry, in which hung a bell, that on the Sabbath, or holy day, as it rung out 
over the meadows and corn fields of this beautiful valley, and its cheerful tonus 



4 1 2 EISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VA NTA . 

were echoed back from the surrounding hill sides, told heathen and Christian 
that in this one spot, in the wide-spreading wilderness, was a place consecrated to 
the worship of the true God, whose life-giving words they were invited to come 
and hear. Within, the church, which was thirty-two by twenty feet in dimension, 
was adorned with two oil paiuthigs, one representing the Nativity, and the other 
Christ's agony in the garden. We read in the mission diary, that many a dusky 
warrior was led by the contemplation of these scenes to ask in amazement 
" who it was that thus humbled himself, and then suffered for the children of men." 

The town was surrounded by a post and rail-fence, and every week during the 
summer season, the streets and alleys were swept by tlie women with wooden 
brooms, and the rubbish taken to the river, where every family had a canoe. 
Adjoining the town were two hundred and fifty acres of plantations enclosed with 
more than two miles of fences. Their corn patches were extended at intervals for 
nearly two miles up the Wj^alusing, and on the large island in the river between 
Terrytown and Wyalusing. Their hay was cut on the natural meadows near the 
Frenchtown station, they had sugar camps on the Sugar run, found cranberries 
in the marshes in Wilmot township, and whortleberries oh the mountains around 
Tunkhannock. 

The mission received the name of Friedenshiitten (Iluts of Peace), in 1766. 
It was a Christian Indian town, in which the men still engaged in the hunt and 
the chase, the women planted and harvested the fields, but learned to read their 
Bibles, sing their religious hymns, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Order, 
harmony, and industry, prevailed. A school-house w^s built adjoining the 
church, where both adults and children were taught to read in both Delaware and 
German, to repeat the ten commandments, the Lord's praj'er, the Apostles' creed, 
and to sing Delaware hymns. 

In the church, the daily morning and evening service was held, the Sabbath 
and usual holy days were observed, and the Lord's Supper regularly celebrated. 
Their hymns were sung to the accompaniment of a spinnet, made by Joshua, a 
Mohican Indian, and all the arrangements of a strictly Moravian town were 
scrupulously enforced. Traders were not allowed to bring any spirituous liquors 
into the town, and the elders of the congregation enforced the wholesome rules 
for the peace of the community. 

Besides a large number of visitors which constantly thronged the town, the 
year 1767 witnessed the migration northward of the remnants of what were once 
two powerful nations, the Tuscaroras in the spring, and the Nanticokes in the 
autumn. These were entertained at the mission, where quite a number remained 
all the winter, much to the annoyance of the missionaries. 

At Sheshequanink, the site of the present village of Ulster, some Delawares 
made a settlement soon after the close of the Pontiac war, under a chief named 
Echobund. Some of Brainerd's New Jersey Indians removed here, among whom 
were Isaac Stille and Joseph Peepy, both of wliom had been in the service of the 
Province of Penns3dvania as messengers and interpreters ; Nicholas Tatemy, 
Nathaniel Davis, and some others. These frequently came to Friedenshiitten to 
attend religious worship, when at length, after due consideration, and at the 
repeated and earnest request of the Sheshequin Indians, a station was established 
at their town, and John Rothe, who had been an assistant at Friedenshiitten, was 



BBADFOED COUNTY. 4I3 

appointed resident missionaiy, who entered upon his work early in the year 

Here a small chapel was built and a house for the missionary ; but the pros- 
perity of the mission was retarded from various causes, but chiefly on account of 
the immediate settlements of heathen Indians, who were averse to receivino- the 
gospel, and it ever continued to be an appendage to Friedenshiitten, The whole 
number connected with the mission at this station, at the time of the exodus, 
was fifty-three, of whom four were communicants, fifteen baptized non-communi- 
cants, thirtj^-one not baptized, besides the missionary, his wife, and child. This 
child, a son born in May, 1772, was the first white child born in the county. 

Several circumstances contributed to render the mission insecure and finally 
led to its removal. When it was first established at Wyalusing, in accordance 
with Indian diplomacy', permission was asked of Togahaju, the Cayuga sachem, 
and viceroy of the Iroquois, for the privilege of building at the place they had 
selected ; but he wished them to remove to Cayuga, where he promised they 
should have lands, and permission to enjoy the teachings of the missionaries and 
to practice their religion But the proposition not being acceptable to the 
mission, an evasive answer was returned. In reply to a more peremptory 
summons, Zeisberger and a deputation of tlie chief men from the mission visited 
Cayuga, and represented to Togahaju the objections to a removal, the peculiari- 
ties of Moravian towns and of their religious services in such strong light, that 
the sachem withdrew his demand, and added, " heretofore 3'ou have only 
sojourned at W^'alusing, I now set you down there firral}' I give j'ou all the 
land down from Tioga as far as a man can walk in two days. It is 3'ours. No 
one sliall disturb you. All other Indians shall remove if 3'ou desire it." This 
grant was afterward confirmed by the great council at Onondaga. Thus assured, 
they remained in peace until the treaty at Toit Stanwix, in November, 1768, 
when the Six Nations sold the land which had so solemnly been assigned to them, 
" from under their feet." 

As soon as this transaction became known at Friedenshiitten, a deputation 
waited upon Governor Penn, informing him of their settlement and Christian 
civilization, and the peaceable character of their religious principles, asking that 
the country surrounding the mission might be held in trust for them. This the 
Governor declined to allow, but assured them that they never should be disturbed, 
and that his surveyors should not come within five miles of their town. But even 
in Pennsylvania it had begun to be fashionable to break faith with the Indians, 
and within a few months after this assurance had been given, Mr, Stewart was 
running lines and locating warrants upon the plantations attached to the mission. 
In addition to this, the controversy between Pennsylvania and the Connecti- 
cut people was beginning to assume a serious aspect, and the probabilities were 
that ere long the whole country would be involved in the conflict. 

In September, 1766, Zeisberger left Friedenshutten, in order to preach the 
gospel to some of the Delaware tribes, on the Ohio river, where he established a 
mission. Learning the condition of aflfairs at Wyalusing, and that a removal 
was in contemplation, Zeisberger was commissioned to bear an invitation to the 
brethren on the Susquehanna to settle in the Ohio country. The proposition 
receiving the cordial approval of the Mission Board at Bethlehem, Zeisberger 



414 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

hastened to Wyalusing-, to lay the invitation before the brethi*en there. A coun- 
cil was called, to which the Sheshequin brethren were summoned, when, after a 
long and careful deliberation, the invitation was accepted, and the early part of 
the following summer was fixed upon as the time for their departure. 

The Wyalusing mission at this time numbered one hundred and fifty-one 
souls, of whom fift3'-two were communicants ; seventj'-two were baptized non- 
communicants ; twent}^ were unbaptized. During the continuance of the mission, 
ninety-four adults and forty-five infants were baptized, seven couples were 
anited in Christian marriage, and forty-one had died. 

With the coming spring, all were hwsy in making preparations for the 
contemplated exodus. On the 11th of June, 1772, everything being in readiness, 
the congregation assembled, for the last time, in their church, when, with 
thanksgiving to God for His jnercies, and pra^'crs for His protection and guid- 
ance, they went forth to bid a final adieu to their beautiful homes, their pleasant 
Hunting grounds, and the graves of their kindred, and took up their march 
toward the setting sun. 

The emigrants from Wj'^alusing were divided into two companies, and each of 
these was subdivided into several parties. One of these companies went over- 
land, b}^ the Wyalusing path, up the Sugar run, and down the Loyal Sock, via 
Dushorc. This company was in charge of Ettwein, who had, at their request, been 
sent to superintend their removal, and had the care of the horses and cattle ; the 
other, in charge of Rothe, went b}' canoe down the Susquehanna and up the West 
Branch, and carried the bulk of their property'. The bell was taken down 
from its turret, and carried by Anthonj'^ in his canoe in the van of the fleet, and 
was tolled until the squadron rounded tlie mountain a mile and a half below the 
church. The doors and windows of the church were nailed up, and the buildings 
left in care of Job Chillaway, who, with Hendricks, remained in the town. The 
Slicshequin part}'^ followed the path up the Towanda and down the L^'coming. 
The place of general rendezvous was the Great Island, now Lock Haven. After 
resting liere a few days, they again took up their journey for the place of their 
destination, on the Big Beaver, in liawrcnce county. 

Tlie journey was full of incident, and severeh' taxed the patience and forti- 
tude of all who participated in it. Tormented with ponk flies, which were 
almost invisible, but Avhose bite was like burning ashes; overtaken by terrible 
thunder storms, drenched by heav}' rains, encountering multitudes of rattle- 
snakes, traversing swamps, crossing mountains and streams, now feeling their 
way along dangerous precipices, then threading deep and narrow ravines, some- 
times their path obstructed b}' fallen trees, and at others obliterated by devasta- 
ting fires, not a soul was seriously injured, scarcely a hoof was lost, and not a 
night did one lack for food. The journal of Ettwein is full of interest, but too 
long for quotation here. 

Says the Bev. W. C. Reichel, this migration " marks a new era in the history 
of the Moravian Mission among the aborigines of this countrj', which era was 
chariicterized by perpetual disturbances and unrest — it also being the era of its 
gradual decadence extending down into our own times, when there is but a feeble 
remnant of Christian Indians ministered to by Moravians, dwelling at New 
Fairfield, Canada, and New Westfield, Kansas. In the veins of some of these 



BRADFOED COUNTY 



415 




there flows the blood of the Mohicans and Delawares of old Friedenshiitlcn the 
' deserted village ' of the flats of Wyalusing " 

A century had elapsed, and the history, and even the location of this remarka- 
ble mission was fast fading out from the recollections of men. Their church 
had been torn down, and its timbers built into a raft, had conveyed a few fami- 
lies with their goods to Wyoming ; their houses had been burned by an armed 
force during the Revolutionary war, every vestige 
and mark of the town had been removed ; even the 
missionar3''s well had been covered up, and the 
spring which had furnished the town with water had 
been buried under the canal, when in September, 
1870, a company of ladies and gentlemen, repre- 
senting the Moravian Historical Societ}^, visited 
Wyalusing, and in company with some of the resi- 
dents of the place, sought out the historic ground, 
walked around the fertile fields which were the 
site of the ancient village and its plantations, visited 
the burying ground, where sleep the dust of more 
than two-score pious Indians: and on the 14th and 
15tli of the following June, a large company from 
Philadelphia, New York, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and 
Litiz, with a large concourse of people from Wya- 
lusing and the surrounding countr}', assembled on 
the consecrated spot, and with beautiful, but solemn 
ceremonies, dedicated a monument, bearing appro- 
priate inscriptions, which had been erected "to 
mark the site of Friedenshtitten," that ma^', for 
man}^ 3'ears to come, remind the passer-by of this interesting page of our local 
history. 

Previous to the exodus of the Moravian Indians, so far as is now known, but 
two white families were settled within the present limits of the county, these 
were Rudolph Fox and Peter Scheufeldt, the former on the Towanda flats, and 
the latter at Asylum, Avhich for many 3'ears was called " Shufelt's flats." JJoth 
these were Germans, and descendants of Palatine families Avho had emigrated 
into New York in the vears 1110-15. Avhcn. becoming dissatisfied Avitli tlie 
location, removed to Pennsylvania. Messrs. Fox and Scheufeldt, following the 
current of emigration down the Susquehanna, reached the places where thc3' 
located in Ma3', 1710, and for three years were the onl3' white families resident 
in the count3\ Some of the descendants of jNIr. Fox now occupy the farm upon 
which he settled. About 1115 Mr. Scheufeldt removed to the West Branch, 
where he was killed b3' the Indians in 1119. 

During the years 1113 and 1114, the New England settlements at Wyoming, 
uiulei the Susquehanna company, were rapidly increased, and the townsliips 
first set apart for the settlers being taken up, additional ones were granted to 
companies of adventurers who wished to locate their rights for purposes of 
settlement. In May 1114, the township of Standing Stone, then called AVooster, 
was granted to David Smith and his associates, and settlements were commenced 






MOEAVIAN MONUMENT. 



416 HISTORY OF PENNSTLVANIA. 

in it by Lemuel Fitch, ^5imon Spalding, Anthony Ruramerfield, and some 
others. The same month another township, afterwards called Springfield, but 
which originally bore the name of Washington, was granted to James Wells, 
Jeremiah Eoss, and others. This is the first instance known to the writer of a 
place named in honor of the gallant 3'oung colonel whose coolness and bravery 
saved Braddock's army from annihilation, and subsequently, whose skill and 
patriotism won for him the name of Father of his Country. The plantations 
attached to the Indian missions, included in this township , afforded greater 
'"attractions for settlers, who began to occupy them the same year in which the 
township was granted. Among these were James Wells and Robert Carr, at 
Wyalusing, Edward Hicks at Sugar Run, and Benjamin Budd at Terrytown. 
The year before, 1773, Isaac Van Valkenburg and his two sons-in-law, Sebastian 
and Isaac Strope, from the town of Claverack on the Hudson, settled at Fair- 
banks, on the old Indian Meadows, and John Lord in 1774, settled at what is 
now called Lower Sheshequin. 

For the next two or three years settlements were rapidly increased, and the 
additional townships of Claverack and Ulster were graiited ; the former, next 
above that of Standing Stone, covering the flats of W3'S0x, Towanda, and Sugar 
creek, granted June 4, 1778; the latter in 1775, covering the Old Tioga and the 
flats adjoining. The Van Valkenburgs, and Stropes, Samuel Cole and some others, 
• were settlers in Claverack as soon or before the grant was obtained, but owing to 
the impending troubles of the Revolution no settlements were attempted in Ulster 
under Connecticut rights until after the peace. In the lower townships, how- 
ever, the number of settlers had been constantly increasing, and were to be 
found not only along the river but extending five or six miles up the Wj'alusing 
creek, and in the township of Springfield alone there were thirtj^-two fami- 
lies, mostly New England people holding titles under the Susquehanna 
company. 

As earl3'' as April, 1769, within six months after their Indian purchase, the 
Proprietary government of Penns3dvania had granted to their friends warrants 
of surve3^, which were laid on the best lands along the river, and up the W3'alu- 
sing and W3-saukin creeks — the Towanda was not included in the purchase. For 
the purpose of holding these lands against the New England people, the3' were 
let out to lessees or tenants, who came upon them, made improvements, and in 
some instances removed their families. Many of these were German people 
from the neighborhood of Philadelphia. 

Events were now transpiring in the country which led another class of 
emigrants to seek a home on these frontiers. The t3'rannical acts of the British 
ministry had precipitated the war of the Revolution. With but very few excep- 
tions the New England settlers were pronounced and active Whigs, and in the 
very outset of the struggle had taken a decided position on the side of Congress 
and in favor of the independence of the States. The3' regarded with suspicion all 
who were lukewarm in the cause, or for any reason held themselves aloof from 
the patriotic gatherings and musters, and in some instances arrested and held 
them in confinement'. In consequence of these severe proceedings, quite a num- 
ber living in the neighborhood of the Wyoming settlements, who for any reason 
were not in sympathy with the majority of the people there, removed up the 



BRADFORD COUNTY. 41^ 

river into this county, where they would be less subject to annoyance and nearer 
to their friends. 

About the same time several disaffected people from the south-eastern part of 
the province of New York came over and settled on the Susquehanna. These, 
with a number of deserters from the American army, formed the majority of our 
population at the close of 1777, and on account of Tioga still being an Indian 
town, became a dangerous element, ready to foment any disturbance which 
might distress the Whigs and aid the cause of the British crown. Some of these 
people had this year joined the British forces at Niagara, had been in the 
army of St. Leger at the investment of Fort Schuyler, and held commissions in 
the British army, but returned to their homes in the autumn, where, to escape 
arrest, they took the freeman's oath and professed to be patriots. 

At the very outset of the Revolutionary struggle, quite a number of our 
people enlisted in the two independent companies of Wyoming. Among tliese 
were Simon Spalding, James Wells, and Perrin Ross, who were commissioned 
lieutenants, and Justus Gaylord, a sergeant. Wells and Ross were both slain at 
the battle of Wyoming. About a dozen others were connected with the train 
bands of Wyoming ; altogether, there were twenty or more from these upper 
settlements, who, in one capacity or another, were serving in the patriot forces of 
the country. 

The vicinity of the Susquehanna settlements to the Indian towns of Sheshe- 
quin, Tioga, and Chemung, made the people exceedingly solicitous that the 
Indians should be kept quiet, and maintain the pledge of neutrality in the 
contest, which they had given the inhabitants. They were, therefore, treated 
with great kindness, and frequent deputations passed between these towns and 
the settlements in the interest of peace. But, notwithstanding the professed 
neutralitj^ of the savages, it was plainly to be seen that the solicitations of the 
royalists, the persuasions of British Indian agents, and the reward offered for 
scalps, were having their effect, and that at any time an Indian war might 
break out all along the northern border. 

To prevent this, if possible, in the latter part of December, 1777, a strong 
detachment was sent up from Wyoming, as far as Sheshequin, for the purpose of 
arresting the most active of the British emissaries, and quieting the Indian 
tribes on the border. It was reported that some deserters were lodged with 
an Indian by the name of Hopkins, living at Sheshequin, who had received 
a captain's commission in the British army. The soldiers surrounded his house, 
and Hopkins, in attempting to escape, was severely' wounded. This was the first 
blood shed in the Susquehanna valley in the Revolutionary war. A short time 
previous to this, two scouting parties had been captured and taken within 
the British lines ; but the inhabitants had not been molested. 

No sooner had this expedition returned to Wyoming, than the enemy com- 
menced hostilities against the unoffending settlers. Lemuel Fitch was taken 
at Standing Stone, and his house burned. Mr. Fox was captured at Towanda, 
and Richard Fitzgerald, a neighbor of Fitch, was taken and his stock driven off. 
Fitzgerald was carried as far as Wysox, where his captors bound him to a flax 
brake, and told him unless he would hurrah for King George, they would break 
every bone in his body. "Well," said the stout-hearted old Irishman, " 1 am an old 
2 B 



418 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

man, and can't live long at the best, but I will never die a Tory." They released 
him ; Fox made his escape, and Fitch died in captivity. 

In the February following, Araos York and Natlian Kingsiey, Esq., of Wya« 
lusing, neighbors, who had settled there in 1716, were captured, their goods and 
stock taken off, and their families left to take care of themselves as they might. 
Mr. Kingsiey made his escape after about nine months' captivity. Of his family 
while at Mr. Slocum's in Wilkes-Barre, one son was killed, and another taken 
by the Indians, at the time when Frances Slocum was captured. Mrs. York 
and her helpless family, with other settlers, retired to Wyoming when the river 
broke up in the spring ; her husband after several months' captivity was released, 
went to his old home in Connecticut, where he sickened and died in a few days. 
In May the families of the Yan Yalkenburgs and Stropes, at Wysauking, were 
captured, and retained in the hands of the enemy until the close of the war. 

Although their settlements were broken up, their families scattered, their 
friends in captivity, their property destrojxd, yet the people abated none of their 
interest in the welfare of their common country. It is doubtful if any part of 
the Commonwealth, glorious as her record is during the war for Independence, 
can produce many instances of a greater percentage of sufferers, and at the same 
time of active participants in the struggle, than was found in our own county. 

Notwithstanding its entire depopulation, Bradford county was the theatre of 
many important events, subsequentl}', in the Revolutionary war. It was at 
Tioga Point that tlie combined forces of Indians, rangers, and Tories, under 
Major John Butler, were organized^ which devastated Wyoming in the summer of 
1178. In the autumn of the same year. Colonel Hartley, with a force of four hun- 
dred men, set out from Muncj'^, on the West Branch, and passing up the Lycom- 
ing, and down the Towanda, burned the towns of Tioga and Sheshequin, and 
re-captured some of the stock stolen at Wyoming the preceding summer. 
Returning down the river, he burned Wyalusing, and had a sharp but decisive 
engagement with the enemy on the hill just below the town, and on the 
southern borders of the county. The next year, the grand army under General 
Sullivan passed through the county, built Fort Sullivan on Tioga Point, where 
he awaited the arrival of the division under General Clinton. Here was the base 
of his communications with the countrj' while destroying the Indian towns and 
cornfields in central New York. In both these expeditions were the former 
settlers in this county. 

Beside these important movements against the enemy, there were frequent 
conflicts between scouting parties from Wyoming and bands of prowling Indians, 
who were usually led in their marauds by white people. 

The last of March, 1780, a band of Indians made a descent on the Wyoming 
settlements, captured Moses Van Campen, murdered and scalped his father, 
brother, and uncle, captured a boy named Pence, also Abraham Pike, an Irish- 
man, who had been a British soldier, but deserted and joined the American army, 
and a lad named Rogers, and then bent their wa}^ toward Tioga, crossing the 
river near Tunkhannock. They arrived at Wysox on the third of April, when the 
whole pai'ty, consisting of ten Indians with their four prisoners, lay down to 
sleep. During the day the captives had formed a plan for effecting their escape. 
Accordingly, after the savages had fallen asleep, they loosened each other's 



BRADFOBD COUNTY. 4I9 

bonds, removed the guns, and then with tomahawks proceeded to dispatch their 
slumbering captors. Four of them were killed, two or three badly wounded, and 
the rest fled to the woods. After scalping the dead and recovering the scalps 
the Indians had taken with their other booty, they hastily constructed a raft, and 
on the 5th of April, were again among their friends. Mr. Miner says of this 
engagement, '' No nobler deed was performed during the Revolutionary war." 

On the 9th of June this same year. Captain John Franklin, who was in com- 
mand of tlie militia at Wyoming, with five men came up as far as Wysauking, 
where he surprised and captured a small party of Tories and a considerable 
amount of booty which was valued at nearly £47 sterling. In the September 
following, another party came up as far as Tioga, but without any special adven- 
ture. 

On the 7th of April, 1782, a party of thirteen Indians made a descent on the 
house of Roswell Franklin, and setting fire to his buildings carried ofi" his wife 
and four children, one of whom was an infant. A party of eight immediately 
started in pursuit, and passing the savages, laid wait for them at a ravine in the 
mountain nearly opposite Asylum. After waiting for some time, the party of 
Indians were seen advancing, but discovered the ambush which had been laid for 
them Placing their captives behind the trunk of a fallen tree, the savages 
imm(xliately stationed themselves behind trees for shelter, waiting for the attack. 
Here for several hours each party maintained their ground, until several of the 
Indians having been killed, the three older children escaped to their friends 
Avhose voices they recognized, the chieftain shot Mrs. Franklin, and seizing the 
infant placed it upon his shoulder and retreated with his party. Mrs. Franklin 
was buried as decently as circumstances would permit, and the scouts with the 
three rescued children returned to Wj^oming. In this encounter two Americans 
were wounded and six of the Indians were killed. When the number and posi- 
tion of the parties are considered, and the length of time this engagement was 
maintained, greater personal bravery and heroism have been rarely met with. 

These incidents are of local interest to the people of this countj', not only 
because they transpired upon our territory, but because, except in a single 
instance, the parties were, many of them, at some time, residents of the county. 

Immediately after the close of the Revolutionary war, many of the surviving 
families returned to their old homes, re-built their houses, and, so to speak, began 
life anew. Quite a number of soldiers who had taken part in the various expedi- 
tions which passed through the county during the war, became acquainted with 
the broad flats at She&hequin and Tioga, and resolved to take possession of them 
as soon as opportunity offered. Accordingly in the fall of 1783, these flats were 
laid out into farms, and the settlers began to locate upon them. The troubles at 
Wyoming, known as tlie second Pennamite war, induced many others, who 
became wearied with the conflict, to migrate into this county, where at that time 
comparative peace prevailed. 

In consequence of the severe measures instituted against the New England 
settlers under the Susquehanna company, at a meeting held at Hartford, July 
13, 1785, that company resolved to give each man who would come upon their 
lands and remain there for three years, subject to the orders of the standing 
committee of the company, one-half share in the purchase. Six hundred shares 



420 BISTORT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

were also ordered to be sold for the use of the company in defending their claim. 
The new impulse given by these measures, the stories of Pennsylvania oppressions 
and cruelties upon the settlers, who had been pelted and torn by the war during 
which they had stood as a rampart between the savages and the settlers below them, 
that were ringing through all New England, the activity of the leading spirits of 
the company, and the influence of some of the prominent men in Connecticut and 
Massachusetts, all combined to awaken the deepest interest in the welfare of the 
settlers, and to lead a large number to emigrate to the purchase. These indis- 
criminatel}'^ were known as " Half-Share men," of whom a large proportion 
became settlers in Bradford county. New townships were surveyed, a multitude 
of shares were located, so that before the close of the century, the company had 
assigned every acre of land in the county to those claiming rights under it. 

As has just been intimated, the territory of this county is included in what 
was kown as the " Connecticut Claim." Being remote from the lower settle- 
ments, it escaped in a great measure those conflicts between the adverse 
claimants which embroiled Wyoming in wliat have been called the first and 
second Pennamite wars. 

It was not until 1795, when an act was passed reducing the price of vacant 
land to six pence per acre, under which speculators secured for themselves 
warrants, covering thousands of acres, in expectation of realizing immense 
fortunes, that any disturbance arising from conflicting titles arose. 

The policy of the State in quieting the titles of the old settlers, that is, 
of those who had acquired lands under the Susquehanna company previous 
to the decree of Trenton, December 30, 1182, in which the jurisdiction of the 
disputed territory was awarded to Pennsylvania, was foreshadowed in the 
act of 178*7, but was more fully developed in the acts of 1799, and its several 
supplements. By this law, those settlers in the seventeen townships which had 
been granted by the company, and actually settled before the decree of Trenton, 
were confirmed to the settlers. In this county were four such townships, 
viz. : Springfield, Standing Stone, Claverack, and Ulster. But the grants of 
Standing Stone and Ulster had failed, because of the want of a sufficient number 
of settlers, the rules of the company requiring twenty. The provisions of the 
act, were, however, extended to Ulster by the law of 1810. By these several 
enactments, the titles were confirmed to the early settlers in these three 
townships, but they included onl}^ a very small part of the county. 

There was another class to whom no compromise was offered ; these were the 
" Half Share men," or, as thej^ were sometimes called, the " Wild Yankees," who 
were induced to come upon the purchase in full faith in the validity of the 
Susquehanna company's title, and for the purpose of defending it from encroach- 
ment by the Pennsylvania landholders. For these, though they were for the 
most part industrious and honest men, and would have made good citizens, the 
Commonwealth had a polic}^, not of conciliation, but of extirpation, or, in 
the language of one of the judges of the Supreme court, "to cut them up by the 
roots." Toward these, juries were allowed no discretion, and for them courts 
could show no mercy. 

To this policy, as may be supposed, these settlers did not readily accede, 
although many of the old settlers endeavored to persuade them to submit to the 



BRADFORD COUNTY. 421 

oppressive laws which were attempted to be enforced against theiii, and trust to 
the generosity of the State to afford them relief. On the other hand, they were 
urged to maintain their claims at all hazards, by such men as Colonel John 
Franklin, the Satterlees, the Kingsburys, and Spalding of this county. Colonel 
.John Jenkins of Wyoming, and Ezekiel Hyde of Susquehanna county, men 
who had been leading spirits in the controversy from the first, and possessed 
the unbounded confidence of the Connecticut settlers. 

In order more successfully to maintain their claim, they banded together 
under a league, each pledging to defend the others with money or force. As 
might be expected, acts of violence M^ere committed and many things were done, 
which, in less exciting times, would have been considered, even by the perpe- 
trators, as atrocious. Settlers under Pennsylvania title were driven off their 
lands, surveyors who came to locate warrants were compelled to desist, one sur- 
veyor had his compass broken and another his chain stolen. A Mr. Erwin, 
from Easton, was shot dead while standing in the door of the house of Mr. 
McDuriie in Athens ; the Rev. Thomas Smiley, at that time living eight or ten 
miles up the Towanda Creek, while acting as an assistant agent under the 
Intrusion law, was tarred and feathered near the mouth of the Towanda creek, 
and warned out of the country. 

On the other hand the Pennsylvania party were not idle. The landholders 
entered into an association for the purpose of protecting their interests. Pos- 
sessing great influence in the Legislature, laws of great severity were enacted 
against the "Intruders," as the "Half Share men" were contemptuously called, 
settlement under the Susquehanna company's title, outside the seventeen town- 
ships, was made a crime punishable with severe penalties, recorders were for- 
bidden to admit to record conveyances which did not recite the Pennsylvania 
title, and the whole machinery of the government was set to destroy root and 
branch every vestige of the half-share titles. Arrests were numerous, but few, 
if any, were convicted. A Mr. Spalding, a settler near the present village of 
Canton, was arrested and sent to jail as an intruder, and while in confinement 
the sheriff turned his wife and little children out of doors in a deep snow in mid- 
winter, burned down his house, leaving the homeless, helpless family to take 
care of themselves as best thej^ could. Several attempts were made to compro- 
mise the questions in dispute, but the landholders would assent to no tei'ms 
until the people would abandon the companies, renounce the Connecticut titles, 
and pledge themselves to support the laws of the Commonwealth. 

After uearh^ a dozen 3'^ears of fruitless strife, better counsels prevailed. 
These contests had debarred settlers from coming upon lands whose titles were 
in dispute, and the landholders, instead of reaping the fortune they had antici- 
pated, found themselves hoplessly involved in debt, which in man3^ instances 
resulted in bankruptcy and ruin, and thousands of acres, in Luzerne county and 
in Bradford, were sold for taxes, many of which were purchased by the settlers. 
Others began to pursue a more lenient course as a matter of policy, while 
settlers found it was far better to purchase the State title at reasonable rates 
than to be forever in difficulty and controversy. 

These troubles, of course, retarded the progress both of the settlement and 
improvement of the county, so that in 1813, the date of its organization, more 



422 HI8T0BY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

than four hundred and fifty thousand acres were assessed as unimproved land, 
and very much of the remaining two hundred and seventy thousand acres, out- 
side of the two certified townships, was occupied without any form of title by 
the settler. Since then, however, the amount of unseated lands has rapidly 
diminished, titles have been perfected, and the increase of population and pros- 
l)erity has been continuous and permanent. 

A few years after the close of the Revolutionary war, a party of Seneca 
Indians on Pine creek were attacked by the settlers there and two of their 
number were killed. Already the tribes of the Six Nations were in commotion, 
a general Indian war was being waged in the West, and British emissaries at 
Niagara were using all their influence to draw the different tribes in western New 
York into the contest, and many of their influential sachems had already ex- 
pressed a willingness to take up the hatchet in the cause of their brethren. The 
murder of these men, at this time, made the danger of hostilities all the more 
imminent. 

In order to avert the threatened danger. General Washington, President of 
the United States, under date of September 4, 1790, commissioned Colonel 
Timothy Pickering, then at Wyoming, a man of great tact and of consummate 
abilities, who, during the Revolutionary war, had held important offices under 
the government, to proceed to Painted Post, or some other convenient place, to 
meet, in behalf of the United States, the Indians, to assure them that the 
murders committed on Pine creek, on some of their tribe, were causes of dis- 
pleasure to the United States, and endeavor to heal the difficulties which had 
been engendered. 

It vvas decided on consultation to hold the conference at Tioga instead of at 
Painted Post. Colonel Pickering immediately dispatched a trusty messenger to 
the Senecas, inviting them to a friendly conference, with assurances of good will 
on the part of the United States, and their willingness to make reparation for 
the injury which had been done them. The time appointed for the conference 
was the 25th of the following October. 

Colonel Pickering at once began to make active preparations for the forth- 
coming conference. To Colonel Matthias Hollenback of Wilkes-Barre, who was 
familiar with Indian habits, and had considerable experience in trade with them, 
was intrusted the duty of purchasing supplies and presents for the treaty and 
transporting them to Tioga. When it is remembered that from five hundred to 
a thousand Indians were expected to attend this treaty, and that the conferences 
might continue for a fortnight, it will be seen that the work assigned to Colonel 
Hollenback was no slight task. 

The partv set out for Tioga early in October. Stopping at Sheshequin, 
Colonel Pickering secured the services of Colonel Simon Spalding, whose know- 
ledge of Indian character and personal acquaintance with many of their sachems, 
b}^ whom he "oas held in high esteem, as well as his good judgment, were 
peculiarly serviceable in the negotiations, and gratefully acknowledged by 
Colonel Picltering in his report of the conference. 

Reaching Tioga on the 11th, it was not until the 29th that five runners 
arrived, announcing the approach of five hundred Indians to the conference, and 
not until the 14th of November that the party began to arrive there. The same 



BBADFORD COUNTY. 423 

afternoon, Colonel Pickering invited twenty or tliirty of tlieir most important 
chiefs, among whom was the Farmer's Brother, Red Jaclict, Good Peter, Big 
Tree, and Captain Hendriclc Aupaumut, to an informal conference, where they 
sraolied the pipe, " drank grog, and ate our bread and clieese." It was not until 
the nth that the formal conferences began. The questions to be discussed were 
of peculiar difficulty and delicacy on account of the hostile feeling against the 
government. Red Jacket and Cornplanter had strong prejudices against the 
United States, and were willing to enter the league with the Western Indians. 
Joseph Brandt, though not present, was giving all of his powerful influence 
against any adjustment of the difficulties. " Colonel John Butler, then com- 
mandant at Fort Niagara, and other British officials on the Canadian frontier, 
were using all possible means to instigate these nations to hostility." To remove 
these prejudices and counteract these evil influences required all the courage and 
tact of which Pickering and his associates were masters. 

In his opening speech. Colonel Pickering went through the usual formality 
of pulling the hatchet out of their heads, washing off the blood, and wiping the 
tears from their eyes with the customary strings of wampum, to which Farmer's 
Brother, the principal chief, replied. Two days longer were spent in waiting for 
Fish Carrier, who had been sent to the Indians on the Grand river, bearing 
Colonel Pickering's letter, and inviting them to the conference. Farmer's 
Brother and Red Jacket were the principal speakers; the latter was famed as a 
great aboriginal orator, whose rousing, magnetizing eloquence brought him into 
great notorietj^ among the Indian tribes. Colonel Pickering says, " he acted a 
conspicuous part at the conference, displaying a good understanding, a ready 
apprehension, and great strength of memory. He was attentive to business at 
the council fire, and when consulted in private, on matters relating to their 
peculiar customs, he appeared to be very well acquainted with them, and always 
gave me the necessary information very intelligentl}^, with perfect candor, and in 
a most obliging manner." 

The conference was continued until the 23d of November. On this day the 
presents were distributed, the mourning belts were presented to the relatives of 
the murdered men, with suitable speeches of condolence, and the post was reset 
in the hole where all their difficulties were buried. " These ceremonies termina- 
ted, renewals of friendship secured, a treaty concluded, and satisfaction given and 
taken on both sides, the council fires were covered up, the Indians returned to 
their homes, and Colonel Pickering repaired to Philadelphia to make report of 
his doino-s." 

General Knox, the secretary of war, in his report says, " the proceedings of 
Colonel Pickering were conducted with ability and judgment, and consistently 
with the constitution and laws of the United States; and also with the candor 
and humanity which ought to characterize all the treaties of the general govern- 
ment with the unenlightened natives of the countr3\'' 

The following year, the work of conciliation was completed at a treaty held 
at Newtown, now Elmira. 

The echoes of the war of our Revolution scarcely had died away, ere they 
were answered back from the other side of the Atlantic. France had been among 
the first of the great European nations to recognize our independence-, and with 



424 BIS TOE T OF PENIfS YL VANIA . 

men and money had generously assisted the new-born government in its conflict 
with her ancient rival. The watchwords of liberty, freedom, and equal rights, 
had been caught up by a people suffering from the evils of a mismanaged and 
extravagant government, until they were ready not only to reform the abuses 
with which centuries of profligacy had burdened the nation, but to run into the 
other extreme of riot and anarchy. The story of the French Revolution is too 
familiar with all readers of history to be here repeated. Multitudes who were 
in sympathy with the ancient order of things, or preferred reformation to revolu- 
tion, fled the country, and many of them turned their steps toward our own land 
for protection and a home. 

The insurrection of the blacks in the French colony at St. Domingo sent 
another company of French refugees to our shores. Many of these were not 
onl}^ homeless, but without means, having left everything behind them, and fled 
for their lives. To the more favored of their countrymen it became a serious 
question how they could best provide for the necessities of their unfortunate 
friends, without having them pensioners upon their bounty. 

Viscount Louis de Noailles, who was brother-in-law to Lafaj'ette, a general in 
the French army which assisted in the war of the Revolution, and was selected 
on the part of the French to receive the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, 
and Omer Talon, a banker of Paris, in consultation with John Nicholson and Robert 
Morris, decided to form a company, purchase a large tract of unimproved land, 
and selecting a favorable location, colonize such of the refugees as were not 
otherwise provided for. Accordingly negotiations were entered into with Messrs. 
Nicholson and Morris, for the purchase of one million acres of wild land, provided 
a location suitable for a settlement could be secured. The plan which was 
attempted to be carried out was, that each colonist should have the privilege of 
purchasing a home lot in the town, or could rent it of the company, and by 
improving a given number of acres of the wild land, should have liberty of pur- 
chasing four hundred acres, at a stipulated price. This plan, which they were led 
to believe would result in great fortunes to the company, it was found necessary 
to modify, and finally to abandon. 

The place selected for the settlement was a comparativel}- level plain, lying 
in the bend of the river, opposite and above the old Indian meadows. On 
account of the conflicting titles, Mr. Morris applied to Judge Hollenback, to 
negotiate the purchase of both the Connecticut and Pennsylvania claims, of 
several hundred acres-. This was regularly laid out into village lots, and M. 
Talon was sent on to oversee the arrangements necessary to be made for the 
reception of the colonists. The first tree was cut December 1, 1793. Before 
spring a number of log houses were erected, and the colonists began to flock to 
their new homes. They called their town Asylum which name it has ever since 
retained. 

They immediately set about surrounding themselves with the appliances of 
comfort and refinement to which they had been accustomed at home. Stores 
and shops were opened and filled with goods brought directly from Philadelphia, 
to which the people flocked from all the surrounding country. They cleared and 
improved their house lots, and soon transformed the partially cultivated fields 
into beautiful gai'dens and meadows. A mill, with a bolt for making flour, was 



BRADFORD COUNTY. 425 

erected and driven by horse-power. They set up a bakery, where bread, pastry 
and even confectionery, were made for the settlement, and a brewery was put in 
operation for making ale. A weekly post was established with Philadelphia, by 
which they were kept in communication with the outside world. Quite a number 
of clearings were commenced on their wild lands, in the back part of Terry town- 
ship where some houses were built, in Albany township, and Sullivan county. 
A saw mill was erected at Laddsburg, but not completed. Although the 
unfortunate Louis XVI. and his accomplished Queen had passed under the 
guillotine before the settlement liad been commenced, yet the news of that event 
did not reach here until some time after, and the colonists entertained high 
expectations of being able to afford a secure retreat for the royal family until 
the storm of the Revolution had passed over. For this purpose, large buildings 
were put up at the settlement in Terry, but their hopes, as many others which 
had been awakened in reference to their enterprise, were doomed to disappoint- 
ment. 

Most of the emigrants having been wealthy gentlemen in Paris, and some of 
them members of the royal household, entirely ignorant of farming, and unused 
to manual labor, found great difficulty in adapting themselves to their new con- 
dition. Yet they endured their privations with fortitude, and cheerfully set 
about the laborious task of clearing and cultivating the heavily timbered lands, 
from which they had been led to expect immediately such large returns. 

About the same time that Asylum was founded, M. Frevost, a Parisian 
gentlemen of great wealth, celebrated for his benevolence, contracted for a large 
ti'act of land on the Chenango river, in the State of New York, where he 
founded another colony, composed of eight or ten families. But failure to 
receive from France expected funds, the unfavorable character of the location, 
discouraged the colonists, and led them to abandon their plantations and remove 
to Asylum, which although thus increased in numbers, was not much strength- 
ened in wealth or working force. 

It is said a Frenchman never forgets the sunny vales of his native land, and 
never goes to any country where he does not long to return to his own beloved 
France. In addition to this characteristic love for his native home, there was 
much to render the colonists discontented with their situation. Ignorance of our 
language, and of the prices which ought tQ be paid for labor and supplies led 
them often to be imposed upon by the cupidity of their Yankee neighbors. 
Exposure to such unaccustomed hardships and privations was attended with 
pain and suffering. Then they were disappointed in their expectations of income 
from their investment, many of them having expended everything in the purchase 
of land, which was a burden instead of a revenue, annoyed by the poverty of the 
country, and the difficulty of obtaining supplies, it is no wonder that most o. 
them regarded Asylum as a place to be endured rather than one in which it was 
desirable to live ; and when Napoleon came into power and repealed the laws ox 
expatriation which had been passed against the emigrants, with the promise of 
the restoration of their confiscated estates on their return, the greater part gladly 
embraced the opportunity and went back to France. Some of them removed to 
Philadelphia, and two or three to other parts of the country, but three remained 
in the vicinity of Asylum. The late Hon. John La Porte, who was Speaker of 



426 EISTOBT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

the General assembly in 1832, the fifth term of his membership, from 1832 to 1836 
a member of Congress, and Surveyor General of Pennsylvania in the years 1845 
to 1851, was a descendant of one of those families ; those of the others are known 
as among the best citizens of the county. 

During the continuance of the settlement, it was visited by several distin- 
guished personages, who since have obtained a world-wide reputation. In 1795, 
Louis Philippe spent several weeks at Asylum, enjoying the hospitalit}- of M. 
Talon. Tallyrand spent some time here ; Count de la Rochefoucauld was several 
days at Asj-lum while on his journey through the States in 1795-6, and his ob- 
servations on the character of the colonists afford the fullest account that has 
been given of them. 

In 1796, the town consisted of about fift}^ log houses, occupied by about forty 
families. Among the most noted of these, besides those already mentioned were 
M. De Blacons, a member of the French Constituent Assembly from Dauphine; 
M. De Montule, a captain of a troop of horse ; M. Beaulieu, a captain of 
infantry in the French service, and who served in this country under Potosky ; 
Dr. Buzzard, a planter from St. Domingo, and M. Dandelot, an officer in the 
French infantry. But perhaps the best known of all, at least in this country, 
was M. Dupetit-Thouars, or as hewas generally called by the Americans, the 
Admiral. Wrecked while on voyage in search of La Perouse, he reached 
Asylum destitute of everything but an unfaltering courage, a genial temper, and 
the chivalrous pride of a Frenchman. Disdaining to be a pensioner on the bounty 
of his countrymen, he obtained a grant of four hundred acres in the dense 
wilderness of now Sullivan county, and went out literally single-handed, having 
lost an arm in the French naval service, commenced a clearing, built himself a 
house, returning to Asylum once a week for necessary food and change of apparel. 
He returned to liis native country, obtained a position in the navy, saying he had 
yet another arm to give to France, was placed in command of the ship Le Tonnant 
and killed in the battle of the Nile. The borough of Dushore, which includes the 
clearings of this indomitable Frenchman, was named in honor of him, this being 
nearly the anglicised pronunciation of his name. 

Although the first settlers of this county were poor, having enjoyed but few 
advantages of religious or intellectual culture, and for many years were harassed 
by the uncertainty of the titles to their lands, yet true to their New England 
traditions, their first thought, after securing shelter for their families and some 
means for their subsistence, was to secure the advantages of the church and the 
school for themselves and their cliildren. 

As early as 1791, a Congregational church was organized at Wysauking, and 
■iwo years afterward, a Presbyterian church, consisting of thirteen members, was 
organized at Wyalusing. This was probably the first church established on the 
Presbyterian plan in all Northern Pennsylvania. Both these organizations have 
continued in existence until the present time, although the former, like mo3t of 
the churches in the county on the Congregational basis, has adopted the Presby- 
terian form of government. The same year, 1793, Rev. William Colbert, a 
Methodist itinerant, was appointed to a circuit, which included all of this county 
and extended up into the Lake country of New York, who organized the first 
Methodist class at the house of Wanton Rice, on Schuefeldt's flats — Asylum 



BBADFOllB COUNTY. 427 

The 3'car before, Rev. John Hill had been in the county, but it is not known that 
he did more than to explore the ground. Kev. Mr. Stafford, a Baptist minister, 
was, this year, preaching on the Wyalusing creek, and Rev. Thomas Smiley, about 
the same time, commenced preaching along the river and the Towanda creek, 
where and on Sugar creek, Baptist churches were soon after organized. The 
Congregational church of Sraithfield was organized in Poultney, Vermont, in 
February, 1801, previous to the removal of its members to this county. A 
Universalist society was organized near this time, in the upper part of the 
county. The whole number of religious societies now in the county is one hun- 
dred and thirteen, with a total membership of more than eighty-two hundred, of 
which the leading denominations are Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, 
Baptist, and Disciples. 

Schools were commenced in the settlements along the river about 1790. The 
teacher was paid by a subscription taken in the neighborhood, and taught read- 
ing, w]-iting, and spelling, with the rudiments of arithmetic. Inferior as these 
schools were, when measured by the present standard, they were sufficient for 
the necessities of the times. They were sometimes attended by old and 
young, and father and son might be seen in the same school studying the same 
lessons. The Susquehanna company divided their townships into fifty-three 
equal parts, of which fifty were allowed to the settlers, and of the remaining 
three, one was assigned to the first minister who settled in the township, one to 
the church, and the other to the school. In the townships in this county, 
certificates were issued to a committee apj^ointed by the proprietors of the 
township, who sold the lots and divided the proceeds among the several neigh- 
borhoods in the proportion to the number of families. As early as 1797, an 
academical association was formed at Athens, funds were secured, and a building 
erected. In 1813, it was incorporated by an act of the Legislature, and a grant 
of two thousand dollars was made to the trustees, for wiiich the academy was to 
furnish free tuition to four poor children, not exceeding two years each, 
provided there is application made for them. In 1854, the Susquehanna 
Collegiate Institute was incorporated, a large four-story brick building was put 
up at the cost of about sixteen thousand dollars, an endowment in scholarships 
secured, and the institution opened in the fall of 1855, in which normal, prepara- 
tory, commercial, and higher English courses have been established, where 
pupils receive thorough training in the various branches of which these courses 
are composed, from an efficient corps of teachers. Besides these and several 
private schools, there are now three hundred and eighty-eight public schools in 
the county where the elementary branches are taught, besides higher grades in 
the larger towns in which more than sixteen thousand pupils receive instruction 
from about six hundred teachers, at an annual expense of about eighty 
thousand dollars. 

The War of 1812 occurred about the time of the organization of the county, 
and although the martial spirit of the people had been exhibited in keeping up 
various military organizations, yet neither in this nor in the Mexican war did 
the county furnish many soldiers who were in actual service. 

In the War for the Union, however, Bradford took an earnest and conspicuous 
part. Her sons rushed to the conflict to maintain the government their fathers 



428 HISTOB Y OF PENJS'S TL VANIA. 

fousrht to establish. No sooner was the news that Fort Sumter had been 
fired upon by the rebel hosts flashed over the country than the whole county 
was ablaze with excitement. At a public meeting held in Towanda, a large 
number volunteered in answer to the President's call for troops to enforce the 
demands of the Federal government. This was followed by public meeting* 
held in other parts of the county ; companies were organized for military drill, 
and the sound of the fife and drum were heard on almost every street corner. 
Nor was this all. The ladies met in almost every neighborhood to prepare such 
things as were thought needful for those about starting for the field of battle, 
and supplies for field and hospital. At first these contributions were made 
without much system, and but little or no accoimt was taken either of the 
amount or value of the contributions. After the organization o-f the Sanitary 
and Christian commissions, auxiliary societies were established and contribu- 
tions made in nearly every township in the county. Men gave and women 
worked for these as never before for any benevolent enterprise. It touched the 
tenderest sympathies of the human heart, and kindled every slumbering spark 
of patriotism in the breast. In Athens alone, during the year 1864, thirty-five 
boxes and six hundred and thirty-eight dollai's in cash were sent to the Christian 
commission, and this, perhaps, is but a fair average for the whole count3\ 

As nearl}'- as can now be ascertained, Bradford county sent more than 
eighteen hundred men into the field, besides emergenc}^ men. In the 141st 
regiment seven companies were from Bradford, besides companies in the Resen^e 
corps and other regiments, and a large number who enlisted in the State of New 
York. Bradford county soldiers were in every branch of the service ; they could 
be found in all the armies, and the navy upon the seas, in the army of the Potomac 
from its organization until the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, at Beaufort, 
with Sherman in his march to the sea, at Nashville and Chattanooga, with 
Sheridan in the Shenandoah valley ; where, in hard service and gallant bravery, 
they were surpassed by no troops in the Union armies. The record of their deeds 
is in their country's history, their blood enriched mau}^ a battle-field, their suffer- 
ings are told in the horrors of rebel prisons, and their bones rest in the National 
cemeteries. 

One indication of the general progress of a community is found in the politi- 
cal divisions required for the convenience, and the ability and willingness to 
bear the burdens which such divisions impose, therefore the history of township 
organizations, as well as tables showing increase of population, wealth, and pro- 
duction, indicate the growth in financial ability and homogeneousness of the 
people. 

At the March sessions of 1790, the Court divided Luzerne county into eleven 
townships, two of which, Tioga and Wyalusing, covered the area of the northern 
pait of Wyoming, of Susquehanna, and of Bradford counties, except a narrow 
strip of the southern border of the latter, a dense, uninhabited wilderness, which 
was included in Tunkhannock township. By this order Tioga was bounded on 
the north by the north line of the State ; on the south by an east and west line 
passing through the Standing Stone ; and on the east and west by the lines 
of the county. This township was about fifteen miles in width from north to 
south, and more than se^'enty miles long. Wyalusing was bounded on the north 



BRADFOBD COUNTY. 429 

by the south line of Tioga ; on the south by an east and west line passing through 
the mouth of the Meshoppen creek ; on the east and west by the county lines 
It was about ten miles in breadth, and in length about the same as Tioga. 

In 1795, a strip of nearly six miles in width was cut off the south side of 
Tioga, and erected into a separate township, called Wysox, and in 1197 the 
remaining part of old Tioga was again divided. The lower part was called Ulster, 
and the upper part Athens, and thus the name Tioga, which from time immemo- 
rial had been attached to the peninsula at the " meeting of the waters," was lost 
to our county. 

These townships were from time to time subdivided, to suit the convenience of 
the inhabitants, of which the ten following, viz., Athens, Burlington, Canton, 
Orwell, Smithfield, Towanda, Ulster, Wysox, and parts of Wyalusing and Rush, 
were included in Bradford. Out of these ten, thirty-seven townships have since 
been formed. 

Albany is on the Fowler branch of the Towanda, along which runs the Sulli- 
van and Erie railroad, and took its name from a township of the Susquehanna 
company, which covered part of its area. It was taken from Asylum and 
Monroe in 1824. The valley of the creek is narrow and bounded by high hills. 
The French had made several small clearings in the neighborhood of Laddsburg, 
erected the frame of a saw-mill, and had several sugar camps in the vicinit}'^, but 
made no attempts at a permanent settlement, and their lands fell into the hands 
of the celebrated Dr. Priestly, who, to induce settlers to come upon his lands, 
offered lots of seventy-five acres each to the first four who would locate upon his 
land. This offer was accepted by Sheffield Wilcox and Horatio Ladd, who with 
their families moved into the township in 1801. Daniel Miller and a few others 
came soon after, but the construction of the Berwick and Newtown turnpike in 
1817-19, was the means of settling it much more rapidly. Nearly all of the 
township is now covered with fruitful farms. New Albany, on the Sullivan and 
Erie railroad, is a place of considerable business. Laddsburg has quite a trade 
in bark and lumber. The opening of the railroad has given an impulse to 
business along its line, which in a short time will add much to the wealth and 
business of the township. 

Armenia is on the western border of the county, from which it is practically 
cut off by the ranges of the Armenia mountains. It takes its name from the 
Susquehanna company's township of the same name, which included part of its 
area, and the high hill which bounds three sides of the township doubtless sug- 
gested the name for both. The township was set off from Canton and Troy in 1843. 
It is uneven, sparsely inhabited, and contains a large proportion of wild land. 

Asylum was set oflT from Wyalusing in 1814. It received its name from the 
French people, whose town was embraced in its territory, which was the Scheu- 
feldt's flats, or Wooster of former times, on which several families were located 
previous to the battle of Wyoming. Soon after the close of the Revolutionary 
war, Robert Alexander and his son purchased the Forsythe farm on the upper 
end of the flats. Wanton Rice settled below them, and Captain Richard Townley 
on the lower part. In 1793 these parties sold out their claim to the French, and 
removed from the county. Stephen Durell came up from Wyoming, where he 
was one of the earliest settlers, and located near the mouth of the creek, which 



430 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

bears his name, where he had a small mill ; Amos Bennett, with his two sons-in- 
law, Benjamin Akely and Richard Benjamin, at the mouth of Bennett's creek, on 
land occupied by Samuel and Azariah Ketchcm before the Revolutionary war, 
and Samuel Cole returned to his plantation at Macedonia. 

Athens is situated in a beautiful section of country, at the confluence of the 
Susquehanna and the Tioga or Chemung rivers. The spot was known during the 
Revolution and in the early part of this century as Tioga Point, Tioga (mean- 
ing the meeting of the waters)^ originally the name of the plnce, is still the legal 
name in Pennsylvania of the river, which in New York is called Chemung. 
Prior to the Revolution, and as far back as 1737, when Conrad Weiser, the 
celebrated interpreter and Indian agent, made his first visit to the Six Nations, 
it was the site of the Indian town Diahoga, the most extensive Indian settlement 
within the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania north of Shamokin, it being on the main 
trail of the Six Nations from the Wyoming valley to the north. Here the paths 
diverged, that to Genesee and Niagara following up the Tioga, while that to 
Onondaga followed for some distance further up the Susquehanna. 

The first white man who made this place, then becoming known as Tioga and 
Tioga Point, his home, was John Secord, who in the early summer of 1778 had 
here a cabin and some cattle, and tilled the soil. It was at this place in that 
year that Butler, and perhaps Brandt, with their English and Indians, rendez- 
voused and prepared for their descent on Wyoming, and hither they returned 
after the massacre. When they took their final departure, Secord went with them, 
and disappears from our history. In September, 1778, Colonel Hartley, with a 
force of four hundred men, came as far north as this place, and burned Tioga, 
and Queen Esther's palace and town. In, the following year, during his expe- 
dition against the Indians, General Sullivan made Tioga the base of his opera- 
tions. He ascended the river, arriving here with three thousand five hundred 
men on the 11th of August, and erected block houses and a stockade, extending 
across the peninsula from river to river, called Fort Sullivan. General Clinton 
pushed across the country from Albany to Otsego Lake, with eighteen hundred 
men, and floated down the Susquehanna, uniting his forces with Sullivan, August 
22d. The whole army lay here until the 27th, when it went on its march of 
devastation, leaving Tioga a military station, under command of Colonel Shrieve, 
whence Sullivan derived his supplies, and to which he sent his wounded. The 
expedition returned here victorious, and on the 4th of October the fort was 
demolished and the army went down the river to Wyoming. 

In 1783 white adventurers and pioneers first crept up the river as far as Tioga 
Point. The first settler after the war of whom there is any positive information 
was Benjamin Patterson, who squatted on the east side of the Susquehanna, as 
did, shortly after, one Miller and one Moore. About 1783 a man named Andreas 
Budd erected a cabin on the point, and in the next year Jacob Snell, from 
Stroudsburg, settled west of the Tioga, where, on the 5th of July, 1784, was born 
the first white native — the late Major Abraham Snell. In 1784, or early in 1785, 
Matthics Hollenback, of Wilkes-Barre, opened here a trading-house. 

In May, 1786, the Susquehanna company issued a grant for a township, to 
be called Athens, and in May and June of that year it was surveyed, and the 
village plat laid out by Colonel John Jenkins, Colonel John Franklin, and 



BEAD FOB D COUNTY. 43 1 

Colonel EUsha Satterlee. The site of the village -v^as granted by Pennsylvania 
May 17, 1785, to Josiah Loekhart, of Lancaster, under lottery warrant Number 
one, the land being embraced within the purchase from the Indians of October, 
1784, but the first settlements were made under the Connecticut title by New 
England people. Colonel Satterlee and his brother-in-law, Major Elisha Math- 
ewson, came up from Wyoming and made improvements in 1787, and the next 
year settled here permanently. Colonel Franklin built a house in 1787, and was 
intending to settle here the same year, but was arrested for high treason against 
the State of Pennsylvania, and confined in irons in Philadelphia. It was alleged 
that the Connecticut settlers, of whom he was the i-ecognized leader, were about 
to erect a new State in Northern Pennsylvania, with Franklin as governor. lie 
was detained in prison nearly two years, and, immediately after his release in 
1789, settled permanently in Athens. Franklin, Satterlee, and Mathewson, were 
the most prominent of the early settlers ; they had all served in the war, were in 
Wyoming during tiie Yankee and Pennamite troubles, and had been here with 
Sullivan. In 1796, a warrant for a Masonic lodge, still in existence, was granted; 
1797 an academy, afterwards endowed by the State, and now in a very flourishing 
condition, was organized ; in tlie summer of 1800 the post office was established ; 
in 1812 the first church — Presbyterian — was organized. Athens was incor- 
porated as a borough in 1832, and has now a population of about one thousand 
five hundred. The continuation of the Lehigh Valley railroad passes through it ; 
and just above the borough limits, but within the township of Athens, at a new 
station called Sayre, connection is made with the Geneva, Ithaca, and Athens, and 
the Southern Central railroads, 

Barclay covers the coal fields of the Towanda and Fall Creek companies, 
and the large saw-mills of the Schroeder land company. Barclay, Fall Creek, 
Grayuon, and Carbon Run in LcRoy township, are mining villages. The land is 
owned by the companies, and the business is carried on by them. It is said that 
but one freeholder lives upon the mountain. The Barclay railroad connects the 
mines with the Pennsylvania and New York railroad at Towanda. The Barclay 
mines and railroad are at present operated by the Erie "railway company, who 
hold a lease of the works. The township was cut off from Franklin in 1867. 
Mining and lumbering is the only business carried on in the township. 

Burlington was one of the original townships at the organization of the 
count}', and lies on the Sugar creek between Towanda and Troy. The great 
thoroughfare between the North and West branches of the Susquehanna, known 
as the Sheshequin Path passed through this town, and soon after the close of the 
Revolution settlers began to push up the creek. The Susquehanna company's 
townsliip — Juddsburg — which covered a large part of Burlington, was granted 
in the summer of 1786, and about that time Joseph Ballard, John Clark, Moses 
Calkins, Stephen Ballard, and Jacob Swaine, were found settled along the creek. 
They were earnest defenders of the Connecticut title, and held to their rights with 
great pertinacity. They manifested the same enterprise in improving as in main- 
taining their rights, so that this has become one of the leading townships in the 
county. Nehemiah Allen and John McKean were among the prominent persons 
who came in soon after. General Samuel McKean was, for a number of years, 
one of the most prominent citizens of the county, and held various offices of 



432 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

trust, having reached the United States Senate, where he held his seat for six 
years. In 1825 the township was divided, the western part taking the name of 
West Burlington. Burlington borough, near the line dividing the two townships, 
is a village of some business, and the most important point on the creek between 
Towanda and Troy. Mountain Lake, near the borough, is a place of resort for 
pleasure parties. Luther's Mills and West Burlington each are places of con- 
siderable business. 

Canton was originally a part of Burlington, but the line dividing Luzerne 
county' in 1804, divided also the township, and that part of it remaining in Lu- 
zerne took the name of Canton. It is situated on the head waters of the To- 
wanda, whose broad and beautiful valley contains some of the best farms in the 
county. The first settlements were made in 1796, '91, and '98, by the families of 
Ezra Spalding, Ebenezer Byxbe, Ashmun Gillett, and some others. The town 
has increased rapidly in wealth and population. Canton borough, incorporated 
in 1864, is pleasantly situated on the Williamsport and Elmira railroad, is an im- 
portant centre for business, and for shipping of agricultural products. Minne- 
QUA, two miles above, also on the railroad, is becoming famous as a watering place. 
During the season the house is filled with guests seeking health and rest. The 
mineral spring on the premises has already attained great celebrity for its medicinal 
qualities. Alba, in the northern part of the township, made a borough in 
1863, is a thriving place. East Canton is a place of some business, and contains 
a number of pleasant private residences. 

Columbia was taken from Sraithfield in 1813, and is a fine dairy I'egion. 
About 1798, the whole township was an unbroken forest. Two brothers by the 
name of Ballard, Nathaniel Morgan, and some others, were among the first 
emigrants. The borough of Sylvania, in the southern part, was incorporated 
in 1853. Austinville is a place of considerable business. Columbia Cross 
Roads and Snedekerville are stations on the Williamsport and Elmira railroad 
of some importance. 

Franklin was organized in 1819, from territory taken from Canton, Troy, and 
Burlington, and lies in the valley of the Towanda creek. Franklin Dale in the 
east, and West Franklin in the west of the township, are small villages. 
David Allen and Elisha Wilcox were among its first settlers. The flats along 
the creek are covered by good farms, and the hill sides, though steep, contain 
good grazing land. 

Granville was erected into a separate township in 1831, out of parts of 
Franklin, Burlington, and Troy. Granville Corners, Granville Center, 
West Granville, and the Summit, the latter on the Williamsport and Elmira 
railroad, are quiet little villages. The soil affords fine pasture, and grazing is 
the principal business of its people. 

Herrick is situated on high table land, and is among the latest settled town- 
ships of the county. In the southern part of the township is a large Irish popu- 
lation from Ballibay, Ireland, who are among the most industrious and intelligent 
people of the country. Raising of cattle and butter making are the principal 
employments of the people. The township was set off from Wyalusing in 1837. 
LeRoy was constituted a township out of territory taken from Canton and 
Franklin in 1835, and was settled by the Holcombs about 1796. Along the creek 



BBADFOED COJJNTT. 433 

the land is fertile, but a large part of the township is still covered with forest. 
The village of LeRo}^ is pleasantly situated on the Towanda creek. 

Litchfield was taken from Athens in 1821. It began to be settled in 1788 
by Thomas Park, who was soon followed by Elijah Wolcott and others. Since 
that time the improvements have been rapid. Litchfield, near the centre, is the 
most considerable village in the township. 

The same year, 1821, Monroe was set off from Burlington and Towanda. The 
valley of the Towanda here is broad, and afforded an inviting home to the pioneer 
adventurer. Among its first settlers were Reed Brockaway and Noadiah Cranraer, 
at Monroeton, John Schraeder, near Greenwood, and the Fowlers, on the branch 
that bears their name. The southern part of the township is moAintainous, and 
covered with timber, except along the south or Fowler branch, where there is a 
belt of good farming land. Monroeton was incorporated as a borough in 1855. 
At this point is the junction of the Sullivan and Erie with the Barclay railroad, 
and is a place of some importance. At Greenwood, two miles west, on the 
Towanda, is a large tannery, and a manufactory for small wooden articles. 
Lumbering and agriculture are the chief occupations of the people. 

Orwell, whose original name was Mt. Zion, had been established as a township 
prior to the organization of tiie county, and is a fine grazing district. It was 
settled in the beginning of the present century by Francis Mesusan and Dan 
Russell, on the Wysox creek, and Asahel Johnson, Samuel Wells, Levi Frisbie, and 
Capt. Josiah Grant, in other parts of the township. Orwell Hill and Potteb 
viLLE are the principal places in the township. 

Overton was made a separate township in 1853, out of territory tai^en iron. 
Albany, Franklin, and Monroe. The principal place is Overton, in the south- 
eastern corner. The towMiship is sparsely settled, by far the greater part of its 
area being wild land. 

Pike was taken from Orwell and a part of the old township of Rush, which was 
included in Bradford, and erected into a township in 1813. The first settlements 
were made along its northern part, on the Wj^alusing, in 1794-6, by Abraham 
Taylor, Elisha Keeler, Isaac Brownson, Dimon Bostwick, and others. The 
northern part is a high table land, on the top of which is LeRaysville, named 
in honor of Vincent LeRay, whose father, a Frenchman, owned about eighty 
thousand acres of land in the north-eastern part of the county. It was made a 
borough in 1863. An attempt was made to establish here a company on the 
plan of community of labor. The proprietors were called the Phalanx, but the 
experiment proved a failure. Stevensville, on the creek, is a place of consider- 
able business. The traveler will find as good farms and as fine herds of cattle in 
this and the adjoining townships as anywhere in the county. 

RiDGBURY was constituted a township in 1818. It had previously formed 
parts of Athens and Wells. Ridgbury and Middletown, on Bentley creek, 
which runs through the western part, are the most important places. 

Rome, so named because it is on the same parallel of latitude as Rome in 
Italy, was erected into a township from parts of Orwell and Sheshequin in 1831. 
About 1708 settlers began to locate farms on the Wysox, within the present 
bounds of the township, among whom were Nathaniel P. Moody, Godfrey 
Vought, Henry Lent, Frederick Eiklor, and Enoch Towner. The township 
2 u 



434 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

contains many good farms, and an intelligent, enterprising population. Rome 
borough, in the south-western part, incorporated in 1861, is pleasantly situated on 

the Wysox. 

Smithfield, one of the original townships, is located on high ground, and is 
noted as one of the best butter-making districts in the county. Settlements in it 
were begun in 1796 by Reuben Mitchell, who was shortly after followed by 
others. East Smithfield, near the centre, is a tliriving place. Here is located 
the Congregational church, which was organized in Poultney, Vermont, in 1801, 
and also a beautiful monument erected in memory of those from the township 
who fell in the war for the Union. 

Springfield, ^^■hich adjoins Smithfield on the west, and which it resembles in 
the character of its soil, inhabitants, and productions, and from which it was 
taken in 1813, has for its principal places Leona, Springfield, and Mill City. In 
the year 1803, the solitary wilderness which covered this township was broken 
by the pioneer families of Captain John Ilarkness, and Ezekiel & Austin Leonard, 
who named the township from the place of their emigration in Massachusetts. 

South Creek, on the north of Springfield and Columbia, was set off from 
Wells and Ridgbury in 1835, and is intersected from north to south by the creek 
which o-ave the name to the township, and beside of which runs the Williamsport 
and Elmira railroad, on which are the State Line and Gillett's stations, 
where are pleasantly located villages. The soil is adapted to grazing, especially 
on the high lands which border the creek valley. 

Standing Stone derives its name from a high rock standing in the opposite 
side of the river, which has been a land-mark from the earliest settlement of the 
country. It was erected into a township out of parts of Herrick and Wj'sox in 
1841. Settlements were commenced in this township as early as 1774, by 
Lemuel Fitch, Simon Spalding, Henry Birney, Richard Fitzgerald, and Anthony 
Rummerfield, on the creek which bears his name, and where he erected the first 
saw-mill built in the county. These settlements were broken up by the Indians 
and Tories during the Revolutionary war; — Fitch being taken off and died in 
captivity ; Spalding enlisted in the Continental army. Birney and Fitzgerald 
returned to their old homes soon after the close of the war, and others followed 
subsequently. Along the river are fine grain-producing farms ; those on the hills 
are better adapted to pasturage. Standing Stone and Rummerfield are stations 
on the Pennsylvania and New York division of the Lehigh Valley railroad. 

SiiESiiEQUiN, on the east side of the river, opposite the old Indian town from 
which it receives its name, was set off from Ulster in 1820. Ilere had been the 
meadows and cornfields of the red man from time immemorial, and to the army 
of General Sullivan aff"orded a pleasant camping ground, and so attracted the at- 
tention of some of the soldiers in that campaign, that immediately after the close 
of the war, in 1783, General Simon Spalding, Judge Obadiah Gore, and a num- 
ber of other families, located themselves on its broad flats. The settlers rapidly 
increased, so that, for a number of years, Sheshequin was the source of supply 
for the pioneer settlers of all the northern part of the count3^ Then General 
Spalding, Joseph Kinne}'^, Esq., and Colonel Joseph Kingsbury were among the 
leading spirits in defending the Connecticut title, and were active in locating set- 
tlers on the company's rights. The early prominence of this township has been 



BBADFORD COUNTY. 435^ 

sustained by the succeeding generations, so that Sheshequin has ever been con- 
sidered among the foremost of the townships of the county. Here was the 
home of Mrs. Julia A. Scott, nee Kinney, whose sweet poems have made the 
lovely vale of Sheshequin immortal. The village of k^HESHEQUiN is a collection oi 
farm houses, a quiet, beautiful place, bordered with productive farms, and con- 
taining an intelligent and enterprising population. 

Terry was organized in 1859. Settlements wero bfguu here prior to the Re- 
volutionary war, but were not resumed till 1788, when Jonathan Terry, in whose 
honor the township was named, moved his family into the place. For a number 
of years the settlements were confined to the river flats, but within a few yeai'S 
past the back farms have been greatly improved, and now are the most produc- 
tive in the township. Terrytown and New Era are the most important places. 

TowANDA was one of the original townships. A little above the mouth ot 
the creek is the site of one of the national cemeteries of the Nanticoke Indians. 

TowANDA, the county seat of Bradford county, Pennsylvania, is located upon 
the right bank of the Susquehanna river, and in the centre of a thickly populated 
region, whose mineral and agricultural resources are abundant . . . The bo- 
rough proper is located on the William Means patent of 1807, together with the 
Irwin patent of 1830, and others adjoining on the north. It was laid out in 1812 
by Mr. Means, 'i'homas Overton, fiither of Edward Overton, donated to the 
county the square where the court house stands. The town grew but slowly, and 
in 1820 there were only four houses on Main street, above the court house, and 
two of them were built of logs. Main street was then called Tioga Point road. 
It was incorporated in 1828. The first survey for the Barclay road was made as 
early as 1839. 

The Towanda of 1876 is a thriving borough of about six thousand inhabitants, 
with mining, manufacturing, and commercial interests aggregating millions 
annually, presenting many advantages to the capitalist, laborer, manufacturer, 
business man, or persons seeking a home amid an intellectual community', in a 
healthy locality. It has superior advantages for economical manufactures ; 
coal — both anthracite and bituminous — of the finest quality, being abundant and 
cheap. The dam in the river, forraerl}' used for the canal, with the canal bed, furnish 
an inexhaustible water power, sufficient of itself to build up a flourishing manufac- 
turing town. The dam has a fall of fourteen feet, and there is little doubt that 
this source of wealth will be speedily utilized. Iron ore abounds in the hills ; and 
the excellent railroad facilities, together with these advantages, are certain to 
make Towanda at no distant day a great iron manufacturing point. 

There are three completed lines of railroads centering in Towanda, giving 
an easy and direct connection with all parts of the countr}-, and afl"ording every 
facility for tlie shipment of manufactured products, as well as a large and 
cheap supply of that great necessity, coal. Other important roads have been 
projected, whose completion will be of great advantage to all the interests 
of the borough. 

In the lural cemetery, near the town, on the high bank overlooking the Sus- 
quehanna, lie the remains of Judge Wilmot, the celebrated author of the " Wil- 
mot Proviso." His grave is marked by a plain headstone bearing the foUowii g 
inscription : " David Wilmot, born January 20, 1814 ; died March IG, 18G8, aged 



436 SIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VAN I A. 

54 years. 'Neither slavery -nor unvoluntary servitude sliall ever exist in any 
part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly 
convicted.'" 

North Towanda, set off from the old township in 1851, is a fine farming 
region. 

Troy, at the head of Sugar creek, was separated from Burlington in 1815, 
and the borough incorporated in 1844. It is situated on the Williamsport and 
Elmira railroad, and is the centre of the great butter producing section of the 
county, from which thousands of tons are annually shipped to the market. In 
population, business, and wealth it ranks next to Towanda, East Troy, three 
miles down the creek, is a place of some importance, with many excellent farms 
and pleasant homes surrounding it. 

TuscARORAis on the highland separating the Wyahising and Tuscarora creeks, 
and formed a part of Wyalusiug until 1830, when it was erected into a township. 
It is still frequently called by the name of Springhill, which was given it by 
the Susquehanna compan3\ It is a superior grazing region, and contains many 
valuable farms. It began to be settled early in the present century, but since 
has been rapidly improved. 

Warren, in the extreme north-eastern part of the county, and Windham, 
adjoining it on the west, were erected out of parts of Orwell and Rush in 1813. 
The face of the county is broken by the valleys of the Wappasuning, the Wysox, 
and the Apolacon. The flats bordering the streams are adapted to tillage, while 
the ridges are fine grazing lands. In 1796 Jeptha Brainerd and some other 
families settled on the Wappasuning, and two 3'ears after James Bowen, Wm. 
Arnold, Mr. Harding, and Mr. Gibson, settled on the south branch of the same 
creek, and in 1800 Ebenezer Coburn and his brother Jonathan settled farther 
east. This part of the county now contains a thrifty and enterprising 
population. 

Wells, in the north-west, was an unbroken wilderness until 1800, when Lemuel 
Gaylord purchased a farm on Sseley creek and made a settlement there. In 
1803 he was followed by Solomon and Ithamar Judson. The population had 
increased sufficiently within the next ten years to create a demand for a new 
township, which was granted in 1813. It is a good farming region, steadily 
increasing in wealth and population. 

WiLMOT, named in honor of the late David Wilmot, lies west of the river on 
the southern border of the county. Bordering the river are old farms which 
were settled prior to the Revolutionary war, but the hills back of them have 
until recently been covered with timber. The township has been rapidly settling 
up for the past few years, and with the disappearance of the timber, farms are 
being improved and rendered productive. The township, as the lines now are, 
was organized in 1859. 

Ulster was one of the original townships ; it lies on the west side of the river, 
and like Sheshequin, was settled soon after the close of the Revolution. Captain 
Benjamin Clark, Adrial Simons, and Solomon Trac}', were among its pioneer 
settlers. It contains the villages of Ulster, which covers the site of the Indian 
town of Sheshequanink, and Milan, both stations on the Pennsylvania and New 
York railroad, and places of some business. 



BRADFOED COUNTY. 



431 



Wyalusing is a small part of the old township, organized in 1190. It covers 
the site of Freidenshiitten, the Indian Mission, and was the earliest settled of 
any township in the county. Agriculture is the chief occupation of the people. 
The principal villages are Wyalusing, on the river, and Camptown, on the Wva- 
lusing creek, five miles above its mouth. Sugar Hun, on the Pennsylvania and 
New York railroad, is noted for its shipments of bark and lumber. A few rods 
below the station stands the monument erected to mark the location of the 
Indian Mission. Homet's Ferry, Frenchtown station, near the upper line of 
the township, is on the old Miciscum, the Indian meadows. 

Wysox, also on the east side of the river, is one of the leading agricultural 
townships of the county. It was one of the original townsliips, and began to be 
settled in 1776. The large farm of V. E. and Joseph PioUet covers the location 
of these early settlements. Myersburg, two miles up the Wysox, is a place of 
some business. Wysox, on the Pennsylvania and New York railroad, is a mart 
for a large hay, grain, and butter trade. East Towanda, just opposite the 
borough, with which it is connected by a bridge, is a village which has sprung 
up within a few years, and is rapidly growing. 




HORTICULTURAL HALL, CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



BUCKS COUNTY. 



[ With acknowledgments to Joseph Thomas, M.D., and W. W. II. Davis.'\ 

TICKS was one of the three original counties established by the 
Founder of Pennsylvania in 1G82. It took its name from a district 
in England, from whence came a number of the passengers by the 
Welcome. In a letter to the Free Society of Traders, early in 1683, 
William Penn speaks of it as Buckingham county. The Proprietary called 
together the first Assembly at Chester, on the 4th of December, 1682, and then 





^^ale S/i^Z^'rX- ^-^ 



BUCKS COUNTY COURT HOUSE, DOYLESTOWN. 

[From a I'liotc.graph by C. Garwood, Baltimore.] 

we have the first record of the county. At that time its northern boundary 
extended to the Kittatinny mountain, " or as far as the land might be purchased 
from the Indians." The formation of Northampton county in 1752 reduced the 
county to its present size. 

At the session of the Assembly alluded to, the members from Bucks were 
William Yardle}^ Samuel Darke, Robert Lucas, Nicholas Wain, John Wood, 

438 



BUCKS COUNTY. 439 

John Clows, Thomas Fitzwater, Robert Hall, and James Boyden. Most of them 
were personal fi lends of Penn, and had either accompanied or preceded him to 
the Province. At a council held at Philadelphia on the 23d of first month, 1683, 
in the presence of the Proprietary and Governor, it was ordered that the seal of 
the county of Bucks be a tree and a vine. At the time of its organization 
William Penn selected an extensive tract of fine land on the banks of the Dela- 
ware, four or five miles above where Bristol now stands, which he named Penns- 
.bury Manor. This tract originally contained over eight thousand acres. It 
was not until the 8th of second month, 1685, that the bounds of the county were 
determined. From the proceedings of the Council at that date, we learn that 
" the bounds of the county of Bucks and Philadelphia should be as follows : 
To begin at the mouth of Poetquessink creek, on Delaware, and so by the said 
creek, and to take in the townships of Southampton and Warminster. In obedi- 
ence thereto and confirmation thereof, the president and council have seriously 
weighed and considered the same, have and do herebj'' agree and order that the 
bounds between the said counties shall be thus : to begin at the mouth of the 
Poetquessink creek, on Delaware river, and go up thence along the said creek by 
the several courses thereof to a south-west and north-west line, which said line 
divides the land belonging to Joseph Growdon and compan}^ from Southampton 
township ; from thence by a line of marked trees along the said line one hundred 
and twenty perches more or less ; from thence north-west by a line of marked 
tr es, which said line in part divides the land belonging to Nicholas Moore from 
Southampton and Warminster townships, continuing the said line as far as the 
said county shall extend." 

Bucks county has the Delaware river for its north-eastern and south-eastern 
boundary, being located on the great bend of that stream. Lehigh and North- 
ampton on the north, and Montgomery on the west and south, ai-e the bordering 
counties. It is about forty miles in length, with an average breadth of fifteen 
miles. The principal streams are the Neshaminy, Tohickon, and Durham creeks 
within the county, and the head-waters of the Perkiomen flowing into Montgom- 
ery county. The surface of the country is gently undulating, except in the 
northern part of the county, where ridges of the South mountain or Lehigh hills 
encioach upon the river plateau. 

Three distinct geological belts cross the county, each imparting its peculiar 
character to the soil and surface. Strata comprising those of the primitive 
formation, such as gneiss, hornblende, mica, slate, &c., occupy the south-eastern 
portion of the county, forming a gently undulating surface, with a moderately 
fertile soil. Along the river, however, the land is very productive. Next to 
tliis, occupying a broad belt and including a large portion of the county, is a red 
shale, accompanied in some portions with sandstone and conglomerates. This 
aff'ords a very good soil, well adapted to grass and cereals. This being a forma- 
tion of the secondary order, there is an out-cropping in a few places of lime- 
stone — in Solebury and Buckingham townships. There is also a deposit of 
hematite iron ore found in this neighborhood, which has only recently been 
explored. In the upper portion of the county is the third geological belt, com- 
posed of primary rocks of the gneiss family, the variety called trap, and the 
lower sandstone. The trap rock comprises a series of parallel elevations, attain- 



440 HISTOK Y OF PEWNS YL VANIA. 

ing, in Haycock and Rockhill townships, mountainous proportions. Tlie spur in 
the former township is called Haycock mountain, from a supposed resemblance 
to a cock of hay, and the township took its name from this fact. This belt of 
igneous rock, beginning at the Delaware river, in the neigliborhood of Bridg- 
ton, extends through parts of Nockamixon and Tinicura, Haycock, Rockhill, 
Richland, and Milford townships, and thence through Montgomery and Chester 
counties. Enclosed, however, among these hills are several rich limestone valleys. 
One of these is the valley of Durham Creek, at the mouth of which once stood 
the Durham Cave, or Devil's Hole, as it was called ; but during the past thirty 
years the limestone of which the cave was composed has been gradually removed 
for use at the iron furnaces there, until now no trace of the cave remains. 

Iron ore of a rich quality also abounds in several places in the northern part 
of the county. Lead is found at Galena, in New Britain township, and the mines 
were successfully worked here for several years. In the southern end of the 
county a number of minerals in veins of rocks of igneous origin, which here crop 
out, are found, and among these plumbago. In Southampton township, near 
the Buck tavern, a mine of this mineral was formerly worked with success. 

At Blackman's or Long's Mill, in Durham township, as early as 1*727, iron 
works were in successful operation. Here was fabricated from the ore, about 
1756, by means of charcoal for fuel, a primitive style of stove, or furnace, pieces 
of which may still be seen in some parts of the county. Cannon ball, etc., were 
also cast here, used in the Revolution. These works were finally abandoned at 
this place, and extensive ones erected at the river, near Reiglesville, where the 
Lilly fire and burglar-proof safes were once manufactured. Messrs. Cooper & 
Hewitt now manufacture pig-iron only. 

The resources of the county are mainly agriculture. The soil along the 
margins of the streams is very fertile, producing large crops of cereals, but the 
farmers, in late years, have turned their attention considerably to stock raising 
and the dairy. Immense quantities of butter and milk are sent to the Phila- 
delphia market ; and Bucks county butter has obtained a celebrity equal to that 
of Chester county. Hay is also a staple production, and the soil is well adapted 
to timothy and clover, extensive shipments of the former finding a ready sale in 
Philadelphia. 

The first settlements within the present limits of Bucks county were made 
by the Swedes, about the year 1670. The Swedes were familiar with the country 
on the Delaware as high up as the " Falls." From the records of the court at 
Upland, we learn that a petition was presented on the 23d of November, 1677, 
for a settlement and town in that locality. The number of Swedish petitioners 
was twenty-four. The first English settlement in Pennsylvania proper was near 
the Lower Falls in Bucks county, by virtue of patents from Sir Edward Andros. 
These were principally Quakers, who, when the colony passed into the possession 
of William Penn, as proprietor, had already established themselves. In fact, so 
prosperous was this section, that strong expectations, says Mr. Buck, were 
entertained by many of them at first that the city of Philadelphia would be 
located either at Pennsbury or Bristol, and this perhaps might have been the 
case had not the river channel been deemed too shallow for ship navigation up 
so far as those places. 



BUCKS COUNTY. 44I 

Among the earliest inhabitants were William Yardley, James Harrison, 
Phineas Pemberton, William Biles, an eminent preacher, William Darke, Lyonel 
Brittain, William Beaks, etc. And soon afterwards, there, and near Neshaminy 
creek, Richard Hough, Henry Baker, Nicholas Wain, John Otter, Robert Hall ; 
and in Wrightstown, John Chapman and James Ratcliff, a noted preacher in the 
society. In the year 1683, Thomas Janney, a celebrated preacher among the 
Quakers, settled near the Falls, with his family and others who at that time 
arrived from Cheshire, in England. After twelve years residence here, he 
returned to England and died there ; a man of good reputation, character, and 
example. In 1682, John Scarborough, a coachsmith, arrived in the country with 
his son John, then a youth, and settled in Middletown township, but he after- 
wards returned to England and left his possessions to his son. John Chapman 
came over in 1684, and was entertained some time at Phineas Pemberton's at the 
Falls, who had then made some progress in improvements. Afterwards 
Chapman went to his purchase in Wrightstown, where, within about twelve 
months afterwards, his wife had two sons at one time, whence he called the place 
Twinborough. At this time Chapman's place was the farthest back in the woods 
of any English settlement ; and the Indians being then numerous, much 
frequented his house, and were very kind to him and his family, as well as to 
those who came after him, often supplying them with corn and other provisions, 
at that time very scarce. Thomas Langhorne came the same 3'ear, but died 
soon after. 

The first settlers generally came from England, and were of the middle rank, 
and chiefly Friends; many of them had first settled at the Falls, but soon after 
removed back, as it was then called, into the woods. As they came away in the 
reigns, of Charles, James, William, and Anne, they brought with them not only 
the industry, frugality, and strict domestic discipline of their education, but 
also a portion of those high-toned political impressions that then prevailed in 
England. 

The first surveys in what was then called Buckingham, were as early as 1683, 
und the greater part were located before 1103. It is not easy to ascertain who 
made the first improvements, but most probably, from circumstances, it was 
Thomas and John B3'e, and George Pownall, Edward^ Henry, and Roger Hartle}- ; 
Dr. Streper and Wm. Cooper came early ; Richard Burgess, John Scarborough, 
grandfather of the preacher of that name, and Henry Paxson, were also early 
settlers. John and Richard Lundy, John Large, and James Lenox, and Wm. 
Lacej^, John Worstall, Jacob Holcomb, Joseph Linton, Joseph Fell, Matthew 
Hughes, Hugh Eh', and perhaps Richard Norton, came from Long Island 
about 1705.'"''^'"''^^ 

The first adventurers were chiefly members of the Falls meeting, and are said 
to have frequently attended it, and often on foot. In the year 1700 leave was 
granted by the quarterly meeting to hold a meeting for worship at Buckingham, 
which was first at the house of William Cooper. 

On the Manor of Pennsburj William Penn caused to be erected a spacious 
country residence. Upon this spot he had concentrated many a bright vision of 
quiet enjoyment, in the midst of his own family, and surrounded by the antici- 
pated honors of his station as Proprietary. He erected, or caused to be erected 



442 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

during his absence, a magnificent mansion-house, sixty feet long by forty deep, 
with offices and out-houses at the sides, fi'onting upon a beautiful garden which 
extended down to the river. It was in his day, and for many years afterward, 
the marvel of the neighborhood. He had the happiness to reside here for a short 
period with his family in 1700-1, and entertained much company in his public 
capacity. The increasing cares and responsibilities of the Province, and the 
peculiar state of the times, required his presence in England, and he never after- 
ward enjoyed that quiet retirement for which he had so luxuriously' provided. 
The mansion and out-houses were neglected during his absence. A large leaden 
water reservoir, which had been erected on the top of the mansion to guard 
against fire, became leaky, and injured the walls and furniture of the house, so 
that it fell into premature decay, and it was taken down just before the Revolu- 
tion. After the peace, the whole estate was sold out of the Penn family. 

In addition to this manor, Penn laid out in the township of Wrightstown, and 
also in Newtown, a park, or as it is frequently called, a town square. The lands 
selected were considered the most beautiful in the township ; of an oval, smooth 
surface, having no chasms or large streams of water within their limits ; the soil 
rich and covered with heavy timber. The parks were perfect squares, near the 
centre of the township, and contained each about six hundred and forty acres of 
land. They were to be exempt from cultivation or settlement, and to be kept 
for purposes similar to the parks of England ; but were only continued in this 
manner for thirty -five or forty years, when the inhabitants of the township became 
dissatisfied with their continuance, as they produced much inconvenience to 
them from many causes. Upon these representations being made to the Pro- 
prietary government, the parks were divided between the land-holders, in propor- 
tion to the land each one held in the townships. 

We have already stated that Phineas Pemberton held the first commission as 
clerk of the courts of Bucks. The first justices of the peace for the county were 
Arthur Cook, Joseph Growdon, William Yardley, Thomas Janney, William Biles, 
Nicholas Wain, John Brock, and Henry Baker. 

The first purchase of land from the Indians above the Neshaminy, in Bucks, 
made by William Markham, the agent of William Penn, was in 1682. This pur- 
chase was to be bounded by the river Delaware on the north-east, and the 
Neshaminy on the north-west, and was to extend as far back as a man could walk 
in three days. It is stated that Penn and the Indians began to walk out this 
land, commencing at the mouth of the Neshaminy, and walking up the Delaware ; 
and in one day and a half they got to a spruce tree, near Baker's creek, when 
Penn concluded this would include as much land as he would want at present. 
A line was drawn, and marked from the spruce tree to the Neshamin^^ 

From, the period of this purchase, nwnerous white settlers established them- 
selves northward as far as Durham, in the upper part of the county, where a 
furnace was erected ; and some of the scattering frontier establishments of the 
white people reached as far as the Lehigh hills. The Indians, becoming uneasy 
at the approach of these settlements of the white people, desired to have a limit 
placed upon these encroachments, and a treaty was held at Durham in 1734, 
which was continued at Pennsbury in May, 1735, and concluded at Philadelphia 
in August, 1737 ; in which the limits of the tract, as described in the deed of 



BUCKS COUNTY. 443 

1682, were confirmed, and it was agreed that the " walk " which was to determine 
the extent of the territory should be performed. It seems to have been expected 
by the Indians that this " walk " would not extend beyond the I.ehigh liills, 
about forty miles from the place where it was to begin ; but it was the desire of 
the Proprietary in I73Y to extend the walk as far as possible, so as to include the 
land in the Forks of the Delaware, and even further up that river, to obtain, if 
possible, the possession of the Minisink land — a very desirable tract along the 
river above the Blue mountains. 

The time appointed for the walk was the 19th of September, 1737. The 
place agreed upon as the point to commence was at a chestnut tree standing a 
little above the present site of Wrightstown. The walk was under the superin- 
tendence of Timothy Smith, then sheriff of Bucks county, and Benjamin East- 
burn, surveyor-general. The persons employed by government to perform the 
walk were famous for their abilities as fast walkers, and they were to have as a 
compensation five pounds in money and five hundred acres of land in the 
purchase. They were Edward Marshall, a native of Bucks county, a noted 
hunter, chain carrier, etc.; James Yeates, also a native of Bucks county, a tall 
slim man of much agility and speed of foot ; and Solomon Jennings, a remarkable 
stout and strong man. At sunrise they started from the chestnut tree alluded 
to above Wrightstown, accompanied by a number of persons, some of whom 
carried refreshments for them. They walked moderately at first, but soon 
quickened their pace, so that the Indians frequently called to them to walk and 
not to run ; but these remonstrances produced no effect, and most of the Indians 
left them in anger, saying the^' were cheated. A number of people were collected 
about twenty miles from the starting point to see them pass. First came Yeates, 
stepping as light as a feather, accompanied by several persons on horseback; 
after him, but out of sight, came Jennings, with a strong, steady step; and yet, 
far behind, came Marshall, apparently careless, swinging a hatchet alternately in 
one hand to balance the motion of his bod}^ and eating a biscuit. Bets ran in 
favor of Yeates. Jennings and two of the Indian walkers gave out before the end 
of the first da}', being vmable to keep up with the others. But Marshall, Yeates, 
and one Indian kept on, and arrived at sunset on the north side of the Blue 
mountain. At sunrise next morning they started again, but when crossing a 
stream at the foot of the mountain Yeates became faint and fell, Marshall turned 
back and supported him until some of the attendants came up, and then 
continued the walk by himself. At noon, the hour when the walk was to ter- 
minate, he had reached a spur of the Second or Broad mountain, estimated to be 
sixty and three-fourths miles from the starting point. 

Having thus reached the furthest possible point to the north-westward, it 
now remained to draw a line from the end of the walk to the river Delaware. 
The course of this line not being described in the deed of purchase, the agent of 
the Proprietaries, instead of running by the nearest course to the river, ran north- 
eastward across the country'-, so as to strike the Delaware near the mouth of 
the Lackawaxen, thus extending far up the river, taking in all the Minisink 
territor}^, and many thousand acres more than if they had run hy the nearest 
course to the Delaware. It is well known that the Delaware Indians immedi- 
ately saw and complained of the manner in which these things were done as a 



444 



iiWTOiiY OF pi:nnsylvania. 



fraud upon thera, nor would they relinquish the land until compelled to do so by 
the deputies of the Six Nations, at the treaty of 1742. The proceedings of this 
walk are mentioned as one of tlie causes of the hostile feelings of the Indians, 
which eventually led to war and bloodshed; and the first murder committed by 
them in the Province was on the very land they believed themselves cheated out 
of. The Indians always contended that the walk should be up the river by the 
nearest path, as was done in the first day and a half's walk by William Penn, 
and not by the compass across the country, as was done in this case. It is stated 
that afterwards, when the Surveyor-General and other persons to assist him 
passed over this ground, it employed them about four days to walk to the extent 

of the purchase. Jennings, 
V^^-ZJ^^ ^^i^^ ^^^^ who did not hold out to 

cross the Lehigh, never 



recovered his health, and 
lived but a few years after. 
Yeates, when taken out of 
the stream at the foot of 
the mountain, was quite 
blind, and died in three 
days afterwards. Marshall 
lived and died on Mar- 
shall's Island, opposite 
Tinicum township, on the 
Delaware, aged about nine- 
ty years. 

By an act of the Gene- 
ral Assembly, passed March 
20, 1724, the county build- 
ings for Bucks were directed 
to be built at Newtown, as 
being more central and 
convenient for the people. Previous to this the courts and county business 
had been transacted at Bristol for nearly a quarter of a century, but as the popu- 
lation kept steadily extending itself upwards more into the country, the change 
was a necessity. 

To Bucks county belongs the honor of having one of the earliest seminaries of 
learning in the State. The Rev. Mr. Tennent came from Ireland in 1718, and 
three years after settled in Bensalem ; from thence, about 1726, he removed to the 
Neshaminy, in Warwick township, and established an academy which was more 
particularly intended for the education of ministers for the Presbyterian church. 
In consequence of having been constructed of logs, this school has been popularly 
denominated the " Log College." 

During many years after the first settlement of the county the kind-hearted 
and industrious Friends cleared and cultivated their lands in peace, contented 
with their own lot, and having no cause of quarrel with others. Between them 
and the Indians who dwelt among them hospitality and other kind offices had 
always been reciprocated, and although the black cloud of Indian warfare was 




FRIENDS' MKETING-HOUSE, SOLESBURY. 

[From a Photograph bj C. Garwood.] 



BUCKS COUNTY. 445 

rumbling and thundering beyond the Blue mountains in 1755-1760, yet the 
Quakers had lit^-le to fear from it. During several generations, the simple 
histor}^ of the colonists of Bucks county was, that the}' lived in quiet and 
improved their farms. But at length people of other races and different religious 
and political opinions began to settle among and around them ; and in process 
of time the desolating tide of the Revolutionary war swept to and fro across 
their once quiet county. The American armj^, late in the 3'ear 1776, retreated 
across New Jersey into this county. General Washington defended all the passes 
of the river from Coryell's ferry to Bristol. His headquarters were at Newtown, 
while he was urging upon Congress the necessity of reinforcing the arm3^ The 
enem}^ posted themselves along the Jersey side of the Delaware, waiting for the 
ice to form a bridge by which they might reach Philadelphia. 

The affairs of America at this time wore a very serious aspect. A consider- 
able part of New Jersey was in possession of the enemy. The American army 
had lost during the campaign near five thousand men by captivity and the sword ; 
and the few remaining regular troops, amounting to only two thousand men, were 
upon the eve of being disbanded, as their enlistments had been only for one year. 
In this dilemma, Congress invested Washington with great power; and the Council 
of Safety at Philadelphia, on the 17th of December, recommended General Wash- 
higton to issue his orders for the militia of Pennsylvania forthwith to join his 
army. In pursuance of this call, the militia of Bucks and adjoining counties flocked 
with alacrity in considerable numbers to Washington's standard, and so rein- 
forced his depicted army that in a short time afterwards he was enabled to move 
against and defeat the enemy at Trenton. 

Soon after the battle, the Hessian prisoners, nearly a thousand in number 
with their arms, six brass field pieces, eight standards, and a considerable 
quantity of munitions of war, were brought through the county on their way to 
Philadelphia to be sent to Lancaster. The Hessians were well clad, with large 
knapsacks and spatter-dashes to their legs, while on either side of them as a 
guard, in single file, were our countr3'men, at the end of December in their worn- 
out summer uniforms, and some even without shoes. General Washington, on 
the 28th, again made Newtown his headquarters, and after remaining there a few 
days, he once more crossed the Delaware, and on the 3d of January engaged the 
enem}' at Princeton. 

About the close of the j'^ear 1776, when the cause of America seemed to be 
expiring, and the attack on Trenton had not 3'et been made, Joseph Galloway, a 
prominent citizen of Bucks county, like many others in the greatest hour of 
need, deserted his country', doubtless thinking that Britain's powerful arm 
would soon crush these colonies, and his best policy wou'.d therefore be to secure 
her friendship in time. The people of Bucks were not surprised at this ; and 
their previous suspicions of his 103'alty proved not unfounded. 

The Legislature of the State, under the new Constitution, at Philadelphia, on 
the 17th of March, 1777, passed a militia law by which they established a sort 
of military tribunal in each countv', composed of five officers, four sub-lieutenants, 
with the rank of colonel and lieutenant-colonel respectivel3'. These officers were 
to hold courts, to class and district the militia, to organize them into companies 
and regiments, etc. Captain John Lace3^, a native of Bucks, was made a 



446 . HISTORY OF PEN NSYLYANIA. 

lieutenant-colonel by the militia of his district, and as the duties did not 
interfere with his position as one of the sub-lieutenants of the jcounty, he acted 
in botli capacities. Colonel Lacey was commissioned a brigadier-general on the 
9th of Januarj', 1778, and to him was given the command of tlie militia between 
the rivers Schuylkill and Delaware. His instructions from General AVasliington 
were to protect the inhabitants and prevent supplies and intercourse with the 
enemy in Philadelphia. The duties were exceedingly arduous, and owing to the 
paucity of the force under him. and the number of Tories and well-paid spies in 
the count}', General Lacey found it impossible to carry out his instructions with 
that rigidity which the exigencies of the case required. On the morning of the 
13tli of January, a party of British light horsemen entered Bensalem, and took 
John Vandergrift, the county commissioner, his son, Edward Duflleld, and 
others, prisoners, besides capturing a large quantity of forage, and on several 
occasions detachments of Lacey's men were surprised and made prisoners by a 
superior force of the enemy. 

After the departure of the British from Philadelphia in June, 1778, the 
country around that city became tolerably quiet, though at times approhonsions 
were entertained of an invasion of the enemy from their stronghold at New 
York. For this purpose the militia were kept in readiness to check any sudden 
irruption that should be made along the Delaware. On the 12th of October, 
1781, at that time stationed at Newtown, they were discharged, with the thanks 
of General Lacey, in general orders, for the readiness they had exhibited in 
taking the field in defence of the State, 

Through all the Revolutionary contest Bucks county nobly did her duty. 
In the beginning, for the protection of the Northern colonies, she sent soldiers 
and moneji-for their relief. When Washington was compelled to retreat through 
Jersey with his handful of half-clad and starving men before the victorious foe, 
it was in Bucks county that he raised his standard anew, and her citizens rallying 
to his assistance, contributed much to give the enemy his first check at Trenton. 
On all occasions she raised her quotas of men and money, and her patriotism 
fully equalled that of any of the other counties of the State. 

During the war a number of 3'oung men, either to escape from serving in the 
arm}'- or paying fines, and yet did not choose to enlist openly with the encm}"-, 
found a more profitable employment in secrect acts of tveacher}' and piracy 
among their neighbors, and for which they were amph'- compensated b}' the 
British during their stay in Philadelphia or New York. Among these outlaws 
were several brothers by the name of Doane. The Doanes were a Quaker 
family, living in Plumstead township during the Revolution. The father was a 
worthy man ; but his six sons, as they grew to manhood, abandoned all the noble 
principles of the sect with which they had been reared, and retaining only so 
much of its outward forms as suited their nefarious schemes, the}- became a gang 
of most desperate outlaws. They were professedly Tories, and they diove for a 
time a very ])rofitable trade in stealing the horses and cattle of their Whig neigh- 
bors, and disposing of them to the British army, then in Philadelphia. One of 
the brothers, Joseph, was teaching school in Plumstead. Two of the brothers 
had joined the British in Philadelphia, and through them the stolen horses were 
disposed of, and the proceeds shared. The Doanes at school were often display- 



BUCKS COUNTY. 



447 



ing their pockets full of guineas, which were at first supposed to be counterfeit ; 
but subsequent events proved their genuineness, and disclosed the source from 
which they had procured so considerable an amount of gold. Suspicion had lono- 
fastened upon the family; they were closely watched; and eventually, about the 
year 1782, the stealing of a horse belonging to Mr. Shaw, of Plumstead, was 
distinctly traced to them. This brought upon Mr. Shaw, and a few others who 
were active in their detection, the combined malignity of the whole banditti ; and 
it was not long before they obtained their revenge. Uniting with themselves 
anotlier villain of kindred spirit, the whole band, seven in all, including Moses 
Doane, who was their captain, and Joseph the schoolmaster before mentioned, fell 
upon Mr. Shaw at the dead of night, in his own house, bruised and lacerated him 
most cruelly, and decamped with all his horses and many valuables plundered 
from the house. A son of Mr. Shaw was dispatched to the nearest neighbors for 
assistance and to raise the hue and cry after the robbers. But these neighbors 
being Mennonists, conscientiously opposed to bearing arms, and having besides 
an instinctive dread of danger, declined interfering in the matter; such was the 
timidity and cautiousness manifested in those times between the nearest 
neighbors, when of different political sentiments. The young man, however, 
soon raised a number of neighbors, part of whom came to his father's assistance, 
and part armed themselves and went in pursuit of the robbers. The latter, after 
leaving poor Mr. Shaw, had proceeded to the house of Joseph Grier, and robbed 
him ; and then went to a tavern kept by Colonel Robert Robinson, a very corpu- 
lent man. Him they dragged from his bed, tied him in a most excruciating 
position, and placing him naked in the midst of them, whipped him until their 
fei'ocity was satiated. They subsequently robbed and abused several other 
individuals on the same night, and then escaped into Montgomery county. Here 
they were overtaken, somewhere on Skippach, and so hotly pursued that they 
were glad to abandon the fine horses on which they rode, and betake themselves 
to the thicket. Joseph, the schoolmaster, was shot through the cheeks, dropped 
from his horse, and was taken prisoner. The others effected their escape, and 
concealed themselves. 

The prisoner was taken to Newtown and indicted, but while awaiting trial 
escaped from jail, fled into New Jersc}', and there, under an assumed name, 
taught school for nearly a year. The Federal government had offered a reward of 
eight hundred dollars for him or his brothers, dead or alive ; and while in a bar- 
room one evening he heard a man say that he would shoot any one of the 
Doanes, wherever he might see him, for the sake of the reward. Doane's school- 
bills were settled ver}' suddenlj^, and he made his way into Canada. 

Moses, the captain of the gang, with two of the brothers, had concealed 
themselves in a secluded cabin, occupied by a drunken man, near the mouth of 
Tohickon creek. Mr. Shaw, the father, learning their place of concealment, 
rallied a party of men, of whom Colonel Hart was made the leader, and 
surrounded the house. Instead of shooting them down at once. Hart opened the 
door, and cried out, "Ah! you're here, are you?" The Doanes seized their 
arms, and shot down :Mr. Kennedy, one of the party. Two of the outlaws went 
through the back window, which seems not to have been sufficiently guarded, 
and made their escape into the woods. Moses, the captain, who, by the way. 



448 HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

was more of a gentleman than either of the other brothers, surrendered ; but 
immediately on his surrender he was shot down by one of the attacking party. 
The person who shot him was not, however, voluntarily of the part}^, but was 
suspected of being implicated with the Doanes in their ill-gotten gains ; and it 
was supposed he shot him to close his mouth against the utterance of testimony 
against himself. The other two were afterwards taken in Chester county, hung 
in Philadelphia, and brought home to be interred in Plumstead township. The 
Doanes were distinguished from their youth for great muscular activity. They 
could run and jump beyond all competitors, and it is said one of them could 
jump over a wagon. 

Many years afterwards, the 3'oung lad Shaw, who had himself received many 
a severe flogging from Doane the schoolmaster, became a magistrate in Doyles- 
town, and rejoiced in the dignified title of " 'Squire " Shaw. Sitting one day at 
his window, whom should he see entering his gate but old Joseph Doane, the 
traitor to his country, the robber of Shaw's father, the old schoolmaster who had 
so often flogged him, the refugee from prison, and now a poor, degraded, broken- 
down old man. Mr. Shaw assumed his magisterial dignity, and met him bluntly 
at the door with the question, "What business have you with me, sir?" Some 
inquiries passed, a recognition was effected, and a cold formal shaking of hands 
was exchanged. The old scoundrel had returned from Canada to bring a suit 
against an old Quaker gentleman in the county, for a small legacy of some forty 
dollars, coming to Doane ; and he had the cool impudence to require the services 
of a magistrate whose father he had formerly robbed and nearl}' murdered. It 
is creditable to 'Squire Shaw's high sense of honor, and respect for the law he 
was sworn to administer, that the man received his money, and returned quietly 
to Canada. The meeting between the plaintiff and the defendant is said to have 
been quite amusing. Their conversation was still conducted, on both sides, in the 
" plain language " of Quakers ; but nevertheless they abused each other most 
roundh^ — the one alleging his authority from government to blow the other's 
brains out, or to take him " dead or alive," and the other claiming his money, 
so long, as he thought, unjustly detained. Subsequently, a sister of the Doanes, 
with her husband, also returned from Canada, and made a similar claim for a 
legac}^ before 'Squire Shaw. 

Bucks county sent her full quota of men to aid in the suppression of the rebel- 
lion. In April, 1861, a comjoany of volunteers, in command of W. W. H. Davis, 
was raised for the defence of Washington. Under the act of May, 1861, for the 
organization of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, Bucks county furnished three 
companies, one in the lower end, commanded by Wm. Thompson ; one in the 
middle, by David V. Feaster ; and one in the upper end, b}' Joseph Thomas. In 
the autumn of 1861 a full regiment of volunteers was recruited and organized in 
the count}^ by Colonel W. W. H. Davis, called the one hundred and fourth regiment. 
In the latter part of the summer of 1862, Col. Samuel Croasdale, of Bucks county, 
organized a regiment, recruiting two companies in this county. He was killed, 
soon after entering the service, at Antietam, Maryland, September IV, 1862. 
Several other companies and parts of companies were subsequently recruited in 
the county for the war. 

On the 30th of May, 1868, on a small plot in Doylestown, was erected a 



BUCKS COUNTY. 



449 



monument to the memory of the officers and men of the one hundred and fourtn 
regiment who fell in the war. General W. H. Emory delivered a commemorative 
address. 

DoYLESTOWN, the county seat, was first called by this name in 1118. It 
derived the name from William Doyle, who settled there about 1735, and kept a 
hostelry at the cross-roads as early as 1742. The town is situated on a hill 
commanding an extensive view of the fertile country around it. It became the 
county seat in 1812, when the public documents were removed from Newtown, 
and the cou^nty buildings erected. The earliest inhabitants of the neighborhood 
were Scotch-Irish. In 1732 a log church was founded at Deep Run, eight miles 
north-west of Doylestown, of which Rev. Francis McHenry was installed pastor 
in 1738. He died in 1757, 
and was succeeded, in 1761, 
by the Rev. James Latta, 
to whom and to his succes- 
sors in the ministr}^, Hon. 
William Allen, of Phila- 
delphia, gave the lot of 
ground occupied by the 
church and parsonage. 
Rev. Hugh McGill in 1776, 
Rev. James Grier in 1791, 
and Rev. Uriah DuBois in 
1798, succeeded to the 
charge, and under the lat- 
ter, public worship began 
to be held interchangeably 
at Deep Run and Doyles- 
town in 1804, he being also 
principal of the academy at 
the latter place. The Pres- 
byterian church here was 
dedicated on the 13th of 
August, 1815. In the char- 
ter for the academy referi'ed to, the State granted a certain sum, on condition 
that there should be a number of poor children educated gratis, not exceeding 
three in number at any one time. Do3destown was incorporated as a borough 
in 1838.. About twenty years ago the Doylestown railroad was built to this 
place from Lansdale, a point on the North Pennsylvania railroad (it being a 
branch of the main trunk), and from this period Doylestown began to manifest 
life and materially grow. It now has extensive water works, furnishing a boun- 
teous supply of excellent spring water, which is obtained a short distance from 
the town. Its buildings and streets are lighted with gas ; new streets have 
been laid out, and many handsome and commodious residences have been built. 
A large and beautiful hall, called " Lenape Hall," with stores and market house 
in the basement, has been erected, constituting an ornament as well as a con- 
venience to the town. A flourishing boarding school for boys and girls has 
2d 




soldiers' monument at doylestown. 

IFrom a Phoiograph by C. Garwood.] 



450 



HIS TOBY OF PENNS YL VAWIA. 



been established here by a joint stock company, and also a prosperous female 
seminary, conducted by Rev. Sheip. The same public buildings which were 
originally erected still stand, with little change in their appearance. The popu- 
lation of the borough exceeds two thousand. 

Bristol is the second chartered borough in Pennsylvania. The site upon 
which it is erected is a part of a tract of land patented to Samuel Cliff by Sir 
Edmund Andros, Colonial Governor of New York. The first court house and 
prison (of logs) were erected here at the formation of the county, and subse- 
quently rebuilt of brick in 1705. By an act of the Assembly, of the 20th March, 
1124, the county seat was removed to Newtown. Sir William Keith, Governor 
of the Province, granted the first borough charter, on the 14th November, 1120. 
The petitioners for the same, " owners of a certam tract of land formerly called 
Buckingham, in the county of Bucks," were, Anthonj' Burton, John Hall, 
William Wharton, Joseph Bond, " and many other inhabitants of the town of 
Bristol ; " and the petition recites that they had already laid out streets, erected 
a church and meeting-house, a court house, and a prison, and that the courts had 
for a long time been held there, etc. Joseph Bond and John Hall were appointed 
burgesses, and Thomas Clifford, high constable. This original charter continued 
in force until the Revolution. A new one was granted by the State in 1185. 
Graydon, whose father was president of the court in this county, says in his 
memoirs : " My recollections of the village of Bristol, in which I was born on the 
10th of April, N. S., in the year 1155, cannot be supposed to go further back 
than to the year 1156 or 1151. There are few towns, perhaps, in Pennsylvania, 

which, in the same space of 
time, have been so little im- 
proved, or undergone less 
alteration. Then, as now, the 
great road leading from Phila- 
delphia to New York, first 
skirting the inlet, at the 
head of which stand the mills, 
and then turning short to 
the left along the banks of 
the Delaware, formed the prin- 
cipal and indeed only street, 
marked by any thing like a 
continuity of building. A few 
places for streets were opened 
from this main one, on which, 
here and there, stood an hum- 
ble, solitary dwelling. At a 
corner of two of these lanes 
was a Quaker meeting-house, and on a still more retired spot stood a small Epis- 
copal church, whose lonely grave-yard, with its surrounding woody scenery, might 
have furnished an appropriate theme for such a muse as Gray's. These, together 
with an old brick jail (Bristol having once been the county town of Bucks), con- 
stituted all the public edifices in this, mjr native town. With the exception of 




FBIENDS' MEETING-HOUSE, BUCKINGHAM. 

[From a Photograph bj C. Garwood.] 



BUCKS COUNTY. 45I 

the family of Dr. DeNormandie, our own, and perhaps one or two more, the prin- 
cipal inhabitants of Bristol were Quakers. Among these, the names of Buckley, 
Williams, Large, Meritt, Hutchinson, and Church, are familiar to me." 

In 1112 Saint James' Church was erected hy the Episcopalians, and in 1Y14 
the Friends erected a meeting-honse. These comprised, for a full century, the 
only houses of worship in the borough. 

On the 16th of September, 1785, the Legislature passed a law to re-establish 
the ancient corporation of the borough of Bristol. This charter continued in 
force up to the year 1851, when the present charter, more satisfactory to the 
citizens, was adopted by the legislative authorities. Bristol is prettily located on 
an elevated plateau, on the right bank of the Delaware, at the mouth of Mill 
creek. It is opposite Burlington, and twenty miles from Philadelphia. The 
New Jersey division of the Pennsylvania railroad passes through the borough, 
and the Delaware canal has here its terminus. It has steamboat communication 
with the river towns, and the trade of the borough is rapidly increasing in 
importance. 

Newtown is a thriving borough, situated on a small branch of the Neshaminy, 
ten miles north-west of Bristol. By an act of Assembly, passed the 20th of 
March, 1724, it became the county seat in place of Bristol, an honor which it 
held until 1812, when the courts and public offices were removed to Doylestown, 
as a more central situation. Newtown was one of the earliest settlements, the 
township from which it derives its name having been formed as early as 1686. 
In the original jjlan of surve^'^s, the present borough was laid out exactly' one 
mile square, containing six hundred and forty acres, with the stream running 
through its centre. The Presbj^terian church was founded about 1734, and a 
new house rebuilt in 1769. The academy was incorporated in 1798, and was the 
ninth institution of that kind in the State. While the American army were 
guarding the Delaware from Coryell's Ferry to Bristol, in 1776, General 
Washington had his headquarters at Newtown. 

MoRRisviLLE took its name from Robert Morris, the distinguished patriot and 
financier. He resided here for some time in a splendid mansion-house. The 
estate was afterwards purchased by the French royalist. General Victor Moreau, 
who spent about three years of exile here. The neighbors remember him as a 
kind-hearted, sociable man, who delighted in I'oaming about the banks of the 
river, fishing and hunting. The mansion took fire, and was consumed. The 
General returned to Europe, joined the allied armies, and was killed at Dresden. 

QuAKERTOWN, in point of size and importance, ranks the third in the county. 
It is situated on the head-waters of Tohickon creek, in Richland township, 
and on the line of the North Pennsylvania railroad. It is surrounded by a 
productive farming district, with a soil composed of a clay loam, admixed with 
red shale, being especially well adapted to grain crops and grass for liaj^, which 
is shipped in considerable quantity to Philadelphia and other places. Its name 
is derived from settlements of Friends, or Quakers, who emigrated from Gwynedd 
to its vicinity, some time about the year 1700 ; and when a post office was 
established here, it was then called Quakertown, about 1803. 

The site of the town is a part of an extensive district, embracing several 
thousand acres, which was designated hj the early settlers the Great Swamp, or 



452 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Great Meadow, on which they pastured their cattle, while they dwelt on the more 
elevated or hilly territoiy adjacent. It afterward took the name of Flatland, 
and subsequently Richland, from the fertile quality of the soil. A log structure 
was erected by the Friends for holding their meetings (originally about a half 
mile south of the present town, near where William Shaw now resides), in 1710. 
Here they had also a burying ground, where they consigned their dead, in 
common with the Indian, and thus the dust of these early pioneers mingles with 
that of the red man, with whom they always lived in friendly intercourse. There 
is, however, now no trace of the old log meeting-house, nor even a stone to mark 
the place of burial, yet some records in the possession of the Friends here, and 
tradition, preserve them from oblivion. 

Subsequently, about the year 1750, on the site of the present meeting house, a 
new building was put up for public worship, to which the scattered Friends 
living in Springfield, Haycock, Milford, Rockhill, and even in the more distant 
townships, repaired to worship Grod, and bury their friends and kinsmen. They 
had no other place for worship nearer than the Gwynedd meeting (in Mont- 
gomery) some twenty miles distant. 

Late as 1820 the village did not contain a dozen dwellings, notwithstand- 
ing it was on the main thoroughfare from Allentown to Philadelphia, along 
which was the principal travel of the settlers on the Lehigh to Philadelphia. 
In 1855 the town began to improve very rapidly in consequence of the North 
Pennsylvania railroad running near it, and it was the same year organized into 
a borough. In 1874 a little town called Richland Centre, which had sprung up 
near the station of the railroad, was annexed to the borough, making now an 
aggregate population of nearly two thousand. The extensive stove works of 
Thomas, Roberts, Stevenson, & Company, are located here. 

The first monthly meeting of the Friends recorded here is 1741. The first 
white child born in the vicinity of Quakertown was John Griffith. Morris Morris 
gave ten acres of land for the Friends' meeting-house, etc., in 1745. 

Quakertown was a prominent station on the so-called " under-ground rail- 
road," in the days o^ anti-slavery excitements, to assist the fugitive slaves in 
making their escape to Canada. These negroes, having reached here by night 
usually, from West Chester (also a station), were concealed for a time by the 
Friends when danger of pursuit was apprehended, and then they were secretly 
transported in wagons to Stroud sburg, Monroe county. They came often, a 
dozen or more in one party, and were distributed among a number of the 
families of Friends, who would conceal them for a time in garrets, haj'-lofts, 
etc. Richard Moore, recently deceased, an excellent and exemplary citizen, 
figured prominently in this philanthropic though perilous work. A library was 
established in Quakertown called the " Richland Library," by an act of incorpo- 
ration, dated 1795, it being, according to Commissioner Eaton, the seventh in 
rank of seniority in the United States. Its membership and readers embraced 
the most intelligent part of the citizens of the upper portions of the coimty. It 
contains near two thousand volumes. 

Sellersville was incorporated a borough in 1874. It is situated in Rock- 
hill, on the North Pennsylvania railroad, near the east branch of the Perkiomen. 
It contains two hotels, three stores, and an elegant public school-building, 



BUCKS COUNTY. 



453 



perhaps the finest in the county. The population is about four hundred. Cigar 
manufacturing is extensively carried on here and in the vicinity. The place was 
named after Samuel Sellers, who kept a hotel and store at this place about 
seventy years ago, and was elected sheriff of the county. It was then an impor- 
tant stopping place for teams, etc., located as it was upon the old Allcntown 
road. 

Applebachville is in Haycock township, and was named after General Paul 
Applebach and his brother Henry, who erected the first house in the village, a 
hotel, and afterwards put up nearl}- all the other buildings. It Avas, for a long 
time, a principal stopping place for stages running on the old Bethlehem road, 
between Bethlehem and Philadelphia. The post office was moved here from 
Strawntown, a little village half a mile south of it, in 1848. Sixt}' 3'ears ago 
such was the extent of travel on this great thoroughfare for stages and heavy 
teams, that at very short intervals hostelries were kept, and all were frequently 
crowded at nights with lodgers. There were two of these in Strawntown, one 
kept by Nicholas Roudenbush, and the other by Joseph Brown. 

Hagersville, also a small village on the Bethlehem road, in Rockhill 
township, was named after Colonel George Ilager, who built here first in 1848. 

HuLMEViLLE is situated on the Neshaminy creek, about six miles from 
Bristol. It contains a population of three hundred and fifty, and has a number 
of fine edifices — churches and private dwellings. The Neshaminy afl'ords an 
excellent motive power here, which is utilized for manufacturing purposes. It 
was organized out of the township of Middletown into a borough in 1872. 

Attleborougii was also organized out of Middletown township into a borough 
corporation in 1874. It is pleasantl}' located on an elevated site, surrounded by 
a fine farming distiict. It was an inconsiderable village over a century ago. 
Its present population is between five and six hundred. 

Organization of Townships. — The following are the dates of the organiza- 
tion of the diflTerent townships : 

. 1724 

1722 

. 1725 

1734 

. 1740 

. 1702-3 

1702-3 

1743 

. 1742 

1737 

1702-3 

1734 

. 1722 

1702-3 



Bedminster, 


. 1742 


Nockamixon, 


Bensalem, 
Bristol, 


1692 
. 1695 


Northampton, 
Plumstead, 


Buckingham, 


. 1702-3 


Richland, 


Doylestown, 

Durham, 

Falls, 

Haycock, 

Hilltown, 


. 1818 
1775 

. 1692 
1743 

. 1722 


Rockhill, . 
Solesbury, 
Southampton, . 
Springfield, . 
Tinicum, . 


Lower Makefield, . 

Middletown, 


1692 
. 1692 


Upper Makefield, 
Warminster, 


Milford, 


1734 


Warrington, 


New Britain, 
Newtown, 


. 1722 
. 1702-3 


VV arwick, 
Wrightstown, 



BUTLER COUNTY. 




BY JACOB ZIEGLER, BUTLER. 

IWith acknowledgments to Samuel P. Irvin.'] 

UTLER county was formed from the county of Allegheny, by the act 
of the 12th of March, 1800, and named in honor of General Richard 
Butler, who was killed at St. Clair's defeat. It was then bounded : 
" Beginning at the mouth of Buffalo creek, on the Allegheny river ; 
thence by a straight line running due west until it strikes the line on Beaver 
county ; thence north by the line of said county to the north-east corner of said 

county ; thence by a line north 
thirty-five degrees, east four- 
teen miles ; thence by a line 
running due east, continuing 
said course to where a line 
running due north from the 
mouth of Buffalo creek, the 
place of beginning." The 
place of the county seat was 
not to be at a greater dis- 
tance than four miles from the 
centre of the county. The 
j'^ear following commissioners 
were appointed to run -the 
county lines. The persons 
appointed for this purpose 
were Samuel Rippj^, Henry 
Evans, and John M'Bride, 
with Beatty Quinn as their 
axeman. After these commis- 
sioners had performed their 
duty and made the proper 
report, the Legislature ap- 
pointed John David, William 
Elliott, and Samuel Ewalt, 
commissioners to fix upon a proper place for the seat of justice for the county. 
The place selected by them is where the town of Butler now stands. 

While this county was still a part of Allegheny countj^ it contained but four 
townships. These were Buffalo, Middlesex, Conoquenessing, and Slippery 
Rock. The limits of the county now are as follows : Beginning at the mouth 
of the Buffalo creek at Freeport ; thence westward twenty-three miles to a 

454 




BUTIiER COUNTY COURT HOUSE. 
[Prom a Photograph by John P. Orr, Butler.] 



BUTLEE COUNTY. 455 

corner on the west side of Alexander's district, adjoining Beaver county ; thence 
along said line and Beaver county, northward twenty-three miles to a corner, 
where the streams of Muddy creek and Slippery Rock unite ; thence along the 
Mercer coimty line north fifteen degrees, east fifteen miles to a corner near 
Ilarrisville ; thence eastward fifteen miles to a corner near the Allegheny river 
near Emlenton ; thence southward about thirty miles along the Armstrong 
county line to the place of beginning, containing about seven hundred and 
eighty-five square miles. 

In point of mineral wealth, Butler county is among the foi'emost of the 
counties of the State, and it contains now about forty thousand inhabitants. 
Under the whole surface there is abundance of white, blue, black, and yellow 
clays, suitable for bricks and other purposes. In certain parts there are fine 
bodies of limestone, a portion of which is fossil. Sandstone of the best quality 
abounds in all localities, and bituminous and cannel coal in great quantities. 
Iron ore is also abundant, and as for petroleum, the county is now looked upon 
as the greatest oil region in the world. Some idea may be formed of the produc- 
tion of the latter article when it is stated that the average for the last two years 
has been about ten thousand liarrels per day. 

No enterprise is equal to the development of oil to give rise and growth to 
towns, and when it fails nothing puts an end to their growth and prosperity 
quicker. Consequently we have Petrolia, Karns City, Greece City, 
Angelica, Argyle, Modoc, Troutman Farm, St. Joe, Great Belt City, and 
other towns all on the line of development. Of all these, however, Petrolia 
and Karns City seem to be the most successful. At these places the oil pro- 
duction is still very remunerative, and, of course, they have more stability 
than others. They are peopled with a thriving and industrious class, who take 
pride in keeping up the prosperity and business of their respective places. 
Greece City at one time bid fair to rival them all, but the failure of oil in 
large quantities has materially interfered with its growth. There are still large 
pumping engines at work there pumping oil to the receiving tanks at Butler, of 
which there are three, and from which oil cars are loaded and taken over the 
Butler Branch railroad to the West Pennsylvania railroad, and thence to 
Philadelphia over the Pennsylvania Central. 

There are a great many iron tanks, capable of holding thousands of barrels of 
oil, and pipes, through which it is transported, and owned by pipe companies^ 
to be seen in all directions. A just appreciation of the amount of business done 
by these companies can only be had by being an e3'e-witness and having some 
knowledge of the oil business. 

While oil is a wonderful production, and has fairly revolutionized the industry 
of the county, yet the gas will in all probability far exceed it in its application 
as fuel in propelling machinery, and also for lighting puruoses. There are 
several wells, the Delamater and Dufly being the largest, which throw out a 
volume of gas per hour sufficient to supply the city of Philadelphia two days and 
nights, at least, with all the gas needed. This gas is to be found in all parts of 
the county, and it is not exaggerating when we say that Butler will in time be 
the basin from which will be taken the means of both light and fuel It is 
inexhaustible. 



456 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

In regard to railroads, there are — the Butler Branch road running from Butler 
to Freeport, and there connecting with the West Pennsylvania road, which 
gives a connection by rail with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The Parker and 
Karns City railroad runs from the town of Parker on the Allegheny river, ir 
Armstrong county, to Karns City, in Butler county. It is a narrow gauge road, 
but does a large amount of business in freight and travel. This road gives an 
outlet for oil producers to the Allegheny railroad, and consequently to Pitts- 
burgh and -the upper oil region. The Shenango and Allegheny river railroad 
runs fi"om Sharon, in Mercer county, to Hilliard's Mill, in Butler county ; and 
while there is considerable travel, it is used mainl}^ for shipping coal and the 
transportation of oil to the lake cities. There are other railroads in contempla- 
tion, and it is confidently expected the great mineral resources of the county 
will demand the investment of capital in their construction. 

The surface is beautifully distributed with hills and valleys, and streams of 
clear water flow in all directions. The whole is subject to cultivation, and 
the soil is good for farming and grazing purposes. The minerals, which abound 
everywliere in the county, must in time make it a great manufacturing centre ; 
especially when it is now an established fact that gas abounds in large quantities, 
and can be used for fuel in smelting iron or for manufacturing purposes with 
much more facility and at much cheaper rates than with coal. Timber, of the 
best qualit}^, white oak, black oak, chestnut, sugar maple, etc., abound in nearly 
all sections of the county. Fruit is grown with considerable success, but owing 
to the cold lake winds which prevail in the spring of the year, not in the same 
abundance that is grown in more southerly places. The first map of the county, 
in connection with one of Allegheny county, was made by David Dougal, Esq. 
the person referred to subsequently. He was an experienced surveyor, and 
had spent some time among the Indians in this the then western frontier. 

Butler county was first settled mostly by inhabitants from the counties west 
of the mountains. Westmoreland and Allegheny contributed the greater 
portion ; Washington and Fayette a part ; and some came from east of the 
mountains, A few emigrated from other States. Pennsylvanians, of Irish and 
Gernian extraction, native Irish, some Scotch, and some few Germans, were 
amongst the early pioneers. The first settlement commenced in 1*792, immediately 
subsequent to the act of the 3d of April of that year, which provided for the 
survey of all that part of western Pennsylvania lying north and west of the 
Ohio and Allegheny rivers and Conewango creek. No considerable settlement 
was made until 1796, and up to 1800-3, at which time the county town was laid 
out. This era gave a new stimulus to the opening up and improvement of the 
count3\ The first locations were made on the head-waters of what is called 
Bull creek, in the south-east corner of the county, adjoining Allegheny county. 
The names of these settlers were James Fulton, Henry Kennedy, Martin 
Kennedy, William Holtz, John Harbeson, and Abraham Frier. 

Previous to the formation of the county, the Indian disturbances on the 
frontiers bordering on the Allegheny were frequent, and the fear of the scalping 
knife and tomahawk prevented the rapid settlement of this locality. In the 
spring of IT 92 a band of Indian marauders entered the limits of Butler, com- 
mitting numerous depredations. 



BUTLEB COUNTY. 457 

General Brodhead's expedition to the head-waters of the Allegheny, referred 
to in the General History, eifectually checked these inroads, and secured peace 
to the frontiers. One of Captain Samuel Brady's characteristic adventures 
with the Indians occurred on Slippery Rock creek, in this county. Although 
General Brodhead's summary punishment of the natives quieted the country-, 
yet for some time he kept spies out for the purpose of watching their motions 
and guarding against sudden attacks on the settlements. One of these parties, 
under the command of Captain Brad}"-, had the French creek country assigned as 
their field of dufc3^ The Captain had reached the waters of Slippery Rock, a 
branch of Beaver, without seeing signs of Indians. Here, however, he came on 
an Indian trail in the evening, which he followed till dark without overtaking 
the enemy. The next morning he renewed the pursuit, and overtook them while 
they were engaged at their morning meal. Unfortunately for him, another party 
of Indians were in his rear. The}- had fallen upon his trail, and pursued him, 
doubtless, with as much ardor as his pursuit had been characterized by ; and at 
the moment he fired upon the Indians in his front, he was, in turn, fired upon by 
those in his rear. He was now between two fires, and vastly outnumbered. 
Two of his men fell ; his tomahawk was shot from his side, and the battle-j^ell 
was given by the party in his rear, and loudly returned and repeated by those in 
his front. There was no time for hesitation ; no safetj^ in delay ; no chance of 
successful defence in their present position. The brave Captain and his rangers 
bad to flee before their enemies, who pressed on their flying footsteps with no 
lagging speed. Bradj' ran towards the creek. He was knowm hy many, if not 
all of them, and many and deep were the scores to be settled between him and 
them. They knew the country well, he did not ; and from his running towards 
the creek they were certain of taking him prisoner. The creek was, for a long 
distance above and below the point he was approaching, washed in its channel to 
a great depth. In the certain expectation of catcliing him there, the private 
soldiers of his party were disregarded ; and throwing down their guns and 
drawing their tomahawks, all pressed forward to seize their victim. 

Quick of eye, fearless of heart, and determined never to be a captive to the 
Indians, Brady comprehended their object and his only chance of escape the 
moment he saw the creek, and by one mighty effort of courage and activity, 
defeated the one and eftected the other. He sprang across the abyss of waters, 
and stood, rifle in hand, on the opposite bank in safety. As quick as lightning 
his rifle was primed, for it was his invariable practice in loading to prime first. 
The next minute the powder-horn was at the gun's muzzle ; when, as he was in 
this act, a large Indian, who had been foremost in pursuit, came to the 
opposite bank, and with the manliness of a generous foe, who scorns to under- 
value the qualities of an enemy, said in a loud voice, and tolerable English, 
" Blady make good jump I" It may indeed be doubted whether the compliment 
was uttered in derision, for the moment he had said so he took to his heels, and, as 
if fearful of the return it might merit, ran as crooked as a worm-fence — some- 
times leaping high, at others suddenly squatting down, he appeared no way 
certain that Brady would not answer from the lips of his rifle. But the rifle was 
not yet loaded. The Captain was at the place afterwards, and ascertained that 
his leap was about twenty-three feet, and that the water was twenty feet deep. 



458 



HIS TOB Y OF PENNS TL VANIA . 



Brady's next effort was to gather up his men. They had a place designated at 
which to meet, in case they should happen to be separated, and thither he went, 
and found the other three there. They immediately commenced their homeward 
march, and returned to Pittsburgh about half defeated. Three Indians had been 
seen to fall from the fire they gave them at breakfast. 

Butler borough is one of the most beautiful towns in Pennsylvania, and its 
location is upon a small hill, surrounded by an extensive valley, through which 
flows the Conoquenessing creek. At the time the location was effected it was 
covered with a heavy growth of timber, and although not exactly in the centre 







VIEW OP THE BOROUGH OF BUTLER. 
[From a Photograph by John P. Orr, Butler.] 

of the county, yet the Commissioners deemed it the most eligible site that could 
be selected. Time proved the wisdom of their choice. Butler is at or near the 
41° of noi'th latitude and 3° of western longitude from the cit}'^ of Washington. 

In 1803 the town was laid out in lots, and a sale was held in the month of 
August of that year. The highest bid made was for lot No. 24, in the general 
1 Ian of the town, and this lot reaches to the Diamond, in the centre of which is 
the large and commodious court house. The bid was one hundred and twenty 
dollars. The balance of the lots sold for prices ranging from that amount down 
to as low as ten dollars. The land on which the town is located was claimed 
by John and Samuel Cunningham, and contained one hundred and fifty acres. 
They made a free donation of it to the county of Butler. These gentlemen 
were sons of Colonel Cunningham, of revolutionary fame, and emigrated 
from Lancaster (now Dauphin) to this county. 



BUTLER COUNTY. 



459 



The State of Pennsylvania purchased from the Indians in n84 the land lying 
north and west of the Allegheny river and Conewango creek. In 1786-7 and in 
1788 this land was run off into donation districts, and Colonel Cunningham had 
a contract for part of this work. The part surveyed by John Cunningham 
under the contract with his father is known as the Cunningham district. The 
object was to give the soldiers land as a donation for their services. Robert 
Morris came into possession of about one hundred thousand acres, and John 
Cunningham, the son of Colonel Cunningham, was his agent. The act of 
Assembly required settlement to be made within a certain time, but by a special 
act Mr. Morris' right of settlement was extended for five years. The Indians 
still held possession, for 
there was a division 
among them as to the 
sale, and they refused to 
vacate. The consequence 
of this hostility was that 
Mr. Morris could not 
make settlements as re- 
quired, and a suit was 
tried at Sunbury, in this 
State, before Judge Mc- 
Kean, in which the ques- 
tion of prevention was 
settled. The suit ter- 
minated in favor of the 
Morris warrants. By 
Wayne's treaty in 1795 
the Indians were re- 
moved. 

John Cunningham, 
with his brother Samuel, 
came into possession 
under Robert Morris, of fifteen hundred acres of land, one hundred and fifty 
acres of which they donated, as stated, to the county of Butler. 

During the fall of 1803, houses were built in ]3utler, and accommodations 
made for citizens and for the reception of the court. The court was opened by 
Judge Moore as president, and Samuel Findlay and John Parker associates. 
John.M'Candless was sheriff. Matthew White, Jacob Mechling, and James 
Bovard, commissioners, with David Dougal, as their clerk. The latter 
gentleman is still living, and is now in the ninety-eighth year of his age. 
Butler has, within the past five years, made rapid progress in wealth and 
population, the latter almost doubled since the census of 1870. It contains, 
besides the public buildings, an academy. Soldier's Orphans' Home, under the 
care of Rev. Thompson, and the Witherspoon Institute. 

The following are among the most prominent towns in the county, and which 
were organized prior to the discovery of oil : 

Prospect is a small place, situated on the old Franklin road, eight miles west 




PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDING, BUTLER. 
[From a Photograph by John P. Orr, Butler.] 



160 BISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

of Butler, and was laid out by Andrew M'Gowan about the year 1805. The 
country surrounding it is well adapted to agriculture. 

Zelienople was laid out by Dr. Bassa Miller about the year 1802 or '3, 
and Harmony, which nearly adjoins it, by the Harmonites at about the same 
time. This latter place is located on the bank of the Conoquenessing creek, 
fifteen miles southwest from Butler. Both of these places are beautifully loca- 
ted in the midst of an extensive valley, and are surrounded by the best farms to 
be found in the county. The people are mostly of German descent, and carrjr 
agriculture to the highest state of perfection. 

Harrisville is located on the old Franklin road, in the north-west corner of 
the county, twenty miles from Butler, and was laid out by Ephraim Harris about 
1802 or 1803. Near this place the Shenango and Allegheny river railroad is 
located, over which is transported an immense quantity' of coal. About one 
mile and a half this side of the town on the railroad are the receiving tanks of 
an oil company, and the oil is pumped from the place of production, put on the 
cars, and taken to Cleveland. 

Centreville is situated on the road leading from Butler to Mercer, and 
about fifteen miles from Butler, north-west. This place was laid out by Stephen 
Cooper, and is now a thriving town. 

MuRRiNSViLLE, situated on the road from Butler to Scrubgrass creek, in 
Yenango county, about twenty miles north of Butler, was laid out by John 
Murrin about the year 1820. In the neighborhood of this place are great bodies 
of cannel coal, and efforts are being made to ship it to the lake cities. 

SuNBURY is situated on the road leading from Butler to Emlenton, and was 
laid out about the year 1820 by John Gilchrist. 

North Washington is situated sixteen miles north-east from Butler on the 
same road, and was laid out about the 3^ear 1810 or '12. 

Fairview, on the road from Butler to the mouth of Bear creek, is 
fourteen miles north-east from Butler, and was laid out by Thomas McClear}-? 
about the year 1830. 

MiLLERSTOWN is in the north-east section of the county, eleven miles from 
Butler, and was laid out by Philip Barnhart about the year 1830. 

Saxenburg is nine miles south-east from Butler, was laid out by John Roeb- 
ling, the famous engineer and bridge builder, in the year 1835. The country 
around is well adapted to agriculture, and some of the best farms in the county 
are to be found in its vicinity. 

Fairview, Martinsburg, and Millerstown, already referred to in consequence of 
the oil development in their immediate vicinity, have grown to be places of note, 
not only in point of population but of business. The latter place especiall}^ has 
become the centre of oil operations, and here can be seen oil tanks containing 
thousands of barrels of oil, immense engines to pump the oil to railroad stations, 
hundreds of laboring men employed in various capacities, together wita many 
others engaged in those various pursuits which follow the development. 

There are small towns in the county, viz. : Martinsburg, Co3'lesville, 
Hannahstown, Brownsdale, Evansburg, Petersville, Mount Chestnut, Unionville, 
Eau Claire, Buena Yista, and some others not necessary to mention. All these 
existed before the oil excitement 




CAMBRIA COUNTY. 

BY ROBERT L. JOHNSTON, EBENSBURQ. 

HE county of Cambria owes its existence to an act of Assembly, 
passed the 26th day of March, 1804. The territory composing it 
was taken from the counties of Huntingdon and Somerset. The 
act provided " That so much of the counties of Huntingdon and 
Somerset, included in the following boundaries, to wit : Beginning at the Cone- 
maugh river, at the south-east corner of Indiana county ; thence by a straight line 
to the Canoe Place, on the West Branch of Susquehanna ; thence easterly along 
the line of Clearfield county to the south-westerly corner of Centre county, on the 
heads of Moshaunon creek ; thence southerly along the Allegheny mountain to 
Somerset and Bedford county lines ; thence along the lines of Somerset and 
Bedford counties about seventeen miles, until a due west course from thence 
will strike the main branch of Paint creek ; thence down said creek, the different 
courses thereof, till it empties into Stony creek ; thence down Stony creek, the 
different courses, to the mouth of Mill creek ; thence a due west line till it inter- 
sects the lines of Somerset and Westmoreland counties ; thence northerly alono- 
said line to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby erected into a 
separate county, to be henceforth called Cambria county." 

The same act provided that the county seat should be fixed by the Legisla- 
ture within seven miles of the centre of the county, and authorized the Governor 
to appoint three commissioners to run and mark the boundary lines. The act 
also provided for future representation in the Legislature as soon as the new 
county should be entitled thereto by an enumeration of its taxable inhabitants ; 
and for the appointment of three trustees to receive proposals for real estate 
upon which to erect the public buildings. 

The act organizing the county for judicial and political purposes was not 
passed until the 26th of January, 1807 ; until which time it was deemed only a 
"provisional" county, and was attached to Somerset county. An act of 
Assembly, passed the 29th of Mai'ch, 1805, fixed the county seat at Ebensburg, 
and appointed John Horner, John J. Evans (both of Cambria county), and 
Alexander Ogle, of Somerset, trustees, to receive a grant of land for the 
public buildings from Rees Lloyd, John Lloyd, and Stephen Lloj^d, who 
donated the square of ground upon which the public buildings now stand. The 
first general election in Cambria count}'^ was held in October, 1807, and from 
thence is dated its full organization. 

The county retains its original boundaries, with the exception of the north- 
western corner, known in the original boundary as Canoe Place, more recently as 
Cherrytree, and now as Grant, the latter being the name of the post office This 
village, lying about equally in Cambria, Clearfield, and Indiana counties, was 

461 



462 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

erected into a borough and annexed to the latter county. Frequent efforts have 
been made to divide the county, both on the extreme south and the extreme 
north, but they have hitherto proved unsuccessful. While the northern and 
southern lines of the county have never been the subject of dispute, the eastern 
and western lines haA^e caused much difficulty. The western line has since been 
re-located, and is now settled. But the greatest trouble was in reference to the 
eastern line. While the act placed it " along the Allegheny mountain," it became 
a matter of great difficulty to trace it, there being no record of the original 
running, and a great portion of the summit of the mountain being without timber 
for axe marks; and the mountain being cloven, so to speak, by immense chasms 
and ravines, it became more a matter of opinion than any certainty where the 
line should actuall}' be run. The inconvenience resulting from this uncertainty 
was remedied by an act of Assembly passed in 1849, appointing Hon. James Gwin, 
of Blair countj^, and E. A. Vickroy, of Cambria county, to run and adjust the 
line ; a duty which was satisfactorily performed during the same year, and a 
record thereof filed in the proper office. 

Thus located, Cambria county occupies the table land lying between the 
summit of the Allegheny mountain and the Laurel Hill, the western line running 
near the western base of the latter elevation, including it, and running in the 
same general direction. And while it is called the " mountain county," it 
embraces, perhaps, more tillable surface than any of the adjoining counties, in 
proportion to its ai'ea. It is bounded by Clearfield, on the north ; Blair and 
Bedford, on the east; Somerset, on the south; and Westmoreland and Indiana, 
on the west. Its length is thirty-five miles, its breadth twenty-one miles ; and 
embraces an area of six hundred and seventy square miles. The position of the 
county is elevated ; for, while the eastern approach to the Allegheny moun- 
tain is abrupt and rugged, the western descent is comparatively gentle. 

Besides the Allegheny and the Laurel Hill, there is no elevation in Cambria 
county that can be dignified with the name of mountain. The Allegheny divides 
Blair and Bedford from Cambria, its direction being north-easterly and south- 
westerly, the whole length of the county. Its greatest altitude is at the southern 
extremity of the county, and thei'e is a gradual falling-off in its height till it 
reaches the northern line. From the centre, north, it abounds in chasms or 
" gaps," known as Blair's gap, Burgoon's gap, Sugar Run gap, and Bell's gap. 
These gaps furnished the sources of the main, or Frankstown branch of the 
Juniata. The Laurel Hill, in western Cambria, pursues the same general 
direction, and loses its character as a mountain before reaching the northern 
boundary. 

Though containing no large stream, Cambria county is well watered. The West 
Branch of the Susquehanna has its rise some eight miles north of Ebensburg, 
leaving the county at Cherrytree, formerly known as Canoe Place. Chest creek 
rises some three miles from Ebensburg, and pursuing a northerly course empties 
into the Susquehanna in Clearfield county. Clearfield creek rises near the 
summit of the mountain, at Gallitzin, flows north, and receiving the Beaver Dam 
Dranch from the west, passes into Clearfield county, and reaches the Susque- 
Hanna below the town of Clearfield. These streams are all declared public 
highways. 



VAMBEIA COUNTY. 463 

The Juniata has its rise from small streams passing through the various gaps 
in the Allegheny, 

The Conemaugh drains southern Cambria. This stream is formed of various 
branches : the Ebensburg branch, arising near the town of that name, and flowing 
south to the village of Wilmore, receives the Cresson branch, which has its 
source near the summit of the Allegheny, and flows in a south-westerly direction. 
Their united waters, pursuing the same direction, are increased by the South 
Fork, which flows nearly due west. At Johnstown it falls into the Stony creek, 
which rises in Somerset county, and flows in a northerly direction thi-ough 
Cambria to its junction with the smaller stream at Johnstown. Their united waters, 
taking the name of the Conemaugh, flow westwardlj'-, and, leaving the county, 
forms the boundary between Indiana and Westmoreland. The southern branch 
of Blacklick has its source north of Ebensburg, and flows west to the line of 
Indiana county, where, receiving an accession in the northern branch, falls into 
the main Blacklick, a few miles west of the county line. The waters that flow 
into the Atlantic, and those that seek the Gulf of Mexico, interlock in alternate 
dells in this county ; and the traveler, at one point on the Ebensburg and Cresson 
railroad, some four miles from the former place, may see from the cars, on the 
one side, a fountain whose waters reach the Gulf of Mexico ; and on the other, 
exactly opposite, another whose waters pass through the Chesapeake bay to the 
Atlantic. 

Cambria county is not distinguished as an agricultural county, her soil being 
better adapted to grazing than grain growing. Still a large portion of the north 
produces excellent crops of wheat ; and the same may be said of the hilly por- 
tion of southern Cambria. The level portion of the county is too cold and 
"spouty" for fall grain, but produces excellent crops of grass. Corn is not a 
favorite of her soil, but oats is produced in abundance. The length and severity 
of the winter is all that hinders her from being one of the finest stock growing 
counties in tlie State. 

Coal underlies the entire surface of the county, and is mined extensively. 
The line of the Pennsylvania railroad, from Gallitzin to Johnstown, more than 
twenty-five miles, is a succession of coal drifts, from which immense quantities of 
the best bituminous coal is shipped, and from which large quantities of coke are 
manufactured. In the north and west the coal is equally abundant, but not so 
extensivel}' worked for want of a convenient market. Near the north-eastern 
line, at Lloydsville, an extensive coal vein has recently been opened, which is 
shipped to the Pennsylvania railroad by a narrow gauge railroad, connecting 
with the former at Bell's Mills. A single deposit of cannel coal, in the western 
portion of the county, was operated a few years since, but is now abandoned. Iron 
ore abounds in many portions of the county, but is onl}^ utilized in the vicinity 
of Johnstown, where immense quantities are mined to supply the furnaces of the 
Cambria iron company. 

The greatest iron and steel manufacturing company in Pennsylvania, if not in 
the world, is located at Johnstown ; and as this company conducts other enter- 
prises, they shall be considered together. An establishment that directly or 
indirectly employs nearly seven thousand persons — men, women, and boys, and 
transacts a business of over ten million dollars a year, deserves separate consi- 



464 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 




deration. While 
the main estab- 
lishment and a 
great bulk of its 
employers are in 
Cambria, its mines, 
furnaces, and lands 
extend to Blair, 
Bedford, and Som- 
erset counties. 

The Coneraaugh 
valley at Johns- 
town is but a few 
hundred feet 
across. In the 
mountain side, to 
the west, lies a deep 
seam of semi-bi- 
tuminous coal, 
which is exposed 
^ all along the road- 
way, extending a 
vast distance, and appar- 
ently inexhaustible. It 
makes splendid coke, and 
is, therefore, invaluable 
for the company's many 
blast furnaces. Under 
this coal mine lies a fine 
bed of water cement. On 
the other side of the val- 
ley, and to the south, are 
vast beds of iron ore, coal? 
and lime-stone, and, im- 
mediately above the blast 
furnaces, a quarry of ex- 
cellent stone. Fourteen 
hundred tons of coal and 
five hundred tons of ore 
are mined from these beds 
every day. With the ex- 
ception of the quantity 
of coal which is sold to 
their employees, the Cam- 
bria Iron company con- 
sume all the coal the}'' 
mine in their mills and 
f ui aaces. As to iron ore, 



CAMBRIA COUNTY. 465 

though they own and are interested in other mines as well (the aggregate of 
the ore and coal lands owned by the company exceeds 50,000 acres), they are, 
nevertheless, large buyers of Lake Superior and other high-classed ores. The 
company produces about three hundred tons of pig-iron a day. The Bessemer 
steel works and rolling mills turn out three hundred tons of iron and steel 
rails in a day ; in a year about seventy thousand tons of iron rails, weighing 
from sixteen to eighty-three pounds to the yard, and thirty-five thousand tons of 
steel rails, weighing from forty-two to sixty-seven pounds to the yard. 

The area of ground covered by these enormous works is over sixty acres, the 
rolling mill alone covering seven acres. In the rolling-mill there are no less than 
seven trains of rolls, these trains each having five pair of rolls. To keep these 
rolls supplied with heated metal requires twenty-eight heating furnaces, while 
forty-two double puddling furnaces furnish the heaters with the puddled bars. 

The Cambria Iron company has already no less than nine blast furnaces in 
operation, producing as previously stated, three hundred tons of pig-iron a day; 
but finding these insufficient for their demands, the}'^ are now erecting another very 
large one near the rolling-mill. Only four of the furnaces arc at Johnstown. Of 
the others, one is at Conemaugh, about two miles from Johnstown ; two are at 
Hollidaysburg, to the south of Altoona ; one is at Frankstown, and another is at 
Bennington, on the summit of the Allegheny mountains, at the point where they 
are crossed by the Penns3dvania railroad. The Johnstown works are marvels in 
their wa3\ For the transportation of the coal and ore from the adjacent mines to 
the blast furnaces and mills, and carrying the pig-iron to the mills, transporting 
the rails, and doing all the heavy work, they have no less than eleven locomotive 
engines of all sizes, from the largest ordinary locomotive down to a little fellow 
about four feet high, called the Dwarf. The railroad track, which is a perfect 
network, would, if constructed in a straight line, extend over thirty- six miles of 
ground. 

Besides these works, Ashland furnace, near the eastern boundary of the 
counts^, and Eliza furnace, on the western line, have been operated ; but both 
were abandoned on account of inconvenience to the market. 

Extensive tanneries are also operated at Johnstown and its vicinity, and also 
at Carrolltown. 

Lumber has been an important article of commerce. In the neighborhood of 
Johnstown, at Ebensburg, at Wilmore, and at other points, vast quantities of 
hard and soft lumber, such as ash, maple, cherr3', poplar, cucumber, etc., have 
been manufactured for the eastern and western markets; and immense quantities 
of hemlock is shipped for building purposes. The shook business is carried on 
extensively in various parts of the county, more particularh'- at Ebensburg, Cone- 
maugh, Summer Hill, and Chest Springs. This is the manufacture of oak timber 
into vessels to be shipped to Cuba and other points for molasses, rum, etc. In 
the north-eastern, northern, and north-western portion of the county the lumber- 
ing busuiess is a heavy element of prosperity. The pine lumber trade in this 
region lias been principally conducted by rafting the timber, sometimes manu- 
factured into boards ; but oftener the squared logs, formed into rafts, down the 
Susquehanna to the eastern market. More recently, however, what is called 
logging has been more generally adopted. This consists in cutting the pine logs 
2 E 




4(i6 



CAMBRIA COUNTY. 467 

into proper lengths, and floating them down the stream, au naturelle^ to the 
market. Timber thus floated pays tribute at the boom at Williamsport, and 
thence pursues its way east. On the most trifling streams this traffic is carried 
on by means of splashes — that is, a dam is constructed over the stream, and the 
water is pent up until it becomes a large body ; the timber is put into the 
stream below; at the proper time the sluices or gates are opened, and the timber 
floated down to the river. There is no township in the county in which the 
lumber business is not pursued with more or less success ; and the growing 
scarcity of the article only enhances the value of what remains. 

Large quantities of butter have also been shipped from Ebensburg, Carroll- 
town, and other points ; while the immense quantity manufactured in the coun- 
try surrounding Johnstown feeds the vast numbers connected with the Cambria 
Iron works. 

Besides the foregoing, the county has derived considerable amount of her 
resources from houses of resort for summer visitors. Of these, notably, is the 
Cresson House. The Cresson Springs now ranks with Saratoga, Bedford 
Springs, and other celebrated watering places. The house is beautifully situated 
on an eminence, directly east of the Pennsylvania railroad station at Cresson, 
and commands a fine view of the mountain scenery. It is calculated to accom- 
modate a thousand visitors, and with its adjoining cottages, has the appearance 
of a beautiful village. It is surrounded with carefully prepared drives and 
delightful walks through the primeval forest ; and St. Ignatius Spring, a highly 
medicinal fountain (named from Ignatius Adams, a pioneer, who formerly 
owned the ground on which it issues), is within a convenient plank walk from the 
main building. Near it are the Mansion House, at Summitville, also a delight- 
ful resort for visitors ; and the Callan House, about a furlong east of the Cresson 
House, on the line of the railroad. 

At Ebensburg, Bellemont is also a favorite resort, filled with strangers every 
season ; while the Lloyd House, directly opposite the Ebensburg station, is a 
delightful resting place for the visitor. At or near Scalp Level, on the southern 
boundary, large numbers of strangers make their annual visit ; while at difl"erent 
points in the county, especially the eastern part of the county, a large number 
of summer boarding houses are put in requisition to accommodate boarders for 
the season. 

In truth, the Allegheny mountain has attractions for summer visitors not to 
be found elsewhere. The high lands of the Alleghenies are entirely exempt from 
fevers and all malarious diseases. The fogs and miasma of lower regions are 
unknown, and a pure atmosphere is the reward of the visitant. A mid-day sun 
here is no less powerful and enervating than in the lower territory, but a cool 
breeze always tempers the atmosphere, while the nights of sweltering heat 
experienced elsewhere is not known in the Alleghenies, where the nights and 
mornings are always cool and invigorating. 

The early settlers of Cambria county may be divided mainly into three classes : 
1. The families of American Catholics from Maryland and the adjacent portion 
of Pennsylvania (some of them descendants of the colony of Lord Baltimore), 
who settled in the eastern and north-eastern portion of the county, mainly in the 
vicinity where Loretto now stands. 2. Pennsylvania Germans, from Somerset. 



468 HISTOR Y OF FMNNS YL VANIA . 

and the eastern German settlements, who occupied the south of the count}', in the 
neighborhood of Johnstown. 3. Emigrants from Wales, who founded Ebensburg 
and Beula, whose descendants still predominate within a radius of five miles of 
the former village. 

1. The earliest actual settlement was made by Michael McGuire, about one 
mile east of the present village of Loretto. The following in relation to this 
settlement was prepared by tne present writer more than thirty-five years ago, 
for Day's "Historical Collections:" 

" Previous to the year 1789, the tract of country which is now included 
within the limits of Cambria county was a wilderness. ' Frankstown settlement,' 
as it was then called, was the frontier of the inhabited parts of Pennsylvania 
east of the Allegheny mountain. None of the pioneers had yet ventured to explore 
the eastern slope of the mountain. A remnant of the savage tribes still prowled 
through the forests, and seized every opportunity of destroying the dwellings of 
the settlers, and butchering such of the inhabitants as were so unfortunate as to 
fall into their hands. The howling of the wolf, and the shrill screaming of the 
catamount or American panther (both of which animals infested the country in 
great numbers at the period of its first settlement), mingled in nightly concert 
with the war-whoop of the savages. It is believed that Captain Michael McGuire 
was the first white man who settled within the present bounds of Cambria 
county. He settled in the neighborhood of where Loretto now stands, in the 
year 1790, and commenced improving that now interesting and well-cultivated 
portion of Allegheny township, a large portion of which is still owned b}^ his 
descendants. Luke McGuire, Esq., and Captain Richaixl McGuire were sons of 
Michael McGuire, and came with him. Thomas Blair, of Blair's gap, Hunting- 
don county, was at this time the nearest neighbor Captain McGuire had. He 
resided at a distance of twelve miles. 

" Mr. McGuire was followed not long afterward by Cornelius Maguire, 
Richard Nagle, Wm. Dotson, Richard Ashcraft, Michael Rager, James Alcorn, 
and John Storm ; the last was of German descent. These were followed by 
others — John Trux, John Douglass, John Byrne, and, we believe, Wm. Meloy. 
Under the auspices of these men, and perhaps a few others, the country improved 
very rapidly. The first grist-mill in the county was built by Mr. John Storm. 
The hardships endured by these sturdy settlers are almost incredible. Exposed to 
the inclemency of an Allegheny winter, against the rigor of which their hastily- 
erected and scantily-furnished huts afforded a poor protection, their sufferings 
were sometimes almost beyond endurance. Yet with the most unyielding 
firmness did these men persevere until they secured for themselves and their 
posterity the inheritance which the latter at present enjoy. Tliere was nothing 
that could be dignified witli the name of road by which the settlers might have 
an intercourse with the settlements of Huntingdon county. A miserable Indian 
path led from the vicinity of where Loretto now stands, and intersected the road 
leading to Frankstown, two or three miles this side of the Summit. 

"Many anecdotes are related by the citizens of Allegheny township of the 
adventures of their heroic progenitors among the savage beasts, and the more 
savage Indians, which then infested the neighborhood. The latter were not slow 
to seize every opportunity of aggression which presented itself to their blood- 



(JAMBBIA COUNTY. 459 

thirst}' minds, and consequently thie inliabitants lield not only property, but life 
itself, by a very uncertain tenure. The truth of the following story is vouched 
for by many of the most respectable citizens in Allegheny and Cambria town- 
ships, by one of whom it has kindly been furnished us for publication. A Mr. 
James Alcorn had settled in the vicinity of the spot where Loretto now stands, 
and had built a hut and cleared a potato patch at some distance from it. The 
wife of Mr. Alcorn went an errand to see the potatoes, and did not return. 
Search was immediately made, but no trace could be found to lead to her disco- 
very. What became of her is to this day wrapped in mystery, and, in all human 
pi-obability, we shall remain in ignorance of her fate. It was generally supposed 
that she had been taken by the savages, and it is even reported that she had 
returned several years after, but this story is not credited by any in the 
neighborhood." 

The advent of the great American missionary priest, Demetrius Augustine 
Gallitzin, gave renewed courage to these poor colonists. He appeared among 
them under the humble name of Smith (his mother's maiden name was Schmettan), 
and commenced his labor with a zeal that knew no flagging for more than forty 
years, when he laid down his life in the midst of his sorrowing flock. 

On his arrival at the scene of his labors in 1799, he had a rude log chapel 
erected, and was constant in his ministrations to the spiritual and temporal wants 
of his people. He wrote several controversial works in the midst of his duties. 
His " Defence of Catholic Principles,'^ " Letter to a Protestant Friend," and 
*' Appeal to the Protestant Public," have a very extensive circulation among 
those professing his faith. He died on the 6th of May, 1840, at Loretto, having 
for forty-two years exercised pastoral functions in Cambria county. He was 
bora in 1770, at Munster, in Germany. His father, Prince de Gallitzin, ranked 
among the highest nobility in Russia. His mother was the daughter of Field- 
Marshal General de Schmettan, a celebrated officer under Frederick the Great. 
Her brother fell at the battle of Jena. Rev. Gallitzin held a high commission in 
the Russian army from his infancy. Europe in the early part of his. life was 
desolated by war — the French revolution burst like a rolcano upon that convulsed 
continent ; it off'ered no facilities or attractions for travel, and it was determined 
that the young Prince dc Gallitzin should visit America. He landed in Baltimore 
in August, 1792, in companj^ Avith Rev. Mr. Brosius. By a train of circumstances 
in ^vhich the hand of Providence was strikingly visible, his mind was directed to 
the ecclesiastical state, and he renounced for ever his brilliant prospects. Already 
endowed with a splendid education, he was 'the more prepared to pursue his 
ecclesiastical studies, under the venerable Bishop Carroll, at Baltimore, with 
facility and success. Having completed his theological course, he spent some 
time on the mission in Marj^land. 

Shortly after (1799) he directed his course to the Allegheny mountains, and 
found that portion of it which now constitutes Cambria county a perfect wilder- 
ness, almost without inhabitants or habitations. After incredible labor and 
privations, and expending a princely' fortune, he succeeded in making "the 
wilderness blossom as the rose." His untiring zeal collected about Loretto, at 
the period of his decease, a Catholic population of three or four thousand. He 
not only extended the church b}' his missionary toils, but also illustrated and 



470 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

defended the truth by several highly useful publications. In this extraordinary 
man we have not only to admire his renunciation of the brightest hopes and 
prospects ; his indefatigable zeal — but something greater and rarer — his wonder- 
ful humility. No one could ever learn from him or his mode of life, what he had 
been, or what he exchanged for jirivation and poverty. 

To intimate to him that you were aware of his condition, would be sure to 
pain and displease him. He who might have revelled in the princely halls 
of his ancestors, was content to spend thirty years in a rude log-cabin, almost 
denying himself the common comforts of life, that he might be able to clothe the 
naked members of Jesus Christ, the poor and distressed. Few have left behind 
them such examples of charity and benevolence. On the head of no one have 
■ been invoked so many blessings from the mouths of widows and orphans. It 
may be literally said of him, "if his heart had been made of gold he would have 
disposed of it all in charity to the poor." 

A memoir of Prince Gallitzin, in the German language, was written many 
years ago by Rev. Peter Henry Lemkd, his successor at Loretto, and by Rev. 
Thomas Heyden, of Bedford, in English, while a full history of his life and 
ministry has been published by Sarah M. Brownson, New York, 1873. 

After Gallitzin's arrival among the colony, he purchased large quantities of 
land which he conveyed to actual settlers at nominal prices. He also laid out 
the village of Loretto, and named it from the religious town of that name on the 
Adriatic. Here he sold the lots, as he sold the farm land, to merchants and 
mechanics, upon the condition that they should be built upon within a certain 
time. 

The settlement thus inaugurated now embraces in whole or in part the town- 
ships of Allegheny, Clearfield, Gallitzin, Munster, Carroll, Chest, and Washing- 
ton, and the villages of Loretto, Chest Springs, St. Augustine, Munster, Gal- 
litzin, and Summitville. Within the territory where stood in 1800 the solitary 
log cabin chapel, there are now six fine churches with flourishing congregations. 

2. The grand source of population was the Pennsylvania German stock. The 
pioneer of these settlers was Joseph Jahns, and those who followed in his wake 
were mostly Tunkers (German Tunken, to dip), and Mennonites, or Amish. Mr. 
Jahns (or Yahns, as he spelled his name), arrived on the scene in 1791. He 
found the site of the present town, an old Indian village, called Kickenapaw- 
ling's old town. The other settlers located in the adjacent county, notably on 
Amish Hill, so named fi'om its colony, and their descendants preponderate to 
the present day in the districts surrounding Johnstown. They are a thrifty, 
honest people ; have their clergy among themselves, rarely patronize the doctor 
— the lawyer, never. 

3. The third settlement was made by a colony of emigrants from Wales. 
Ebensburg and vicinity were not settled for several years after the first settle- 
ment was made at Loretto and Munster. As it lay still further from the more 
eastern settlements than the two latter places, it of course would not so soon be 
occupied by the hardy emigrants. In the fall and winter of 1796, the families of 
Thomas Phillips, William Jenkins, Theophilus Rees, Evan Roberts, Rev. Rees 
Lloyd, William Griflfith, James Nicholas, Daniel Griflflth, John Jones, David 
Thomas, Evan James, and George Roberts ; and Thomas W. Jones, Esq., John 



CAMBRIA COUNTY. 4Y1 

Jenkins, Isaac Griffith, and John Tobias, bachelors, commenced settling in Cam- 
bria township, Cambria county ; and in the following spring and summer the 
families of the Rev. Morgan J. Rees, John J. Evans, William Rees, Simon 
James, William Williams (South), Thomas Griffith, John Thomas, John Rob- 
erts (Penbryn), John Roberts (shoemaker), David Rees, Robert Williams, and 
George Turner, and Thomas Griffith (farmer), James Evans, Griffith Rowland, 
David Edwards, Thomas Lewis, and David Davis, bachelors, followed. There 
were at this time several families living in the vicinity of the places where 
Loretto, Munster, Jefferson, and Johnstown now stand. The settlers above 
named, we believe, were all from Wales. They commenced making improve- 
ments in the different parts of what is now called Cambria township. The name 
which the Welsh emigrants gave to their settlement, Cambria, was derived from 
their former home — the mountainous part of Wales. Cambria township after- 
wards gave name to the county, which was, at the time of which we speak, a 
part of Somerset county. The tract of country on which the Welsh emigrants 
settled had been purchased a year or two previous by the Rev. Morgan J. Rees 
(mentioned above), from Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, and by him sold 
to his Welsh brethren, in smaller tracts. 

The descendants of the Welsh are the principal population at this day of 
Ebensburg borough and Cambria township, while the settlement extends to a 
portion of all the adjoining townships. The colony, under lead of Rev. Rees 
Llo3'd and Rev. George Roberts, were highly successful in their enterprise. 
They were, in religion. Dissenters, or Welsh Independents, and were men of 
strong religious convictions. Their services were at first exclusively in the 
Welsh language, and still preaching is rendered in that tongue in their churches 
The colony, under lead of Rev. Morgan J. Rees, Baptist, settled some two miles 
further west, and founded Beula. They flourished for a few years, but subse- 
quently the town was abandoned. A large Irish emigration subsequently settled 
in what is now Munster and Washington townships, and what is known as 
Hickory Ridge, in Allegheny township. 

In the northern portion of the county settlements were afterwards made, 
both in the present bounds of Carroll township, one known as " Weakland '' 
settlement, the other as " Luther " settlement. These settlers were from the 
eastern counties, as were also those who founded " Glasgow " settlement, in the 
north-eastern portion of the county. In the west, on Laurel hill, Michael Rager, 
a revolutionary soldier, located at an early day, and his descendants occupy a 
large portion of the territory at present. Rev. Peter Henry Lemke, a German 
priest, introduced a colony of German Catholics into the neighborhood surround- 
ing Carrolltown, which is now a rich and thriving population. In more recent 
years there has been a considerable influx from the New England States, noted 
for their enterprise and industry. 

Trouble with the aborigines did not prevail to any great extent within the 
limits of the county. No Indian settlement, except the town of Kickenapawling 
(Johnstown) existed in the county. The rugged and mountainous character of 
the country was not adapted to the habits of the red men, Frankstown, in Blair 
county, and Kittanning, on the Allegheny, were noted Indian villages, and 
Canoe Place, since known as Cherrytree, on the Susquehanna. The north-western 



4Y2 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

corner of Cambria county was known as the head of canoe navigation on the 
Susquehanna. To this point the Indians ascended in their canoes ; wlien, 
drawing them from the stream, the} would strike their trail, through northern 
Indiana to Kittanning. From Frankstown a trail historically known as 
'' Kittanning Path '' passed the eastern line of Cambria county, and pursued a 
north-western direction through the county to Canoe Place, or Cherrytree, 
whence the trail just mentioned was followed to Kittanning. 

It will be seen that Cherrytree was noted as the head of canoe navigation on 
the Susquehanna, and the point of junction of the Indian trails or paths. But it 
obtained greater celebrity, as the northern boundary of the purchase from the 
Indians, at the treaty or purchase made at Fort Stanwix, November 5, 1168. 
That portion of the deed is in these words : " To the heads of a creek which runs 
into the west branch of Susquehanna, which creek is by the Indians called 
Tyadaghton^ and down the said creek on the south side thereof to the said west 
branch of Susquehanna, then crossing the said river, and running up the same 
on the south side thereof, the several courses thereof to the fork of the same 
river, which lies nearest to a place on the river Ohio^ called the Kittanning^ and 
from thence," etc. This purchase included all of Cambria county. 

The Kittanning Path was a well-known landmark. It is often refen-ed to in 
land warrants, was well known to the old surveyors Avho located lands in 
Cambria, as well as our older citizens. In many places it can be traced to this 
day. It gives the name to that triumph of science, the Kittanning point on the 
Pennsylvania railroad, on the declivity of the Allegheny, the path pursuing the 
gap which the road almost encompasses. 

John Hart, a German, who carried on a trade in furs, etc., with the Indians, 
is supposed to be the first white man who traveled this path. Some twelve 
miles north of Ebensburg, on the Dry Gap road, is a spot famous as the place 
where he, with his horse, was wont to spend tlie night ; and the name is 
frequently called Hart's Sleeping to the present time by many of the earlier 
settlers. Tradition gives the name of Hartslog valley, in Huntingdon county, 
to him, from the fact that he there fed his horse in a kerf cxxt in a log. 

An ancient fortification exists near the Beaver Dam branch of Clearfield 
creek, in the north-eastern portion of the count3\ Some A^ears since part of the 
timbers remained, showing its extent and purpose, but the plowshare has nearly 
obliterated the last vestige of it. It was evidentlya stockade or fort for refuge 
against Indian aggression ; but there is no tradition concerning its construction 
or use. 

A short distance further north is a most remarkable windfall. When a 
primeval forest, a hurricane had passed from west to east, and in its force 
levelled every tree witli the ground for nearly a mile in width. Nearh^ forty 
years ago, when first seen by the writer, the appearance was most striking. 
Approaching it from the south, in a summer's day, with a clear sk}^ the narrow 
road led through a dense forest of stately pines, through which the sun never 
reached the head of the traveler, the eyes are at once greeted by a vast opening, 
and, he believes himself, of extensive cultivation. Emerging from the woods, 
he finds himself on an extended plain without a single tree, but a general 
growth of aspen (Trembler), its leaves reflected in the bright sunshine, and a 



CAMBlilA COUNTY. 473 

relief, appearing ethereal, after the dense forest from which he had just emerged. 
The monarchs of the forest had all been uprooted, and small mounds (the earth 
which had adhered to th,e roots) filled the plain, while the last remains of the 
huge forest trees lay crumbling to the eastward, the direction in which the 
hurricane had passed. 

More recent improvements have put all this territory in cultivation, and tlie 
effect of the celebrated windfall is now, in a measure, lost ; but the post office, 
itself " Fallen Timber," keeps alive its memories. 

Cambria county furnished two companies in the war of 1812, commanded 
respectively by Captains Moses Canan and Richard McGuire, wlio were in the 
celebrated Black Rock expedition. Two companies volunteered for the Mexican 
war — the Cambria Guards, of Ebensburg, commanded by Captain James Mur- 
ray, afterwards Captain C. H. Heyer, and the Highlanders, from Summitville, 
commanded by Captain John W. Geary, afterwards Governor of Pennsylvania. 

The history of roads and highways possesses some local interest. Originally 
transportation over the mountain was carried on by packing on horses, and 
traveling b}^ pathways. The nearest mill to the early Ebeusburg settlers was at 
Blair's gap, nearly twenty miles distant. It took a day to reach the mil! with 
the grist on horseback, and after its conversion to flour another day sufficed to 
get it home. The earliest road, if it may be dignified by that name, was known 
as Galbraith's road, which passed south of Ebensburg. From the location of 
the county, however, it necessarily became traversed by the various routes cross- 
ing from the east to Pittsburgh, or Fort Pitt, as it was then called. On the 29th 
March, 1787, an act of Assembly was passed appointing commissioners " to lay 
out a State highway, between the waters of the Frankstown branch of Juniata, 
and the river Conemaugh. This road, still known as the Frankstown .-oad, 
crossing the Allegheny, reaches the Conemaugh at Johnstown. The stream b}' 
the same act was made a ))ublic highway. Portions of this road were changed by 
proceedings in the quarter sessions of the counties through which it passed, by 
act of April 11, 1799. By act of April 13, 1791, amended by act of April 10, 
1792, the Conemaugh and its branches were declared public highways. The act 
of February 13, 1804, declared the Clearfield creek to the great Elk Lick (forks 
of Beaver Dam), a public highwa}^ The act of April 11, 1807, appropiiates 
money to the commissioners of Cambria county, " for improving the State road 
from Beula to Pittsburgh." It is a sad commentary on the historj^ of the 
county, that while Pittsburgh and its environs may number two hundred thou- 
sand, there is not now a solitary house or inhabitant in Beula. The once 
thriving village, two miles west from Ebensburg, and its formidable rival, is now 
entirely deserted, and in many places it is difficult to trace the Slate road, whose 
improvement was in the e3'e of the Legislature. 

The public road referred to passed centrally through Cambria county by 
Munster, Ebensburg, and Beula, and in legislative parlance was known as the 
" road leading from Blair's gap to the western line of the State." All this was 
before the days of turnpikes. On the 4th March, 1807, an act was passed incor- 
porating a company to construct a turnpike " from Harrisburg through Lewis- 
town and Huntingdon to Pittsburgh." A supplement to this act incorporated a 
company for the construction of the " Huntingdon, Cambria, and Indiana Turnpike 



474 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Road," March 20, 1810. A further supplement of February 21, 1814, directed 
that the turnpike should be laid out " from the house of John Blair (Blair's gap), 
on the east side of the Allegheny mountain, on the post road in Huntingdon county, 
by the best and nearest route through Munster and Ebensburg, to the house of 
Martin Rager, on the west side of Laurel Hill." This turnpike was not finished 
for travel for several years after, and passes directly through the centre of the 
county. The Dry Gap road follows the same general direction as the Kittanning 

path, entering the 
county at the gap 
from which it takes 
its name, and ex- 
tending north-west- 
erly to Cherry tree. 
A road was con- 
structed from 
Ebensburg to Phil- 
ipsburg, in Centre 
county, but only a 
portion of it is now 
in use. 

General McCon- 
nell, of revolution- 
ary memory, a re- 
sident of Philadel- 
phia, held a large 
body of land in 
what is now Chest 
township, in north- 
ern Cambria, and 
Mrs. Ruth McCon- 
nell, the widow of 
his son, built a fine 
mansion on the pro- 
perty, and named 
her home Glencon- 
nell. The doors, 
windows, etc., were 
brought from Phila- 
delphia. A road led 
from "the Glen" 
led from Beula to 




VIEW ON THE OLD PORTAGE BOAD. 



to Ebensburg, but has long been disused. A road also 
the town of Somerset, which is now obliterated. 

But the age of improvement sped on. In 1831-32 the Portage railroad, 
ascending the eastern slope of the Allegheny by five inclined planes, up which 
the cars were drawn by stationary engines, and descending on the west by a like 
number, connected at Johnstown and Hollidaysburg with the " Main Line " of 
Pennsylvania improvements. This great achievement (as it was then called) is 



CAMBRIA COUNTY. 475 

superseded by the location of the Pennsylvania railroad, near the same 
line, which enters Cambria through the great tunnel at Gallitzin, and 
leaves the county on the line of Westmoreland and Indiana counties. 

Two natural curiosities worthy of note, existing in this county, deserve brief 
mention. The Conemaugh, in its descent of the mountain, after the accession of 
the South Fork, finds its course arrested by a mighty ledge of rocks, and, turning to 
the right, passes for miles round an elevated plateau, and, returning to within a 
stone's-throw of the place of divergence, pursues its downward career. Immediately 
west of this is the Horse-shoe viaduct, constructed for the Portage railroad, and 
now used by the Pennsylvania railroad. In the same manner the Blacklick, near 
the western line of the county, forms a peninsula. Along the public road tra- 
versing this neck of land is an immense rock, which has been cleft by some 
convulsion of nature, and affords barel}^ room in the crevice, or ci'evasse, for the 
passage of a wagon. The walls of tliis rock are perpendicular on each side, and 
if brought into contact would fit like joiner's work. Passing through this in the 
hottest summer day, the traveler experiences the coolness of an ice-house. Snow 
has been known to remain here till June. 

Ebensburg is the county seat. It is situated in the precise geographical 
centre of the county. The Northern turnpike passes through its principal street ; 
is connected with Indiana by a turnpike road, and a branch railroad connects it 
with the Pennsylvania railroad at Cresson. It has also public roads leading to 
Carrolltown. Loretto, and Wilmore. Ebensburg was laid out about the beginning 
of the present century by Rev. Rees Lloyd, who gave it the name of his eldest 
son, Eben. He also conveyed, in trust, the square upon which the public build- 
ings now stand. The court house is a venerable building, wherein justice is still 
"judicially administered," but is by no means creditable to the town or the 
county. The jail is one of the finest and most massive, and safe, of any in the 
State. An academy also stands upon the public grounds ; but is now used as a 
public school. Water works are in course of erection. The Sisters of St. 
Joseph have a Catholic school for boys, in a flourishing condition. The first 
court was held in the building known as the " Old Red Jail." The court room 
was above stairs — the prison below. It was here that Jemmy Farral, being 
sentenced for contempt of the court above, was seized with a devotional fit, and 
sang so lustily that the court was compelled to adjourn until his term of probation 
expired. Ebensburg was created a borough in 1825. 

Johnstown, with its aggregation of surrounding municipalities, eight in 
number, embraces a population of 13,842. These are, Johnstown proper, Cone- 
maugh, Millville, Cambria, Prospect, East Conemaugh, Franklin, Coopersdale, 
and Woodvale. Johnstown proper is situated at the confluence of Conemaugh 
oreek with Stony creek, two of its wards, lying on the west side of the latter, 
and formerly known as Kernville. It is connected with its Kernville wards by 
a fine bridge across Stony creek, while a like structure crosses the Conemaugh, 
connecting the town with the Pennsylvania railroad and the Cambria iron 
works. Its location, as before stated, is on the site of Kickenapawling's Indian 
town, and was laid out by Joseph Jahns, before referred to, whence it derives its 
name. While the town itself lies mostly on a level plateau, it is surrounded on 
three sides by high and precipitous hills. The town is well paved, but the drainage 



ilG 



HISTOET OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



of a portion is very difficult. It is supplied with excellent water from Wild 
Cat run, on Laurel Hill; and recently additional supplies have been secured 
from the Conemaugh, 

It is distinguished for the number and excellence of its churches. The Bap- 
tists, Catholics, Disciples, Episcopalians, Methodists, Lutherans (English and 
German), Presbyterians, and United Brethren have each fine church edifices. 
Sandy Yale Cemetery is beautifully situated and tastefidly ornamented. It is 

the chief burial place, im- 
mediately above town, on 
Stony creek. There are two 
elegant places of amuse- 
ment, the town hall and 
opera house ; a splendid 
market house ; one daily 
newspaper and three weekly 
^ newspapers, two English 
and one German. Formerly 
the borough was the con- 
necting point of railroad 
and canal transportation, 
and had a large number of 
warehouses for the deposit 
and transhipment of mer- 
chandise. These are all 
abandoned now, or con- 
verted to other purposes. 

Carrolltown, ten miles 
north of Ebensburg, is a 
prosperous borough, con- 
taining mainly German 
Catholic inhabitants. It 
boasts a very large and ele- 
gant Catholic church ; and 
close by, a Benedictine con- 
vent. Immediately west of 
c..^ town stands a fine brick structure — the Benedictine monastery. Father 
Lemk6', a German priest, was the founder of the town, and an association known 
as the De Lemke Society perpetuates his name and his virtues. An extensive 
tannery, a brewery, and other manufactures, add to the prosperity of the 
village. The borough is in Carroll township. 

CoNEMAUGii borough adjoins Johnstown, from which it is only divided by an 
imaginary line, in appearance it being the same town. In 18t0 it contained 2,336 
inhabitants. It lies above Johnstown on the Conemaugh side. It has an indus- 
trious and thriving population, the majority being laborers. 

MiLLVTLLE is directly opposite Johnstown, fronting on the Conemaugh above 
and below its junction with the Stony creek. The immense iron and steel works 
of the Cambria iron company, alluded to in the early portion of this sketch, are 




OATHOIilC CHUEGH AND CONVENT AT CARKOLLTOWN. 

[From a Photograijh by P L. Eck.l 



CAMBEIA COUNTY. 



ill 



here located. The bulk of the inhabitants are operatives in these works. It has 
a population of 2,500. 

Cambria borough lies opposite Millville, on the Conemaugh. Like it, it is 
mostly inhabited by operatives in the mills. East Conpmaugh and Franklin 
lie two miles higher up the Conemaugh, the stream dividing the two boroughs. 
The works of the Pennsylvania railroad company are located here, and these 
villages are mainly inhabited by those in the employ of the company. Between 
these points and Conemaugh borough, the village of Woodvale is situated. 
Here are located the extensive woolen mills of the Cambria iron company. A 
short distance below Cambria borough, on the Conemaugh, is Coopersdale. 
Prospect borough occu- 
pies the northern ascent 
from the Conemaugli, and 
is mainly inhabited by em- 
ployees at the iron works. 
LoRETTO, founded by 
Prince Gallitzin, is one of 
the oldest villages in the 
county. It contains a large 
Catholic church edifice, in 
front of which repose the 
remains of the pious foun- 
der, surmounted by a 
monument. The convent 
of St. Aloysius, under the 
ausi)ices of the Sisters of 
Mercy, is a very imposing building, and has bad the highest success as an 
educational establishment. The Franciscan Monastery, on an eminence west 
of tlic town, is also a large and handsome structure, known as St. Francis, 
school for young men. It is situate in Allegheny township. 

Chest Springs, on the Dry Gap road, partly in Allegheny, partly in Clear- 
field township, owes much of its prosperity to a Xew England colony, engaged in 
the manufacture of shook and other lumber. It has a large steam planing mill. 
WiLMORE, on the Pennsylvania railroad and Conemaugh creek, in Summer Hill 
township, is largely engaged in the lumber trade. 

SuMMiTViLLE, ou the mountain, in Washington township, was incorporated as 
a borough during the palmy days of the "Old Portage railroad," and continued 
to thrive during its existence. On its abandonment the town declined. It is 
now a favorite summer resort, on account of the grateful mountain breezes. 

Among other villages may be noted — Adamsburo, in Adams township; Bel- 
SENO, on the Indiana turnpike, in Blacklick township ; St. Laavrence and St. 
BoNiFACius, in Chest township, each of which boasts a handsome Catholic 
church ; St. Augustine, in Clearfield township, with a large Catholic church; 
Summer Hill, in Croyle township, with a large lumbering establishment; 
Gallitzin borough, at west end of Pennsylvania railroad tunnel, so named from 
Prince Gallitzin ; Fairview, in Jackson township, on the Johnstown road ; 
MuNSTER, on the Northern turnpike, in township of same name; Plattville, in 




ST. aloysius' college, LORETTO. 



478 



HIS TOR Y OF P ENN b TL VANIA . 



Susquehaiinti township; Hemlock and Poetage, in Washington township, on 
Pennsylvania railroad ; and Lloyds ville, in White township. The last is a 
village of recent growth, at the terminus of the Bell's Mill narrow gauge railroad, 
where the mining of coal is carried on very extensively. 

The deserted village of Beula has already been mentioned. Originally laid 
out with the dimensions of a city — afterwards the formidable rival of Ebensburg; 
the loss of the county seat, and the changed location of the Northern turnpike, 
left it without resources and without hope, and it went into rapid decay. At 
this time the site of the "deserted village," as shown the visitor by the "oldest 
inhabitant," is all that remains of the once prosperous Beula. 

Cambria county, with Blair and Huntingdon, constitutes the twenty-fourth 
judicial district, Hon. John Dean, presiding ; and is attached to the Western 
district of Supreme Court, sitting at Pittsburgh. With Blair, Bedford, and 
Somerset, she forms a Congressional district. With Blair county she elects a 
Senator, and is entitled to two members of the House of Representatives. 




FEMAIiB SEMINABY AT •WASHINGTON. 



CAMERON COUNTY 



BY JOHN BROOKS, SINNEMAHONINO. 

AMERON Count}', named for the Hon. Simon Cameron, was organized 
by act of Assembly, March 29, 1860, from parts of Clinton, Elk, 
M'Kean, and Potter counties. It contains four hundred square miles, 
nd is within the purchase of October 23, 1784, liuown as the New 
Purchase. It lies in latitude norili 41° 30', and longitude from Greenwich west 
78° 30', and among the spurs of the Alleghenies, and on the eastern slopes 









VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OP EMPORIUM. 

thereof. The mountain ridges rise here to an altitude of 2,100 feet above tide 
water. 

The Sinnemahoning river and its branches and small creeks drain nearly all 
the area of the county, and are debouched into the West Branch of the 
Susquehanna. 

The surface of the land within this county is much broken and rugged, 
occasionally interspersed with plateaus of table land upon the summits. These 
are mostly found in the middle and western parts of the county. The third 
bituminous coal basin passes into this county, a little north of the middle part, lying 
in a nortli-easterly and south-westerly direction, in which is found five workable 
veins of bituminous coal, and a vein of iron ore. The eastern part of the county 

479 



480 HISTOB Y OF FENNS TL VANIA. 

lies chiefly upon the crest or anticlinal axis between the second and third bitumi- 
nous coal basins. The surface in this section is broken, lying in ridges and 
abrupt slopes and cliffs, and on which are found boulders and fragments of the 
conglomerate rock No. 12, which attains the thickness of one hundred feet in 
many places. Underlying this strata of conglomerate is found the out-croppings 
of a vein of iron ore (by some called brown hematite), and believed to be from 
four to five feet in thickness, but as yet not definitely ascertained. 

The river flats or bottoms are alluvial and fertile. The uplands are mostly of 
the red shale and fire-clay soils, and are fertile and adapted to produce all the 
cereals and grasses of the latitude exuberently. 

The forests of this count}'^ contain a dense growth of white pine, white oak, 
and hemlock timber, with otlier varieties of oaks and pines, elms, butternut, 
sugar maple, cherry, etc., excepting those parts which have been devastated by 
the axe-man and the forest fires of the last half century. 

Previously this county limit afforded the Indian inhabitants superior fishing 
and hunting grounds. The pure soft silvery waters teemed with the salmon, 
shad, pike, eel, trout, and other varieties of the finny tribe, and the forests 
abounded with elk, deer, black bear, raccoon, squirrels, wild turkey, pheasants, 
&c., all of which were evidently provocatives to the gastronomy of the Indian 
youths and maidens of the seventeenth and previous centuries. The pioneer 
families who migrated to this section of country early in the present century 
subsisted largely iipon the abundance thus afforded. At this period it did not 
require the science or skill of a Nimrod and an Isaak Walton to furnish their 
tables with " bounteous supplies." The verdant Esau and the piscatory adventurer 
or tyro alike succeeded, so easily were these necessaries of life obtained. The 
resources of Cameron county are chiefly the productions of the forests, the 
manufacture of lumber and of leather being the principal vocations. Agricul- 
ture (as in most all lumbering sections of country) has been sadly neglected. 
This has been disastrously true of the county of Cameron. 

Three railroads pass into or through this county. The Philadelphia and Erie 
railroad passes through, and has about forty miles of grade within the county 
The Buffalo, Philadelpliia, and New York railroad passes into the county a dis- 
tance of about fourteen miles, and forms a junction with the Philadelphia and Erie 
railroad at Emporium ; and the Allegheny Yalley (low grade) railroad passes into 
the county about ten miles, and forms a junction with the Philadelphia and Erie 
railroad at Driftwood. 

The Cameron coal company have been producing and marketing coal occa- 
sionally for the twelve years past. Two large tanneries have been established 
within the county, consuming some eight thousand cords of bark annually, 
and manufacturing over sixty thousand sides of sole leather. Principally the 
hemlock bark is used by these tanneries. 

The first settlements made within the limits of Cameron county were made 
in the years 1809 to 1815 inclusive. In 1809-10 Andrew Overdorf, Levi Hicks, 
Jacob Burge, John Earl, and John Jordan moved their families here and made 
impi'ovements. In 1811-12 Joseph Mason, John Ramage, Stephen Berfield, 
Isaac McKisson, John Spangler, and Adam Logue made settlements. In 1813-14 
Benjamin Brooks, Wm. A. Wykoff, James Shafer, Joseph Brooks, and John 



CAMETtON COUNTY. 481 

Sheffer migrated to this section, and made improvements. In 1815-16 David 
Crow, Elihu Chadwick, Brewster Freeman, Robert Lewis, A. Housler, J. 
Brittaiu, and others came with their families. The early settlers were generally 
a hardy, active, energetic " go-ahead " class of people, hailing mostly from 
eastern and middle Pennsylvania, from the State of New Jersey-, and from the 
New England States. They, as a class, though rude, were honest in their 
dealings ; though boorish, were hospitable and generous. Occup3'ing, as they 
did, the remote outskirts of civilization, they were subjected to many privations, 
the more especiall}' in this rugged section of country, without roads, except the 
Indian's trail, and the only mode of ingress and egress being by canoes and small 
boats. These early pioneers brought their families and goods in canoes up the 
Susquehanna river and* the Sinnemahoning, propelled by manual force against 
the rapid current of the streams. These canoes were generally manned by a 
steersman and a bowsman, who with steel-pointed setting-poles placed upon the 
bottom of the stream upon which they threw their whole weight and force and 
thereby propelled tbeir canoes forward, and by continued and repeated processes 
and propulsions, they frequently made twenty-five miles a day against the 
current, carrying in their canoes from three-fourths to one ton at a trip. On 
some occasions, in case of low water in the streams, the boat crew would be 
compelled to remove the gravel and fragments of rock from the line of their 
course, and wade for miles at a time in the stream, carrying and dragging their 
boats forward by their almost superhuman strength. Such frequent exercise of 
course developed an unusual vigorous muscle, and it would seem almost fabulous 
to describe the extraordinary feats frequently performed by these athletics of 
pioneer life. 

The first settlers were not a migratory people. Their descendants (with the 
exception of that of McKisson) continue to reside in this region, at the present 
time, and many of them within the limits of Cameron county. These families were 
generally robust and fruitful. As an instance of this, may be mentioned the 
family of Mr. Benjamin Brooks, whose descendants, now living, number four 
hundred and fifty-eight persons, three-fourths of which number reside within a 
radius of twenty miles from the point where their ancestor first landed in this 
county. The majority of these early settlers could read, but had not much 
education ; had no schools for mau}'^ j^ears, and the education of their children, 
for a time, was neglected. Several of these pioneers had done efficient service in 
the Revolutionary war, and some in the war of 1812. Almost all the vocations 
of the industrial classes were represented, and all could aid in the work of 
extemporizing a cabin for the accommodation of the recent immigrant. Among 
these early settlers there were but few who professed Christianity practically. 
Most of them, however, held some theory of religion, mostl}^ Baptist or Presby- 
terian in their views. Profanitj^ Avas the common spice of conversation, and God 
was, if " not in all their thoughts," in all their mouths ; and invoked by way of 
execrations and imprecations more frequently' than by benedictions. The use of 
whiskey was general ; some families of more recent emigration alwa3"S kept 
whiskey in the house, but kept no cows, alleging that a barrel of whiskey in a 
family was of more value than a cow. 

At this early period flax was much cultivated, and sheep raised ; and home- 
2 F 



482 HISTOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

spun and woven manufactured fabrics, dyed with butternut and garden madder, 
constituted the greater part of the apparel of all the classes. The sugar maple 
furnished the sugar, and the pumpkin the molasses, for general use. Coffee was 
made from rye, wheat, acorns, chestnuts, and peas; tea from the spice-bush, the 
sassafras root, and from the aromatic plants of the kitchen garden. 

The Indians made frequent visits to this section of country for many years 
during its first occupation by the whites. The}' were, however, peaceable, and if 
they indulged in a spree, they always had one sober Indian to care for the others. 
In this they were more discreet than many of the whites. 

The celebrated battle of Peter Grove with the Indians took place at the 
mouth of a small creek called Grove's run, which empties into the Sinnemaho- 
nmg, about three-quarters of a mile above the mouth of the first fork of Sinnema- 
honing. This occurred long before this region was settled by the whites, the 
frontier being Sunbury. The Groves, Peter and Michael, resided about two 
miles east of Mifflinburg, in Buffalo valley, Union county. Peter Grove's 
father had been massacred by the Indians, who had exhibited contortions 
of the face to Peter Grove, thereby indicating how his father had made 
such contortions while being scalped. Peter Grove swore eternal vengeance on the 
murderers, and followed the party of Indians, pursuing them through the wilder- 
ness, until they had encamped for the night at the mouth of this small creek. 
Grove and his party of four men, among whom was a brother of his, observed 
from the summit of the fork hill of Ellicott's run, about two miles east of the 
encampment, their locality. Seeing their camp fires from his elevated position, 
he and his party approached the Indian encampment stealthily', and found them 
near a small pond and large spring of water, on or near the bank of the river, 
and near the mouth of the small creek, or Grove's run. The Indians had stacked 
their guns against a large oak tree ; their tomahawks were sticking in the bark of 
a large limb that grew from the oak, quite within their reach. While all the 
Indians except one, who sat as a sentinel, were asleep at the foot of the oak tree, 
or near thereto, Peter Grove, after reconnoitering, learned their position, and 
after having instructed his men as to the manner of attack, they all fired except 
one man, and rushed upon the Indians, who had been surprised, seized part of 
their arms, and threw them into the pond of water near the encampment. Several 
Indians had been killed in the attack, and the remainder had been routed. Soon, 
however, after the Grove party left, the Indians had rallied in pursuit, and were 
seen descending the valle}'' of the Susquehanna, below the mouth of the Sinne- 
mahoning. Peter and his men having back-tracked themselves at this point, 
had waded up the bed of the Susquehanna, and from the mountain-top observed 
the Indians on the trail ; but, mistaking the route of Grove's part}', they went 
down the valley, while Peter and his party crossed through the mountains, and 
the second day thereafter saw the Indians where Lock Haven now is, from the 
Bald Eagle mountains. Grove and his men then passed their way to the settle- 
ment in Buffalo valley. About the year 1820 the pond at the mouth of the creek 
was drained, and a gun barrel and lock found, which had not been recovered by 
the Indians. The marks of the dozen tomahawks, made in the limb of the old 
oak tree, were visible, and were to be seen until the tree fell into the river by the 
constant washings of the bank where it stood. The tree fell about the year 1835. 



GAM EBON VUUNTT. 483 

Among the incidents that pertain to this county, the following may be 
noticed: In the year 18Y3 excavations were being made for a cellar under the 
post office building, at Sterling run, in this count3^ The building had been 
removed from its former site about forty feet, and hence the demand for the 
excavations for a cellar under the building at its new site. Mr. Earl, the 
proprietor of the grounds, in making these excavations found human bones, and 
proceeded the more carefully to continue his excavations, which, when completed, 
disclosed seventeen skeletons, evidently of Indian origin. All except two were 
of ordinary grown stature, while one measured over seven and a half feet from 
the cranium to the heel-bones. The bones had all remained undisturbed. They lay 
with their feet toward each other in a three-quarter circle, that is, some with their 
heads to the east, and then north-easterly to the north, and then north-westerly 
to the west. There had been a fire at the centre, between their feet, as ashes and 
coals were found there. The skeletons, except one smaller than the rest, were 
all as regularly arranged as they would be naturally in a sleeping camp of 
similar dimensions; the bones were many of them in a good state of preservation, 
particularly the teeth and jaw-bones, and some of the leg-bones and skulls. The 
stalwart skeleton had a stoneware or clay pipe between his teeth, as naturally as 
if in the act of smoking; by his side was found a vase or urn of earthenware, or 
stoneware, which would hold about a half gallon. This vessel was about one- 
thix'd filled with a somewhat granular substance like chopped up tobacco stems 
or seeds. The vase had no base to stand upon, but was of the gourd-shape and 
rounded ; its exterior had corrugated lines crossing each other diagonallv from 
the rim. The rim of the vase had a serrated or notched form, and the whole gave 
evidence that it had been constructed with some skill and care, y^t there was a 
lack of beauty of form or symmetry, which the race were at that period evidently 
ignorant of. 

The skeletons were covered about thirty inches deep, twenty-four inches of 
which was red shale clay, or good brick clay. The top six inches was soil and 
clay, which, doubtless, had been formed from the decayed leaves of the forest for 
centuries. This ground had been heavily timbered. When the first clearing was 
made upon it, in 181S, there had not grown immediately over or upon this spot 
any very large treryj, as no roots of trees had disturbed the relics, yet the timber 
in the immediate vicinity had been very large white pine and oak. This spot had 
been plowed and cultivated since 1818, and had been used as a garden for the last 
preceding ten years. I visited the ground, and examined the locality and position 
of all the skeletons. One, the smallest, had been in the erect or crouched position, 
in the north-west corner of the domicile. The most reasonable theory is that this 
was their habitation; that their hut had been constructed of this clay, as the sur- 
rounding grounds were gravelly, as was also the bottom of this spot. It would 
seem that the gravel had been scooped away, or had been excavated to the depth 
of two feet, and that there had been a hut constructed of clay over the excava- 
tion, and that while reclining in their domicile some electric storm had in an 
instant extinguished their lives, and at the same time precipitated their mud 
or clay hut upon them, thus securing them from the ravages of the beasts of the 
forest. 

Emporium borough, the county seat of Cameron, was incorporated 13th Octo- 



484 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

ber, 1864. It has a court house and jail, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, and a 
Catholic chuich, a graded school building, one tannery, two saw mills, o^e 
planing mill, and one grist or flouring mill. The Philadelphia and Erie railroad 
passes through the town, and the Buffalo and Philadelphia and New York rriil- 
road forming a junction therewith. The town is situated on the Driftwood 
branch, at the junctions of the Portage creek and West creek with the Drift- 
wood 

Driftwood borough was incorporated IVth Januar}', 18t2. It is located at 
the junction of the Driftwood and Bennett's branches of the Sinneraahoning. It 
was formerly called '" Second Forks." The junction of the Allegheny Vah.jy 
railroad with the Philadelphia and Erie railroad is at this place. The town lus 
two churches, one Union and one Catholic. 

The borough of Cameron is not organized. It is at the mouth of Hunt's rua, 
in Lumber township, and is the head-quarters of the Cameron coal company, who 
have offices here. The mills of the Hunt's Run lumber company are situated 
here. The town took its name from the post office, which was named in honor oi 
General Cameron, who contributed the court house bell, thereby acknowledging 
the compliment. 

Sterling Run is in Lumber township, situate at the mouth of Sterling run. 
There are several mills and a tannery in the vicinit}', and the lands upon this run 
or creek comprise the greater part of the coal lands in the county, and are owned 
by Ario Pardee, Hazelton, Noyes & Whiting, and the Simpsons, of New York. 
The town site was owned and laid out by one Brooks, called Philosopher Brooks, 
who was a surveyor, a real estate dealer, and lumberman, and who built many 
houses and mills, and had in his employ hundreds of men and scores of teams. 

SiNNEMAHONiNO is a village extending from the mouth of the first fork of Sin- 
nemahoning, or east fork, up to the mouth of Grove's run, and takes in the 
station on the Philadelphia and Erie railroad called b}^ that name. The greater 
part of the town is near the battle ground of Peter Grove and the Indians, and 
is called by some " Battle Grove," and by others " Enterprise." This town was 
laid out and owned by the person known as Philosopher Brooks. The town is 
partly in the township of Grove and partly in the township of Gibson. 

Organization of Townships. — Lumber township was organized while in 
Clinton county. It is the third township from the east line of the county; lies 
on the Driftwood branch of Sinnemahoning ; includes the villages of Cameron 
and Sterling Ilun. The first settlers in the township were John Spangler, Wm. 
Sterling, and John Sheff'er, some of whose descendants still reside in the town- 
ship. 

SnippEN township is the north-western township in the count}^ and lies on 
West creek. Driftwood, North creek, and Lower Portage creek. The borough of 
Emporium was taken out of this township. Prominent early citizens were Elihu 
Chadwick, Brewster Freeman, John Earl, R. Lewis, A. Housler, and John Chand- 
ler. 

Portage township lies on the Upper Portage waters, and adjoining Potter 
county, of which it was a part. The Buff"alo railroad passes through this town- 
ship. There was a salt manufactory established here about 1833, now abandoned. 
The prominent early citizen was Hiram Sizen, who made the first improvement 



(JAMERON COUNTY. 



485 



ana settlement, and built the first grist mill and wooden bowl manufactory, about 
1828. His descendants still reside in the township. 

Gibson Township, named in honor of Colonel George Gibson, was organized 
while in Clearfield count}', and lies next to Grove township on the west, and 
west of the line of Houston's district, which, running north and south, passes 
across the Sinnemahoning, about three-fourths of a mile above the mouth of 
the first fork, and near the mouth of Grove's run. Driftwood borough was taken 
from this township. Salt was made here in 1815-16. It has two post offices 
and six school houses, and four railroad stations. Prominent early citizens 
were Joseph Mason, John Jordan, Benjamin Brooks, and others, descendants of 
whom still reside in the township. 

Grove Township, named in honor of Peter Grove, was established while the 
territory was in Lycoming county, before Clinton county was organized. It is 
the most easterly township in the county of Cameron. It lies principally on the 
east branch of the Sinnemahoning, or what is called the first fork. The first 
settlement made in the limits of the county of Cameron was made in this and 
Gibson townships. It has three post offices and one railway station. Among its 
early citizens were James Shafer, John Ramage, and William A, Wykoff. 




CHAMKLEON FALLS, GLEN ONOKO, CARBON COUNTIT. 



CARBON COUNTY. 




[With acknowledgments to Robert Klotz, Mauch. Chunk.'] 

jARBON county was formed by an act of Assembly, passed March 13, 
1843, out of parts of Northampton and Monroe counties. The 
commissioners appointed by the Governor to form the county were 
Charles W, Higgins, of Northumberland county, William J. B. 
Andrews, of Clearfield county, and John B. Brodhead, of Pike county. The 
original townships were East Penn, Upper Towamensing, Lower Towamensing, 

Mauch Chunk, and 
Lausanne, from North- 
ampton county, and 
the township of Penn 
Forest, from Monroe 
county ; since which 
time the following 
clianges have been 
made by sub-division 
of townships and new 
townships formed, viz. : 
Franklin [1852]; Ma- 
honing, Packer [1854] ; 
Banks, Lehigh [1872]; 
Kidder [1851]; mak- 
ing in all twelve town- 
ships, within which 
there are six boroughs, 
each having their own 
officers entirely inde- 
pendent of the town- 
ships from which they 
were taken, viz . : 
Mauch Chunk, East 
Mauch Chunk, Lehigh- 
ton, Weatherly, Weiss- 
port, and Parryville, 
The county is near- 




ly square, or about 



CARBON COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MAUCH CHUNK. 

[From a Photograph bj James Zellaer, Uauch Chunk.] 

twenty miles each wa}', 
and is a very mountainous and wild region, with about one-third of the land 
adapted to agriculture. It is about equally divided by the Lehigh river, and 
is watered by a number of important and picturesque streams, the most promi- 

486 



GABBON COUNTY. 487 

nent of which ai'e the Aquancshicola, Lizard, Poho-Poko or Big creek, Mahoning, 
Nesquehoning, and Quakake creeks. 

The principal productions of the county are coal and lumber, and the outlets 
from the county to the markets are by the canal of the old Lehigh Coal and 
Navigation company' (which had its commencement in this county), and the 
Lehigh Valley, and the Lehigh and Susquehanna railroads. 

The first discovery of coal in the valley of the Lehigh was by a hunter named 
Philip Ginter, in 1791, on the top of Sharp mountain, now the site of the town 
of Summit Hill, nine miles north-west of Mauch Chunk. Making known his 
discovery to Colonel Jacob Weiss, residing at what is now known as Weissport, 
the latter took a specimen of it to Philadelphia, and submitted it to the inspec- 
tion of Messrs, John Nicholson, Michael Hillegas, and Charles Cist, who were so 
well satisfied as to its merits, that in 1792 they, with some others, formed them- 
selves into what was called the Lehigh Coal Mine company. Without charter or 
incorporation, the}' took up eight or ten thousand acres of unlocated land, 
including the Sharp mountain. The company proceeded to open the mines, and 
made an appropriation of ten pounds to construct a road to the landing, a 
distance of nine miles. The mines were not worked to any extent, owing to the 
poor encouragement they received, until after the commencement of the war of 
1812. They afterwards gave leases of their mines to difi'ercnt individuals in 
succession, the last of which was owned by Messrs. Cist, Miner, and Robinson, 
who started several arks of coal to Philadelphia, onl}^ three of which reached 
the city. They abandoned the business, disheartened by the public incredulity, in 
1815. People would neither purchase it (or, when they did, would afterwards 
complain of being imposed upon), nor take it as a gift. At the solicitation of 
Colonel Weiss, an attempt was made, by permission of the Philadelphia city 
authorities, to burn it under the boilers at the water-works ; but it was declared 
that it only served to put the fire out, and the remainder was therefore broken up 
and scattered on the sidewalks in place of gravel. In the light of its present 
universal use, it is most amusing to recall the persistent discredit with which 
the public looked upon it in the beginning. Hand-bills were printed in English 
and German, stating the method of burning it, and including cer'Jficates from 
blacksmiths and others who had successfully used it. Sometimes journeymen 
were bribed to try the experiment fairl}'^, so averse were they to any innovation 
of this kind. Luckily, charcoal became scarce and costly, and thus at length 
some were the more easily induced to test the new commodit^^ ; but it was many 
years before capitalists were led to put much faith in it as a profitable invest- 
ment. The expenses of hauling from the mines and of transportation to the 
city were very great, so that in the early experiments coal cost the shippers 
about fourteen dollars a ton when read^^ for sale in Philadelphia. 

In July, 1818, the Lehigh Navigation company, and in October of the same 
year, the Lehigh Coal company were formed, which together were the foundation 
of the present Lehigh Coal and Navigation company. The improvement of the 
Lehigh was commenced in August, 1818, and under the skillful and energetic 
management of Josiah White, Erskine Hazard, and George F. A. Hanto, the 
almost insuperable obstacles in the way of the river's navigation and the trans- 
portation of coal were at length overcome, and the success of the settlements 



488 E18T0B Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

of Mauch Chunk and vicinity assured. Several incidents connected with this 
development of the coal trade are of such interest that we append them : 

The Legislature were early aware of the importance of the navigation of the 
Lehigh, and in 1771 passed a law for its improvement. Subsequent laws for the 
same object were enacted in 1791, 1794, 1798, 1810, 1814, and 1816. A company 
was formed under one of them, which expended upwards of thirty thousand dollars 
in clearing out channels, one of which they attempted to make through the ledges 
of slate which extend across the river, about seven miles above Allentown ; but 
they found the slate too hard to pick, and too shelly to blow ; and at length 
considered it an insuperable obstacle to the completion of the work, and relin- 
quished it. In 1812, Messrs. White & Hazard, who were then manufacturing wire 
at the Falls of Schuylkill, induced a number of individuals to associate and apply 
to the Legislature for a law for the improvement of the river Schuylkill. The 
coal, which was said to be on the head waters of that river, was held as an induce- 
ment to the Legislature to make the grant, when the senator from Schuylkill 
county asserted that there was no coal there — that there was a kind of " black 
stone " that was " called " coal, but that it would not burn. 

During the war, Virginia coal became very scarce, and Messrs. White & 
Hazard having been told by Joshua Malin that he had succeeded in making use 
of Lehigh coal in his rolling mill, procured a cart load of it, which cost them one 
dollar per bushel. This quantity was entirely wasted without getting up the 
requisite heat. Another cart load of it was however obtained, and a whole night 
spent in endeavoring to make a fire in the furnace, when the hands shut the fur- 
nace door and left the mill in despair. Fortunately one of them left his jacket 
in the mill, and returning for it in about half an hour, noticed that the door was 
red hot, and upon opening it, was surprised at finding the whole furnace at a glow- 
ing white heat. The other hands were summoned, and four separate parcels of 
iron were heated and rolled by the same fire, before it required renewing. The 
furnace was then replenished, and as letting it alone had succeeded so well, it was 
concluded to try it again, and the experiment was repeated with the same result. 
In 1821 and 1822, the quantities of coal produced were so much increased that 
the public became secure of a supply; and its own good qualities, together with 
its reasonable price, gave it an extensive and rapidly increasing demand. At 
this period, anthracite coal may be said to be permanently introduced into use. 
In 1824, the Lehigh company reduced the price of coal to seven dollars. In 
1825, coal first came to Philadelphia by the improved navigation of the Schuyl- 
kill — the quantity was five thousand three hundred and seventy-eight tons. The 
year following sixteen thousand two hundred and sixty-five tons of coal were 
transported on the Schuylkill, and thirty-one thousand two hundred and eighty 
tons on the Lehigh. 

Nature did not furnish enough water, by the regular flow of the river, to keep 
the channels at the proper depth, owing to the very great fall in the river, and 
the consequent rapidity of its motion. It became necessary to accumulate water 
hy artificial means, and let it oflF at stated periods, and let the boats pass down 
with the long wave thus formed, which filled up the channels. This was effected 
by constructing dams in the neighborhood of Mauch Chunk, in which were 
placed sluice-gates of a peculiar construction, invented for the purpose by Josiah 



C ABB ON COUNTY. 489 

White (one of the managers), by means of which the water could be retained in 
the pool above until required for use. When the dam became full, and the water 
had run over it long enough for the river below the dam to acquire the depth of 
the ordinary flow of the river, the sluice-gates were let down, and the boats, which 
were lying in the pools above, passed down with the artificial flood. About twelve 
of these dams and sluices were made in 1819. The boats used on this descending 
navigation consisted of square boxes or arks, from sixteen to eighteen feet wide, 
and twenty to twenty-five feet long. At first two of these were joined together 
by hinges, to allow them to bend up and down in passing the dams and sluices ; 
and as the men became accustomed to the work, and the channels were straight- 
ened and improved as experience dictated, the number of sections in each boat 
was increased, till at last their whole length reached one hundred and eight}^ feet. 
They were steered with long oars, like a raft. Machinerj'^ was devised for joint- 
ing and putting together the planks of which these boats were made, and the 
hands became so expert that five men would put one of the sections together and 
launch it in forty-five minutes. Boats of this description were used on the Lehigh 
till the end of the year 1831, when the Delaware division of the Pennsylvania 
canal was partially finished. In the last year forty thousand nine hundred and 
sixtj'-six tons were sent down, which required so many boats to be built, that, if 
they had all been joined in one length, they would have extended more than 
thirteen miles. These boats made but one trip, and were then broken up in the 
city, and the planks sold for lumber, the spikes, hinges, and other iron work, 
being returned to Mauch Chunk by land, a distance of eighty miles. 

The descending navigation by artificial freshets on the Lehigh is the first on 
record which was used as a permanent thing : though it is stated that in the 
expedition under General Sullivan, in 1779, General James Clinton successfully 
made use of the expedient to extricate his division of the army from some 
diflSculty on the east branch of the Susquehanna, by erecting a temporary dam 
across the outlet of Otsego lake, which accumulated water enough to float them, 
when let ofl*, and carry them down the river. 

The celebrity of the Lehigh coal is very extensive, from the fact that it is the 
hardest known anthracite in the world. The bed upon the top of Mauch Chunk 
mountain is fifty-three feet in thickness, exceeding, in this respect, any layer or 
vein as yet discovered. In 1820 three hundred and eighty-five tons completely 
stocked the market. Now the shipments of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation 
company alone reach sometimes as much as twenty thousand tons per week. 

It is claimed that the first railroad track ever laid down in the United States 
was in the streets of Mauch Chunk. It is belicA^ed that the first furnace in the 
country at which any considerable success was attained in the smelting of iron, 
with anthracite coal, was an old one at Mauch Chunk, temporarily fitted up for 
that purpose in the autumn of 1837 by Messrs. Joseph Baughman, Julius 
Guiteau, and Henry High, of Reading. An earlier attempt was made in the use 
of anthracite for fuel in iron manufacture at Mauch Chunk also in 1823-4, in a 
furnace built especially by persons connected with the Lehigh Coal and Naviga- 
tion company. It was several years after this date that similar experiments 
were tried at Kingston, Mass., and at Vizelle, on the borders of France and 
Switzerland. 



490 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

About one-third of Carbon county is adapted to agriculture. On the south 
and west side of the Lehigh river the soil is light gravel and red shale. On the 
north and east more sand and loam, underlaid with claj', which will eventually 
make tne best farming country, especially for grass ; and as the timber districts 
are becoming dejDleted, farming will increase. 

Iron, slate, and mineral paint are found in the townships of East Penn, 
Franklin, and Lower Towamensing, not, however, developed to any great extent, 
except paint, of which some four thousand tons are annually manufactured and 
sold by the Prince Metallic Paint company. 

The Carbon Iron company is located at Parryville, on the Lehigh river, six 
miles below Mauch Chunk. These furnaces have a capacity of six hundred 
tons per week. The hematite ore used in them is mined partly in the 
neighborhood and partly in Lehigh and Berks counties. At "Weissport there is 
a rolling mill containing two heating furnaces and three double puddling furnaces, 
with a full complement of rolls and other machinery necessary to turn out thirty- 
five tons per day of merchant bar-iron, scrolls, band-iron, etc. Punching and 
spike machines have recently been added. 

Considerable lumber is shipped from the north-west part of the county, 
especially from the Hickory Run and Mud Run districts, Kidder township, and 
some from Penn Forest township. 

The first settlement in Carbon county was by the Moravian missionaries in 
the 3'ear 1146. The converted Mohican Indians having been driven out of 
Shekomeko, in New York, near the borders of Connecticut, and from Pachgat- 
goch in the latter state, found an asylam for a short time at Friedenshiitten, 
near Bethlehem. Deeming it inconvenient to maintain a large Indian congre- 
gation so near Bethlehem, the missionaries purchased two hundred acres on the 
north side of Mahoning creek, about half a mile above its junction with the 
Lehigh. Each Indian family possessed its own lot of ground, and began its 
separate housekeeping. Gnadenhiitten became a very regular and pleasant 
town. The church stood in the valley ; on one side the Indian houses, forming a 
crescent, upon a rising ground ; and on the other stood the house of the mission- 
ary, and the burying-ground. The road to Wyoming and other Indian towns 
lay through the settlement. This was the famous path over Nescopec moun- 
tain, still known as the Warrior's path. The missionaries tilled their own 
grounds, and every Indian family their plantation; and on the 18th of August, 
1746, they had the satisfaction to j^artake of the first fruits of the land at a 
love-feast. Christian Rauch and Martin Mack were the first missionaries who 
resided here. They were succeeded by other missionaries, who were occasion- 
ally removed, the brethren being of opinion that frequent changes of the minis- 
ters of the congregation might be useful in preventing too strong an attachment 
to, and dependence upon men, and fixing the hope of the Indians more upon 
God alone. Several parts of Scripture had been translated into the Mohican 
language. The congregation met morning and evening to sing and pray, and 
sometimes to hear a discourse upon the text of Scripture appointed for the day. 
The holy communion was administered to the communicants every month. The 
Indians called the communion day the great day, and such indeed it was, for the 
missionaries could never find words to extol the power and grace of God 



CABBON COUNTY. 49] 

revealed on these occasions. In September, 1749, Bishop [Baron] John de 
"Watteville went to Gnadenhutten and laid the foundation of a new church, that 
built in 1746 being too small, and the missionaries being obliged to preach out 
of doors. The Indian congregation alone consisted of five hundred persons. 
About this time Rev. David Brainerd and several of his Indian converts visited 
Gnadenhiitten. The congregation continued in this pleasing and regular state 
until the year 1754. 

When the Delawares and Shawanese on the Susquehanna, says Loskiel, 
began to waver in their allegiance to the English, and were preparing to take 
up the hatchet on the side of the French, it became an object of some importance 
to them to withdraw their Indian brethren in the missionary settlements beyond 
the reach of the whites, that the hostile savages might more freely descend upon 
the white settlements. The Christian Indians for some time resolutely refused to 
move to Wyoming. At length, however, a part were seduced by the influence of 
Teedyuscung. The Mohicans who remained were joined by the Christian Dela- 
wares from Meniolagomekah, and the land on the Mahoning being impoverished, 
and other circumstances requiring a change, the inhabitants of Gnadenhiitten 
removed to the north side of the Lehigh. The dwellings were removed, and a new 
chapel was built in June, 1754. The place was called New Gnadenhiitten, and 
stood where Weissport now is. The dwellings were so placed that the Mohicans 
lived on one, and the Delawares on the other, side of the street. The brethren at 
Bethlehem took the culture of the old land on the Mahoning upon themselves, 
made a plantation of it for the use of the Indian congregation, and converted the 
old chapel into a dwelling, both for the use of those brethren and sisters who had 
the care of the plantations, and for missionaries passing on their visits to the 
heathen. 

" The Indians in the French interest were much incensed that any of the Mora- 
vian Indians chose to remain at Gnadenhiitten, and determined to cut off the 
settlement. After Braddock's defeat, in 1755, the whole frontier was open to the 
inroads of the savage foe. Every day disclosed new scenes of barbarity commit- 
ted by the Indians. The whole countr}^ was in terror ; the neighbors of the 
brethren in Gnadenhutten forsook their dwellings and fled ; but the brethren 
made a covenant together to remain undaunted in the place allotted them by 
Providence. However, no caution was omitted ; and because the white people 
considered every Indian as an enemy, the Indian brethren in Gnadenhiitten were 
advised as much as possible to keep out of their way — to buy no powder nor shot, 
but to strive to maintain themselves without hunting, which they willingly com- 
plied with. But God had otherwise ordained. On a sudden the mission-house 
on the Mahoning was, late in the evening of 24th November, attacked by the 
French Indians, burnt, and eleven of the inhabitants murdered. The family, 
being at supper, heard an uncommon barking of dogs, upon which Brother Sen- 
seman went out at the back door to see what was the matter. On the report of 
a gun, several ran together to open the house door. Here the Indians stood with 
their pieces pointed towards the door, and firing immediately upon its being 
opened, Martin Nitschmann Avas instantly killed. His wife and some others were 
wounded, but fled with the rest up stairs into the garret, and barricaded the 
door with bedsteads. Brother Partsch escaped by jumping out of a back window. 



492 HISTOB Y OF PFNNS YL VANIA. 

Brother Worbass, who was ill in bed in a house adjoining, jumped likewise out of 
a back window and escaped, though the enemies had placed a guard before his 
door. Meanwhile the savages pursued those who had taken refuge in the garret, 
and strove hard to burst the door open ; but finding it too well secured, they set 
fire to the house, which was soon in flames. A boy called Sturgis, standing 
upon the flaming roof, ventui'ed to leap ofi", and escaped ; though at first, upon 
opening the back door, a ball had grazed his cheek, and one side of his head 
was much burnt. Sister Partsch seeing this took courage, and leaped likewise 
from the burning roof. She came down unhurt, and unobserved by the enemies ; 
and thus the fervent prayer of her husband was fulfilled, who in jumping out of 
the back window cried aloud to God to save his wife. Brother Fabricius then 
leaped also off" the roof, but before he could escape was perceived liy tlie Indians, 
and instantly wounded by two balls. He was the only one whom they seized upon 
alive, and having dispatched him with their hatchets, took his scalp, and left him 
dead on the ground. The rest were all burnt alive, and Brother Senseman, who 
first went out at the back door, had the inexpressible grief to see his wife con- 
sumed by the flames. Sister Partsch could not run far for fear and trembling, but 
hid herself behind a tree, upon a hill near the house. From hence she saw Sister 
Senseman, already surrounded by the flames, standing with folded hands, and 
heard her call out, ' 'Tis all well, dear Saviour — I expected nothing else!' The 
house being consumed, the murderers set fire to the barns and stables, by which 
all the corn, hay, and cattle were destroyed. Then they divided the spoil, soaked 
some bread in milk, made a hearty meal, and departed — Sister Partsch looking on 
unperceived. This melancholy event proved the deliverer of the Indian congre- 
gation at Gnadenhiitten ; for upon hearing the report of the guns, seeing the 
flames, and soon learning the dreadful cause from those who had escaped, the 
Indian brethren immediately went to the missionary, and off'ered to attack the 
enemy without delay. But being advised to the contrary, they all fled into the 
woods, and Gnadenhiitten was cleared in a few minutes, some who already were 
in bed having scarce time to dress themselves. Brother Zeisberger, who had just 
arrived in Gnadenhiitten from Bethlehem, hastened back to give notice of this 
event to a body of English militia, which had marched within five miles of the 
spot ; but the}' did not venture to pursue the enemy in the dark." 

The fugitive congregation arrived safely at Bethlehem. After the French and 
Indians had retired, the remains of those killed on the Mahoning were carefully 
collected from the ashes and ruins, and solemnly interred. A bi'oad marble slab, 
placed there in 1188, now marks the grave, which is situated on the hill a short 
distance from Lehighton, and a little north of a small hamlet which occupies the 
site of the ancient missionary village. The following is the inscription on the 
marble : 

" To the memory of Gottlieb and Joanna Anders, with their child Christiana ; 
Martin and Susanna Nitschmann. Anna Catharine Senseman, John Gatter- 
meyer, George Fabricius, clerk ; George Schweigert, John Frederick Lesly, and 
Martin Presser, who lived here at Gnadenhiitten unto the Lord, and lost their 
lives in a surprise from Indian warriors, November the 24th, 1755. Precious in 
the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. — Psalm cxvi. 15." 

In 1156 Benjamin Franklin was sent out by the Provincial authorities to erect 



C ABB ON COUNTY. 493 

stockade forts on the Lehigli, which was then the northern frontier. The fort 
erected opposite Gnadenhiitten was named Fort Allen, in honor of William Allen, 
chief justice of the Province. It served as a place of refuge in times of Indian 
depredations, and for a number of 3'ears was occupied by at least a handful of 
rangers and scouts. 

As late as 1780 the Gilbert family, living on Mahoning creek, five or six miles 
from Fort Allen, were carried into a bitterly painful captivity by a party of 
Indians, who took them to Canada, and there separated them. At the time of its 
occurrence this event caused intense excitement throughout the State, and from 
an interesting, narrative published shortly after their release from captivity, we 
append the following synopsis : 

Benjamin Gilbert, a Quaker from By berry, near Philadelphia, in 1115, 
removed with his family to a farm on Mahoning creek, five or six miles from 
Fort Allen. His second wife was a widow Peart. They were comfortably situa- 
ted, with a good log dwelling-house, barn, and saw and grist mill. For five years 
this peaceable family went on industriously and prosperously ; but on the 25th 
April, 1180, the very year after Sullivan's expedition, they were surprised about 
sunrise by a party of eleven Indians, who took them all prisoners. At the Gil- 
bert farm they made captives of Benjamin Gilbert, Sr., aged 69 \'ears ; Elizabeth, 
his wife, 55; Joseph Gilbert, his son, 41 ; Jesse Gilbert, another son, 19; Sarah 
Gilbert, wife to Jesse, 19 ; Rebecca Gilbert, a daughter, 16; Abner Gilbert, a 
son, 14 ; Elizabeth Gilbert, a daughter, 12; Thomas Peart, son to Benjamin Gil- 
bert's wife, 23; Benjamin Gilbert, a son of John Gilbert of Philadelphia, 11; 
Andrew Harrigar, of German descent, 26 ; a hireling of Benjamin Gilbert's ; and 
Abigail Dodson, 14, a daughter of Samuel Dodson, who lived on a farm about one 
mile from Gilbert's mill. The whole number taken at Gilbert's was twelve. The 
Indians then proceeded about half a mile to Benjamin Peart's dwelling, and there 
captured himself, aged 21 ; Elizabeth, his wife, 20, and their child, nine months 
old. 

The last look the poor captives had of their once comfortable home was to 
see the flames and falling in of the roofs, from Summer Hill. The Indians led 
their captives on a toilsome road over Mauch Chunk and Broad mountains into 
the Nescopec path, and then across Quakake creek and the Moravian pine swamp 
to Mahoning mountain where they lodged the first night. On their way they had 
prepared moccasins for some of the children. Indians generally secure their 
prisoners by cutting down a sapling as large as a man's thigh, and therein cut 
notches in which they fix their legs, and over this they place a pole, crossing it 
with stakes drove in the ground, and on the crotches of the stakes they place other 
poles or riders, effectually confining the prisoners on their backs ; and besides all 
this they put a strap round their necks, which they fasten to a tree. In this man- 
ner the night passed witli the Gilbert family. Tlieir beds were hemlock branches 
strewed on the ground, and blankets for a covering. Andrew Montour was the 
leader of the Indian party. 

The forlorn band were dragged on over the wild and rugged region between 
the Lehigh and the Chemung branch of the Susquehanna. They were often ready 
to faint by the way, but the cruel threat of immediate death urged them again to 
the inarch. The old man, Benjamin Gilbert, indeed, had begun to fail, and had 



494 3IST0BY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Deen painted black — a fatal omen among the Indians ; but when his cruel captors 
had put a rope around his neck, and appeared about to kill him, the intercessions 
of his wife softened their hearts, and he was saved. Subsequently, in Canada, 
the old man conversing with the chief observed, that he might say what none of 
the other Indians could, " that he had brought in the oldest man and the young- 
est child." The chief's reply was impressive ; " It was not I, but the great God, 
who brought you through ; for we were determined to kill you, but were pre- 
vented." 

On the fifty-fourth day of their captivity, the Gilbert family had to 
encounter the fearful ordeal of the gauntlet. " The prisoners," says the author 
of the narrative, " were released from the heavy loads they had heretofore been 
compelled to carry, and were it not for the treatment they expected on theii 
approaching the Indian towns, and the hardship of separation, their situation 
would have been tolerable ; but the horror of their minds, arising from the dread- 
ful 3'ells of the Indians as they approached the hamlets, is easier conceived than 
described — for they were no strangers to the customary cruelty exercised upon 
the captives on entering their towns. The Indians — men, women, and children 
— collect together, bringing clubs and stones ni order to beat them, which they 
usually do with great severity, by way of revenge for their relations who have 
been slain. This is performed immediately upon their entering the village where 
the warriors reside, and cannot be avoided ; the blows, however cruel, must be 
borne without complaint. The prisoners are sorely beaten until their enemies 
are weary with the cruel sport. Their sufferings were in this case very great ; 
they received several wounds, and two of the women who were on horseback were 
much bruised by falling from their horses, which were frightened by the Indians 
Elizabeth, the mother, took shelter by the side of one of them (a warrior), but 
upon his observing that she met with some favor upon his account, he sent her 
away ; she then received several violent blows, so that she was almost disabled 
The blood trickled from their heads in a stream, their hair being cropped close, 
and the clothes they had on in rags, made their situation truly piteous. Whilst 
the Indians were inflicting this revenge upon the captives, the chief came and 
put a stop to any further cruelty by telling them ' it was sufficient,' which they 
immediately attended to." 

Soon after this a severer trial awaited them. They were separated from each 
other. Some were given over to Indians to be adopted, others were hired out by 
their Indian owners to service in white families, and others were sent down the 
lake to Montreal. Among the latter was the old patriarch Benjamin Gilbert. 
But the old man, accustomed to the comforts of civilized life, broken in body and 
mind from such unexpected calamities, sunk under the complication of woe and 
hardship. His remains were mterred at the foot of an oak near the old fort of 
Coeur du Lac, on the St. Lawrence, below Ogdensburg. Some of the family met 
with kind treatment from the hands of British officers at Montreal, who were 
interested in their story, and exerted themselves to release them from captivity. 

Sarah Gilbert, the wife of Jesse, becoming a mother, Elizabeth left the 
service she was engaged in — Jesse having taken a house — that she miglit give her 
daughter every necessary attendance. In order to make their situation as com- 
fortable as possible, they took a child to nurse, which added a little to their 



CAB BON COUNTY. 495 

income. After this, Elizabetli Gilbert liired iierself to iron a day for Adam 
Scott. Wliile she was at her worlv, a little girl belonging to the house acquainted 
her that there were some who wanted to see her, and upon entering the room, she 
found six of her children. The joy and surprise she felt on this occasion were 
beyond what we shall attempt to describe. A messenger was sent to inform Jesse 
and his wife that Joseph Gilbert, Benjamin Peart, Elizabeth his wife, and their 
young child, and Abner and Elizabeth Gilbert the younger, were with their 
mother. 

Among the customs, or indeed common laws, of the Indian tribes, one of the 
most remarkable and interesting was adoption of prisoners. Tliis right belonged 
more pai'ticularl}'^ to the females than to the warriors, and well was it for the 
prisoners that the election depended rather upon the voice of the mother than on 
that of the father, as innumerable lives were thus spared whom the warriors would 
have immolated. When once adopted, if the captives assumed a cheerful aspect, 
entered into their modes of life, learned their language, and, in brief, acted as if 
they actually felt themselves adopted, all hardship was removed not incident to 
Indian modes of life. But, if this change of relation operated as amelioration of 
condition in the life of the prisoner, it rendei'ed ransom extremely difficult in all 
cases, and in some instances precluded it altogether. These difficulties were 
exemplified in a striking manner in the person of Elizabeth Gilbert the younger. 
This girl, only twelve years of age when captured, was adopted by an Indian 
family, but afterwards permitted to reside in a white family of the name of 
Secord, by whom she was treated as a child indeed, and to whom she became so 
much attached as to call Mrs. Secord by the endearing title of mamma. Her 
residence, however, in a white family, was a favor granted to the Secords by the 
Indian parents of Elizabeth, who regarded and claimed her as their child. Mr. 
Secord having business at Niagara, took Betsy, as she was called, with him; and 
there, after long separation, she had the happiness to meet with six of her rela- 
tions, most of whom had been already released and were preparing to set out for 
Montreal, lingering and yearning for those they seemed destined to leave behind, 
perhaps for ever. The sight of their beloved little sister roused every energy to 
effect her release, which desire was generously seconded by John Secord and 
Colonel Butler, who, soon after her visit to Niagara, sent for the Indian who 
claimed Elizabeth, and made overtures for her ransom. At first he declared that 
he "would not sell his own flesh and blood;" but, attacked through his interest, 
or in other words, his necessities, the negotiation succeeded, and, as we have 
already seen, her youngest child was among the treasures first restored to the 
mother at Montreal. 

Eventually they were all redeemed and collected at Montreal on the 22nd of 
August, 1'782, when they took leave of their kind friends there and returned to 
Byberrj', after a captivity of two years and five months. 

The premises where stood the dwelling and improvements of the Gilbert family 
were on the north side of Mahoning creek, on an elevated bank about forty 
perches from the main road leading from Lehighton and Weissport to Tamaqua, 
and about four miles from the former. Benjamin Peart lived about half a miJe 
further up the creek, and about one-fourth of a mile from the same, on the south 
side. 



496 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



The subsequent events transpiring within the limits of Carbon county are so 
intimately connected with its progress and development, that we have alluded to 
them in the former portion of this sketch. In the war of the Revolution, this 
portion of the then Northampton county, notwithstanding its frontier exposure, 
contributed largely to that gallant band of heroes who, under the lead of Wash- 
ington, gained for us our independence. In the war of 1812 the enthusiasm of 
the inhabitants was unbounded ; and wherever and whenever required, the 
struggles of their fathers were not forgotten ; although they sliared no blood- 
stained battle-field, their services helped to swell the patriot host which mustered 

for the defence of the 
Delaware and the me- 
tropolis of Pennsylva- 
nia. In the recent civil 
conflict Carbon county 
contributed her full share 
in men and means to put 
down the rebellion. 
Many of her sons fell on 
the field of strife, cement- 
ing by their blood the 
union of the States. The 
history of these troops 
we leave to the faithful 
local historian. 

Mauch CnuNK, the 
county seat, is situated 
on the west bank of the 
Lehigh river, forty-six 
miles from its mouth, in 
what has been called the 
" Switzerland of Ameri- 
It was first settled 



ca 



about the year 1815. It 
was then a perfect wil- 
derness, covered with 
forest-trees and undergrowth, and so completely hemmed in by high and 
steep mountains, that it was as unlikely a spot as could be selected for a 
town, while any outlet by means of a wagon road seemed well nigh im- 
possible. The borough is located on a creek of the same name, in a narrow 
gulch, between three hgh, steep, and rocky mountains, whose peaks average 
eight hundred and fifty feet above the town, Mauch Chunk is an Indian name, 
and means "Bear mountain." One of the peaks, in proximity to the town, is the 
celebrated Mount Pisgab, over which crosses the far-famed switch-back railroad, 
annuall^^ visited by sight-seers from all parts of the country. Until 1827 the 
coal was brought from the mines to the river in wagons. To Josiah White is due 
the honor of this enterprise, which has contributed so largely to the development 
and prosperity of this locality. By means of stationary engines at the diflTerent 




MOUNT PISQAH INCLINED PLANK. 



LAUBON COUNTY. 



497 



planes, the empty cars are hauled up and returned to the mines, and the loaded 
ones brought as far as Summit Hill, whence they proceed, by gravity, to the 
shutes at Mauch Chunk. The grade varies from fifty to ninety feet per mile, 
except in the descent from Summit Hill to Panther Creek valle}^ when it is two 
hundred and twenty feet. The same unusual style of locomotion is also adopted 
for passenger cars, and affords a remarkable degree of amusement and enjoyment 
to the numerous visitors carried daily over this route. By a tunnel one mile in 
length, through the Nesquehoning mountain, from the Panther Creek valley, the 
coal company ships most of its coal to Mauch Chunk, retaining the switch-back road 
for passenger travel al- 
most exclusivel^y. From 
the foot of Mount Pisgah 
a double track has been 
constructed to its sum- 
mit, a distance of two 
thousan'l three hundred 
and twenty-two feet, with 
an elevation of about 
nine hundred feet above 
the river, at an angle ol 
twenty degrees. The 
scene from the top of 
the plane is really su- 
blime. The view of 
Mauch Chunk, Upper 
Mauch Chunk, East 
Mauch Chunk, nestling 
beneath the shadows of 
the mountains, with the 
Lehigh river winding its 
way at its base, and alive 
on either side with the 
steam-cars and canal 
boats ; the succession 
of mountain ridges, rising range after range ; the distant view of the 
Lehigh water gap, with occasional glimpses of intervening fields and hamlets, 
and the far distant view of Schooley's mountain, in New Jersey; this with 
much more that cannot be described, combine to make this panorama one of 
almost matchless beauty and grandeur. As a consequence, Mauch Chunk has 
become a favorite resort. The borough contains handsome church edifices of 
stone and brick, belonging to the Presbyterian, Episcopal, Catholic, and Methodist 
congregations. The county prison is a fine specimen of architecture, costing over 
$130,000. The court house is a plain, substantial, and commodious building. 
The borough is well lighted with gas, while few places enjoy so great and 
constant suppl}' of pure spring water. Its industries consist principally of two 
extensive iron foundries and machine shops for the manufacture of stationary 
engines, pumps, boilers, etc., steam flour and grist mill, car repair shops, shoe 
2g 




THE CASCADE, GLEN ONOKO. 



498 



HISTOIiY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



factories, boat yards, and two wire-rope factories. The machinery for this 
latter branch of manufacture was first invented in Mauch Chunk. The second 
ward of the borough, called Upper Mauch Chunk, is situated on the mountain, 
about two hundred and fift}^ feet above the main part of the town. It is a quiet 
and industrious place, of about one thousand inhabitants, principally Germans, 
who work in the different car shops and on the railroads. A grave-yard is located 
on the neighboring height. 

The grandeur and magnificence of the scenery of Carbon county is not 

confined to picturesque 
Mauch Chunk. Two miles 
above is situated Glen 
Onoko, greatly admired 
for its wild beauty. Its 
course is westerly, and 
the total ascent over nine 
hundred feet. It forms 
the channel for a pure and 
limpid stream, which fol- 
lows its eccentric course 
over innumerable cascades 
and rapids until it empties 
into the Lehigh. The 
finest view in the Glen 
includes not only the 
Chameleon Falls but also 
Onoko Falls and the Cas- 
cade, and this double 
vista is rich with a diver- 
sity of loveliness not easy 
to describe. The former 
are so called from the va- 
riety of colors frequently 
noticeable in the spray 
and foam. They are fifty feet high. Onoko Falls are the highest in the Glen, 
and are esteemed the handsomest. Their height is ninety feet. The shelving 
overhanging rocks on cither side are coA'ered with moss and fern, and these, 
with a tree now and then jutting out from their apparently sterile embrace, 
form a fitting embellishment to the dashing and S2:)arkling waters which have 
been for centuries seeking through their fissures an outlet from their mountain 
source. 

A view of the Nescopec valley from Prospect rock is gi-and and imposing. 
For miles and miles the eye ranges over a succession of fertile valleys inter- 
spersed Avitli the primeval forest. The panorama extends as far as the eye can 
reach. Not for distant is Cloud Point, so named from the fact that it is very 
frequently shrouded in filmly vapor. Here, too, the view is of equal beaut}', and 
in the language of a celebrated tourist, " there is something indescribably grand 
in the solitude of this scene — forests of giant trees lifting high their heads, 




\\mx"^~ 



ONOKO FALLS, GLEN ONOKO. 



CARBON COUNTY. 



499 



through which peer rough visaged rocks, -which the hand of time has failed 
to smooth." 

All along the Lehigh valley, north of Mauch Chunk, are numberless 
attractions. Fifty years ago it was almost an unexplored wilderness, but the 
ingenuity of man has triumphed, and instead of the dan- 
gerous defile and the impassable mountain torrent, two 
railroads thread the way ; and the scenic beauties — a 
succession of valley, precipice, mountain, rock, ravine, 
snowy cascade, and romantic nook, are open to the artist 
and the traveller, enrapturing the one and charming the 
other. 

Not far from Cloud Point is Glen Thomas, named in 
honor of David Thomas, the pioneer of the iron trade of 
the Lehigh. In this shaded dell is the Amber Cascade, 
so greatly admired by all visitors to this picturesque 



region. 



The borough of East Mauch Chunk was incorporated 
in 1853. It is situated on the east side of the 
Lehigh river, on a level platform of land sur- 
rounded by mountains. The streets are wide, 
and it contains many handsome residences. It 
has a Catholic, Methodist, and Episcopal church 
edifices. Most of the trading is carried on with 
Mauch Chunk, three-quarters of a mile distant. 

Weissport borough was early settled by 
Colonel Jacob Weiss, Quartermaster-General 
of the Revolutionary army. It contains among 
other industries, an emery wheel manufactory, 
a foundiy, boat 3^ards, sash factory, saw mill, 
etc. The town is situated on a level sandy plain, 
along the shore of the Lehigh river, and on the 
site of old Fort Allen. The famous Franklin 
well, constructed b}' the celebrated printer, is 
in a good state of preservation. Weissport was 
incorporated as a borough in 1867. 

Leiiighton, directly across the Lehigh river, 
and from which it takes its name, is an old town, 
also laid out over a hundred years ago. It is a 
stirring borough, containing about two thou- 
sand inhabitants, having a foundiy, pork pack- 
ing establishment, lumber and coal yards, grist 
mill, coach factories. The Lutherans, Presbyterians, Catholic, Episcopalians, 
and Methodists have each a church. The famous Gnadenhiitten burying ground 
is located here. The " Packerton " Lehigh Yalley railroad company's shops 
are located one and a half miles north of it, and also those of the Lehigh 
Valley and Lehigh and Susquehanna railroads* Mahoning and East Penn 
townships are tributary to its trade. This borough has doubled its popu- 




AMBER CASCADE, GLEN THOMAS. 



500 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



lation in ten years, and is destined to be the largest town in Carbon county. 
It was incorporated in 1855. 

Paokerton, named in honor of Hon. Asa Packer, the president of the Lehigh 
Valley railroad, contains the large shops of the Lehigh Valley railroad company, 
completed in 1863, where nearly five thousand coal and box cars were built 
during 1875, employing about six hundred men. Here is located the deer park 
of Judge Packer, seventy-five acres of which are enclosed, containing elk, ante- 
lope, deer, etc. Packerton contains a post office, Methodist church, and a large 

school-house, erec- 
ted by Mr. Packer, 
and presented by 
him to the school 
board of the Pack- 
erton independent 
school district. 
Adjoining this is 
a small hamlet 
known as Dolon- 
burg, containing a 
population deriv- 
ing their support 
from Packerton. 

Nesquehoning 
is a small mining 
village in Mauch 
Chunk township, 
on the Nesquehon- 
ing Yalley rail- 
road, four and one- 
half miles north- 
west from Mauch Chunk. The inhabitants 
are miners, as a general thing, old residents 
of the county, as the place has been very 
steadily worked for forty years. 

SuMiMiT Hill, in Mauch Chunk township, 
is a large town, entirely a mining district of 
the old Lehigh coal and navigation company. 
It, with the towns of Ashton and Sansford, 
adjoining on the west ("the latter place being 
the east end of the tunnel made a few years 
ago by the Lehigh coal and navigation com- 
pany, nearly a mile long), containing repair shops, and the large amount of coal 
produced from the difl^erent mines, make Summit Hill, as the centre, a busy place, 
with a population of about three thousand hardy, sturdy miners and artisans. 
This is the end of the famous switch-back railroad, and by it in times past all the 
product was transported. Since the completion of the tunnel at Sansford, the 
towns are supplied by that road running from Mauch Chunk to Tamaqua station, 




CLOUD POINT. 



CARBON COUNTY. 



501 



at Sansford. The north end of the tunnel is called Houts, after one of the part- 
ners of the original firm of the original coal producing compan}^ of 1817, White, 
Hazard & Houts. Here are located very large works where small coal receives 
its second cleaning prior to its being shipped to market. 

Weatherly borough, a very busy, thriving town of full one thousand five 
hundred inhabitants, near the junction of the Mahanoy branch of tlie Leliigh 
Valley railroad, is situated on Black creek. It contains large repair shops and 
locomotive works for the Lehigh Valley railroad. It was incorporated in 1864. 

Buck Mountain, a village at the mines of that name. The Buck Mountain 
coal company lies in Lausanne township, adjoining the Luzerne county line. 

RocK-PoRT is a small town on the Lehigh river. In former days it was the 
outlet of the coal from the 
Buck Mountain company's 
mines to the canal. The canal 
was washed away in 1862, and 
since its abandoning is the 
station of the Lehigh and Sus- 
quehanna railroad. There is 
an extensive fiagstone quarry 
near by. The poor house farm 
is located in the neighborhood, 
and is a model in its way. 

Lehigh Water Gap is lo- 
cated where the Lehigh river 
cuts through the Blue moun- 
tains. It is known as the resi- 
dence of General Craig of revo- 
lutionary fame. A small ham- 
let in a very picturesque place 
at the junction of the Aquan- 
shicola creek and the Lehigh 
river. 

Mill-Port is situated two 
miles up Aquanshicola creek. 
It is a small village, containing 
a tannery, mill, etc., and gives 
the people of the village and 
the township of Lower Towamensing a centre of labor. 

Beaver Meadow, a village located in the east end of Banks township, 
close to the Beaver Meadow mines, also other large coal works near by and 
newly building, is the station of the Beaver Meadow branch of the Lehigh 
Valley railroad. It contains a large shoe manufactory, etc. 

YoRKTOWN is a mining town, in the western end of Carbon county, from 
which a large amount of coal is shipped by the Lehigh and Susquehanna and 
Ijchigh Valley railroads. 

Jeansville, a flourishing mining town, lies partly in Luzerne and partly in 
Carbon counties. It ships large quantities of coal. 




NESQUEHONINQ BRIDGE. 



CENTKE COUNTY. 



BY JOHN BLAIR LINN, BELLEFONTE. 

HE act " foi' creating parts of the counties of Mifflin, Northumberland, 
Lycoming, and Huntingdon into a separate county, to be called 
Centre," was approved February 19, 1800. [Dallas' Laws, vol. iv. 
541.] The bounds of its territory then commenced on the river, 
opposite the mouth of Quinn's run (improperly called in present maps " Queen 
run ") ; thence running nearly due south to the mouth of Fishing creek (where 





J II i M"M»^ M*l ]cj B ( iSW i jil'1^41 i J S J U lil 

1 1 a u 11 1 ] a II a ] ij fi iiiM|Prj'fiiiii^ij ^ ,^a' j h. 



Sjpll!" 







VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OP BELLEFONTE. 

[From a Photograph by Moore, Eellefonte.] 



Mill Hall has been built since) ; thence a course a little south of east, to the old 
north-east corner of Haines, including Nittany valley ; from which point they 
followed the present boundaries of the county to the Moshannon creek ; thence to 
the mouth of the Moshannon ; thence down the river to the place of beginning. 
The act creating Clinton county (21st June, 1839, P. L., 362) carved from 

502 



CENTRE COUNTY. 503 

Centre the territory now embraced in that part of Chapman and Crugan town- 
ships south of the river ; all of Beech Creek, Porter, and Logan, and nearly all of 
Greene, Lamar, and Bald Eagle townships, in the former county. 

The northern line of the purchase of 1758 ran from a point on Buffalo creek, 
a few miles west of Mifflinburg, Union county, due west, passing through where 
Bcllefonte now stands, to the east side of the Allegheny hills, where the boundary 
deflected southerly to the State line at what is now the intersection of the 
bounds of Bedford and Somerset with the latter. About the half, then, of the 
present territory of Centre was within the purchase of 1758, and that the more 
tillable portion. " So cautious, however, were the proprietors at this period, 
of offending the Indians, by making survey's beyond the line, that the most 
positive instructions were given the deputy surveyors on this head ; and as the 
line was not run, nor its exact position known, the end of Nittany mountain 
appears to have been assumed as a station, and a west line from thence presumed 
to be the purchase line." [Charles Smith, 2 Smith Laws, 122.] 

Cumberland county had been formed January 27, 1750, including all the 
western portion of the Province. All the southern half of Centre county therefore 
was witliin the bounds of Cumberland until the following changes took place : 
first, Bedford count}^ was erected March 9. 1771, and that part of Frankstown 
township, which included the territory forming now the southern portions of 
Harris, Ferguson, Half-Moon, Taylor, and Rush townships, came within the 
bounds of Bedford, and remained there until Huntingdon was erected, September 
20, 1787 ; second, Northumberland county was erected March 21, 1772, embrac- 
ing the present territory of the count}^ north of the Bedford county line; 
speaking with reference to the lines between Bedford and Northumberland, ascer- 
tained in pursuance of the act of 30th of September, 1779. [Dallas' laws, vol. i. 
page 803.] On the 19th of September, 1789, Mifflin county was formed [Dallas' 
Laws, vol. ii., 718], including all the southern half of the territory of Centre 
except the part in Huntingdon county above referred to, and Gregg, Penn, 
Haines, and Miles townships, as now constituted, which remained in Northum- 
berland. 

On the 22d of September, 1766, William Maclay made the first survey in 
Penn's valley, then in Cumberland count}', a reservation of the Proprietaries in the 
name of Henry Montour, eight hundred and twenty acres, called the Manor of 
Succoth, described as on the head of Penn's creek, above the great Spring and 
north-west of it. It adjoins the Matlack survey (where Spring Mills now stands) 
on the north, in Gregg township, and is called for by all the surrounding surveys. 
On the 23d and 24th of September, 1766, Mr. Maclay surveyed what is now 
known as the " Manor," for the Proprietaries, embracing one thousand and thirty- 
five acres in what is now Potter township, described as " near the Indian path 
leading from the head of Penn's creek to Old Frankstown, where the waters seem 
to turn to Little Juniata." Its bounds ran south-westerly from the tract on which 
Potter's Fort tavern stands, eight hundred and fifty-seven perches, or nearly three 
miles, its width varying from one hundred and fifty-eight perches on the east, to 
two hundred and fifty-four and a half on the west. The Haines' surveys, run- 
ning from the mouth of Elk creek, along Penn's, and for nearly a mile up Sink- 
ing creek, were made by the same surveyor in September and October, 1766 ; a few 



504 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

olhers were made for General Potter (now in Gregg township), in 1766. A 
number of surveys, commencing with the Jolm Chandler, immediately west of 
Woodward, were made in October, 1766; but the larger portion of the valley 
surveys do not date beyond 1774. 

On November 5, 1768, the upper half of the present territory of Centre was 
secured b}^ purchase at Fort Stanwix from the Indians. It was all within Cum- 
berland until the erection of Northumberland, in 1772. It being within Charles 
Lukens' district, the oldest surveys were made by Lukens and his deputies, in 
the summer of 1769. The " officer's surveys," extending from Lock Haven to 
Howard, were made by Charles Lukens, in March and April, 1769. The Griffith 
Gibbon, on which Bellefonte now stands, was surveyed July 20, 1769, and the 
Peter Graybill (on which Milesburg is now built), on the 18th of July, 1769, 
then known as the " Bald Eagle Nest." 

The valley surveys, commencing near Stover's, in Brush valley, and running 
up to Gregg township, were all made by William Maclay, for Colonel Samuel 
Miles, in 1773. A manuscript journal of Richard Miles probably indicates the 
surveying party: "April 20, 1773, started for Shamoken, from Radnor, Chester 
county, in company with James and Enos Miles, Abel Thomas, and John Lewis." 
They passed up the river by way of Muncy Hill and Great Island ; then went up 
the Bald Eagle, returning by way of the Narrows, down through Buffalo valley. 

Elk, Penn's, Pine, Sinking, and Bald Eagle creeks had their names as early as 
1766 Marsh, Beech, Spring, Fishing, Moshannon creeks, Wallis, Davis, and Buf- 
falo runs have their names in 1769. Scull's map of April 4, 1770, indicates the 
position of the Eagle's Nest, Great Plains, Big Spring, now Spring Mills, the 
Indian path from " the Nest," up Buffalo run to Huntingdon. 

In 1772 the territory was nearly all included in Buffalo and Bald Eagle town- 
ships, Northumberland county — Buffalo, extending up to the forks of Penn's 
creek, thence by a north line to the river, and Bald Eagle beginning at the forks, 
thence by a north line to the river, thence up the same to the count}^ line, etc. 
At May sessions, 1774, Potter township was erected out of Penn's, Buffalo, and 
Bald Eagle, bounded eastward by a line from tlie top of Jack's mountain, by the 
four-mile tree in Reuben Haines' road in the Narrows, to the top of Nittany 
mountain, thence along the top thereof to the end thereof, at Spring creek, on the 
old path, thence south or south-east to the top of Tussey's mountain, thence 
along the county line to the top of .lack's mountain, etc. At February sessions, 
1790, the name of Potter township was changed tQ Haines. 

The southern portion of Centre county was settled by emigrants from Cum- 
berland valley as early as 1766, and before that. The settlers of the northern 
portion came in by way of the Bald Eagle creek in 1768 and 1769. Among the 
earliest settlers of this northern portion of the county were Andrew Boggs, who 
built his cabin on the Joseph Poultney, opposite Milesburg, Daniel and Jonas 
Davis, who settled a little farther down the creek, William Lamb, Richard 
Malone, etc. 

Among the Revolutionary soldiers of Centre county were Philip Barnhart, 
who died April 3, 1843; Lawrence Bathurst ; Nicholas Bressler, died in April, 
1843; Isaac Broom, wounded at Germantown; John C. Colby, a deserter from 
the Hessians; Jacob Duck, died in 1836; Peter Fleck, Peter Florey, of Haines 



CENTRE COUNTY. 



505 



township ; Jacob Fliescher, Ludwig Friedley, John Glantz, John Garrison, of 
Spring; Henrj' Herring, William Hinton, of Boggs, who died in 1839, aged 
ninety-one years ; Christopher Keatley, of Potter township; William Kelly, John 
Kitchen, Daniel Koons, David Lamb, died April 19, 183T, and who was with 
Arnold at Quebec; Mungo Lindsay, of Col. Miles' regiment; William Mason, of 
Spring township; John McClean, of Potter; Jacob Miller, of Walker; Henry 
McEwen, of Potter, who was also at Quebec; Alexander McWilliams ; Isaac ^ 
McCamant, of Ferguson ; John F. Ream, Evan Russel, Adam Sunday, Valen- 
tine Stober; Nicholas Schnell, of Potter, Nicholas Shanefelt, of Harris; William 
Taylor; Joseph Vaughn, of Half-Moon ; David Wilson, of Bald Eagle; Joseph 




penn's valley, from nittany mountain. 

[From a Photograph by Moore, Bellefonte.] 

White, of Boggs ; Neal Welsh, of Half-Moon. Robert Young, of Walker, of 
Lowdon's company at Boston, in August, 1775 ; also James Dougherty, who was 
made a prisoner at Quebec, and afterwards served in Washington's Life-Guards 
until the end of the war. 

In 1776 Penn's valley was pretty numerously settled, and Potter township, 
which then embraced that valley, was represented in the county committee of 
safety by John Livingston, Maurice Davis, and John Hall. A company of asso- 
ciators from it and the Bald Eagle settlement, in March, 1776, was officered as 
follows : Captain William McElhatton, First Lieutenant Andrew Boggs, Second 
Lieutenant Thomas Wilson, Ensign John McCormick. A Presbyterian church 
was organized in East Penn's valley, and a church built at Spring Mills at a very 



606 HISTOET OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

early date. The first regular pastor, of whom we have any account, was Rev. 
James Martin, who commenced his labors there April 15, 1789; he died June 20, 
1795, and is buried at Spring Mills. He was the ancestor of the Bell family of 
Blair county. 

On the 8th of May, 1778, the Indians killed one man on the Bald Eagle set- 
tlement, Simon Vaugh, a private of Captain Bell's company ; he was killed at 
the house of Jonas Davis, who lived a short distance below Andrew Boggs, 
opposite Milesburg. Robert Moore, the express rider, who took the news, 
stopped at the house of Jacob Standiford to feed his horse, where he found Stan- 
diford dead, who, with his wife and daughter, were killed and scalped, and his 
son, a lad of ten or eleven years of age, missing. Standiford was killed on what 
was lately Ephraim Keller's farm, three miles west of Potter's Fort. Henry 
Dale, father of Captain Christian Dale, who helped bury them, said that Standi- 
ford and four of his family were killed. They were buried in a corner of one 
of the fields on the place, where their graves may still be seen. 

On the 25th of July, 1778, General Potter writes from Penn's valley, " that the 
inhabitants of the valley are returned, and were cutting their grain. Yesterday 
two men of Captain Finley's company. Colonel Brodhead's regiment, went out 
from this place in the plains a little below my fields, and met a party of Indians, 
five in number, whom they engaged ; one of the soldiers, Thomas Van Doran, was 
shot dead, the other, Jacob Shedacre, ran about four hundred yards, and was 
pursued by one of the Indians ; they attacked each other with their knives, and 
one excellent soldier killed his antagonist. His fate was hard, for another Indian 
came up and shot him. He and the Indian lay within a perch of each other ; 
these two soldiers served with Colonel Morgan in the last campaign." (At Bur- 
goyne's capture.) James Alexander, who in after years farmed the old Fort place, 
found a rusted hunting knife near the spot of the encounter. Two stones were 
put up to mark the spot, still standing on William Henning's place, near the fort. 

In 1792, when Reading Howell published his map, his stations on the main 
road were Hubler's, Aaronsburg, McCormick's, now Spring Mills, and Potter's. 
Connelly's is marked in Nittany valley, Malone's opposite the Nest, Antes' below. 
Miles' in Brush valley, Willy brook (Willy-bank), name of a stream issuing prin- 
cipally from Matlack's spring, and running into Spring creek ; the Buffalo Lick, 
on Buffalo run, on the place now owned by Mrs. Samuel H. Wilsan's heirs. 
Aaronsburg was then the only town in the territory. 

In the years 1770 or 1771 Reuben Haines, a rich brewer of Philadelphia, who 
owned the large body of land above referi'ed to, cut a road from the hollow just 
below the Northumberland bridge, up along the south side of Bufi"alo valley, 
through the narrows into Penn's valley. In 1775 a road from the Bald Eagle 
to Sunbury, along the west side of the Susquehanna, was laid out, and the main 
road through Buffalo valley was pushed up as far as the Great Plain. The 
turnpilce era commenced March 29, 1819, with the incorporation of the Aarons- 
burg and Bellefonte turnpike road company and the Youngmanstown and 
Aaronsburg turnpike road company. Inland navigation, with the incorporation of 
the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek navigation company, April 14, 1834. Railroads, 
with the incorporation of the Tyrone and Clearfield railroad company, March 23, 
1854, and the Tyrone and Lock Haven, February 21, 1857. 



CENTRE COUNTY. 501 

The development of the iron interest of Centre county commenced with the 
purchase by Colonel John Patton, of the tract upon which he erected Centre 
furnace, now in Harris township, and twentj^-eight other contiguous tracts from 
Mr. Wallis, May 8, 1790. He built Centre furnace in the summer of 1792. 

The next adventurer in that business was General Philip Benner, who bought 
the Rock Forge place of Mr. Matlack, May 2, 1792, and in 1793 erected his house 
there, together with forge, slitting, and rolling mill. 

In 1795 Daniel Turner erected Spring Creek forge, of which nothing remains 
now but the site, and in 1796 Miles Dunlap & Co. had Harmony forge, on Spring 
creek, in operation. 

In 1837 the following iron works were in operation: On Bald Eagle creek: 
Hannah furnace, owned by George McCulloch and Lyon, Shorb & Co. ; Martha 
furnace, owned by Roland Curtin ; a new furnace, owned by Adams, Irwin «& 
Huston. On Moshannon and Clearfield creeks : Cold Stream forge, owned by 

Mr. Adams ; a forge and extensive screw factory, owned by Hardman 

Phillips. On Spring and Bald Eagle creeks : Centre furnace and Milesburg forge 
and rolling mill, owned by Irwin & Huston ; Eagle furnace, forge, and rolling 
mill, owned by Roland Curtin ; Logan furnace, forge, rolling mill, and nail fac- 
tory, owned by Valentine & Thomas ; Rock furnace and forge, owned by the 
heirs of General P. Benner ; forge owned by Irwin & Bergstresser. On Fishing 
creek and Bald Eagle creek : Hecla furnace and Mill Hall furnace and forge, 
owned by John Mitchell & Co.; Howard furnace, owned by Harris k Co.; Wash- 
ington furnace and forge, owned by A. Henderson. Also, in the county : Tus- 
sey furnace, owned by Lyon, Shorb & Co., not now in operation ; and a furnace 

owned by Mr. Friedley. In all, thirteen furnaces, making annually eleven 

thousand six hundred tons pig metal; ten forges, making four thousand five 
hundred tons blooms ; three rolling mills, manufacturing two thousand three 
hundred tons into bar iron and nails. 

Aaronsburg was laid out by Aaron Levy, of the town of Northumberland, 
on the 4th of October, 1786. The town plan is recorded at Sunbury of that date. 
Aaron's square, ninety feet in breadth, extending from East street to West 
street, was reserved for public uses. 

Bellefonte was laid out by Messrs. James Dunlop and James Harris, upon 
the Griffith Gibbon tract, which they purchased of William Lamb, in 1795. The 
first members of town council were William Petriken, Roland Curtin, J. G. Low- 
rie, Thomas Burnside, Andrew Boggs, and Robert McLanahan. It was incorpo- 
rated March S, 1806. The first water works were erected in 1808. On the ISth 
of March, 1814, another act of incorporation was passed, including Smithfield 
in the borough, and repealing the former one. 

Milesburg was laid out by Colonel Samuel Miles, on the Peter Graybill tract, 
known as the Bald Eagle's Nest, in 1793. The old Indian town stood on the 
right bank of the creek about a mile below where Spring creek empties into the 
Bald Eagle. Many applications of 1769 have reference by distance or otherwise 
to the Bald Eagle's Nest. The Joseph Poultney, on the opposite bank of the 
creek, is described " as near the fording, including his improvement, and opposite 
the Nest." Milesburg was incorporated March 8, 1843. 

The " Bald Eagle's Nest" was the residence of an Indian chief of that name, 



508 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



who had built his wigwam there between two white oaks. Bald Eagle was the 
chief of a Muncy tribe, and commanded the party which made the attack upon 
a party of soldiers who were protecting some i-eapers on the Loyal Sock, on the 
8th of August, niS, when James Brady was mortally wounded. He was killed 
at Brady's Bend on the Allegheny, fifteen miles above Kittanning, by Captain 
Samuel Brady, in the early part of June, 1779. [Appendix to Pennsylvania 
Archives, page 131.] It was a place of resort by the Indians even after the 
Revolutionary war. Shawanee John and Job Chillaway, friendly Indians, made 
it their rendezvous. The former, who belonged to Captain Lowdon's company, 




BALD eagle's NEST, FROM BELOW, ON SPRING CREEK. 
[From a Photograph by Moore, Bellefonte.] 

which fought in front of Boston, died at the " Nest" many years after the war. 
All traces of the village have long since disappeared. 

Phillipsburg was laid out before Centre county was erected. Henrj'^ and 
James Phillips were the proprietors, and the first house was built by John Henry 
Simler, a Revolutionary soldier, in the year 1797. Simler enlisted in Paris, in 
1780, in Captain Claudius de Berts' troop. Colonel Armand's (Marquis de La 
Rouarie) dragoons, and was at the taking of Cornwallis ; he was wounded in the 
forehead and eye by a sabre. He died in Philadelphia in 1829. 

William Swansey, Robert Boggs, and Andrew Gregg, the trustees specified 
in the act of Assembly erecting the county, met at Bellefonte on the 31st of 



CENTRE COUNT F. 509 

July, 1800. A conveyance for one-half of the tract of land on which the town of 
Bellefonte was laid out, including a moiet}^ of the lots in said town as well as 
those sold or those not sold, was presented by James Dunlop and James Harris, 
Esqs., according to their bond given to the Governor. It was agreed that the 
sale of the lots should be indiscriminate, and the money arising therefrom should 
be divided equally between the proprietors and trustees ; and that on the first 
Monday of September, the residue of the part undivided in the town should be 
laid out in lots of two and a half acres each, and sold at public auction. It was 
' also agreed that it would be injurious to the interests of the inhabitants to erect 
the prison in the public square, and that application should be made to the Legis- 
lature to vest the trustees with discretionary power to erect the prison in any 
other part of the town. On the 1st of September they met again, articled with 
Colonel Dunlop and Mr. Harris for pa3'ment of one half of the proceeds of lots to 
be sold, and contracted with Hudson Williams to build the prison on such lot as 
should be designated. It was to be thirty feet long and twenty-five feet wide in 
the clear.' Among other specifications " there shall be an apartment in the cellar 
for a dungeon ; said dungeon shall be twelve feet by nine in the clear, covered 
above with hewed logs laid close together, under the plank of the floor, and a 
proper trap door to let into the dungeon." The contract price for the jail was 
one thousand one hundred and sixty-two dollars. 

The first court held in Bellefonte was the quarter sessions of November, 1800, 
before Associate Judges James Potter and John Barber, when, upon motion of 
Jonathan Walker, Esq., the following attorneys were qualified : Jonathan 
Walker, Charles Huston, Elias W. Hale, Jonathan Henderson, Robert Allison, 
Robert F. Stewart, William A. Patterson, John Miles, David Irvine, W. W. 
Laird, and John W. Hunter. 

The January sessions, 1801, were also held by Judge Potter and his asso- 
ciates ; constables appearing : for Upper Bald Eagle, William Connelly ; Lower 
Bald Eagle, Samuel Carpenter; Centre, John McCalmont ; Haines, Philip Frank; 
Miles, Stephen Bolender; Potter, Thomas Sankey ; Patton, Christian Dale. The 
following persons were recommended for license as inn-keepers : John Matthias 
Beuck, Aaronsburg ; Robert Porter, Franklin ; Thomas Wilson, Centre ; James 
Whitehill, Potter ; and Philip Callahan, Aaronsburg. The name of Upper Bald 
Eagle was changed to Spring township, and Ferguson erected, beginning at the 
line of Bald Eagle and Patton, near Robert Moore's, including his farm, thence 
through the Barrens, to include Centre furnace and James Jackson, near Half 
Moon, the line to be continued until it strikes the Huntingdon county line, 
thence along same and Centre till it strikes Tussey mountain, thence along the 
mountain to Patton and Potter and part of Bald Eagle, to the place of beginning. 

The first grand jury was assembled to April sessions, 1801, when the presi- 
dent judge, James Riddle, appeared on the bench for the first time in the county. 
The names of these jurors were William Swansey, Esq., James Hari'is, Esq., 
Philip Benner, Richard Malone, John Ball, David Barr, William Kerr, Esq., 
Michael Bolinger, Esq., James Whitehill, William Irvine, John Irvin, William 
Eyerl}^, Esq., James Newall, Samuel Dunlop, Alexander Read, General John Pat- 
ton, John M. Bench, James Reynolds, Michael Weaver, and Felix Chrisman. 

Additional persons recommended for license : Hugh Gallagher and Benjamin 



510 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Patton, Bellefonte ; Jacob Kepler and John Benner, Potter ; John Motz and 
William Lowerwine, of Haines. 

The first case of notoriety, particularly from the array of counsel concerned, 
was George McKee vs. Hugh Gallagher, 18th August, term, 1801. McKee kept 
a tavern in a stone house, on the lot where Thomas Reynolds now resides ; Gal- 
lagher, in a long frame house, which stood in the lot now occupied by D. G. 
Bush, Esq. A wagon loaded with whiskey in barrels did not stand over night 
in front of McKee's, as some one took out tlie pinnings, and it rushed, like the 
swine of old, down the declivity into the creek, and the whiskey floated off with 
its waters. Hwc illse lacrimse. 

The case, however, was slander. Gallagher said George McKee stole Samuel 
Lamb's saddle bags. The counsel who appeared for McKee were Foulke, Heed, 
J. Dunlap, S. Duncan, Wallace, T. Duncan, Culloh, Thompson, Miles, McClure, 
Kidd, Irwin, Allison, and Patterson. For Gallagher appeared Stewart, Walker, 
Henderson, Rose, Huston, Hastings, Clark, Hall, Laird, Bonham, Gemmill, 
Burnside, Boggs, Orbison, Cadwalader, Canan, Smith, Carpenter, H. Dunlop, 
Dean, Hepburn, and Bellas. After exhausting all the tactics known to lawyers 
in attack and defence, the case was finally marked settled. 

The first capital case was that of negro Dan, alias Daniel Beyers, who mur- 
dered James Barrows, on the night of the 15th of October, 1802, in Spring town- 
ship. The jury returned with their verdict a valuation of him ; "valued him at 
two liundred and fourteen dollars." He was executed on the 13th of December, 
1802, by James Duncan, Esq., then high sheriff. A large crowd, consisting of 
forge-men and other original characters, had assembled to witness the execution, 
and a company of horse, under the command of Captain James Potter (General 
Potter, 2d), was drawn up near the scaffold. With the first swing the rope 
broke, and negro Dan fell to the ground unhurt ; with that the crowd shouted 
" Dan is free," and headed by Archy McSwords and McCamant, they made a 
move to rescue him. Sheriff Duncan, who always carried a lead-loaded riUng 
whip, drew it i)romptl3', and struck McSwords a blow that might have felled an 
ox. McSwords scratched his head, and said, "Mr. Duncan, as you are a small 
man, 3'ou may pass on," witli that Captain Potter's company made a charge, and 
William Irvin, of the troop, levelled ]McCamant with a blow of his sword, cutting 
his cap-rim through Meanwhile William Peti'iken stepped up to Dan, and 
patted him on the shoulder, sa^dng, " Dan, you have always been a good 
boy, go up now and be hung like a man," which he did. 

The next capital case was that of James Monks, convicted of the murder of 
Reuben Guild, before Judge Huston, December 1, 1818. He was executed on 
Saturday', January 23, 1819, by John Mitchell, Esq., high sheriff. 

For several years prior to 1820, the people of Centre county were kept in 
constant terror b}' the operations of a bold band of highwaymen and counter- 
feiters, among whom were McGuire, Connelly, and David Lewis. Lewis was a 
son of Lewis Lewis, a former deputy surve3^or under Charles Lukens, who re- 
moved to Centre count}^ then MifTlin, in 1193. They operated along the road 
through the Seven mountains, their last adventure being the robbery of a wagon 
loaded with store goods belonsiing to Hammond and Page of Bellefonte. An 
aimed party from Bellefonte tracked them to the house of Samuel Smith, at the 



CENTRE COUNTY. 



511 



junction of Bennett's and Driftwood Brancli, where a battle occurred, resulting 
in the mortal wounding of Connell}', who died July 3, at Karskadden, near the 
mouth of Bald Eagle, and of David Lewis, who died in the Bellefonte jail, in 
July, 1820. 

Twelve miles south-west of Bellefonte, in College township, is located the 
State College. As originally proposed by the Pennsylvania State Agricultural 
Society, and organized under its auspices, it was named the Farmer's High 
School of Pennsylvania. The act of incorporation is dated April 13, 1854. In 
1862 its name was changed to " The Agricultural College of Pennsylvania." In 
1867, the institution having then come under the law of Congress of July 2, 1862, 
was compelled to extend its course of instruction, in order more fully to comply 
with the educational requirements of that act, which directs that " the leading 




PENNSYLVANIA STATE COLLEGE. 



object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and 
including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to 
agriculture and the mechanical arts, in such manner as the Legislature of the 
State might prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of 
the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." The scope 
of the institution being thus greatly extended, the name was again changed 
(January, 1874) to "the Pennsylvania State College." In 1863 the Congres- 
sional land grant was accepted by the State, and subsequently the scrip for the 
780,000 acres of land granted, sold and properly invested as an endowment fund 
for the State College. Since the year 1872 the annual income from this fund 
has been $30,000. The college property consists of a tract of four hundred 
acres, of which one hundred are set apart as a model and experimental farm, and 
worked separate from the main college farm of three hundred acres, though 
under the supervision of the professor of agriculture. The main building is a 



512 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

plain substantial structure of limestone, seated on a pleasant rise of ground, and 
is two hundred and forty feet in length, eighty feet in average breadth, and fuL 
five stories in height, exclusive of the basement, with ample lodging rooms 
chapel, librar}', societ}^ halls, laboratories, cabinets, and refectory for three 
hundred and thirty students, the whole well heated and supplied with water. A 
laro-e campus for exercise and drill and extensive pleasure grounds adjoin the 
buildinos, A full college course is pursued, consisting of instruction in agricul- 
ture, chemistry, geology, botany, surveying and engineering, telegraphy, physics, 
■language, and literature, combined with military instruction. No charge is 
made for tuition. The faculty consists of twelve professors, of whom Rev. 
James. Calder, D.D., is president. The State College is at present in a 
flourishing condition. 

Organization op Townships The original townships of Centre county were 

Upper Bald Eagle, Lower Bald Eagle, Centre, Haines, Miles, Patton, Potter, 
and Warrior Mark. In January, 1801, the name of Upper Bald Eagle was 
changed to that of Spring township, and at the same session Ferguson was 
erected, including Centre furnace. January session, 1802, the name of Warrior 
Mark was changed to that of Half Moon. On the 26th of March, 1804, Clear- 
field and M'Kean counties were erected and placed under the jurisdiction of the 
several courts of Centre county. Accordingly at August session, 1804, M'Kean 
was erected into a township called Ceres, and Clearfield into a separate township 
called Chinklacamoose, by the Quarter Sessions of Centre count}^ ; and roads 
laid out in those counties by the Court in 1806. At August sessions, ISOt, Brad- 
ford and Becaria townships were erected in Clearfield count3\ 

At January sessions, 1810, Howard and Walker townships were erected out 
of Centre township, and the latter name abolished. Howard was called after 
the great philanthropist Howard, and Walker after Judge Walker, at the request 
of the inhabU;ants. 

At November sessions, 1810, Sergeant township was erected in M'Kean 
county, and called after Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant. At January sessions, 
1813, Sergeant township was divided into Ogden, Walker, Cooper, Burlington, 
and Shippen. At November sessions. Chinklacamoose, in Clearfield, was 
divided, and Lawrence and Pike erected. 

At April sessions, 1814, Rush and Jenner townships were erected out of Half 
Moon, the former called after Dr. Benjamin Rush, the latter after Dr. Jenner. 
(On 26th January, 1815, the name Jenner was changed back to Half Moon.) 
In August of same year Spring township was divided, and one part called Allen, 
after Captain W. W. Allen, of the sloop Argus ; the other Covington, after 
Leonard Covington, who fell at Williamsburg. At April session, 1815, Allen 
was changed to Boggs, after the late Robert Boggs, and Covington back to 
Spring. 

In April, 1817, Gibson was erected out of Lawrence, in Clearfield, and called 
after Colonel George Gibson. In August Bald Eagle was divided, and the part 
adjoining Walker called " Lamar, after Major Lamar, who fell at the surprise 
at Paoli, in the midst of the British on the retreat. His last words were, ' Halt, 
bo3^s, give these assassins one fire.' He was instantly cut down by the enemy. 
Shall he not be remembered by a grateful country ? He shall. In honor of this 



CENTBE C0UN2Y. 



513 



martyr in the cause of his country, wc name the within township, Lamar. X. B 
The above order of Major Lamar was distinctly heard by Colonel Benjamin 
Burd." Signed by Jonathan Walker and James Potter. Major Marien Lamar 
commanded a company in Colonel Philip de Haas' battalion in the campaign of 
1776, in Canada; was promoted Major of the Fourth Pennsylvania Line, and 
killed at Paoli, September 20, 1777. 

On the 27th of March, 1819, that part of the township of Bald Eagle begin- 
ning at the river opposite the mouth of Quinn's run, thence along the division 
line of the counties of Centre and Lycoming, one mile, thence by a direct line 
to the mouth of Sinnemahoning creek, was annexed to Lj^coming, and attached 
to Dunstable and Chapman townships. 




GAP NORTH OP BKLLEFONTE. 
[From a Photograph bj Moore, Bellefonte.J 

April, 1819, Logan appears among the list of townships. No record of its 
formation can be found. 

January 25, 1821, Sinnemahoning township erected in Clearfield count}'. 

Gregg township was erected November 29, 1826, and called for Hon. Andrew 
Crregg; Harris out of Potter, Ferguson, and Spring, April 27, 1835, and called 
aficr the late James Harris. Huston appears among the list of towns .ips in 
April, 1839 ; no record of its erection can be found. Snow Shoe was erected out 
of Boggs, January 31, 1840. Marion, August 26, 1840, out of Walker. Penn 
appears among the list of townships in April, 1845 ; Liberty was erected August 
28, 1845 ; Taylor, January 27, 1847, out of Half-Moon ; Worth, January 27, 
1848, out of Taylor; Union November 25, 1850, out of Boggs; Burnside in 
April, 1857, and Curtin, November 25, 1857. 

OFFICIALS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1790, UNTIL JANUARY 1, 1839. 

President Judges. — James Riddle (Centre being annexed to the Fourth 
2 H 



514 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

District of wliicli he was tlien, 1800, President Judge) ; Jonathan Walker, com 
missioned March 1, 1806 ; Charles Huston, commissioned July 1, 1818; Thomas 
Burnside, commissioned April 20, 1826. 

Associate Judges. — James Potter, commissioned October 20, 1800, died 1818 ; 
John Barber, commissioned October 22, 1800; Adam Harper, commissioned 
December 1, 1800, died November, 1827 ; Robert Boggs, commissioned Decem- 
ber 2, 1800; Isaac McKinney, commissioned January 8, 1819; Jacob Kryder, 
commissioned December 10, 1827. 

Deputy ALlorney- Generals. — Thomas Burnside, January 12, 1809; William 
W. Potter; Gratz Etting, July 17, 1819 ; James M. Petriken ; Ephraim Banks; 
James MacManus, February 28, 1833. 

Prothonotaries — Richard Miles, October 22, 1800; John G. Lowrey, May 
10, 1809 ; John Rankin, February 2, 1818 ; John G. Lowrey, February 8, 1821 ; 
John Rankin, January 22, 1824 ; William L. Smith, March 3, 1830; James Gil- 
leland, March 23, 1831 ; George Buchanan, January 12, 1836. 

Registers and Recorders. — Richard Miles, October 22, 1800 ; William Petriken, 
May 10, 1809, re-commissioned February 2, 1818; Franklin B. Smith, February 
8, 1821; William Pettit, January 22, 1824; William C. Welch, January 12, 1836. 

Sheriffs. — James Duncan, October 28, 1800 ; William Rankin, October 25, 
1803; Roland Curtin, November 14, 1806; Michael Bolinger, November 11, 
1809; John Rankin, November 6, 1812; William Alexander, December 1, 1815; 
John Mitchell, October 23, 1818; Joseph Butler, October 22, 1821; Thomas 
Harkness, Jr., November 17, 1824; Robert Tate, December 19, 1827; William 
Ward, October 22, 1830; George Leidy, October 31, 1833; William Ward, 
October 29, 1836. 

Commissioned Deputy Surveyors of Districts of loh.ich its Territory formed 
part. — Jolin Canan, September 20, 1791; James Harris, October 19, 1791; 
Frederick Evans, November 9, 1791; Joseph J, Wallis, January 18, 1792; 
Daniel Smith, August 10, 1795. William Kerr, May 11, 1815; Joseph B. 
Shugert, June 4, 1826. 

First Justices of the Peace. — Bakl Eagle (Lower)— Matthew Allison, October 
22, 1800. Bald Eagle (Upper)— William Petriken, October 22, 1800. 

Centre. — William McEwen, October 22, 1800 ; William Swansey, October 22, 
1800 ; Thomas McCalmont, October 22, 1800. 

Haines. — Michael Bolinger, October 22, 1800; James Cook, October 22, 
1800 ; Adam Harper, October 22, 1800 ; John Matthias Beuck, December G, 1800- 

Patton. — Thomas Ferguson, October 22, 1800 ; David Killgore, June 5, 1801 ; 
CU<irles P. Trezizulny, June 5, 1801. 

Potter.— William Kerr, October 22, 1800 ; William Early, December 1, 1800. 

The first County Commissioners were John Hall, David Barr, and Matthew 
Allison ; Commissioners' Clerk, William Kerr. 

BioaRAPiiiCAL Notices. — The space accorded Centre county will only admit 
of some notice of the early prominent characters of the county, leaving to the 
county annalist the names of Charles Huston, Thomas Burnside, W. W. Potter, 
Bond Valentine, John Blanchard, H. N. M'Allister, and others, ornaments of the 
bench and bar. 

General Philip Benner was born in Chester county. His father was an active 



GEN TEE COUNTY. 515 

Whig of the Revolution, was taken prisoner by the British, and imprisoned. 
Philip, then a youth, took up arras under General Wayne, his relative and 
neighbor. When he went forth to the field, his patriotic mother quilted in the 
back of his vest several guineas, as a provision in case he should be taken 
prisoner by the enemj'. After the war he became a successful manufacturer of 
iron, at Coventry forge, in Chester county. He removed to Centre county in 
lt92. At that early day the supply of provisions for the works had to be trans- 
ported from a distance, over roads that would now be deemed almost impassable, 
and a market for his iron was to be found alone on the Atlantic seaboard. He 
succeeded, and enjoyed for several years, without competition, the trade in Avhat 
was termed by him the ""Juniata iron," for the Western countrj' — a trade now of 
immense importance. He held the rank of major-general in the militia of the 
State, and was twice an elector of President of the United States. He was a 
Democrat throughcnit his life. The borough of Bellefonte bears testimony to his 
enterprise and liberality. He adorned it by the erection of a number of dwelling- 
houses, and aided in the construction of works to give it advantages which nature 
denied. He established the Centre Democrat^ in 182T. General Benner died at 
his residence, in Spring township, July 21, 1832, aged seventy. He was remark- 
able for his industry, enterprise, gencrosit3',and open-hearted hospitalit3^ 

Andrew Gregg was among the early settlers in Penn's valley. He was born 
on 10th June, 1155, at Carlisle. He acquired a classical education at several of 
the best schools of that da}^ and was engaged for some years as a tutor in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. In the 3'ear 1783, Mr. Gregg, having saved a few hun- 
dred dollars from his salary as a teacher, changed his employment, and commenced 
business as a storekeeper in Middletown, Dauphin county. In 1787 he married 
a daughter of Gen. Potter, then living near the West Branch, in Northumberland 
county ; and at the earnest request of his father-in-law, in 1789, moved with his 
family to Penn's valley, where he settled down in the woods, and commenced the 
business of farming, about two miles from Potter's Old Fort. On the place he 
first settled, he continued improving his farm from j-ear to year, pursuing with 
great industry the business of a country farmer. There all his children were 
born, and some married, and there he resided until the year 1814, when he 
removed to Bellefonte, having some years before purchased property in that 
neighborhood. In 1790 Mr. Gregg was elected a member of Congress, and by 
seven successive elections, for several districts, as they were arranged from time 
to time, including one by a general vote or ticket over the whole State — was con- 
tinued a meinber of that body for sixteen successive years — and during the ses- 
sion of 180G-7, was chosen a member of the Senate of the United States. At the 
expiration of this term, on the 4th of March, 1813, he returned to private life, 
attending to the education of his children and the improvement of his 
farms, until December, 1820, when he was called by Governor Hiester to the 
position of Secretary of the Commonwealth. In 1823 he was the nominee of the 
Federal party for Governor, in opposition to John Andrew Shuize. He died 
at Bellefonte, May 20, 1833. 

Martha Walker Cook, the authoress and poetess, was born in Bellefonte, in 
the year 1807, daughter of Judge Jonathan Walker, and sister of Hon. Robert J. 
Walker She was married to General William Cook, of New Jo'-sey, January I, 



616 EISTOB T OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

1825, and died at "Washington, D. C, September 15, 1874. Mrs. Cook edited 
and conducted the Continental Monthly magazine, translated the life of Chapin 
from the original of Liszt, etc. She was the mother of E. B. Cook, author of 
works on Chess. 

Colonel John Patton, who built the first iron works in the territory of Centre 
county, was a major in Colonel Samuel Miles' rifle regiment, appointed March 
13, 1716. He participated in the battle of Long Island, was appointed October 
25, 1776, major of Ninth Pennsylvania regiment, and after the organization of 
the Pennsylvania Line in 1777, commanded one of the additional regiments. He 
and his old friend Colonel Miles became associated in the iron business in Centre 
county, and together owned vast tracts of land extending from near Rock Forge 
up to Centre Furnace. He died in 1802, and is buried in a grave yai'd on Slab- 
Cabin branch of Spring creek. 

Major-General James Potter died in the fall of 1789. He was assisting in 
building the chimney of one of his tenant houses, and in turning suddenly, injured 
himself internall3\ He went to Franklin county to have the advantage of Dr. 
McClelland's advice, and died at his daughter's, Mrs. Poe's, a few miles west of 
the present station of Marion on the Cumberland Valley railroad. He is buried, 
it is said, in an old grave yard at Brown's Mills, not far from Marion. He was a 
son of John Potter, the first sheriff of Cumberland county, and was a lieutenant, in 
1758, in Colonel Armstrong's battalion ; and next appears, July 26, 1764, in com- 
mand of a company in pursuit of the Indians who had murdered a school master 
near Greencastle. His brother Thomas was killed by the Indians in one of their 
inroads into Cumberland county. He was a large land-holder in Penn's "Valley, 
owning, in 1782, nine thousand acres, and spent the principal part of his time, 
when he was at home from the armj^, there ; but his residence was on the Ard 
farm, still in the ownership of his descendants in "White Deer township, Union 
county, a mile or so above the town of New Columbia. He is assessed there 
with negroes, servants, etc., as late as 1788. Timothy Pickering, in his Journal, 
speaks of visiting him there. Andrew Gregg was there married to his daughter, 
January 29, 1787. His services during the Revolution are beyond the limits of 
any notice liei'e. He erected a stockade fort on the Odenkirk place, a little south 
of where the Old Fort Tavern now stands, at the junction of the Mifflinburg, 
Bellefonte, and Lewistown roads. In personal appearance he was short and stout, 
and the native force of his intellect overcame in war and civil business the obsta- 
cles of a limited education. He always had a hopeful disposition which no 
troubles could unjoint. In a letter, dated May 28, 1781, he says : " I;Ook where 
you will, our unfortunate country is disturbed, but the time will come when we 
shall get rid of all these troubles." He was appointed Brigadier-General April 5, 
1777 ; Major-General May 23, 1782. He was Vice-President of the State in 1781, 
member of the Council of Censors in 1784, and on one occasion came within one 
vote of being made President of the State. 

Samuel Porter, of Lamar township, died in January, 1825, aged 79. He 
served three years in the Revolutionai'y war, was with the Pennsylvania detach- 
ment of riflemen under Colonel Morgan, at the capture of Burgoyne, and also 
served through Sullivan's campaign. He participated in twenty-two engagements 
or skirmishes. He was a highly respected citizen. Four children survived him. 



CHESTER COUNTY. 

BY J. SMITH FUTHEY AND GILBERT COPE, WEST CHESTER. 

HESTER COUNTY is one of the three original counties established 
by William Penn in 1682, and originally included Delaware count}' 
and all the territory (except a small portion of Philadelphia and 
Montgomery counties) southwest of the Schuylkill, to the extreme 
limits of the Province. It was the first of the three counties organized, at what 
precise date is not known, but it was with'u two months after the arrival of 
Penn. * 





CHESTER COUNTY COUKT HOUSE. 

(From a Photograph by T. W. Taylor.) 



The landing place of the Proprietary was at Upland (now Chester), and he 
resolved — it would seem without much reflection — that its name should be 
changed. Clarkson, in his life of Penn, says that "turning round to his friend, 

5n 



518 HIS TOE T OF PENNS YL VA NIA. 

Pearson, ont; of his own societ}', who had accompanied him in the ship 
Welcome, he said, Providence has bi'ougiit ns safe here. Thou hast been 
the companion of my perils. What wilt thou that I should call this place? 
Pearson said, ' Chester,' in i-emembrance of the city from whence he came 
Penn replied that it should be called Chesfer, and that when he divided the 
land into counties, one of them should be called by the same name." 

The western boundary of Chester county was established by the erection 
of Lancaster county in 1729, and the northern and northwestern, by the 
erection of Berks county in 1752. Philadelphia county formed the north- 
eastern and eastern boundary, until the establishment of Montgomery in 1784. 

The town of Chester, although located at the extreme southeastern border, 
continued to be the seat of justice for more than a century, but as the settle- 
ments extended into the northern and western parts of the county, a sense 
of its inconvenience to the great majority of those having business to transact 
at the countj' seat, at length induced a vigorous effort for its removal to a more 
central location. That effort was strenuously resisted by the inhabitants of the 
town of Chester, especially by that class who derived their chief sustenance 
from the gleanings incident to a county seat, and a controversy was maintained 
with varying success, and much acrimon^^, for several years. At length the 
removalists were successful, and an act of Assembly was passed in 1784, 
authorizing the sale of the old county buildings at Chester, and the erection 
of new ones at a point to be selected by commissioners named in the act. 
These commissioners fixed upon a central point, near the " Turk's Head 
Tavern," at the intersection of the great road leading from Wilmington to 
Reading, and the road leading from Philadelphia to Strasburg, in Lancaster 
county, and erected the necessary buildings, and the court records and prisoners 
were removed thither in 178G. 

In 1788 the new seat of justice was incorporated into a borough, and styled 
" West Chester," obviously because of its location some sixteen miles north- 
west from the former county seat at Chester. 

The people of the old town of Chester, finding themselves deprived of 
the advantages of having the county seat, soon took measures to procure a 
division of the county, with a view to the re-establishment of a seat of justice in 
their midst. In this they were successful, and by an act of Assembly, passed on 
the 26th of September, 1789, the countj^ was divided, and a new one formed 
from the southeastern portion, under the name of Delaware. This new county 
embraced all the old and originally settled parts of the county, with Chester as 
tlie county seat. It may be questioned whether any advantage has resulted 
from the sundering of the noble old bailiwick. 

The act of Assembl}'^ erecting the new county provided that the line of 
division should be so run as not to divide plantations. The commissioners, 
John Sellers, Thomas Tucker, and Charles Dilworth, acceded to the wishes 
of the land-owners, as to which of the counties they desired their farms to 
be in, and ran the line accordingly. The result was an exceedingly crooked 
line, there being in one part of it no less than forty courses, and a line twenty- 
eight i-niles long, in a direct distance of seven miles. Chester county, as 
reduced by the erection of the new county, is about tliirt3'-six miles from north 



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519 



520 HISTOBY OF PDNNISYLVAJSUA. 

to south, and twenty-one miles from east to west, and contains about seven 
iiundred and sixty square miles. 

The county embraces every varietj'' of soil and surface. The northern part 
is rugged ; the Welsh mountain, a sandstone chain of considerable elevation, 
belonging to the lower secondary formation, forms the north-western boundary. 
A wide belt of red shale and sandstone, and a considerable area of gneiss rock, 
lies to the south of the mountain, and to this succeeds the North Valley hill. 
The " Great Valley," or Chester Valley, as it is now generally called, of primitive 
limestone, forms a most distinguishing feature of the county, and constitutes 
one of its greatest sources of wealth. This valley, which is generally from two 
to three miles wide, crosses the county a little north of the centre, in a south-east 
and north-west direction. It is shut in on both sides by parallel ]iills of moderate 
elevation, generally densely wooded, and from either of these the whole width 
of the valley may be comprehended at one glance, presenting, with its white 
cottages and smiling villages, one of the most lovely scenes in the United States. 
Its numerous quarries furnish great abundance of lime, to fertilize the less 
favored townships of the county. It received its name of " Great " in the earlier 
days of the Province, when the greater limestone valleys of the Cumberland and 
Kittatinny, and those among' the mountains, were yet unknown. Compared with 
these, it is rather diminutive. This valley yields marble of all shades, from 
black and dark blue to nearly pure white, one of the most extensive deposits 
of which is at Oakland, between the Pennsylvania and Chester valley railroads, 
now owned by Dr. George Thomas. It was from this quarry that the marble 
for building Girard College was, in a great measure, procured. The Corinthian 
capitals and other sculptured work are constructed from it. The stone stands 
the exposure of years withovit the ler.^t appearance of disintegration, and retains 
its color without stain or blemish. In these respects it differs from the greater 
part of the marble found in this country. An analysis of it shows no talc, and 
but little earthy matter ; that it is composed of nearly pure carbonate of lime, 
and with considerable silex, and although hard to work, it finishes smoothly.' 
These characteristics render it valuable for monumental purposes. 

To the south of the Chester Valley lies an extensive primitive formation of 
gneiss and mica slate, covering the greater portion of the southern section of 
the county, and forming a gently undulating country, with occasionally a few 
abrupt elevations. In this formation there occur frequent beds of serpentine, 
hornblende, trap-dykes, and deposits of pure feldspar. 

Limestone is found in various parts of the county besides the Chester valley, 
particularly along the line of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central railroad, 
and an extensive trade in the article is carried on. In former times, when wood 
was abundant, the farmers, generally, had large kilns on their farms, and hauled 
the stone from the quarries and burned it themselves, but this practice has for 
many years been almost wholly abandoned, and the business of lime-burning is 
now carried on by the proprietors of the quarries. The State of Delaware is 
largely svipplied with lime from the quarries of Chester county. 

In the south-western part of the county, the mineral known as " chrome " 
is extensively found, both in the rock and sand, and is dug and shipped to 
Europe, where it commands a high price. For many years this trade was under 



CHESTEB COUNTY. 521 

the almost exclusive control of Isaac Tyson, of Baltimore, who procured from 
the farmers the right to dig and remove the minerals found on their plantations. 
He amassed a fortune from this trade. The soil is generally very sterile where 
this mineral appears, and almost valueless for agricultural purposes. Plumbago 
or graphite, of a superior quality, and in apparently inexhaustible quantities, is 
found in Upper Uwchlan and adjoining townships, near the line of the Picker- 
ing Valley railroad. Works have been recently erected with the view of turning 
it to account, and the prospect of a large annual production is flattering. 

In Charlestown and Schuylkill townships are deposits of lead and copper. 
The existence of these minerals in this locality has long been known. As early 
as 1683, mining was done by Charles Pickering and Samuel Buckley, and the 
productions used in the manufacture of coin. In that year these men were tried 
before William Penn, for debasing the coin, and convicted. It was not, how- 
ever, until about 1850, that mines were regularly opened. Before that time the 
operations were confined chieflj^ to the surface. Since 1850 considerable quanti- 
ties of lead have been taken out, chiefly by Charles M. Wheatley. The mines 
opened by him are now owned by the New York and Boston silver-lead mining 
compan3\ Copper is found, but not in sufficient quantities to render its pro- 
duction profitable. The greater portion of the serpentine or green stone, now 
so popular in Philadelphia as a building material for the outer walls of houses 
and which has been used in the construction of the University of Pennsylvania 
and many churches and other buildings, comes from this county. An extensive 
quarry is situated in Birmingham township, about four miles south of West 
Chester, from which large quantities are shipped to Philadelphia and other 
points. It is owned by Joseph H. Brinton. Fine building stone is to be found 
in every part of the count}^, and it is extensively used in the erection of 
buildings. Frame houses are very rare. In New Garden township is a hill 
several miles in length, bearing the Indian name of Toughkenaraon, signifying 
Fire-brand Hill — which contains inexhaustible quantities of stone. Con- 
siderable deposits of clay formed from the decomposition of feldspar, and known 
in the market as " kaolin," are found in New Garden, Pennsbury, and other 
townships, and used in the manufacture of china-ware, porcelain, and fire-brick. 
In Newlin township is an extensive deposit of the rare and valuable mineral known 
as " corundum," where large operations are carried on. In the vicinity of Coates- 
ville is an excellent quality of sand, which is shipped to Pittsburgh, and used 
in the manufacture of glass. Valuable deposits of iron ore* are found in almost 
every section of the count}^, but especially in the northern hills and in the 
Chester valley, and its preparation for tlie market is a source of large profit to 
the owners. 

There are extensive iron works in different parts of the county, but especially 
at Phoenixville and Coatesville. The Phoenix Iron company- is one of the largest 
establishments in the United States. It is engaged, among other things, in the 
manufacture of railroad iron and in the construction of bridges, and gives 
employment, when in full operation, to about fifteen hundred men. During the 
war the celebrated Griff'en wrought iron cannon were manufactured by this 
company, and about twelve hundred of them were supplied. The new Girard 
Avenue bridge in Philadelphia was erected by it, as well as bridges in various 




522 



CHESTER COUNTY. 523 

parts of this country and of Canada. At Coatesville, Parkesburg, and Thorn- 
dale, on the line of the Pennsj'lvauia railroad, are a number of large rolling 
mills, owned by Charles E. Pennock & Co., Huston & Penrose, Hugh E. Steele, 
Horace A. Beale, William L. Baile}-, and others, which do an extensive business 
in the manufacture of boiler plate. At Spring City, on the Schuylkill river, is 
a large manufactory of stoves and hollow ware. At AVest Chester, spokes and 
wheels are extensively manufactured. Woolen and cotton factories, paper 
mills, and flour and saw mills, are numerous on the various streams which flow 
through the county. These sti'eams furnish excellent water power, which is 
extensively utilized. 

Agriculture is the great business of the county, and a more intelligent, 
industrious, thrifty, and orderly set of farmers are not to be found in the State. 
They are largely the lineal descendants of the early Welsh, English, and Scotch- 
Irish pioneers, who came over in the time of the Proprietaries, and of the 
Germans, who came in at a somewhat later date. In former 3'^ears stock grazing 
and feeding was extensively engaged in, but latterly this branch of business has 
fallen off very much, owing to the high price of stock-cattle compared with their 
value when fatted for the market, and the farmers are now turning their atten- 
tion largely to the business of dairying and furnishing supplies for the Philadel- 
phia market. Large quantities of milk and butter are transmitted on the various 
railroads leading to that cit}'. The farm buildings are generally of a very supe- 
rior character, and indicate the thrift and intelligence of the people. The old 
system of what are called worm fences is gradually giving way to fences made 
of posts and rails ; stone is used for fencing to a very limited extent. 

What is known as the Eastern Experimental Farm is situated in Londongrove 
township, in the southern part of the county, near the line of the Philadelphia 
and Baltimore Central railroad, and contains about one hundred acres. It is 
now under the care and superintendence of John I. Carter, a gentleman in everj' 
way suited to the position. The experiments carried on at this farm have 
already been of great benefit to the farming community, and its means of useful- 
ness will increase as its operations become more extensive. A club is maintained 
at the farm, at which a large number of intelligent farmers meet monthly, to 
read essays and discuss matters pertaining to the business of agriculture. The 
farmers of Chester county are a reading people, and scarcely a house will be 
found, however humble, to which the daily newspaper and the monthly magazine 
do not find their way. Their tables will vie with those of the inhabitants of the 
towns in the elegance of their appointments, and the grace and dignity' with 
which they are presided over. 

There are a number of extensive nurseries and greenhouses in the county, the 
productions of which are forwarded to various parts of the country ; notably 
among these are the establishments of Hoopes, Brother & Thomas, Otto & 
Acheles, and Joseph Kift, of West Chester, and of Dingee & Conard, of West 
Grove. The growing of evergreens with Hoopes, Brother & Thomas, and of 
roses with Dingee & Conard, are specialties. 

The surface of the county is almost wholly susceptible of cultivation. There 
is scarcely any broken land. Each farm has usually a proportion of woodland 
sufficient for the uses of the farm— generally about eight acres in the hundred. 



524 BISTOE Y OF PJEI^NS YL VANIA. 

The principal streams are the Octorara, Brandywine, Elk, White Clay, Red 
Clay, Chester, Pocopson, Ridley, and Crum creeks, flowing southwardly, and 
the Pickering, Valley, French and Pidgeon creeks, tributaries of the Schuylkill. 
There are a large number of other smaller streams, and the county is remarkably 
well watered. Nearly all the farms have running water on them, many of them in 
every field. The Octorara creek forms the western boundary of the county, and 
the Schuylkill river skirts it on the east. The Brandywine, at its upper end, is 
composed of two branches, called the east and west branches. The Pennsylvania 
railroad crosses the east branch at Downingtown, and the west branch at Coates- 
ville. They unite at a point nearly west of West Chester. The Brandj^wine has 
been generally supposed to have derived its natne in consequence of the reported 
loss of a vessel in its waters, laden with brandy — in the Dutch language, 
brand-wijn. This, however, is shown by recent investigation to be a mistake. 
It most probably derived its name from one Andrew Braindwine, who, at an early 
day, owned lands near its mouth. It was very common in the olden time, in the 
lower counties — now the State of Delaware — to name streams after the dwellers 
upon their banks. This creek is shown by the old records to have been known as 
the Fish-kill, until the grant of land to Andrew Braindwine ; immediately after 
which it is referred to, on the records, as Braindwine's kill or creek, and the 
name was eventually corrupted into its present form of Brandywine. The Indian 
name of the Brandywine is not certainly known. It is spoken of by tradition, 
both as Suspecough and Wawassan. Octorara and Pocopson are of Indian origin, 
the latter signifying rapid or brawling stream. 

Excellent public roads cross the county in every direction. These are usually 
sold out b}'^ the supervisors to the lowest bidder, to be kept in repair for a term 
of years, the farmers in the vicinity being generally the purchasers. There are 
also a number of turnpike roads, the principal of which are the Philadelphia and 
Lancaster, West Chester and Wilmington, and Downingtown, Ephrata, and 
Harrisburg. The Schuylkill canal traverses the eastern part of the county, near 
the Schuylkill river. 

The county is well supplied with railroad facilities, almost every part being 
within convenient reach of this mode of travel. The Pennsylvania railroad 
passes across the centre of the county from east to west, and the Reading and 
Wilmington railroad from north to south, while the Philadelphia and Baltimore 
Central railroad traverses the entire southern part of it. The West Chester and 
Philadelphia railroad connects West Chester with Philadelphia, and the 
West Chester, with the Pennsylvania railroad, at Malvern station, near Paoli. 
The Pennsylvania and Delaware railway runs from the Pennsjdvania railroad 
at Pomeroy station to Delaware City ; the East Brandywine and Waynes- 
burg railroad, from Downingtown to Waynesburg ; the Chester Valley, from 
Downingtown to Norristown, and the Pickering Valley, from Uwchlan to 
Phcenixville. The Wilmington and Western connects Wilmington with the 
Pennsylvania and Delaware railway at Landenberg ; the Reading railroad passes 
along the eastern boundary of the county, and the Perkiomen railroad connects 
with the Reading railroad, between Phcenixville and Valley Forge. The Peach 
Bottom railroad — a narrow gauge — is in process of construction from Oxford 
to York, several miles of which, from Oxford, westward, have been constructed, 



CHESTER COUNTY. 525 

and are in operation. These thirteen railroads have about two hundred miles of 
track within the limits of the county. 

The territory now included in Chester county was honorably purchased of 
the Indians by William Penn, and was conveyed in several distinct deeds. The 
first, bearing date June 25, 1683, and signed by an Indian called Wingebone, 
conveys to William Penn all his lands on the west side of Schuylkill, beginning 
at the first falls, and extending along and back from that river, in the language 
of the instrument, " so far as my right goeth." By another deed of July 14th, 
1683, two chiefs granted to the Proprietary the land lying between the Chester 
and Schuylkill rivers. From Kikitapan he purchased half the land between the 
Susquehanna and Delaware, in September, and from Malchaloa, all lands from 
the Delaware to Chesapeake bay, up to the falls of the Susquehanna, in October. 
And by a deed of July 30th was conveyed the laud between Chester and Penny- 
pack creeks. Another conve^-ance was made on the 2d of October, 1685, for the 
greater portion of the lands constituting the present county of Chester. This 
last instrument is a quaint piece of conveyancing, and will show the value 
attached bj^ the natives to their lands : 

" This indenture witnesseth that we, Packenah, Jackham, Sikals, Portquesott, 
Jervis, Essepenaick, Felktrug, Porvey, Indian kings, sachemakers, right owners 
of all lands from Quing Quingus, called Duck cr., unto Upland, called Chester cr., 
all along the west side of Delaware river, and so between the said creeks back- 
wards as far as a man can ride in two days with a horse, for and in consideration 
of these following goods to us in hand paid, and secured to be paid by William 
Penn, Proprietary of Pennsylvania and the territories thereof, viz. : 20 guns, 20 
fathoms match coat, 20 fathoms stroud water, 20 blankets, 20 kettles, 20 pounds 
powder, 100 bars of lead, 40 tomahawks, 100 knives, 40 pair of stockings, 1 
barrel of beer, 20 pounds of red lead, 100 fathoms of wampum, 30 glass bottles, 
30 pewter spoons, 100 awl blades, 300 tobacco pipes, 100 hands tobacco, 20 
tobacco tongs, 20 steels, 300 flints, 30 pair of scissors, 30 combs, 60 looking 
glasses, 200 needles, 1 skipple of salt, 30 pounds of sugar, 5 gallons of molasses, 
20 tobacco boxes, 100 jews-harps, 20 hoes, 30 gimlets, 30 wooden screw boxes, 
103 strings of beeds — do hereby acknowledge, &c. &c. Given under our hands 
and seals, at New Castle, 2d of the 8th month, 1685." 

The title of the particular Indian chiefs to the lands claimed bv them was not 
always very clear, but it was the policy of the Proprietary government to qiiiet 
all claims which might be made, by purchasing them. Accordingly, purchases 
were made from time to time, of claims made by chiefs, which they alleged had 
not been extinguished. 

The Indians, after the sale of their lands, continued to occupy them until 
needed by the settlers, and gradually abandoned them as the whites advanced 
and took possession. They were an amiable race, and when the}^ left the burial 
places of their fathers, in search of new homes, it was without a stain upon their 
honor. Considerable numbers, however, remained in the county, inhabiting the 
woods and unoccupied places, until the breaking out of the French and English 
war in 1755 ; about which time they generally removed beyond the limits of the 
county, and took up their abode in the valleys of the Wyoming and Wyalusing, 
on the Susquehanna. At the making of the treaty of St. Mary's, in 1720, there 



526 niSTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

were present some chiefs of the Nanticokes, one of whom, who had withstood the 
storms of ninety winters, told the commissioners that lie and his people had once 
roamed through their own domains along the Brandywine. At the close of the 
Revolutionary war, the number of Indians resident in the county was reduced 
to four, who dwelt in some wigwams in Marlborough township. After the death 
of three of them, the remaining one, known as Indian Hannah, took up her abode 
in a wigwam near the Brandywine, on lands of Humphrey Marshall, or as she 
considered it, on her own lands. During the summer she traveled through 
different pai'ts of the count}^, visiting those who would receive her with kindness, 
and selling her baskets. As she grew old she quitted her wigwam and dwelt in 
friendl}'' families. Though a long time domesticated with the whites, she retained 
her Indian character to the last. She had a proud and haughty- spirit, hated the 
blacks, and did not even deign to associate with the lower order of the whites. 
Without a companion of her race — without kindred — she felt her situation deso- 
late, and often spoke of the wrongs and misfortunes of her people. She died in 
the year 1803, at the age of nearly one hundred j'cars — the last of the Lenni 
Lenape resident in Chester count}-. 

Tlie early settlers of the count}^ were of various nationalities. The Swedes, 
who came first, established themselves along the banks of the Delaware and 
Schuylkill. The "Welsh — who settled in considerable numbers — occupied the 
eastern townships, and extended up the Great Valley and into the northern and 
north-western parts of the county. The English — principally of the Society of 
Friends — settled all the central portion of the count}-, and extended into the 
south and south-west, some of them taking up lands bordering upon the Mary- 
land line. The Scotch-Irish gradually- spread over the Avhole of the western part 
of the county, from the JNIaryland line to the Welsh mountain, while the Dutch 
and Germans filled up the north-eastern townships. 

It is a singular fact that the white races in Pennsylvania are remarkably 
unmixed, and retain their original character beyond that of any State in the 
Union. These distinctly marked races are the English, Scotch-Irish, and 
German. Emigrants from other countries contributed to swell the population, 
but their numbers were small compared with the races just mentioned, and their 
peculiar characteristics, tlirough admixture with the people of other nationalities, 
and the mellowing influence of time, are scarcely recognizable. 

These difi'erent peoples have impressed their peculiar characteristics upon the 
portion of Chester county in which they settled. While to the e3-e of the stranger 
this may not be apparent, yet to one long resident in the county, and familiar with 
its inhabitants, the difference is quite perceptible. Throughout all the eastern, 
central, and a portion of the southern part of the count}', the plain language of 
the Society of Friends is still largely used, their meeting houses are numerous, 
and the descendants of the early settlers have inherited their simple manners and 
style of living. The western part of the county is largely peopled by the 
descendants of the Scotch-Irish settlers, and the peculiarly energetic, positive, 
enterprising, and intellectual character of this people has descended from genera- 
tion to generation. They are chiefly Presbyterian, and a large number of 
churches of that denomination arc scattered over this region. In the north- 
eastern part of the county, any one familiar with the peculiar expressions of the 



CHESTER COUNTY. 527 

English speaking Pennsylvania German, would know that he was among the 
descendants of that race, although scarcel}^ any of them speak the German 
language. They possess the thrift and industry of their forefathers, and are au 
orderly and law-abiding people. 

The first court after the granting of the Province to William Penn was held 
at Upland, on the 13th of September, 1681. This was the day to which the 
court, at its last session under the government of the Duke of York, had 
adjourned. The records of the county from that time to the present have been 
preserved, and are all in the public offices at West Chester. When the county 
seat was removed to West Chester, in 1786, these records were removed there 
from Chester. Delaware county, although having the old county seat, Avas a 
new county, and its records date from its erection in 1789. A portion of these 
old records having become much worn and difficult to decipher, were, by an 
order of the court made in 1827, copied into a large book, labelled " Old Court 
Records," which is now in the offlce of the clerk of the court of quarter sessions. 
They contain much curious and interesting matter. The first entries are of two 
cases of assault and battery, and appear to have been what are in these days 
called cross-prosecutions. As a specimen of court proceedings in those early 
days, these first entries are given : 

" Province of Pennsylvania, at the court at Upland, September 13th, 1681. 
Justices present : Mr. William Clayton, Mr. William Warner, Mr. Robert Wade, 
Mr. Otto Ernest Cock, Mr. William Byles, Mr. Robert Lucas, Mr. Lasse Cock, 
Mr. Swan Swanson, Mr. Andreas Bankson. 

" Sheriff, Mr. .John Test ; clerk, Mr. Thomas Revell. 

" An action of assault and battery. Peter Erickson plaintiff; Herman John- 
son and Margaret, his wife, defendants. 

" Jurors : Morgan Drewitt, William Woodmansen, William Hewes, James 
Browne, Henry Reynolds, Robert Schoole}^, Richard Pittman, Lassey Dalboe, 
John Ackraraan, Peter Rambo, Jr., Henry Hastings, and AVilliam Oxle}'. 

" Witness : William Parke. The jury find for the plaintiff, give him 6d. 
damages and his costs of suit. 

'• An action of assault and battery. Herman Johnson and Margaret, his wife, 
plaintiffs ; Peter Erickson, defendant. 

" Jurors, the same as above. Witnesses : Anna Coleman, Richard Buffington, 
Ebenezer Taylor. The jury find for the plaintiffs, and give them 40s. damages 
and their costs of suit." 

In a case tried at the next court, it is recorded that " Katharine Winch- 
combe's evidence was rejected as a lie." 

The title Mr., which had theretofore been appended to the name of the 
justices and officers of the court, was at this court omitted, and does not appear 
to have been thereafter used. Soon afterwards, the manner of calling the names 
of the days of the week and month, was changed to the style used by the Friends, 
the Assembly having directed " that ye days of ye week, and ye months of yc 
year shall be called as in Scripture, and not by heathen names (as are vulgarly 
used), as ye first, second, and third days of ye week, and first, second, and tliird 
months of ye year, beginning with ye day called Sunday, and ye month called 
March." This style was continued for a considerable period of time. Corporeal 



528 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

punishment for crime was quite common, and the whipping post, stocks, and 
pillory are frequently mentioned in these old records. The first sentence of this 
character recorded is that " J — M — , being convicted of stealing money o';t of 
the house of William Browne, was ordered twelve stripes on his bare back, well 
laid on, at the commoia whipping post, the fourth instant, between the tenth and 
eleventh hours in the morning." This system of punishment appears to have 
continued until after the middle of the eighteenth century, when it fell gradually 
into disuse, and punishment by fine and imprisonment became general. The 
-grand jury frequently presented persons for being intoxicated, for selling liquor 
without license, and for keeping disorderly houses, and the disposal of such pre- 
sentments occupied much of the attention of the court. The following are 
extracts of early cases : 

" James Sanderlaine was fined 5s. for suffering Robert Stephens to be drunk 
in his house. 

" Neil Juist paid 5s. for being drunk at Chester." 

Margaret Matson, of Chester county, was tried before William" Penn, at 
Philadelphia, in February, 1684, for witchcraft. It is recorded that " the jury 
went forth, and upon their return brought her in guilty of having the common 
fame of a witch, but not guilty in manner and form as she stands indicted." 
The proceedings are given at length in the first volume of the Colonial 
Records, pages 93-96. 

The first court after the removal of the county seat to West Chester, was 
held on Uie 28th of November, 1*186, the following justices being present: 
William Clingan, William Haslett, John Bartholomew, Philip Scott, Isaac Tay- 
lor, John Ralston, Joseph Luckey, Thomas Cheyney, Thomas Lewis, and 
Richard Hill Morris. It will be remembered that in those days the ordinary 
county courts were held by the justices of the peace. At August term, 1*791, 
the}^ sat for the last time, and at November term following, the judges appointed 
under the constitution of 1790 took their seats. The following is a chronologi- 
cal list of the president judges who have occupied the bench in West Chester, 
viz.: William Augustus Atlee, from November, 1791, to August, 1793 ; John 
Joseph Henry, from February, 1794, to February, 1800; John D. Coxe, from 
May, 1800, to May, 1805 ; AVilliam Tilghman, from August, 1805, to Februar3^, 
1806 ; Bird Wilson, from April, 1806, to November, 1817, when he left the bench 
for the pulpit; John Ross, from February, 1818, to May, 1821, when the judicial 
district was divided, and he accepted the new district composed of Bucks and 
Montgomery; Isaac Darlington, from July, 1821, to his death, in May, 1839; 
Thomas Sloan Bell, from May, 1839, to October, 1846, when he was appointed to 
the bench of the Supreme Court, and Henry Chapman, the last of the appointed 
judges, from April, 1848, to November, 1851. Townsend Haines, elected by the 
people, occupied the bench from December, 1851, to December, 1861, when he 
was succeeded by William Butler, who has presided from that time to the 
present. Between the resignation of Judge Bell, and the appointment of Judge 
Chapman, John M. Forster, of Harrisburg, and James Nill, of Chambersburg, 
occupied the bench for a time, by appointment of Governor Shunk, but were not 
confirmed by the Senate. 

The influence exerted in this county by the example of the Society of Friends 



CHESTER COUNTY. 529 

is very marked. The simple affirmation taken by their members as witnesses 
and in judicial proceedings is now generally used by those of all creeds, and of no 
creed. Even the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who formerly always took the 
oath with uplifted hand, now generally follow the example. 

The long period of ninety years that elapsed between the settlement of the 
county and the war of the Revolution was a peaceful era, unfruitful of incident. 
During all that time the settlers were left to pursue their peaceful occupations, 
uninjured and unmoved by the commotions that shook the rest of the world. 
They plied the arts of commerce, brought new lands into culture, established 
schools and churches, and advanced with uniform progress towards a state of 
opulence and refinement. The contests which occurred within this period had 
little efiect on the settlers here. They were largel}^ Friends, took no active part 
in military concerns, and were not molested by them. 

The cloud, however, which had so long been gathering and rumbling on the 
horizon, had at length spread itself over the land, and the moment arrived when 
it was to burst. The citizens of Chester county were now to see their fields 
crossed by hostile armies, and made the theatre of military operations, while 
they themselves, throwing aside the implements of husbandry and forgetting the 
employments of peace, were to mingle in the general strife. 

When the difficulties between the Colonics and the mother countrj^ became 
serious, a large meeting of the inhabitants of the count}^ was held at the court 
house at Chester, in December, 1774, to devise measures for the protection of 
their rights as freemen, in pursuance of the resolution of the Continental 
Congress. A committee of seventy was chosen, at the head of which stood 
Anthon}^ Wayne, and am.ong his colleagues were such resolute men as Francis 
Johnston, Richard Riley, Hugh Lloj'd, Sketchley Morton, Lewis Gronow, 
Richard Thomas, William Montgomer}", Persifor Frazer, John Hannum 
Patterson Bell, Richard Flower, and Walter Finney. The object of this com- 
mittee was to aid in superseding the Colonial government, and to take charge 
of the local interests of the county. 

The first military force raised in the county was a regiment of volunteers, 
commanded b}^ Colonel Richard Thomas, of the Great Yalley. In the beginning 
of the year 1776, a regiment was organized, commanded by Anthony Wayne as 
colonel, and Francis Johnston as lieutenant-colonel, and consisting of eight 
companies, with the following named captains : Persifor Frazer, Thomas Robison, 
John Lacey, Caleb North, Thomas Church, Frederick Yernon, James Moore, 
and James Taylor. All these officers were citizens of Chester count}^, except 
John Lacey, who then resided in Bucks count}^, and Thomas Church, who 
resided in Lancaster county. Another reoimcnt was subsequently raised and 
officered, principally by the inhabitants of Chester county. Samuel J. Atlee, of 
Lancaster, was appointed colonel, and Caleb Parry, of Chester county, lieutenant- 
colonel, and among the captains were Joseph McClellan and Walter Finney. 

Among the citizens of Chester county who rose to eminence as military 
men during the revolution, were Anthony Wayne, Richard Thomas, Francis 
Johnston, Jacob Humphrey, Caleb Parr3', Joseph McClellan, Walter Finney, 
Richard Hvnnpton, Persifor Frazer, Benjamin Bartholomew, William Montgo- 
mery, Allen Cunningham, James McCullough, John Harper, Stephen Cochran, 
2i 



530 III8T0B Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Robert Smith, and Andrew Boyd. The last two were lieutenants of the 
county, and had charge of the raising and equipping of the militia levies. 
Among the civilians who rendered efficient service, were John Morton, Thomas 
M'Kean, William Clingan, Thomas Cheyney, John Hannum, Samuel Futhey, 
John Jacobs, Dr. Joseph Gardner, John Beaton, Caleb Davis, William Gibbons, 
Richard Riley, John Ralston, Stephen Cochran, and Reverends John Carmichael, 
William Foster, and David Jones. 

It will thus be seen that Chester county not only contributed a full propor- 
tion of men for the service, but evinced a spirit scarcely to be expected among a 
people, so many of whom were opposed in principle to the practice of war. It is 
to be remembered, however, that when the Revolution dawned upon us, the 
Scotch-Irish element had become very strong — almost the whole of the western 
part of the county was peopled by them and their descendants — and they became 
a powerful element in the contribution of the county to the cause of liberty. As 
an instance of their devotion, it is stated that in the region known as Brandy- 
wine Manor, in the campaign of 1'777, not a man capable of bearing arms 
remained at home, and the farm labor devolved upon the old men, women, and 
children. Among the most active in promoting the cause, were the Rev. John 
Carmichael, of Brandywine Manor, and Rev. William Foster, of Upper Octo- 
rara, Presbyterian clergymen, and the Rev. David Jones, of the Great Valley, a 
Baptist clergyman, the effect of whose preaching was to send many a valuable 
recruit into the army. The Welsh clement was generally favorable to indepen- 
dence, and contributed to swell the ranks of the patriots. 

The British, on their route from the head of Chesapeake bay to Philadelphia, 
in September, 1777, entered Chester county in the lower part of New Garden 
township. They rested the night of the tenth at Kennett Square, and on the 
next morning formed in two divisions, one under General Kn3-pliausen, pursuing 
the direct road eastward to Chad's ford, and the main body, under General Corn- 
wallis, and accompanied by the commander-in-chief, taking a circuitous route, 
crossing the west branch of the Brandywine at Trimble's ford, and the east 
branch at Jefferis' ford, and approaching Birmingham meeting house from the 
north. The object of this movement was to hem in the American forces between 
the two divisions of the British armj''. In this they were successful, and the 
Americans, after a brief but severe struggle, were routed and compelled to seek 
safety in flight. 

The particulars of the battle of Brandywine are given in the general sketch, 
and need not be repeated here.. 

The question has been frequently mooted, whether the fact that the British 
Had divided their forces, should not have been discovered sooner than it was, 
and the disastrous defeat which took place have been prevented ? The writer, 
from a knowledge of the entire section of country near where the battle was 
fought, entertains the opinion that there was somewhere the most culpable and 
inexcusable negligence, in not having sooner definitely ascertained the move- 
ments of the British army. The fords of the Brandywine, where the British 
were at all likely to cross, were all comparatively near to the Americans, and 
were easily accessible ; the country was open, and the roads were substantially 
the same as now, and with proper vigilance, the movements of the British could 



CHESTER (JOTJNTT. 



531 



have been easily discovered in time to have enabled General Washington to 
have disposed of his troops to the best advantage. It is now known that small 
bodies of the British light troops crossed at Wistar's and at Buffington's fords, 
which are between Jefferi's ford and Chad's ford, some time before the main 
body of the army crossed at Jefleris' ford, and yet no information of these 
movements appears to have been communicated to the commander-in-chief. 
The first reliable information which he received was from Thomas Cheynej^ an 
intelligent and patriotic citizen, whose residence was a few miles distant. He 
had passed the night at the residence of John Hannum, where the i^resent 
village of Marshalton stands, and the two set out on the morning of the eleventh 
to visit the American army. As they descended towards the west branch of the 
Brandywine near Trimble's ford, they discovered, coming down from the hills 
opposite, a numerous body of British soldiers. This very much surprised them, 
and they moved round the adjacent hills, in order to observe the direction taken 
by them. Finding they were going 
towards JefTeris' ford, and believing 
them to constitute the main body 
of the British army, they resolved 
at once, and at some personal risk, 
to proceed with the intelligence to 
General Washington. Che3'ney 
being mounted on a fleet hacknej^, 
pushed down the stream until he 
found the commander-in-chief, and 
communicated the tidings to him, 
but the information came so late 
that there was not time to properly 
meet the emergency. It has been 
usual to attribute the loss of the 
battle to this want of timely intelli- 
gence of the movements of the enemy, but it is problematical whether the Ameri- 
cans could have been successful under any circumstances. The British army 
was well appointed and highly disciplined ; a large part of the American army, 
at that time, was a mere militia levy, and this superiority of the British troops 
over the Americans would probably have enabled them to gain the day under 
any circumstances. 

The meeting-house at Birmingham had been taken possession of by 
Washington some days previousl}^, with a view to its occupancy b}' the sick of 
the American armj^, but before it was in readiness for that purpose the battle 
was fought, and it was used by the British as an hospital for their Avounded 
officers. 

There is a tradition which has long been current, that a member of the House 
of Northumberland, named Percy, was killed in the engagement, and buried in 
the graveyard at Birmingham meeting-house, and the supposed place of inter- 
ment has been pointed out to the writer. This tradition, which we see occcasion- 
ally given as history, is unqestioiiably a myth. We have no reliable evidence of 
its truth. Very few officers of conspicuous rank^ in either army, were slain in the 




OLD BIRMINGHAM MEETING HOUSE. 



532 HISTOR Y OF PENIfS YL VANIA. 

battle of Brandy wine, and if it were true that a " Percy of Northumberland " had 
fallen there, General Howe assuredly was not the person to ignore the death of 
a companion in arms who could trace his family name back to the days of 
Chevy Chase. Hugh, Earl Fercy, afterwards second Duke of Northumberland, 
was in this country in the earl}^ period of the Revolution, and commanded some 
forces at the battle of Lexington, but he left America previous to the battle of 
Brandy wine. 

The British army remained some days in the neighborhood of the field of 
battle, and during this time had a cattle pen, where they collected large numbers 
of cattle and other animals, and slaughtered and preserved them for the use of 
the arm3% Nearly all the live stock in the country for a considerable distance 
around was taken from the inhabitants. In some instances paymerit Avas made 
in British gold, but generall}^ no compensation was given. On the IGth of 
September they proceeded northward towards the Great Yalley, by what is 
known as the Chester road. Washington, after resting his army, marched from 
Philadelphia up the Lancaster road, with the view of again offering battle. On 
the ITth the armies met in Goshen township, about four miles north-east of 
West Chester ; skirmishing began between the advanced parties, and a 
sanguinar}^ battle would probably have been fought, but a rain storm of great 
violence stopped its further progress, and rendered it impossible for either army 
to keep the field. A few soldiers were killed in the conflict. The Americans 
retired to the Yellow Springs, where, discovering that their ammunition had 
been greatly damaged by the rain, and that they were not in a condition to 
engage in a conflict, the march was continued to Warwick Furnace, in the 
present township of Warwick, in the northern part of the county, where a fresh 
supply of arms and ammunition was obtained. 

After a detention of two days on account of the weather, the British moved 
down the Great Valley into Tredyffrin township. A detachment under General 
Wayne was dispatched by Washington to the rear of the British army, to harass 
and annoy it, and endeavor to cut off the baggage train, and bj^ this means 
to arrest its march towards the Schuylkill, until the Americans could cross the 
river higher up and pass down on the east side, and intercept the passage of the 
river b}^ the British. 

On the night of the 20th of September, the command of Wayne, who were 
encamped in what is now known as the Paoli Massacre ground, in Willistown 
township, was surprised by General Grey, and many of his men slain. Informa- 
tion of the whereabouts of the forces of Wayne had been given to the British 
commander by Tories residing in the neighborhood, by one of whom General 
Grey was guided in his cowardly midnight assault. The dead were decently 
interred by the neighboring farmers in one grave immediately adjoining the 
scene of action. After the affair at Paoli, the British army moved down the 
valley, intending to cross the Schuylkill at Swedes' ford, but finding it guarded, 
thejf turned up the river on the west side, for the purpose of effecting a passage 
of some of the fords higher up. The American armj'^, in order if possible 
to prevent the British from passing the river, had in the meantime moved 
from Warwick Furnace and crossed the Schuylkill at Parker's ford, at or 
near the present village of Lawrenceville, in this county, and moved southward 



CHESTER COUNTY. 533 

on the east side. They were unable, however, to prevent the passage of the 
British, who crossed in two divisions — at Gordon's ford, now Phoenixville, 
ind at Eatland ford, a short distance below Yalley Forge. 

On the 20th of September, 1817, being the fortieth anniversary of the mas- 
sacre, a monument was erected over the remains of those gallent men by the 
Republican Artillerists of Chester county, aided by the contributions of their 
fellow-citizens. It is composed of white marble, and is a pedestal surmounted 
by a pyramid. Upon the four sides of the body of the pedestal are appropriate 
inscriptions. It stands on the centre of the grave in which the slaughtered 
heroes were buried, in the south-east corner of a large field, owned and used by 
the military organizations of Chester county for parades and encampments. 
The grave itself is about sixty feet long by twenty wide, and is surrounded by a 
stone wall. The scene of this conflict is probably the best preserved of an}^ that 
marked the progress of the Revolutionary war. The monument has become so 
much battered and broken by relic hunters that it is proposed to erect a new one 
during this Centennial year, and funds are now being contributed for that 
purpose. The point is a short distance south of Malvern station, at the inter- 
section of the West Chester and Pennsylvania railroads. 

In the year 1794, what is popularly known as the Whiskej'^ Insui'rection, in 
western Pennsylvania, became so threatening, that when President Washington 
made a requisition for a mililniy force, Governor Mifliin came to Chester county, 
and in a speech at West Chester called upon the patriotic citizens of the 
county to volunteer their aid in its suppression. The Governor, who was 
good at astump speech, addressed the meeting with such effect that the people 
responded in the most patriotic manner. A troop of cavalry was promptly 
raised by Colonel Joseph McClellan, Major Samuel Futhey, and others, and a 
company of artillery by Aaron Musgravc. These companies joined the ex- 
pedition to the west, and faithfully performed their tour of dut}^ as good citizen 
soldiers. 

In the war of 1812-14, with Great Britain, Chester county did her share in 
raising men to resist the encroaches of the enemy. A number of companies 
were recruited and prepared for duty. Those from the western part of the 
county marched to Baltimore, and those from the eastern part to Philadelphia, 
and from thence to Marcus Hook, where they were received into the ser- 
vice of the United States, and served until they were regularly discharged. 
Colonel Isaac Wayne, Major Isaac D. Barnard, Captain Christopher Wigton, 
Captain Titus Taylor, and Captain George Hartman, were among those who 
recruited men for the service. Major Barnard was actively engaged in the 
field during the entire war, and won for himself honorable distinction. 

On the 26th of July, 1825, General Lafayette visited the Brandywine battle- 
field, where he had been wounded in 1777, and was thence escorted by the 
volunteer soldiery and assembled citizens to West Chester, where he was enter- 
tained by a committee with a public dinner in the court house. The following 
day he proceeded to Lancaster. He was accompanied by his son, George 
Washington Lafayette. 

In tlie .var for the preservation of the Union, Chester county, in common 
with the one. re North, responded most nobly to the calls made upon her. Where 



534 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

all did so well, it would be invidious to claim for one greater distinction or 
regard than another. It is estimated that this county furnished not less than 
six thousand five hundred soldiers, of whom about five hundred were colored 
men. When the three months men were called for, four companies were 
furnished, one of which was connected with the 4th and the other with the 9th 
regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers. The others, so far as we have any record 
of them, were distributed as follows : In the 1st Pennsylvania reserves, two 
companies ; 4th reserves, one company ; 1st Pennsylvania rifles (Bucktails), 
one company; 49th Pennsylvania volunteers, one company; 53d, two companies; 
71st, one company; 9tth, seven companies; 116th, one company; 124th, eight 
companies; ITSth, eight companies; Hh cavalry, one company; 16th cavalry, 
one company ; 20th cavalry, one company. In addition to these, hundreds of 
men left the county, singly and in squads, and became connected with regiments 
in other places — lai-gely in Philadelphia. Drafts were also made from time to 
time, which furnished a large number. Camp Wayne was established at West 
Chester early in the war, and many of the regiments were fitted there for active 
duty. General Galusha Pennypacker, formerly colonel of the 9*7th Pennsylvania, 
now in the regular army, is a native of Chester county. Among her citizens 
who fell in the service were Colonels Frederick Taylor, Thomas S. Bell, Henry 
M. Mclntire, and George W. Roberts. 

The earliest educational institution of note in the county was the New 
London Academy, established by Rev. Dr. Francis Allison in 1743. It became 
justly celebrated, and served to aid in furnishing the State with able civilians, 
and the church with well-qualified ministers. Among those who were wholly or 
partially educated here were Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental 
Congress, Dr. John Ewing, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. David 
Ramsay, the historian, the celebrated Dr. Hugh Williamson, one of the framers 
of the Constitution of the United States and historian of North Carolina, and 
three signers of the Declaration of Independence, Gov. Thomas M'Kean, George 
Read, and James Smith. Hugh Williamson and Thomas M'Kean were both 
natives of Chester county, and born within a few miles of the location of this 
school. Dr. Allison subsequently became Vice Provost of the University of 
Pennsylvania, was an unusually accurate and profound scholar, and to his zeal 
for the diff'usion of knowledge, Pennsylvania owes much of that taste for solid 
learning and classical literature for which many of her principal characters have 
been distinguished. About the same, time Rev. Samuel Blair established a clas- 
sical school at Fagg's Manor, from which came forth many distinguished pupils, 
who did honor to their instructor. Among them was Rev. Dr. Samuel Davies, 
who was one of the Presidents of Princeton College, Rev. Dr. John Rodgers, 
and Rev. Robert Smith, the father of Samuel Stanhope Smith and John Blair 
Smith, all eminent as scholars and divines. 

The West Chester Academy was erected in 1812, and was a flourishing insti- 
tution for many years. It was finally merged in the State Normal School. 
Anthony Bolmar, a native of France, established a school in West Chester in 
1840, which he conducted until his death, in 1859. It was one of the best regu- 
lated and most complete institutions for the education of young men in the 
United States. His pupils are scattered over the country, and many of them 



CHESTER COUNTY. 535 

occupy prominent positions. He was the author of several educational works 
on the French language. After his decease Colonel Theodore Hyatt conducted 
the Pennsylvania Military Academy in the same building for some years, and 
was succeeded by William F. Wyers. After the death of Mr. Wyers, the 
property passed under the control of the Catholic church, and is now occupied 
by the Convent of the Sacred Heart. In 1826, Rev. Francis A. Latta estab- 
lished, in Sadsbury township, the Moscow Academy, which he successfully 
conducted for several years. Among the most distinguished of the seminaries 
of learning in the county is the Westtown Friends boarding school. It was 
established in 1794, and has ever since been in successful operation. It is ex- 
clusively for the education of youth of both sexes belonging to the Society 
of Friends. The buildings are located on a farm of six hundred acres. The 
Kimberton boarding school was established in 1811, by Emmor Kimber, and 
was conducted by him and his accomplished daughters for many years. 

The State normal school, for the district composed of the counties of 
Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Bucks, was opened in 1871, and 
under the superintendence of George L. Maris, and a corps of efficient 
teachers, is doing a noble work. The building is a massive structure, con- 
structed of the beautiful serpentine stone, so abundant in this region. The 
grounds contain ten acres, laid out in drives, walks, croquet and ball gi'ounds, 
and ornamented with trees, shrubbery, and flowers. During the last year, there 
were two hundred and eighty-seven scholars, about equally divided between the 
sexes. 

Lincoln University — an institution for the education of young men of 
color — was incorporated by the Legislature in 1854, under the title of Ashman 
Institute. In 1866 the name was changed to Lincoln University, and 
its sphere of usefulness enlarged. The buildings are situated on a tract 
of eighty acres, in Lower Oxford township, on the line of the Philadelphia 
and Baltimore Central railroad, and near the borough of Oxford, and 
occupy a commanding position upon one of the highest hills in that 
undulating district. There are four University buildings and four professors' 
houses. The institution is completely equipped with a corps of fifteen professors 
and teachers, who are zealous and earnest in the work. Students are fitted in 
the preparatory department, and in college pursue the regular course of four 
years, and on graduating receive the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Full instruc- 
tion is also given in the law, medical, and theological departments, and the 
regular degrees conferred. The University is doing a noble work in sending out 
educated colored men, fitted to instruct and elevate their race. The number of 
students in all the departments at the present time is about two hundred. Rev. 
I. N. Rendall, D.D., is president. A soldiers' orphans' school was established 
at Chester Springs, in West Pikeland township, at the close of the war, and has 
always had a fall attendance. Chester Springs was once a noted watering place, 
but is not now kept as such, and the buildings are in the occupancy of this 
school. Among them is a large structure which was erected by General 
Washington during the Revolution, for the sick and wounded of the army. It 
has long been known as Washington Hall. 

Numerous institutions of learning are scattered over the county, among 



536 HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

which may be mentioned the Unionville academy, R. M. McClellan's school for 
young men and boys at West Chester, the Eaton academy at Kennett Square, 
and the Kennett Square academy of Dr, Frank Taylor, the Ercildoun seminary, 
Mary B. Thomas and sister's seminary at Downingtown, and Mrs. Cope's 
boarding school at Toughkenamon. In speaking of the literary institutions of 
Chester county, honorable mention must be made of John Forsythc, Philip 
Price, Enoch Lewis, author of several mathematical works, Jonathan Gause, 
Joshua Hoopes, Thomas Conard, Joseph C. Strode, and Hannah P. Davis, as 
successful educators and proprietors of boarding schools. Jonathan Gause and 
Joshua Hoopes each taught over Mtj years, and always had a large number of 
pupils. 

There are ten boroughs in Chester county. 

Atglen, formei'ly the village of Penningtonville, is a new borough, and was 
incorporated by decree of court, December 20, 1875. It is situated on the 
Pennsylvania railroad, in the Great Yalley, about oue mile from the Octorara 
creek, which forms the western boundary of the county. It contains a large 
manufactory of sad-irons. 

CoATESViLLE, named in honor of the Coates family, was incorporated in 186T. 
It is situated in the Great Yalle}'-, where it is crossed by the west branch of the 
Brandywine. This has of late years become a thriving town, its prosperity being 
due in great part to the extensive iron works of C. E. Pennock & Co., Steele & 
Worth, Huston & Penrose, and others. There are also a number of paper mills, 
woollen and cotton mills, flouring mills, and other industries, within a short 
distance. The Pennsylvania railroad crosses the Brandywine on a magnificent 
bridge, 836 feet in length, and seventy-three feet high. The Wilmington and 
Reading railroad also passes through the town. Moses Coates, the ancestor of 
the family from whom the place derives its name, came from Ireland about 1717, 
and settled in Charlestown township, whence some of their children removed to 
East Cain. William Fleming was a settler near this place. His wife was a sister 
to John and Thomas Moore, who settled at Downingtown. 

Downingtown is in the midst of the Great Valley, on the east branch of the 
Brandywine. In 1702, surveys were made here in right of purchases made in 
England. Among the earl^^ settlers were Thomas and John Moore, George Aston, 
Roger Hunt, Thomas Parke, and Thomas Downing. Thomas Moore erected a 
mill before the year 1718, which afterwards became the property of Thomas 
Downing, from whom the place received its present name, having been previously 
known as Milltown. During the early years of its history Downingtown was a 
peculiarly staid and respectable place, and resisted the project of making it the 
county seat, when its removal from Chester was under consideration, and not a 
lot could be obtained on which to erect the county buildings. No parallel can 
probably be found in the history of any town in the country. They were opposed 
both to parting with their lands, and to the noise and brawling of a county town. 
Not even the passage of the railroad along its southern border could seduce the 
old-fashioned citizens from their quiet, staid, and thrifty ways, into the delusive 
dream of making haste to be rich. Of late years, however, new men have taken 
hold, and it now possesses its full share of enterprise, and bids fair to become a 
large and prosperous town. Among its industries is a manufactory of sewing 



CUESTEB COUNTY. 53t 

machines. It is a prominent station on tlie Pennsylvania railroad, and the point 
of junction of the branch road to Waynesburg and New Holland, and of the 
Chester Valley railroad to Norristown. It was incorporated as a borough in 1859. 

Hopewell is situated in the south-western part of the county, and contains 
a large number of cotton and woolen manufactories and flouring mills. The 
Dickey and Ross families were enterprising and leading operators here for many 
years. 

Kennett Square is situated on the line of the Philadelphia and Baltimore 
Central railroad, in the midst of an exceedingly fertile district of country, at the 
head of the Toughkenamon valley. The inhabitants — who are largely the descen- 
dants of the original settlers — are noted for their intelligence and culture. The 
anti-slavery sentiment has alwaj^s predominated strongly, and in the days of 
slavery it was esteemed a hot-bed of abolitionism. The inhabitants, however, 
gloried in tlieir sentiments, and many a way-faring bondman received aid and 
comfort from them on his passage towards the North Star. It would have been 
a dangerous experiment, in those daj's, for any of its inhabitants to have pro- 
claimed their nativity, south of Mason and Dixon's line. Its academies and 
seminaries have for years ranked high, and many youth from a distance are edu- 
cated here. The prosperity of the place is largely due to the extensive manu- 
facture of agricultural machinery. The old Unicorn tavern, said to have been 
the scene of one of the outlaw Fitzpatrick's exploits, was burned during the past 
year. Gayen Miller was the first settler in this neighborhood. 

Oxford is also on the line of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central railroad, 
and at the junction of the Peach Bottom railroad to York. It has grown rapidly 
since the completion of the first named railroad, and bids fair to become a large 
and prosperous town. It was incorporated in 1833. 

Parkesburg, incorporated in 18T2, is a prominent station on the line of the 
Pennsylvania railroad, and contains a population of about six hundred. The 
State shops were formerly located here, but a few years since were removed to 
Harrisburg, and the buildings have since been occupied as a rolling mill. It 
received its name from the Parkes, an old and influential family in this section 
of the county. 

Phcenixville, incorporated in 1849, is situated on the Schuylkill river, and 
on the line of the Reading railroad. It owes its prosperity largely to the very 
extensive iron works located here, which give employment to several hundred 
families. The families of Coates, Starr, and Buckwalter, were among the early 
settlers. Population, about six thousand. 

Spring City, originally Springville, is situated on the Schuylkill river, 
opposite to Royer's Ford, on the Reading railroad. The American Wood-Paper 
company have their works here, and there is also a large manufactory of stoves 
and hollow ware. Incorporated in 1861. 

West Chester was incorporated in 1188, and contains a population of about 
six thousand five hundred. The original court house, erected in 1784, was 
replaced by a new one in 1846, and the old prison by a new one — conducted on 
the penitentiary system — erected in 1838, and enlarged in 1872. The public 
buildings reflect great credit on the enterprise and taste of the citizens. This 
town is one of the most attractive in the State. It is well built, the streets well 



538 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

paved and lighted, and lined with shade trees. One looking on it from an 
elevated position would suppose it situated in a forest. It is remarkable for 
salubrity, and is surrounded by a beautiful, undulating country. 

West Chester is pre-eminent among the towns of the State for its highly 
cultivated state of society, and the general diffusion of intelligence among its 
citizens. The natural history of the county has been very fully explored and 
written upon by citizens engaged in the ordinary pursuits of life. It contains 
private collections of minerals, shells, and botanical specimens, scarcely equalled 
in public institutions. A taste for such studies was much fostered by the 
" Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science," a societ}- organized in 1826 — the 
library and collections of which are now in charge of the State Normal school, 
located here. As an educational centre, West Chester has always enjoyed a 
high rank, and the graduates of its schools are to be found in every department 
of public life. It is also noted for the number of people who resort to it from 
other places, to pass the remainder of their lives in ease and retirement. Its 
inhabitants were, for a long time, chiefly of the Society of Friends, and this 
has given tone to society, although its character is fast changing, from the 
influx of those of other creeds. 

Chester county, in addition to the incorporated boroughs, is studded with 
villages, which have grown up in the progress of years, at the crossings of the 
great roads, and at or near the sites of the ancient inns, with which the county 
abounds. Many of these old taverns were famous among the travelers of the 
olden time, and not a few have been distinguished in the annals of the Revolu- 
tion. Among these were the Paoli, Warren, Chatham, White Horse, Black 
Horse, Ship, Buck, Red Lion, Wagon, Anvil, Hammer & Trowel, Compass, 
Turk's Head, Unicorn, and Spread Eagle. The most noted of these villages are 
Waynesburg, Lionville, Marshalton, Wagontown, Doe Run, Unionville, New 
London, Cochranville, Chatham, Avondale, West Grove, Landenberg, and 
Toughkenamon. 

There are fifty-six townships in the county. 

Birmingham was probably named by William Brinton, one of the earliest 
settlers, who came from the neighborhood of the town of that name in England. 
It was surveyed about 1684 to various persons in right of purchases made in 
England. Upon the division of the count}^, the greater part of the original town- 
ship fell into Delaware county, but to the remainder an addition was made from 
the southern end of East Bradford in 1856. The battle of Brand_ywine was 
fought in this township. The descendants of William Brinton, the first settler, 
are numerous, and very many of them occupy highly respectable positions in 
society. It is believed that all bearing the name of Brinton, in Pennsylvania, are 
descended from him. For more than a century the name was pronounced Bran- 
ton. A public library was established in this township as early as 1795, which 
Is still kept up. 

Bradford was probably named from Bradford, in Yorkshire, or the town of 
the same name on Avon, in Wiltshire. It was divided into East Bradford and 
West Bradford, in 1131. Some of the early surveys were made in 1686, others 
in 1702, and later. Among the early settlers were the names of Buffington, 
Jefferis, Taylor, Woodward, Martin, Townsend, Strode, and Marshall. Abiah 



CHESTER COUNTY. 



539 



Taylor settled on the Brandywinc in 1T02, and built a mill on a branch «/f that 
stream. In 1724 he erected a brick house, with bricks imported from Eiigi.i.id, 
which is still standing. Humphrey Marshall, one of the earliest American botan- 
ists, and author of a work on the Forest Trees of the Ignited States, published in 
1785, planted a botanical garden at Marshallton, in West Bradford, and his name 
was given to the village. 

Brandywine was erected in 1790, and named from the stream, by the two 
branches of which it was bounded on either side. It was formerly the northern 
part of East Cain, and was divided into East Brandywine and West Brandywine 
in 1844. 

Caln (now divided into Cain, East Cain, and West Cain), was named from 
Cain, in Wiltshire, England, whence some of the early settlers came. In 1702, 
surveys were made, extending from the Welsh tract on the east, to the west 
branch of Brandywine on the west, mostly confined to the valley. These were 
afterwards extended northward and westward. In 
1728 the township was divided into East Cain and 
West Cain, the Brandywine being the dividing line. 
East Cain was reduced in 1790, by the erection of 
Brandywine on the north, and in 1853 by the for- 
mation of Valley township on the west. In 1868, it 
was again divided, the part east of Downington re- 
tainina: the name of East Cain, and the remainder, 
with a part of Valle}^, taking the name of Cain. The 
greater part of Cain and East Cain lie in the Great 
Valley, and contain beautiful farming lands, while 
West Cain is more hilly. 

CiiARLESTOWN was SO Called in honor of Charles 
Pickering, of Asmore, in the county of Chester, England, who purchased a large 
amount of land from Penn. His surname was given to the stream which flows 
through the township. This township was divided in 1826, and the eastern 
part lying on the Schuylkill river, called Schuylkill township. The early 
settlers were mostly Welsh, followed by some from Germany. 

Coventry township doubtless received its name from Samuel Nutt, an 
early settler who came from Coventry, in Warwickshire, England. He arrived 
in this country in 1714, bringing a certificate of recommendation from Friends 
in England, and after his arrival married Anna, widow of Samuel Savage, 
and daughter of Thomas Butter, one of the early iron masters of Pennsylvania. 
Samuel Nutt, after his arrival here, turned his attention to the manufacture of 
iron, and established the first iron works in Chester county. He took up land 
on French creek in 1717, and about that time built a forge there. A letter 
written by him, in 1720, mentions an intention of erecting another forge that fall. 
His step-son, Samuel Savage, married a sister of John Taylor, who erected 
Sarum forge, on Chester creek, and a step-daugliter, Ruth Savage, became the 
wife of John Potts, the founder of Pottstown. llobert Grace, an extensive 
iron master, resided in this township, and the Merediths, from Radnorshire, 
were among the prominent settlers. The date of the erection of the township is 
not certainly known, but supposed to have been about 1723. In 1841 the town- 




HOUSE OF ABIAH TAYLOR, 

Built in 173^1. 



540 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



ship was divided into North Coventry and South Coventry, and in 1844, East 
Coventry was formed by a division of North Coventry. 

Easttown was erected in 1704, and so named on account of its position. It 
was included in the original survey made for the Welsh, and was settled by 
them. In 1722, Anthony Wayne, a native of Yorkshire, emigrated from the 
county of Wicklow, Ireland, and settled in this township, where he died in 1739, 
His son Francis appears to have done something at surveying. Another son, 
Isaac, was the father of General Anthony Wayne, who was born in this township. 
Elk was formed in 1857, from the township of East Nottingham, and 
named from the stream which skirts its eastern side. Its southern boundary is 
Mason and Dixon's line. 

Fallowfield is supposed to have been named in honor of Lancelot Fallow- 
field, of Westmoreland, 
England, who was one of 
the first purchasers of land 
from William Penn. John 
Salkeld, a noted Quaker 
preacher, who came from 
that part of England, 
bought the right of Lanco 
lot Fallowfield, and took 
up land in this township in 
1714, and may have sug- 
gested the name. The 
township was erected about 
1724. In 1743 it was di- 
vided into East Fallowfield 
and West Fallowfield, the 
stream called Buck run 
beins: the dividinsr line. At this time we find among the inhabitants of the 
eastern part, the names of Bentley, Dennis, Filson, Fleming, Mode, Hannum, and 
Hayes; and in the western part, the names of Adams, Cochran, Moore, Parke, 
and Wilson. In 1853 Highland township was formed from the eastern part of 
West Fallowfield. 

Franklin was formed from the eastern part of New London in 1852. 
Goshen was included in the original survey for the Welsh, but many surveys 
were made there for other purchasers, owing to delay on the part of the Welsh 
to settle the land. It was organized as a township in 1704. Among the early 
settlers wei'e Robert Williams, Ellis David (or Davies), George Ashbridge, and 
Mordccai Bane. Griffith Owen had a house here, at which Friend meetings 
were held as early as 1702. This meeting was probably the first within the 
present limits of the county. It was also held at the house of Robert Williams 
for a time, previous to the erection of a meeting house. Tradition says that he 
was called the king of Goshen, and that on one occasion when his fire went out, 
he was obliged to go several miles to get it renewed. George Ashbridge, a son 
of the settler of the same name, was a member of Assembly from this county 
from 1743 till his death, in 1773, a period of thirty years, probably the longest 




BIRTH PLACE AND RESIDENCE OF GENERAL WAYNE. 

[From a Photograph by A. W. Taylor, West Chester.] 



CHESTEJi COUNTY, 541 

terra the office was ever held bj^ one man. Men of experience weie sought 
after in those days to fill public positions. The Haines, Matlack, and Hoopes 
families became numerous here. In 1817 tne township was divided into East 
Goshen and West Goslien. The borough of West Chester was taken from this 
township in 1788. Goshen Friends meeting house, still standing, was erected 
in 1736. 

Highland was formed from the eastern part of West Fallowfield in 1853. 
It lies between West Fallowfield and East Fallowfield. Among early settlers 
were the names of Adams, Boggs, Boyd, Cowpland, Futhey, Glendenning, 
Gibson, Haslett, Hamill, and Wilson. 

IIoNEYBRGOK was formed from West Nantmeal in 1789. The name Nant- 
meal (or Nantmel, as originall}' spelled), which is Welsh, signifies Honeybrook, 
and the translated name was given to the new township. Among the early 
residents were tlie families of Ralston, Buchanan, Macelduff, Talbot, Trego, 
Suplee, and Long. 

Kennett (originally spelled Kennet), is first mentioned on the court records as 
a township in 1704. It is thought the name was suggested by Francis Smith, who 
came from Wiltshire (where there is a village of that name), and took up land 
in IGSG, at the mouth of Pocopson creek. Pennsbury and Pocopson were 
originally included in Kennett, while the greater part of what now bears the 
name was included in a survey made about 1700, for William Penn's daughter 
Letitia, and called Lctitia's Manor. The land was sold to settlers by her agents. 

London Britain. — A considerable part of this township was included in the 
survey made for the London company. Settlements were made at an early date 
by Welsh Baptists, in the southern part of tlie township, and a church was estab- 
lished amongst tliem. The oldest tombstone in the grave-yard bears date 1729. 
John Evans, from Radnovshire, about 1700, was prominent among these settlers, 
and his son of the same name, who died in 1738, held large tracts of land, 
together with fulling mills and giist mills, on White Clay creek. An Indian 
village was formerly on the creek, near Yeatman's mill. 

Londonderry derived its name from Londonderry, Ireland. Nearly all the 
early settlers were Scotch-Irish. The greater part of the present township was 
in Sir John Fagg's Manor, and the large Presbyterian church of Fagg's Manor 
is in this township. It was separated from Nottingham in 1734. Oxford was 
taken off in 1154, and further divided in 1819, and the southern part called 
Penn. 

London Grove was organized in 1723. In 1699, William Penn sold to Tobias 
Collet and three others, among other lands, sixty thousand acres, not then located. 
These persons admitted others into partnership with them, and formed a com- 
pany, generally known as the London compan}-, for the impi'ovement of their 
propert}', the number of shares eventually reaching eight thousand eight hundred, 
and the shareholders several hundred. As a part of the sixty thousand acres, a 
survey was made of seventeen thousand two hundred and eighteen acres in Chester 
count}', including all the present township of London Grove, and a large part 
of Franklin (formerly New London) and London Britain. A large number 
of the settlers in London Grove were Friends, and among them were the 
names of Chandler, Jackson, Lamborn, Lindley, Allen, Morton, Pusey, Scarlet, 



542 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Starr, and Underwood. The villages of Avondale and West Grove arc in this 
township. 

Marlborough was named from Marlborough, in Wiltshire. The eastern pan 
was laid out about 1701, in right of purchases made in England. As first 
designed by Penn, the eastern part was to be rectangular — the "Street" road 
passing through the middle, and the land on the north, was described as in Ben- 
salem township, but afterwards added to Marlborough. The township was 
divided, in 1729, into East Marlborough -and West Marlborough. Among the 
early settlers were Joel Baily, Thomas Jackson, Caleb Pusey, Francis Swayne, 
John Smith, and Henry Hayes. In West Marlborough, Joseph Pennock was 
among the first settlers, and there he built "Primitive Hall," which is still stand- 
ing. His descendants are very numerous. Cedarcroft, the home of Bayard 
Taylor, is in East Marlborough, less than a mile north of Kennett Square. The 
name Hilltown was originally applied to West Marlborough and lands to the 
westward, probably' from its topography. 

Nantmeal is a Welsh name, and the early settlers were chiefly from that 
country. The township was divided in 1740 into East Nantmeal and West Nant- 
meal. The signatures to the petition for division indicates the character of the 
population at that time. On this petition are the Welsh surnames of Pugh, 
David, Roger, Williams, Stephens, Griffiths, Rees, Edward, Jones, Meredith, 
Roberts, and Philips. There are also the names of Fraylej^, Marsh, Kirk, Savage, 
and Speary. 

New Garden was named from New Garden, in the county Carlow, Ireland. 
This township was included in a survey made about 1700, for William Penn, Jr., 
being part of 30,000 acres surveyed for him and his sister Letitia, part of which 
lay in New Castle county. It was largely settled from 1712 to 1720, by Friends 
from Ireland, one of whom, John Lowden, is supposed to have suggested the 
name, in remembrance of his former home. Thomas and Mary Rowland settled 
in the valley, near Toughkenamon, in 170G, being, perhaps, the first settlers who 
purchased land in the townsliip. Among the early settlers were John Miller, 
Michael Lightfoot, Joseph, John, and Nehemiali Hutton, Joseph Sharp, Benjamin 
Fred, Robert Johnstc-n, and the Starr famil}'. The township is now intersected 
by three railroads. Landenberg, in this township, is the seat of extensive woolen 
mills, and at Toughkenamon is a large manufactoiy of spokes and wheels, and 
one of hard rubber goods — also a large boarding school. 

Newlin, formerly called Newlinton, was named in honor of Nathaniel New- 
lin. This township was surveyed in 1688, for the Free Society of Traders. It 
was purchased in 1724, by Nathaniel Newlin, who sold parts of it, and the remain- 
der was divided among his heirs in 1730. An Anabaptist congregation held 
meetings at the house of John Bentle}'-, prior to 1747, with Owen Thomas as 
their minister, and a meeting house was erected some j^ears after, on land of the 
Bentleys. 

New London was probabl}^ so named because it contained land of the London 
company's purchase. A survey was made for Michael Harlan, in 1714, at a place 
called Thunder Hill, while near it, on Elk creek, a large tract called Pleasant 
Garden, was taken up under a Maryland right. About 1720, a survey was made 
for Susanna M'Cain, who was doubtless the grandmother of Governor Thomas 



CHESTER COUNTY. 543 

M'Kean. The names of Hodgson, Macke-y, Scott, Moore, Cook, Finney, John- 
son, and Allison, were among the early settlers. The most of these were Scotch- 
Irish Presbyterians. 

Nottingham. — In 1702 a surve}'^ of eighteen thousand acres was made by 
direction of Penn's commissioners, and divided amongst several persons who 
took an interest in the settlement, except three thousand acres, which was 
reserved for the Proprietary. This settlement received the name of Nottingham 
When the line between the Provinces of Pennsylvania and Maryland was finally 
settled, all of the original survey fell into Mar^dand, except one thousand three 
hundred and forty -five acres. Prominent among those who settled upon these 
lands, were the names of Brown, Beeson, Beal, Churchman, Gatchell, Job, Re}'- 
nolds, Ross, and Sidwell. The township was divided into West Nottingham and 
East Nottingham, about the year 1720. The celebrated Hugh Williamson was 
born in West Nottingham, in 1735. 

Oxford was formed by a division of Londonderry, in 1754. A survey of five 
thousand acres was made in the eastern part of this township for William Penn, 
Jr., and afterwards known as Penn's Manor. Between this and the Octorara 
creek, surveys were made from 1730 to 1750 and later, as desired by settlers. 
Those wlio had seated themselves on the Manor did not get title until 1747, and 
afterwards. The township also included a portion of Fagg's Manor, which lay 
to the east of Penn's Manor, and on this the settlers were also seated a consider- 
able time before getting titles to the land. A majority of the early settlers 
were Scotch-Irish. It was divided into Upper Oxford and Lower Oxford in 
1797. 

Penn was formed by a division of Londonderry in 1817. The greater part 
of it was originally included in Fagg's Manor, and the settlers. were largely 
from Ireland. 

Pennscury was formed from the eastern part of Kennett, in 1770, and com- 
prised the earliest settled part of that township. Tliere were few settlements 
made until after 1700. The names of Smith, Peirce, Way, Hope, Harlan, Few, 
and Bentley, were among the first to take up land, and after these came the 
Ilarveys, Mendonhalls, Webbs, and Temples. John Parker, an eminent minister 
among Friends, was settled there in the time of the Revolution. At the battle 
of Brandy wine, Knyphausen's foi'ces were posted in this township, at and near 
Chad's ford, until the fighting commenced with the forces under Cornwallis, at 
Birmingham meeting-house, when he crossed the Brandywine and attacked the 
forces under General Waj'ne, who were guarding the ford. 

PiKELAND was granted by William Penn to Joseph Pike, by patent made in 
1705. It contained over ten thousand acres. By various devises and convey- 
ances, it became the property of Samuel Hoare, of London. He, in 1773, con- 
veyed it to Andrew Allen, and took a mortgage on it for sixteen thousand pounds 
sterling. Allen sold parcels of it to over one hundred persons, and received the 
purchase moneys. The mortgage not being paid, it was sued out, and the entire 
township sold by the sherifi" in 17S9, and re-purchased by Samuel Hoare, The 
persons to whom Allen had made sales, and whose titles were divested by this 
sherifl''s sale, generall}^ compromised with Iloare and received new deeds from 
him. It was divided into East Pikeland and West Pikelaud in 1838. 



544 HISTOB Y OF P ENNS YL VANIA. 

PocopsoN, named from the stream which flows through it, was formed in 
1849, from parts of four adjoining townships. It is bounded on one side by the 
Brandywiue. Benjamin Chambers took up a large quantity of land on the 
Brandywine, which he sold to settlers. Joseph Taylor purchased from him in 
nil, and afterwards built a mill on Pocopson creek. The Marshalls settled the 
northern part, and were succeeded by the Bakers. The name Pocopson is Indian, 
and signifies rapid or brawling stream. 

Sadsbury was a township as early as 1708, That part of it lying in the 
Great Valley was taken up at an early date in right of purchases made in 
England. The erection of Lancaster county, in 1729, took off the part of it Avest 
of the Octorara. The early settlers were a mixture of Friends from England, 
and of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. The families of Boyd, Cowan, McClellan, 
Marsh, Moore, Parke, Truman, Williams, Hope, Gardner, and Richmond, were 
here early. Upper Octorara Presbyterian church, which dates from 1720, is 
in this township. 

Schuylkill was formed from Charlestown in 1826. In the southern part 
was Lowther's Manor of Bilton, which was surveyed very early for (it is 
supposed) the children of Margaret Lowther, who was a sister of William Penn. 
The land in the northern part was taken up by David Lloyd, and settled by the 
Buckwalter, Coates, Starr, Longstreth, and other families. 

TiiORNBURY was named from Thornbury in Gloucestershire, England. It 
comprises but about one-fourth of the original township, the greater part being 
in Delaware county. This was all surveyed in right of the " first purchasers." 
Thornbury, Birmingham, and Westtown are the only townships within the 
present limits of the county which were organized before the ycviV 1704. 

Tredyffrin is situated in the Great Valle}'', in the most easterly part of the 
county, and was part of a large tract surveyed for the Welsh, and principally 
taken up by them. The name is Welsh, and signifies valley-town, or township 
Tre or tref is the Welsh for town or township, and Dyffrin is a wide cultivated 
valley, hence the compound, Tredyffrin, the town or township in the valley. 
This township was sometimes called Valle3'--town or Yalleyton, in old writings, 
an evident efl'ort to anglicize the name. It has been said by some writers to 
signify stony valley, but this is not correct. 

UwciiLAN was principally settled by Welsh Friends about 1715 and later, 
under the auspices of David Lloyd. A Friends meeting was established, and a 
house erected, in which the preaching was in Welsh. Among the early settlers 
were John Evans, Cadwalader Jones, James Pugh, Robert Benson, Noble Butler, 
John Davis, Griffith John, and Samuel John. The latter two were preachers, 
and sons of John Philips, taking their father's christian name for their surname, 
as was the custom among the Welsh, The present inhabitants are largely the 
descendants of the early settlers. The name is Welsh, and signifies upland, or 
higher than or above the valley. The township was divided in 1858, and a new 
township formed, to which the name of Upper Uwchlan was given, 

Yalley was formed in 1852, from parts of four adjoining townships, and 
was reduced in size by the formation of Cain in 18G8. The greater part of the 
present township was formerly in Sadsbury. 

Vincent On the earliest map of Pennsylvania this township is given in 



CHESTER COVIsTY. 545 

the names of Sir Matthias Vincent, Adrian Vreosen, Benjohan Furloy, and Dr. 
Daniel Cox. French creek, which passes through the township, was sometimes 
called Yincent river, and the tract of land was most frequently described as Cox 
& Company's 20,000 acres. The earliest inhabitants were supplanted by the 
Germans, whose descendants still, to a considerable extent, enjoy the lands of 
their fathers. Garret Brombac — now corrupted into Brownback — established in 
this township the first tavern north of the Lancaster road, in a house of rude 
construction, where he performed the duties of host many years. He was a 
merry German, and accumulated considerable means. The township was divided 
into East Vincent and West Vincent in 1832. 

Wallace was formed in 1852, by the division of West Nantmeal. The name 
given to it by the court was Springton, but the Legislature changed it the next 
year to Wallace. The Manor of Springton, laid out about 1129, and containing 
ten thousand acres, included nearly, if not quite all, the lands in this township, 
and it is to be regretted' that the name given b}^ the court was not retained. 
Wallace post office is a prominent point in the township. Among the names 
of early settlers are Murraj^, Henderson, Starret, Parker, and McClure. 

Warwick, named from Warwick iron works within its limits. The name 
came originally from the county of Warwick, in England, and was conferred 
on the works by Samuel Nutt, who was from that county. This township was 
formed by the division of East Nantmeal, in 1842. The Warwick iron works 
were originally erected in 1736, by Samuel Nutt. During the Revolution, they 
were in constant operation for the government, and cannon were cast there. 
In 1857 they produced 759 tons of boiler pUte iron, from the ore of the neigh- 
boring mines. These works have been owned by the Potts ftimily for over a 
centur}^, by one of whom, David Potts Jr., they were carried on successfully 
for more than fifty years. 

Westtown was organized about 1700. The early settlers were Daniel 
Hoopes, Aaron James, Benjamin Hickman, James Gibbons, and John Bowater. 
The Gibbons tract, of six hundred acres, was purchased by the Society of Friends 
in 1794, and there was established the w^ell known Westtown boarding school, 
in which, at the present time, are about 220 pupils of both sexes. 

Whiteland was organized about 1704. This is the north-western part of 

the original Welsh tract of forty thousand acres, which was laid out to them in 

1684, with the expectation that they should be a separate Baronj^, with liberty 

to manage their municipal affairs in their own way. It appears they also desired 

to retain their own language, but the tide of subsequent events rendered this 

impracticable. The north and west lines of this survey are still chiefl}^ retained, 

but the others are obliterated. Richard Thomas was one of the early settlers, 

and took up five thousand acres of land, in right of a purchase made by his 

father, Richard ap Thomas, of Whitford Garden, in Wiltshire, North Wales, in 

1681, the greater part of which was located in this township. One of his 

descendants. Colonel Richard Thomas, was an officer during the Revolutionary 

war, and occupied a prominent position, both in civil and military affairs. The 

township is situated almost wholly in the choicest part of the Great Valley, and 

was divided into East Whiteland and West Whiteland in 1765. 

WiLLiSTOWN was organized in 1704. A large part of this tract was within the 
2 K 



546 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



I 



lines of the Welsh tract, but many surveys were made for other persons, espe- 
cially in the southern parts. The families of Hibberd, Massey, Smedley, 
Thomas, and Yarnall, were among the earliest and most numerous. A tribe of 
Indians, called the Okehockings, held lands in this township, by special grant 
from the Commissioners of Propert3\ 



ANNUAL VALUE OP PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE IN PENNSYLVANIA- 1870. 





'1 


►- 


> 


tr* 


— 


a 


> 


H 




??3 


^3 
5" 


c r. -. 


t-' 


p 


o 


— — 


C 3 






m 


M 


<< 




So 




COUNTIES. 


« 




p- p 


O 


"B 






o'S 




o 


a 
p 

n 
1 




o 
319,240 




•a 
o 


11 


Arlams 


?3. .820, 438 


$2,920 


?408..545 


1,722,610 


$13,148 


54,, 567 


§6,381,433 


Allegheny.., 


4,043.871 


69,.S75 


472. 79-1 


3,01,5.224 


490,734 


1.54,237 


.39,382 


8,286,117 




2, .5' 17,100 
1,760.626 


9,632 
2.4,S7 


394,227 
348,199 


1.915.1,50 
1,, 576. 277 


323,682 
318.178 


63.134 

210,9.53 


6,861 
17,030 


5,219,6,86 


Beaver 


4.233,7.50 


Bedloicl 


1,906,2.53 


12,667 


256,:!93 


1.298.205 


1.52,451 


30, 3.52 


8,086 


.3,664.407 


Berks 


16,179,483 


10,195 


1,263,649 


4, .544. 490 


901.761 


5.429 


12,817 


22.917.824 


Blair 


1,447,840 


3.57 


1,S7,971 


798.164 


101.877 


9,833 


3, 643 


2,, 549, 685 


BrailtoKl 


4. 720. 0.50 


20, 245 


7.-.2,712 


4.262,095 


1,262, ,561 


61.126 


40, ,521 


11,119.310 


Butler 


5.490,9.59 
2,964,622 


19,997 
14,703 


1,151,645 
518.96S 


4, 35 /.I 08 
2,467,001 


1,054,315 
483,176 


8.7.59 
112,110 


10,040 
11,046 


12.092.,^23 


Bucks 


6, .57 1,626 


Cainl)ria 


1,074,925 


16,]. 55 


173..344 


833,361 


145,733 


23,772 


7, .522 


2,274,812 


(^.jvtneroii 


2i '1.179 
292,943 


200 
,50 


12. ,520 
42, 390 


73,220 
202,974 


16,421 

28,332 


1,064 
615 


1,315 

234 


305,919 


Carbon 


.567. 538 


Centre 


2,626,4(!9 
5.7.59,638 


1,.5.50 
80,075 


3.54.207 
2,181,799 


1,332, ,5,55 
,5. 192. ,51 7 


174,552 
1,078,463 


26,724 

15.888 


363 
12.147 


4.516.420 


Chester . 


14.. 320. .527 


Cliirioii ... • 


1.568.836 
1,371.084 


6,932 
7,272 


311.902 
248,426 


1,317.708 
931,661 


188,5,56 

1.50,971 


44,398 
28, ,5,36 


3,3.58 
3,012 


.3,441.690 


Cleartleld 


2.740,962 


Clinton 


1,068, .566 
1,790,979 
3,781,832 
8, .544, 51 9 
2,843,888 
1,368,141 


1,9.57 

4,730 

123,690 

5,902 

14,997 

38,566 


126.217 
282,616 
765,210 
5-55,707 
475.479 
406.920 


,530,1.52 
1,064.968 
3.702,266 
1,909,461 
1,660,572 
1.60,5,6,57 


74,139 

1.56,886 
804,2.57 
290,317 
268.993 
512.642 


13, ,574 

11,163 

115,3,32 

14.069 

4,981 

500 


1.8-80 
4.. 531 
20, 2.34 
5. 526 
8,384 
227 


1,816,485 




3.31,5.873 


(Crawford 


9,31.5,821 




11,. 325, 491 


Uannliin 


5.277.294 


Delaware 


3,932,6.53 


Elk 


211,944 
.3,810,413 


48 
14,093 


34:8.56 
656.260 


206,706 
2,9.30,1,56 


36, 31 1 

688, .520 


,3. ,5,54 
8,5,412 


.501 
18, .5.39 


493. 920 


Erie 


8,203,393 


Fayette .. 


2,348.090 


14,. 507 


605.767 


2,095.444 


231.516 


143.376 


48,816 


5,4.87,516 


Franklin 


1.55. .560 


1,466 


23,769 


127,114 


21,0.55 


3.307 


1.179 


333,4.50 


Fulton 


3,97,5.245 


24, .876 


579,709 


2,270.161 


301.249 


1.5. .581 


3,949 


7,170.770 


Forest 


629,816 


3.518 


100,966 


474,6,54 


,57,390 


10.220 


1,184 


1.277.748 


Greene 


1,859.632 


21.. 586 


398,. 572 


1,875,272 


253,554 


222.244 


47.863 


4.678.723 


Huntingdon 


2.133.8:6 


32.836 


242,017 


l,434,e48 


1.55,717 


27,0.55 


4.211 


4,030,290 


Indiana 


2.607.107 


17.879 


455.914 


2, 174,, 542 


368.415 


62,995 


6. 959 


5,693.811 




1,2.56,4.55 
1,320,283 
9,727.074 


6.7.50 

2. 378 

39,708 


191,075 

1.59.332 

2,371,860 


941,012 

635,8.50 

6.044.215 


166.018 
100.122 
841.002 


28.310 

8,469 

10,046 


4.730 

1,997 

24.867 


2, .594, 3,50 


Juniata 


2,228.431 


Lancaster 


19.061.772 


Lawrence 


1.706.439 


1,172 


299,796 


1.37,3.251 


241.389 


134.063 


7,979 


3,764.089 




2.718.700 
2.393.336 
2. 738, 362 
T] 963, 217 
462.617 


4.804 

19., 528 

18. ,585 

416,625 

5.222 


477,381 
4.57. 683 
410,612 
135.940 
84. .579 


1,620,335 
1,949.1,57 
2.0,56.063 
1.244,900 
372.162 


292,9,57 
320,6,56 
372.904 
150,176 
69,942 


2. 603 

4,:«4 

19,277 
12.902 
14.008 


6.475 

15.203 

10.246 

4.624 

5,193 


5.12,3.2,55 


Leliiirii 


5,1.59,947 




5.626.049 


Lvconiin'^ 


3.928.384 


M'Kean 


1,013.723 


Mercer 


3.118.007 


21,273 


710.626 


2.784.612 


6:i5.840 


123. 319 


21,022 


7.314,699 


Mifflin 


1.414.232 

834,915 

4,498,190 


1.089 

12.063 

1,,'<94 


1.S7. ,526 

140.864 

1,298,321 


808.039 

677,047 

3.835,237 


140.811 

99.. 583 

1,340,112 


10.228 
6.019 
2,804 


1,465 

2.9H6 
7,049 


2.. 563, 390 


Monroe 


1,782.427 


Mont},'(iuiery 


10.983.607 


]Montonr 


703,930 
2,643,3.57 


2,446 
1,271 


116.4.53 
43,5.294 


419.6(6 
1,900,042 


65,027 
297. 104 


3.378 
7.1.35 


401 
6,903 


1.311,241 




5.291. 106 


>l on h limber land 


1.9!)5.774 


1,787 


300,667 


1,113,983 


164.815 


7.879 


2,1.52 


3.,5S7.0,57 


I'errv 


1,726,438 


10.843 


260,014 


948,988 


12,583 


10,224 


1,935 


2,971,025 


I'hiladclplua 


1,873.869 


5,075 


63,967 


659.695 


12.5,186 


1.50 


905 


2,728,847 


I'ike 


374.442 


.581 


50,346 


309, ono 


.55,191 


1.608 


1,300 


792. ,558 


Potter 


824,923 
1,656.723 
1,204,996 


10.239 

182,789 

3.067 


95,064 
259.295 
170,035 


672,291 
951.979 
651,113 


160. .548 

131,289 

80.421 


26.230 
3,342 
4,683 


12,484 

7,772 
1,384 


1,. 801, 779 




3,196.199 


Soniei'sBt 


2.11.5,699 


Snvder 


1,879,1.58 
433,1,55 


36.933 
6.7,58 


262,306 
80, .501 


1,666,233 
351,901 


448.180 
76,683 


40,088 
10,608 


89, .5.50 
251.793 


4,422.448 


Sullivan 


1.211.399 




3,104,024 


18,244 


572.688 


3.277.763 


869, ,500 


54,292 


15.275 


7.911.78S 


TiOKa 


2,742,723 


13,813 


323.737 


2,074,117 


562.619 


44 894 


30. 636 


5.792,539 




1,311.345 
1,313..560 




230,239 
217.484 


6.58,911 
1,1.50,1.53 


88.684 
172.052 


4,269 
46,283 


3.391 
4.496 


2.295.839 


Venango 


13,915 


2.917.943 


Warren 


1.270,993 


4,768 


18.5,901 


1,063, ,503 


255,916 


25,403 


8.140 


2,814,624 


Washington 


4,146,805 


4,432 


870.401 


3,933.33.5 


395.060 


931,376 


:9.637 


10.306,046 




1.697.178 


3.2.55 


272, 5.58 


1.731,0,55 


336.231 


24.763 


.5.713 


4,(70,753 


Westmoreland 


4.243.247 


10.292 


675,021 


3,028.081 


407.9.51 


89,325 


19.118 


8,473.065 




1,127,323 


12,103 


174,000 


822.811 


1.50,992 


9, 807 


9, 502 


2. 306, .538 


York....:. 


6,408,6.57 


14.072 


982.874 


4.013.4.52 


596,781 


19,-547 




12,057,575 




171,703,301 


1,503,737 


28,413,110 


115,647,075 


21,542,289 


3,285,057 


983,422 


343,077,991 



II 



CLARION COUNTY. 




BY REV. JAMES S. ELDER, CLARION. 

LARION COUNTY was erected by act of Assembly, passed March 11 
1839^'om parts of Armstrong and Venango counties. The boun 
daries of the new county were defined in the act as follows : " That 
all those parts of Armstrong and Venango counties lying and being 

within the following boundaries, viz.: Beginning at the junction of Red Bank 

creek with the Allegheny river ; thence up said creek to the line of Jefferson 

and Armstrong counties ; thence along said line to the line dividing Farmingtou 

and Tionesta townships, in Venango 

county ; thence along said line to the 

northwest corner of Farmington town- 
ship, in Venango county ; thence by a 

straight line to the mouth of ShuU's 

Run," afterwards called Ritchie's Run, 

" on the Allegheny River ; thence down 

said river to the place of beginning, be 

and the same is hereby declared to be 

erected into a county, henceforth to be 

called Clarion." The straight line from 

" the northwest corner of Farmington 

township to Shull's Run," on account 

of running diagonally through large 

tracts of unseated lands, was after- 
wards changed so as to avoid such divi- 



sions, rendering it angular and irregu- 
lar. Thus Clarion county is bounded 
on the north by Forest county, on the 
east by Jeflerson county, on the south 
by Red Bank creek and the Allegheny 
river, and on the west by Venango 
county. Average length of the count}- 
25 miles ; breadth, 24 miles ; area, (30U square miles. 

In 1840, the townships comprising Clarion county and the population of 
each, although reported in the census returns of the county to which they had 
formerly belonged, were as follows : Townships from Armstrong county- 
Clarion, 2,239; Madison, 1,305; Monroe, 1,151 ; Perry, 1,122; Red Bank, 3,070; 
Toby, 1,829. Townships from Venango county— Beaver, 1,611; Elk, 585; 
Farmington, 799; Paint, 491 ; and Richland, 1,385. Total population, 15,587. 
The population of the county in 1850 was 23,565 ; in 18G0, 24,988 ; and in 1870 
26,537. Within the past five years larse numbers have been attracted to the 

547 




CLARION COUNTY COURT HOUSE. 

(From a Photograph by A. Boaaet. ) 



548 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

coiiiiLy by the oil business, and from the last election returns, it is safe to 
estimate the present population at a little over 31,000. Tke marked increase 
from 1840 to 1850 was owing to the rapid development of the iron and lumber 
interests, especially the former. At the organization of the county, many of 
the above townships embraced a wide territory. As the population increased, 
the following townships have been erected : Ashland, Brady, Highland, Knox, 
Licking, Limestone, Mill Creek, Piney, Salem, and Washington. Also, the 
following boroughs have been incorporated : Callensburg, Clarion, Curllsville, 
East Brady, New Bethlehem, Rimersburg, Strattanville, and St. Petersburg. 

By the same act, March 14th, 1839, James Thompson, John Giimore, and 
Samuel L. Carpenter, were appointed commissioners to view the relative 
advantages of the situations offered, select "a proper and convenient site for a 
seat of justice," and transmit their report to the Governor on or before the 1st 
day of the following September. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Thompson resigned, 
and by the act of June 25, John P. Davis, of Crawford county, was appointed 
to fill the vacancy. A number of places were offered as sites, and the claims 
and advantages of each were warmly pressed by the citizens of the respective 
locality. The contest was finally ended by the selection of a site, the most 
central, and afterwards called Clarion, situated on the Bellefonte and Meadville 
turnpike, about one mile from where that road crosses the Clarion river. At 
that time onl}^ a very small part of the grounds were cleared, and only one house 
was standing where the future town should arise. 

CD 

It was also provided by the act of March 11, 1839, that the organization of 
the county for judicial purposes should go into effect on the 1st day of Septem- 
ber, 1840. It was attached to the Sixth Judicial District, consisting of the 
counties of Erie, Crawford, and Venango. The first court was held on the first 
Monday of the following November. Hon. Alexander McCalmont, of Franklin, 
was appointed president judge; Messrs. Christian Myers and Charles 
Evans were commissioned assiociate judges. All these gentlemen were honored 
with a second appointment. The court convened for the first time in the front 
room of an unfinished house belonging to Captain Robert Barber, now owned 
by Captain A. H. Alexander. In this room, the floor yet covered with shavings, 
a rude platform was extemporized for the Court and Bar. There were twenty- 
three lawyers present, many of them residents, who took the prescribed oath. 
The amount of business to be transacted was small, and was soon dispatched. 

When the site for the seat of justice was selected, the lands belonged to 
General Levi G. Clover, James P. Hoover, Peter Clover, Jr., (heirs of Philip 
Clover,) and Hon. C. Myers, who donated the town site to the county, on the 
condition of receiving half the proceeds from the sale of lots. Grounds for the 
county buildings, and a public square, were reserved from sale. At this time a 
dispute arose about a strip of land lying between these tracts, and which would 
be the central part of the future town. This ground being needed for lots 
before the question of ownership could be settled by law, the parties agreed in 
writing to release their claim to the title of the land, reserving the privilege of 
contesting the right to the purchase money. Application was made to the 
Legislature, and the Governor, by act of June 25, 1839, was authorized to 
appoint three citizens of the county, who were empowered to take deeds in trust 



(ILABION COUNTY. 



549 



from persons donating lands, to lay out the town in lots, to sell the same, and to 
make contracts for the public buildings. Accordingly, the Governor appointed 
George B. Hamilton, Lindsay C. Pritner, and Robert Potter, commissioners 
who proceeded to the discharge of the duties of their appointment. It was but 
a short time before 1839 that any part of the chosen site had been cleared out, 
and even then only a small portion. There was only one house in all that is 
now included in the borough limits. The greater part of the site was still 
covered with large pine and dense underbrush. It was previously esteemed 
good hunting grounds, whei'e wild game had been frequently caught. As the 
commissioners entered upon their work, they laid out the town in lots, employ- 
ing Mr. John Sloan as surveyor, who, for a long series of years before and after- 
ward, was identified with the interests of the county. The first sale of lots was 
in October, 1839, and a second sale 
was made in the following spring. 
The court house and jail were put 
under contract in the fiill of 1839. 
Much of the work of building was 
done during the summer of 1840, 
though neither was completed that 
season. The jail being further ad- 
vanced, was used for other purposes 
than that of detaining alleged law- 
breakers. Indeed, its loft for several 
years served for court room, chui'ch 
for all denominations, and for town 
hall. Both buildings were fine struc- 
tures, remembering the time in which 
they were built. The court house was 
ready for occupancy in 1843. This 
building was destroyed b}' fire in 
March, 1859. The work of rebuild- 




ing was 



at once commenced, and 



CLARION COUNTY PRISON. 
(From a Photograph by A. Bonnet.) 



pushed forward with commendable energy. The new court house stands on the 
old site, and presents a fine appearance, though its cost was only $23,000, a 
marvel of economy and cheapness. The old jail, in 1874, w-as supplanted by 
a most complete and substantial structure of stone, with brick front, at a cost of 
about $122,000. 

These buildings reflect honor on the count}' that erected them, and are indi- 
cative of the public spirit and enterprise of the citizens. 

The first election in the county was held on the 13th of October, 1840, when 
only two thousand and five votes were polled. The following officers were 
chosen : sheriff", James Hasson ; prothonotary, James Goe ; coroner, John 
Reed; commissioners, George L. Benn, Jacob Miller, and Gideon Richardson; 
auditors, John Elliott, Joseph C. King, and George Means. 

The surface of the county is greatly diversified. Along the streams it is 
broken, and in many places precipitous. On the uplands between it is rolling 
and often hilly. The soil, in some parts, is of a good quality and quite produc- 



550 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

tive. Other parts are better adapted to grazing purposes. On the whole it is 
susceptible of a very high state of cultivation. 

The iron interest, once so prosperous, has now fallen into decay. While 
formerly, for a number of years in succession, the furnaces of this county pro- 
duced not less than fifty-flve thousand tons of iron per annum, now there is but 
one furnace in blast. And yet the hills contain almost inexhaustible mines of 
ore, and there are immense supplies of charcoal and coke. There are indica- 
tions, however, of a revival of this industry in the county, and many anticipate 
a future in this interest, bright with prosperity. 

For many years considerable amounts of fire clay were taken to places 
beyond the county for manufacturing the various articles made from this 
material. Within the county that business was conducted in various places on 
a small scale. Recently, additional establishments have been erected, where fire 
brick and all kindred wares ai'e made. 

Clarion count}' lies in the northern end of the Allegheny coal field. Though 
near the out-cropping of that field, yet much of the coal of this region is of 
excellent quality. Beds of this mineral underlie large portions of the county. 
Frequently there are two veins, and sometimes three. While it has long been 
mined for domestic use, yet it is only lately that it has been sent to more distant 
markets. Within a short period a number of collieries have been established 
along the southern border. 

For many years the lumber business has been the leading interest. At 
present it has received a partial check. A heavy amount of capital is invested 
in tracts of land in the northern section of the county, covered with pine forests. 
The energies of a large number of the people have been directed to this industry. 

At present petroleum is the source of greatest wealth. The oil field extends 
over a large part of the county in the south-west, and is steadily advancing 
further to the interior. While " prospecting " for oil was carried on in Clarion 
county early in the history of the development of that article, yet the success 
was partial until the year 1810. In the early summer of that year it is believed 
there were only five producing wells. During the year other wells were put 
down across from Parker Cit}-, which yielded rich returns of oil. The business 
then began to assume a distinct form in this county. Each year it has been 
rapidly increasing, until the development is marvellous. The success gave a 
multiplied value to ever}' spot of land where there was a prospect of finding oil. 
Population flowed in, wells in large numbers were put down, villages sprung up, 
business activity has been displa3'ed to an astonishing extent, and that, too, 
sometimes in places that had been most quiet. A. W. Smiley, superintendent 
of the Union pipe line, estimates that five thousand wells have been drilled in 
this county. Reports show that forty-seven wells were finished Tjeing drilled in 
the month of Januarj', ISYG, with an aggregate daily yield of six hundred and sixty- 
two barrels. S. H. Stowell, compiler of the Petroleum iiepoWer, Pittsburgh, has 
also kindly furnished us with statistics. He says : " The reports in my posses- 
sion do not separate Clarion county production from that of Butler and 
Armstrong counties. I should judge about one-third of the production in the 
district composed of these counties comes from Clarion. Whole production 
from Pennsylvania oil fields for the year 1875 was 8,942,938 barrels, of which 



GLABION COTJNTY. 551 

Clarion, Butler, and Armstrong produced 7,621,479 barrels — one-third of which 
estimated to have come from Clarion, 2,540,495 barrels. This would make a 
daily average yield of six thousand nine hundred and sixty barrels in Clarion 
county, and the development is still widening. Every day new " rigs " go up as 
new sources are penetrated, and new wells tested. 

The county is well drained by numerous streams which intersect it in almost 
every direction. The Clarion river, formerly called. Stump creek, and some- 
times Toby's, from the names of two Indian trappers, is a beautiful stream, its 
waters so clear and pure, and its banks lined with scenery so fair. Having its 
source in Elk county, it flows directl}^ through the interior of the count}^ within 
half a inile of the county seat, and empties into the Allegheny river. Red-bank 
creek, the south branch of which rises in Clearfield county, and the North fork, 
which rises in Jefferson county, forms the southern boundary for some distance 
before it empties into the Allegheny river. Neither of these streams are navi- 
gable for steamboats, but rafts in vast numbers and coal boats are run down on 
high water. In addition to these, there are many smaller streams, yet sufficiently 
large to afford much valuable water-power, as Mill creek, Beaver, Deer, Paint, 
Canoe, Hemlock, Little Tob}'', Leatherwood, Piney, Licking, etc. 

The facilities for public travel and transportation of goods have greatly 
increased within a few years. Formerly steamboats on the Allegheny river for 
part of the year, and at very irregular times, together with the old stage coach, 
furnished the only means of travel ; the former alone the only public facility for 
exchanging commodities with outside markets. Now the Allegheny Valley rail- 
road traverses twenty-five miles of the southern border of the county, and the 
Eastern Extension, or Bennett's Branch, twenty-eight miles more. At Lawson- 
ham, the Sligo Branch leaves the Eastern Extension, and running for ten miles 
towards the centre of the count}', reaches the town of Sligo. This furnishes a 
greatly improved outlet. 

Educational interests receive much attention. The common school system 
being earh' adopted, there is a commendable enterprise manifested in keeping 
abreast of the improvements of the age. There are one hundred and eighty- 
eight school buildings, providing two hundred and three school rooms, with an 
attendance of about seven thousand two hundred scholars. Besides these schools 
there are a number of seminaries, academies, and select schools in the county. 

The Clarion Academy was incorporated by the act of June 12, 1840, and an 
appropriation of two thousand dollars was made by the State to secure grounds 
and erect buildings, with the stipulation that four children, of limited means, from 
each township might enjoy the benefits arising from such an academy, without 
pa3'ing tuition. No further appropriations being made, the building had to be 
kept in repair by the borough, until finally, in 1865, it was transferred to the 
school board of the borough of Clarion, and is now used fov public school 
purposes. 

Reid Institute is located in Reidsburg. In 1863, a young lady ta^ught a select 
class in the vestibule of Zion church. Following this, increased eflforts were made, 
and a school was established of no little celebrity. Hard by the church, now 
stand Prescott and Reid Halls, on the bluff overlooking the village below. Efljorts 
are l)eing made to secure sufficient funds to enlarge and endow. 



552 



HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Clarion Collegiate Institute was established in 1858, in the borough of Rimers- 
burg. Its three story building, located in a beautiful grove of native growth, 
was erected in 1859. It is in successful operation, and its influence on all the 
surrounding community been marked and healthful. 

Callensburg Institute was chartered in 1858. Previous to that time there had 
been two or three sessions of select school. Rev. David M'Cay — now of precious 
memor}- — was deeply interested in its success. Many of the citizens in the town 
and surrounding community joined him in earnest efforts for its advancement. 
After some time a handsome building was completed, which is still an ornament to 
the place. Its students are now widely scattered, many of them filling with honor 
their professions or callings. For some time its prosperity has declined, but 

located as it is, there is no reason 
why it should not greatly surpass 
its former usefulness. 

Carrier Seminary, on the hill at 
the east end of the borough of 
Clarion, was erected in 1868, at a 
total cost, including furniture and 
apparatus, of seventy-five thousand 
dollars. It is built of brick, and 
the main edifice is one hundred 
feet in length and seventy-five in 
width, and is three stories high. 
The grounds comprise about ten 
acres, handsomely laid out, and 
planted in shade and ornamental 
trees. It has received a good measure of patronage, and has been attended with 
a good degree of prosperit3^ 

At East Brady a select school has been successfully started within the past 
year, under the management of Rev. J. A. Ewing; and still others are in opera- 
tion within the county. In all these institutions, for the year 1875, there were 
gathered nine hundred and fifteen pupils, and twenty-nine instructors. 

The early history of the region now embraced in the limits of Clarion county 
should not be overlooked. Very much is lost. Of that which remains, much is 
only fragmentary. The first settlers had earnest work to do in planting homes 
in the wilderness and subduing the forest. They had but little time to put on 
record the events transpiring around them, and which would now be read with 
thrilling interest. One after another of the pioneers has passed away, until now 
scarcely any remain. Hence, many of those early incidents of real historic value 
can only be gathered from confiicting tradition. 

But few conflicts with the Indians are known to have taken place in what is 
now Clarion county. There is one incident, however, that should not be suffered 
to pass into oblivion. It occurred at Brady's Bend, in the south-western line of 
the county, in June, 1719. The incursions of the Indians had become so 
frequent, and their outrages so alarming, that it was thought advisable to 
retaliate upon them the injuries of war, and to carry into the country occupied 
by them the same system with which they had visited the settlements. For this 




CAKKIER SEMINARY. 



GLABION COUNTY. 553 

purpose an adequate force was provided, under the immediate direction of 
Colonel Brodliead, the command of the advance guard of which was confided to 
Captain Brady. 

The troops proceeded up the Allegheny river, and had arrived near the mouth 
of Red-bank creek, now known by the name of Bradj-'s Bend, without encounter- 
ing an enemy. Brady and his rangers were some distance in front of the main 
body, as their duty required, when they suddenly discovered a war party of 
Indians approaching them. Relying on the strength of the main body, and its 
ability to force the Indians to retreat, and anticipating, as Napoleon did in the 
battle with the Mamelukes, that, when driven back, the}^ would return by the 
same route they had advanced on, Brady permitted them to proceed without 
hindrance, and hastened to seize a narrow pass, higher up the river, where the 
rocks, nearly i^erpendicular, approached the river, and a few determined men 
might successfully combat superior numbers. 

In a short time the Indians encountered the main body under Brodhead, and 
were driven back. In full and swift retreat they pressed on to gain the pass 
between the rocks and the river, but it was occupied by Brady and his rangers, 
who failed not to pour into their flying columns a most destructive fire. Many 
were killed on the bank, and many more in the stream. Cornplanter, afterwards 
the distinguished chief of the Senecas, but then a j^oung man, saved himself by 
swimming. The celebrated war chief of this tribe. Bald Eagle, was of the 
number slain on this occasion. 

After the savages had crossed the river, Brady was standing on the bank 
wiping his rifle, when an Indian, exasperated at the unexpected defeat and dis- 
graceful retreat of his party, and supposing himself now safe from the well-known 
and abhorred enemy of his race, commenced abusing him in broken English, calling 
Brady and his men cowards, squaws, and the like, and putting himself in such 
attitudes as he probably thought would be most expressive of his utter contempt 
of them. When Brady had cleaned his rifle and loaded it, he sat down by an ash 
sapling, and, taking sight about three feet above the Indian, fired. The Indian, 
as the rifle cracked, was seen to shrink a little and then limp off". When the main 
army arrived, a canoe was manned, and Brady and a few men crossed to where 
the Indian had been seen. They found blood on the ground, and had followed it 
but a short distance when the Indian jumped up, struck his breast and said, 
"I am a man." It was Brady's wish to take him prisoner, without doing him 
further harm. The Indian continued to repeat "I am a man." "Yes," said an 
Irishman, who was along: " By Saint Patrick, you're a purty boy," and, before 
Brady could arrest the blow, sunk his tomahawk into the Indian's brain. 

About the year 1792 this region was visited by four land companies — the 
Peters, the Holland, the Bingham, and the Pickering — for the purpose of locating 
land warrants. As nearly as can be ascertained, they came in the above-named 
order, and all within a year of each other. Their warrants were all dated from 
1792 to 1794. They were laid in sections of a thousand acres each, and covered 
the principal part of the lands within the present limits of Clarion county. By 
an act passed in 1785, actual settlers were allowed to take up tracts of four 
hundred acres. No settlements, however, were made in what is now Clarion 
county till 1801. In the fall of that year, two bands of pioneers came out, one 



554 HISTOB T OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

from Westmoreland county, under the patronage of General Alexander Craig, 
the other from Penn's Valley and neighboring localities. It is estimated that 
about one hundred and fifty persons, in all, came out that year. As the winter 
approached, some of these visited their old homes, and returned with their 
families in the spring. The streams from these two sources continued to flow 
for ten or twelve years. Those who settled in the southern part, near where 
Callensburg now stands, supposed they were taking up vacant lands. But in 
the course of time they discovered their mistake, and were compelled to purchase 
of the Bingham company. The toils and hardships of all those first settlers 
were almost incredible. Journeying through long stretches of forests, over dim 
and ill-defined paths, and across unbridged streams, they could bring but a small 
supply of the necessaries of life with them. Finding a home in a vast unbroken 
wilderness, they could not provide these necessaries at once. Thus the want of 
proper food and sufficient raiment caused no little sufi"ering. Ofttimes they 
were compelled to encamp under trees, and use bread made of flour mingled with 
water and baked on the coals. There were times in the experience of many 
when a supply of even this fare would have been deemed a luxury. Their first 
dwellings were hastily built, and of the simplest architecture. One of the first 
articles manufactured by these hardy pioneers was " pine tar," extracted from 
the knots of deca^^ed pine trees. The product thus obtained was put in kegs, 
taken down the river in canoes to Pittsburgh, and there exchanged for flour and 
other necessaries. Many paid for their lands, at least in part, by money raised 
in this wa3^ At once small clearings were made, and patches planted in that 
which would most fully relieve pressing necessity. 

B}'^ and by farms began to be opened out and a greater competency to be 
enjoyed. Churches were built, schools were started, and the wilderness began to 
blossom. Though the beginnings were small, yet the foundations were laid that 
would bear a noble superstructure. The character of these men, very generally, 
was of a manly type. As a rule they were not only men of great courage and 
endurance, but likewise men of stei'ling integrity. Many of them were men of 
great Christian worth. Their wives were equally patterns of excellence. " Such 
men and women were made to match." All honor to the memory of those 
fathers and mothers who toiled so unweariedly, and suflered so patiently that 
they might secure homes for themselves and their children, and lay the founda- 
tions of a worthy community. How well they did their work is seen in the rich 
fruitage we now enjoy. The county that covers the region they settled has made 
amazing strides in wealth, and now takes a high rank among the counties of the 
Commonwealth in all those interests that are deemed valuable and precious. 

Clarion, the county seat, is a handsomely laid out town. It was erected into 
a borough by the act of April 6, 1841. In its early history it has been asserted 
that its growth was too rapid. Public buildings to be erected and so many new 
houses to be built, people flocked in, in too great numbers for the permanent 
growth of the town. In 1840 the census showed a population of eight hundred. 
But if this mistake was made it was soon remedied. The place has acquired a 
healthy growth. Building has been greatlj' stimulated within the past two years, 
more houses having been built during that time than for a number of years 
previous. The neatness and good taste which mark both the public and private 



GLABION COUNTY. 555 

buildings, and the sound financial basis on which business is conducted, attest 
its growing prosperity. One of the most important improvements was the con- 
struction of water works in the fall of 1875. Water is forced from the Clarion 
river by Eclipse pumps, to an elevation of four hundred and eighty-four feet, all 
a possible rate of three hundred barrels per hour. The influent pipe is of 
wrought iron of three and a half inches diameter, and three thousand three hun- 
dred and thirty-six feet in length. The water is discharged into two tanks, 
having a united capacity of twenty-five hundred barrels. They are located on 
Seminary hill, eighty-five feet above the average level of the town. From these 
tanks the water is distributed. In this way an abundant supply of pure water, 
for the requirements of the whole town, has been provided at a cost not 
exceeding thirteen thousand dollars. The works have been pronounced very 
complete in their construction. Located as Clarion is, on high ground, this 
improvement has added greatly to the comfort and convenience of the citizens, 
and to protection against fire. 

Shippenville, located on the turnpike, five miles west of Clarion, was laid out 
in 1826 by Hon. Richard Shippen. For some years after the decline in the iron 
manufacture it remained nearly stationarj^ Recently, however, the oil field 
has extended almost to its doors, imparting new vigor and awakening a growing 
activity. It is a point of considerable importance. 

St. Petersburg is in the south-western part of the county, about three miles 
north of Foxburg, a station on the Allegheny Valley railroad. It is in the 
midst of an oil-producing district. For many years prior to 1870 it was only a 
small village. After that time it suddenly sprang into prominence, rising like 
an exhalation from the earth, and now presents a busy aspect. Its population 
is fluctuating, and is variously estimated at from fifteen hundred to two 
thousand. 

East Brady, situated on the Allegheny river, opposite Brady's Bend, is a 
borough of rapid yet steady growth. Its situation and surroundings are favor- 
able to its permanent increase. 

Callensburg, built on an eminence, and near the confluence of the Clarion 
and Licking streams, is seven miles east of Parker City. It was laid out in 1826, 
by Hugh Callen. It has a fine location and is a beautiful town. 

Sligo is among the towais recently laid ovit. Its location is near the noted 
Sligo furnace, where, until recently, large quantities of iron have been manufac- 
tured. It is the terminus of the Sligo Branch railroad, and a point where large 
amounts of oil are shipped by the Atlantic Pipe company. 

New Bethlehem is an important town on the Eastern Extension. Its 
improvement is marked since tiie completion of the railroad. The various coal 
works in the immediate vicinity have increased its importance and business 
activity. 

Strattanville is on the turnpike, three miles east of Clarion. John 
Strattan was its proprietor, who laid it out in 1830. It has been incorporated 
as a borough, and is the centre of an agricultural region. 

Greenville is a pleasant village, eight miles south-east of Clarion. 
Crowded into a small area, it nestles in one of the narrow and romantic valleys 
of Piney. Bordered with evergreens, it is protected by the surrounding hills. 



556 



HISTOliY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Near by is an extensive woolen factory, which has been in operation for ten 
years, furnishing a market for wool, and manufactures excellent cloths and 
kindred goods. 

Besides the foregoing boroughs and villages there are many others, as Tylers- 
burg, Freyburg, Edenburgh, Turkey City, Salem City, Foxburg, Perryville, 
West Freedom, Monterey, Phillipsburg, Lawsonham, Millville, Shannondale, 
Rimersburg, Curllsville, Reidsburg, and others still smaller. 




OLD lilBERTT BELL, PHILADELPHIA. 



CLEARFIELD COUNTY. 



BY WILLIAM D. 



BIQLER, CLEARFIELD, 



ijLEARFIELD COUNTY was brought into existence by an act of 
the General Assembly of Pennsylvania passed the 20th of March, 
1804. The same act provided also for the erection of Jefferson, 
M'Kean, Potter, Tioga, and Cambria counties. Clearfield was 
formed out of the counties of Huntingdon and Lycoming, and its boundaries 
were set forth in the law which created it as follows ; " Beginning where the line 
dividing Canan and Brodhead's district strikes the West Branch of the Sus- 





VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF CLEARFIELD. 

(From a Photograph by J. K. Bottorf.) 



quehanna river, thence north along said district line until a due west course 
from thence will strike the southeast corner of M'Kean county, thence west 
along the southern boundary of M'Kean county to the line of Jefferson count}^, 
thence southerly along the line of Jefferson county to where Hunter's district 
line crosses Sandy Lick creek, thence south along the district line to the Canoe 
Place on the Susquehanna river, thence an easterly course to the southwest 
corner of Centre county on the heads of Moshannon creek, thence down the Mo- 
shannon creek the several courses thereof to the mouth, thence down the West 
Branch of the Susquehanna river to the beginning." A portion of the territory 
included in the above boundaries was taken in 1843 to form a part of Elk 
county, and a small portion in 1868 was annexed to Jefferson and Elk counties. 

557 



568 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

By authority of this law, Grovernor M'Kean appointed Roland Curtin, James 
Fleming, and James Smith, commissioners, who, after receiving several propo- 
sals for the location of the county seat, finally selected, in the j'ear 1805, for 
that purpose, a tract of land belonging to Abraham Witmer, being the site of 
the old Indian town of Chincklacamoose, and the site of the present town of 
Clearfield. 

It was not tor some time after its creation that Clearfield county was regu- 
larly organized and assumed absolute management of its own internal affairs. 
The commissioners of Centre count}^ by virtue of a legislative enactment of 
March 14, 1805, took charge of the infant county, and exercised a provisional 
authority over it from that time until 1812, when Clearfield county selected its 
first board of commissioners, to wit: Robert Maxwell, Hugh Jordan, and 
Samuel Fulton, who at their first session appointed Arthur Bell, Sr., county 
treasurer. The connection between the two counties for judicial purposes con- 
tinued until the 29th of January, 1822, when the Legislature passed a law "or- 
ganizing Clearfield county for judicial purposes, and empowering her to elect 
county officers," From the adoption of this law dates the complete organization 
of the county. 

Clearfield county occupies a central position in the State, and is situate on 
the west side or rather behind the main ridge of the Allegheny mountains, on the 
sources of the West Branch of the Susquehanna river. The surface is gene- 
rally hilly and broken — in some parts mountainous, with occasional level pla- 
teaus as you approach the heads of the streams. There are no continuous moun- 
tain ranges which can be distincth'^ traced, but a succession of ridges and hills, 
irregular in outline and deeply indented by small streams, which indicate the 
close proximity of a mountain range. There is considerable flat land along the 
larger streams. The river, more particularly in the southern and central portion 
of the county, is bordered with a valley of rich bottom land, which spreads out 
at times to considerable width. But following the course of the river through 
the north-eastern part of the county, the country assumes a bolder aspect — the 
valleys and bottom land gradually narrow, in places disappear, and high, rugged 
hills, from whose summits are opened long vistas of beautiful mountain scenery, 
hem the river on either side. 

The entire county is traversed from the southwest to the northeast by the 
West Branch of the Susquehanna river, which takes its rise in the adjoining 
county of Indiana. The upper West Branch is a beautiful mountain stream, and 
while there is a prevailing sameness in the general outline of its scenery, yet it 
exhibits an interesting variety in its tortuous course, alternately sweeping to- 
ward the middle of narrow valleys and back again to hug the base of gently 
sloping ridges or steep, forest-crowned hills — at times a gently flowing current, 
and again a torrent of waters rushing in wild tumult through narrow and I'ocky 
channels. It is also a useful stream, being the great outlet for the material 
wealth of the county ; and every year, when swollen by freshets, it is a scene of 
life and activit}', ' and its bosom is freighted with the valuable crafts of the 
sturdy lumberman, on his way to the markets in the eastern part of the State. 
Cush, Chest, Anderson, Clearfield, and Moshannon ci'eeks, and Bennet's Branch 
of the Sinnemahoning, are its principal tributaries in the county, and partake of 



CLEARFIELD COUNTY. 559 

the characteristics of the main stream, both in topographical feature and 
scenery. 

The line of water shed, which separates the streams of the Atlantic from 
those which flow into the Gulf of Mexico, passes through the western end of the 
county, and within a few rods of each other. Within the limits of the county are 
springs whose water form a part of this widely diverging drainage. In the one 
case they traverse a distance of over two thousand miles, watering twelve States, 
in the other they reach the same tide water line, in a distance of three hundred 
miles. 

Territorially, Clearfield is one of the largest counties in the State. Its length 
is forty-five miles, and its average breadth tliirty-two miles ; its area one thou- 
sand four hundred and forty square miles, and embracing in its boundaries 
over eight hundred thousand acres of land. 

The soil is generally fertile, but varies a great deal with the surface of the 
county. The valleys and the bottom lands along the banks of the streams are 
rich and productive. The soil on the higher lands is naturally thin, but yields 
good crops, and by careful husbandry will compare favorably with some of the 
recognized asfricultural districts in the State. There are occasional strata of 
limestone of good fertilizing qualities to be found throughout the county. Whilst 
its agricultural resources are naturally good, Clearfield county has suffered a 
great deal from poor farming. The original fertility of the soil in many cases 
was exhausted, and lands being plenty and cheap, it was found to be more profit- 
able to clear new fields than to bring back old ones to a proper state of cultiva- 
tion, and thus in many Clearfield farms the eye is pained with the sight of large 
fields of abandoned soil, with scarce a blade of grass to hide the naked earth. It 
is only within the last few years that the subject of agriculture has received the 
attention in this county which its importance demands. Lumbering has always 
been the principal industry, a more attractive industry than farming, because it 
has been more profitable, and affords more variety in its pursuit ; and in the 
early spring, or, in local parlance, in I'afting time, the season most essential to 
the interest of the agriculturist, the farm was neglected for a " trip down the 
river." This neglect, with the consequent bad results, has been the authority 
for the familiar remark that the " soil is poor, and farming don't pay here." But 
the I'apidity with which the pine forests are disappearing before the axe of the 
lumberman, and the early prospect of their complete exhaustion, and also the 
recent stagnation or rather prostration of the lumber interest throughout the 
State, has compelled many of the citizens to turn their attention to some other 
occupation as a means of subsistence and profit. This has given a strong 
impetus to the cfuse of agriculture, and of late there has been an uplifting of the 
business of farming from a condition where neither knowledge or skill were used 
to the higher plane it occupies elsewhere. Recent efforts have demonstrated not 
only the natural capacity of the soil, but what is an essential element to the 
prosperity of an agricultural people, its capability to produce an amount equal 
to and in excess of home consumption. Hitherto Clearfield exported lumber to 
bring back flour and grain, and thus was dependent upon her neighbors for her 
daily bread ; but the day is not distant when her hills and valleys will blossom as 
the rose, through the efforts of the skilled husbandman, who has recognized 



560 HISTOBY OF FENlSrSYLVAIflA. 

farming as a science and an art, and not a thing of chance, and whose return for 
his labors are proportioned to his advancement by careful study and experiment 
in the knowledge of his occupation. 

Its pine trees have been the county's great source of wealth. Before the 
advent of the settler this county was a vast wilderness of pine and hemlock — 
plenteously intermingled with many varieties of hard wood, such as oak, maple, 
beech, birch, poplar, etc. To the early settler the value of the pine was unknown, 
because there had not yet been any markets established for that commodity on 
the river below, and on account of its bulk was most troublesome to dispose of 
in clearing up the land. Hence he was wont to take its life by girdling it with 
his axe, and leave it stand ; and in different parts of the county can be seen many 
fields covered with those dead standing pines — mute monuments of man's waste- 
fulness. 

The first trade of the county was in bituminous coal. This was engaged in 
as early as 1810, and carried on for nianj'^ years. The coal was loaded in arks, 
which were built to contain from one thousand two hundred to one thousand five 
hundred bushels ; and when the freshets came these arks were run down the 
I'iver to the larger towns, and the coal disposed of at prices ranging from twelve 
to twenty-five cents per bushel. The building of dams on the Susquehanna put an 
end to this trade, as the schutes in these dams interfered with the success for 
navigation of these primitive vessels — the least mishap sending them and their 
cargoes to the bottom of the river. 

It was not until the year 1837 that lumbering in square timber was carried on 
as a business, nor with any degree of success until about the year 1842, and the 
prices even then (four to six cents per cubic foot) would not be considered very 
remunerative now, when the same quality of timber brings in the market from 
fifteen to twenty cents per cubic foot. But the wants of the lumberman of those 
early days were few, his expenses small, and smaller profits satisfied him than 
would satisfy the operator now-a-days. 

But with occasional reverses the business I'apidly grew, until it has become one 
of the most important industries in the State. There are different processes by 
which the business of lumbering is carried on — one of the principal modes is by 
felling the trees generally during the fall and winter season, hewing them, i. e., 
squaring them up on all sides with axes made for the purpose — hauling them on 
sleds to the river and larger creeks ; and then when the freshets come in the 
spring, they are rolled into the stream and fastened together, generally enough 
sticks to make five to eight thousand cubic feet, with a semblance of regularity 
and neatness, by lash poles of hickory or white oak couplings. Large oars or 
sweeps are put at either end. When completed this is called .a raft, and being 
provided with a crew of hands, in charge of a pilot, is started down the river to 
market. The current is the propelling power, and the oars ai'e used to keep the 
craft from strikinsf the shore or staving on the numerous rocks and obstructions in 
the channel. Mishap sometimes overtakes the unskillful navigator, and then the 
"trip " is attended with a great deal of hard work, and occasionally with risk to 
life and limb. The occupation of a raftsman has just enough of excitement and 
danger in it to make it attractive, and begun in boyhood is generally adhered to 
through life. 



CLEARFIELD COUNTY. 561 

Another process was to "raft and run" the' manufactured lumber. This 
branch of the business was carried on extensively for man}' years, and there were 
at one time, within the county, no less than four hundred saw mills — principally 
small water mills with an average capacifc}- each of sawing one hundred thousand 
feet per annum. The establishment of large booms at Lock Haven and Williams- 
port has revolutionized this branch of the business, and board rafts on the West 
Branch are almost a thing of the past. These booms are located at points on the 
river where there are good facilities for shipping lumber by railroad and canal to 
the markets all over the countr}-, and it was found more profitable to " drive " 
the loose logs from the heads of the stream into these booms, and manufacture 
them there, than to manufacture them at home and send the lumber in rafts to 
the uncertain markets on the river. The advent of railroads to Clearfield county 
within the last few years has been gradually working a second revolution in this 
business. Large steam saw mills are being erected along the lines of the new 
railroads, and if the pine forests would hold out, not many years would elapse 
before the most of her lumber would again be manufactured within the limits of 
the county. 

To show the rapidity' of the growth of this lumber trade and its importance 
now, it is estimated that during the year 1840 the amount of lumber rafts out of 
the county would not exceed one hundred and fift}'' rafts, or seven million five 
hundred thousand feet board measure. For the last twelve years, from 18G2 to 
1874, the amount inclusive of both the logging and square timber will equal 
two hundred and forty million feet annually. There has been, in addition, within 
the same period, an average annual shipment by railroad of twenty to forty 
million feet of manufactured lumber. A reasonable valuation on this lumber 
t'xhibits an annual trade to the count}- of over two millions of dollars. It also 
exiiibits another fact, and a warnful one to the lumberman — that the end of this 
large white pine lumber trade is not far distant. These noble forests are fast 
disappearing before the axe of the woodman, and at the present rate of operating 
another decade of years will witness their entire exhaustion. What will Clear- 
field have to depend on when her pine trees are all gone ? Where will her 
capital find investment, and her surplus labor emplo3'ment? That question has 
been already answered. In addition to the stead}' development of her agricul- 
tural resources, since the year 1862, a new industry has been growing up which 
will in a brief period overshadow her lumber trade. Clearfield county lies in 
the centre of the largest bituminous coal basin in the State. An idea of its 
extent may be gathered from the following brief sketch made by one who has 
given the subject much attention. 

The full depth of the coal strata is yet unknown, but there is no difficulty in 
tracing its lateral bearings in any direction. The numerous tracts of land extend- 
ing to the head of the Moshannon, and those embracing the vast region between 
Moshannon creek and Tyrone and Clearfield railroad, cover a coal region of 
about one hundred square miles, which is only the undisturbed part of the coal 
territory lying in Centre county. Trout run. Bear run, and Wilson run course 
through this part of Centre county, and the ravines in which they flow aflford 
splendid openings for striking the heavy coal beds that crop out along the 
hill-sides. 
2l 



562 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

"Westward of the Moshannon, the coal extends throughout the regions coursed 
by Beaver run, Whiteside run, Muddy run, Clearfield creek and its numerous 
tributaries, Chest creek, and Susquehanna river, embracing an area of nine 
hundred or one thousand miles. Following southward into Cambria count}-, the 
continuation of the coal region covers an additional area of about three hundred 
square miles; and if we take in Jefferson and Indiana counties we have a coal 
territory embracing the greater part of five counties, with Clearfield as the great 
central basin, the whole covering an area of about five thousand square miles. 

In some places there are not less than twelve seams of coal, and these will 
average at least four feet in thickness. The vein worked in this region is six 
feet from top to bottom, while many other veins measure only three feet, but 
over on Clearfield creek, at the mouth of Beaver Dam branch, fifty feet below 
water level, a seam of coal was found, which measures fourteen feet in thickness, 
and there is no doubt this same body of coal underlies the whole extent of our 
coal territoiy. 

Bennett's Branch extension of the Allegheny Valley railroad, or what is 
fiimiliarly known as the low grade railroad, which was recently completed, 
passes tlirough the northern and western ends of the count}-, and has opened up 
and brought into market the bituminous coal lands of the famous Ileynolds- 
ville basin. 

The Tyrone and Clearfield railroad, a branch of the Pennsylvania, enters the 
county at its south-east corner, and is extended more than half way through it. 
This is the outlet for the coal of the Moshannon basin. From this main branch 
numerous smaller branches and lateral roads are building and extending every 
year, and penetrating this vast coal field in many different directions. 

•The first coal shipped from this region was from the Powellon colliery in the 
year 1SG2. Now there are in tlie Moshannon region twenty-five large collieries, 
employing over three thousand men, and with an aggregate daily capacity of 
twelve thousand tons. The total amount of coal now annually shipped from the 
county is not less than two millions of tons. This coal has become a great favo- 
rite in the eastern markets, and for steam generating purposes is preferred to 
other varieties of bituminous coal. 

The coal trade of Clearfield county is only in the infancy of its development, 
yet its rapid growth in the short time of its existence, the many superior 
qualities of the coal, the extended area of its basin, Avarrant the prediction that 
it is destined to be, in the not far off future, the largest and most active bitumi- 
nous coal trade in the world. 

Fire clay is also among the valuable resources of Clearfield county. It 
abounds in great quantities all through this bituminous region. It has been 
sulijected to the most severe tests, and found to be in all respects equal to the 
celebrated Scotch clay, or the Mount Savage clay of western Maryland. There 
are three large establishments in the county, one at Clearfield town, and the other 
two within five miles, at Woodland, with a total capacity of thirty thousand 
brick per dny, engaged in the manufacture of fire brick, and also some forms of 
terracotta ware. These brick have established for themselves a good reputation, 
not only among the iron men of Pennsylvania, but find a ready market as far 
west as Chicago and St. Louis. 



CLEAEFIELD COIN TV 563 

Iron ore is also found in considerable quantity throughout the count}", but 
not in veins of sufficient size or richness to attract capital from otlier localities, 
in a State that is so famous for the abundance and superiority of that precious 
metal. In 1814, Peter Karthaus, a native of Hamburg, Germany, but after- 
wards a resident merchant of Baltimore, a man of large means and energies, 
with great eccentricities of cliaracter, established a furnace at the mouth of tlie 
Little Moshannon or Mosquito creek, in the lower end of the county. It was a 
stupendous undertaking, and called forth more than the ordinary attributes of 
human sngacit}' and skill to build up iron works in an almost unbroken wilder- 
ness, so far from market, and with few facilities for transportation. But Kar- 
thaus possessed all these qualities, and made his works a partial success for 
several years. They afterwai-ds, about the years 1833-G, passed into the hands 
of different owners, who carried them on until the 3-ear 1840, when they suc- 
cumbed to the fluctuations of the times, the disadvantages of distance of market. 

•^ 7 

and the cost of transporting their products. "Within a few 3'ears a railroad has 
penetrated to a short distance from Karthaus, and projected branches into these 
lands have already been survej-ed. Capital has found its way back after a long 
absence, and in a brief period of time the clank of the forge-hammer, and the 
busy hum of industry may soon again be heard where it has been silent for over 
a quarter of a centur}'. 

The territory now included in the limits of Clearfield county was, until the 
close of the last century', an unbroken and almost unexplored wilderness, visited 
only by venturesome hunter and the surveyor. It was the undisturbed habita- 
tion of the bear, the wolf, the panther, the moose, and the deer. 

The colonial struggles for liberty had been over many years, our nationality 
had been achieved, and America had a place in the family of nations, and her 
people had gradually settled down to the arts of peace long before the white man 
had penetrated these wilds to build himself a homo, and therefore the early 
settlement of this county was not attended with those stirring scenes and tragic 
incidents of border warfare which marked the early history of the white settle- 
ment in the valle3-s of the lower West Branch. The Indian was still here, but he 
had already succumbed to his inevitable destiny, and was peacefulh^ receding 
before the onward march of civilization. Although their slumbers were not 
broken b}' the war whoop of the savage, nor their fiimilies live in hourly dread of 
his tomahawk and scalping-knife, 3'et these hardy pioneers exhibited the same 
stern and unbending heroism in strifes where no world could look in upon and 
applaud, in unceasing daily toil, a courage and self-devotion in hand-to-hand 
struggle with hardship and want as would have made them heroes on fields of 
war. With few cxccjjtions, they have long since passed awa}' ; but man}' of 
them lived long enough to reap some rewartl for their early trials and suffci'ings 
iu the enjoyment of the local honors of their fellows, and the material comforts 
of life which their labors had gathered around them. Ogden, Leonard, Bell, 
Heed, Kyler, Bloom, McCracken, P^erguson, Fulton, Irwin, are historic names in 
the annals of Clearfield county, and although the achievements and fame of 
these pioneer settlers may not have crossed the mountains Avhich surround 
cheir former homes, and the story of their lives go unrecited to the world outside, 
Pauuiiy tradition will long preserve the record of their ancestral deeds. 



564 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Clearfield, the county seat, was laid out in 1S05 by the commissioners 
appointed by the Governor to make selection of a site for a county seiit for 
Clearfield county. It was incorporated into a borougli by an act of the Legisla- 
ture, approved 21st April, 1840. Its location is one of great natural beaut}^, on 
the bank of the river, and embosomed in an ampliitheatre formed by surrounding 
hills, from whose summits a fine panoramic view can be had of the town and the 
narrow valley which borders the river for several miles. It is located on the site 
of the old Indian town of Chinklacamoose, and the openings or clearings made 
by the Indians, which the first settlers found upon their arrival here, gave the 
name of Clearfield to the town and county. The town derives its importance 
from its connexion with the lumber trade of the county, it being the residence of 
many of those who were the pioneers of the timber business, and are still 
prominently engaged in that pursuit. Its public buildings, the court house and 
jail, are both new structures, modern in their styles of architecture, and of a size 
and capacity to meet the growing wants of the county for many years to come. 
It contains six churches — Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic, Episcopal, Baptist, 
and Lutheran. The two first named are fine large edifices, models of architectural 
skill, and a credit to the enterprise and liberality of the community that erected 
them. It contains one of the finest public school buildings in the central part of 
the State, the result of the munilicence of one of its citizens, Judge James 
T. Leonard, who donated the ground and erected and furnished the building at 
an expense of not less than twent^'-five thousand dollars. Judge Leonard is 
the oldest inhabitant of the town, and one of a few still living of the early 
settlers of the count}^, having come here with his father in 1803, when he was 
only three years old. lie endured all the privations and hardships incident to the 
life of a pioneer in the wilderness, when the means of subsistence were only 
obtained by unceasing toil. By his never-failing industry and prudent manage- 
ment, he has made his life a success, and for many years has been at the head 
of the business of the county. 

The present population of Clearfield is something over two thousand. The 
Tyrone and Clearfield railwny passes through the town. It presents an appear- 
ance of neatness and comfort in its wide and finely shaded streets, its numerous 
spacious and tasty homes, and its business and manufacturing establishments, 
all indicative of the enterprise and thrift of its citizens. 

CuRWENSViLLE, named after John Curwen, of Montgomery count}^, upon 
whose land the town was laid out. It was made a borough by an act of the 
Legislature, approved 3d February, 1832. It is pleasantly situated on high 
rolling ground, near the confluence of Anderson creek with the West Branch of 
the Susquehanna. It is noted for its many handsome private residences, its 
numerous business establishments, and the enterprise and public spirit of its 
citizens. Curwensville is the present terminus of the Tyrone and Clearfield 
railwa}'. Since the advent of the railroad the town has been njaking marked 
strides in the increase of population and growth of its trade. It has many natural 
advantages in its location. Surrounded by a large and prosperous agricultural 
district, and possessed of ample water power for manufacturing purposes in its 
adjoining stream, these, with the business activity and spirit of improvement which 
animate her people, warrant the belief that the town will never stand still. 



CLEARFIELD COUNTY. 5G5 

Osceola was laid out by a company of capitalists from Centre count}^, in the 
year 1859. It was located in the centre of a vast pine and hemlock forest, all of 
which covered immense deposits of bituminous coal. The Tyrone and Clearfield 
railroad was completed to this point in 1862, and since that time the growth of 
the town has been rapid and substantial. Thirteen large lumber manufactories 
were erected and in operation in and about the town within a circuit of a few 
miles, the largest of which was that of the Moshannon land and lumber company, 
with a capacity of sawing seventy-five thousand feet of lumber per day, and in 
its arrangements and improvements one of the finest mills in the United States. 
The development of the coal trade, soon after the arrival of the railroad, gave 
additional impetus to the town, and caused its rapid expansion. The Moshannon 
Branch railroad, projected in 18G4, which penetrates the coal basin in different 
directions, connects with the parent road at this point. The town was made into 
a borough in 1864. In 1875 its population had increased to two thousand. 
Many tasteful and costly dwellings and large and substantial business houses 
had been erected. The valuable resources of this region had attracted capital 
from all parts of the countr3\ Its future was bright and promising until the 
20th May, 1875, when the town was almost entirely destroyed by fire. Fifteen 
hundred people were made homeless, and the result of years of toil and indus- 
try was swept out of existence in a few brief hours. Discouraging as the 
prospect was, the pluck and enterprise of the citizens soon came to the surface, 
and while still a smoking ruin, the scene of the conflagration was dotted over 
with the rude shanties and tents of those determined to commence the battle of 
life anew. Not a year has elapsed since the fii-e, and although it has been a 
year of unusual depression of the industries in which her people are largely 
engaged, Osceola has come up phoenix-like from its ashes. The din of the hammer 
and saw has been unceasing day and night. More than two hundred buildings 
have been erected in that short time. Scarce a vestige of the great fire remains, 
and the scenes and the incidents of that day already belong to the historic past. 

HouTZDALE was laid out in the year 1870 by G. N. Brisbin, on land of Dr. 
Houtz. It is located six miles west of Osceola, on the Moshannon Branch rail- 
road. It was incorporated into a borough in 1871, and has a present population 
in the town and neighborhood of three thousand. Houtzdale is like some of 
those famous western towns that spring into existence already incorporated, and 
spread out faster than the woodman can fell the forest in advance of them. It is 
an outgrowth of the coal development of this region ; is surrounded on all sides 
by collieries, which secures a large trade and business activity to the town. 
Athough one of the youngest towns in the county, it is rapidly coming to the 
front in size and importance. 

New Washington is a thriving little town, situate in the southern part of the 
county, and was incorporated by the Legislature on the 13th of April, 1859. It 
is in the midst of a rich agricultural region, and only needs the advent of a rail 
road to rouse its latent energies. 

LuiMBER City is situated on the river, six miles above Curwensville, and 
derives its name from its connection with the lumber trade of the county. It 
was made a borough in 1857. It is a busy place in the spring of the year, during 
the freshets in the river, being the head of navigation for full-length rafts. 



1 



566 niSTOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Wallaceton was laid out in 1868, and incorporated in 1873. Its population 
is about two hundred. It is on the line of the Tyrone and Clearfield railway. 
Is tlie seat of a large steam saw mill, and is a point of shipment for considerable 
manufactured lumber, railroad ties, etc. 

BuRNSiDE borough was incorporated in the j'ear 1874. It is in the extreme 
south-western part of the county. Is located on the bank of the river, and her 
citizens are largely interested in lumbering. It is an enterprising town, and is 
in the full tide of expectancy for a railroad outlet for her valuable material 
resources. 

Frenciiville, in Covington township, is a large and flourishing French settle- 
ment, which was commenced in 1832. It is composed of over two hundred 
industrious and thrifty families. Its pioneers were from Normandy and Picardy, 
and the location of a French colony in the then wilderness of the Upper Susque- 
hanna was brought about by the failure of a Thiladelphia banker having a large 
indebtedness in France. M. Zavron, a wealthy French creditor, got possession 
of tliese lands, and through the assistance of John Keating, his agent, established 
a colony of his countrymen. 

Glen Hope, in Beccaria township, is an enterprising town, situate on the 
head-waters of Clearfield creek. It is within the limits of the Clearfield bitumi- 
nous coal basin, and is on the line of proposed railroad extensions. 

Grauamton, in Graham township, botli named in honor of lion, James B. 
Graham, the largest landholder in the township, and for many 3'ears a resident 
therein. Mr. Graham came to the county in 1822. lie commenced life without 
an}' means, but possessed of a willing heart and an energy that could master any 
difllcultv, he has, by a life of well directed industry, secured not only compe- 
tency, but the respect and esteem of his fellows, and his name is alwa3's found at 
the head of every enterprise, public and charitable. 

Grampion Hills, in Penn township, includes one of the oldest and most 
productive farming districts in the count}'. It was first settled about the j'car 
1805, and the name was given to it by Dr. Samuel Coleman, one of the early 
settlers, a man of abilit}', but eccentric in his habits, on account of the resem- 
blance to the celebrated hills of his native countrv. This region was settled 
principally by Quakers, and is noted for its many finely cultivated farms, 
and the intelligence and general prosperit}^ of the farmers. 

Kylertown, in Morris township, is yet a small town, but has a promising 
future, because of its close proximity to large coal operations, and on the line of 
projected railways. 

LuTiiERSBURG, in Brady township, is situate in the centre of the finest 
agricultural district in the count}-. The settlers in the township are principally 
Germans, noted for their industry and thrift. The town has always been a good 
business point, but new railroad towns in the vicinity have of late diverted some 
of its trade. 

Pennfield, in Huston township, is a new and thriving railroad town, on the 
line of Bennett's Branch of the Allegheny Valley railroad, and growing rapidly. 

RuMBEROER, in Brady township, on the line of the Bennett's Branch Exten- 
sion railroad, although a town of few years' existence, is fast increasing in size 
and importance. It is within tlie Reynoldsville coal basin, and several collieries 



CLEABFIELD COUNTY. 



567 



are in operation around it. It is also the location of one of the largest saw 
mills in the United States. 

Woodland, in Bradford township, six miles east of Clearfield, on the line of 
the Tyrone and Clearfield railroad, is the seat of two large fire brick manufiicto- 
ries and a steam saw mill, and under the influence of these industries is im 
proving rapidly. 



PENNSYLVANIA STATISTICS— CENSUS OF 1870. 



JIANCFACTUniXC INDUSTUY. 



Aflams 

Armstrong . 

Beaver 

Bed I Old 

Berks 

B 



Bradford 

Burks 

Butler 

Cambria 

Cameron 

Carl)on 

C'-iitie 

Chester 

Clarion 

Clearfield 

Clinton 

Columbia 

Crawford 

Cumberland 

J>au|)liin 

Delaware 

Klk 

Erie 

J'uyeite 

Forest 

Franklin 

Fulton 

Greene 

Huntingdon 

Indiana 

JeHVrson 

J uiiiata 

Lancaster 

l.awrence 

l^ebanon 

l.ehigli 

J/Uzeme 

J,y<'oining 

M'Keaii 

Meicer 

Miaiin 

Monroe , 

M(nilgoinery 

Montour 

Norlhaininoii 

Nortlinmberlaud. 

I'erry 

rinladelidiia 

I'ike 

I'otier 

Sclunlkill 

tSnyder 

Somerset 

Sullivan 

Stisqueliauua 

Tioga 

TJiiijii , 

Venango 

Warren 

V/asliington 

Wayne 

Westmoreland ... 

Wyoming 

York 



a 2 



1, 



8 



5(12 
8U 
27U 
500 
3(i9 
■114 
440 
.5:il 
7:!!1 
3a7 
373 
44 
IGl 
3ti2 

mi 

27!l 
24) 
241 
2."..S 

74;{ 

44il 

rxs7 
ai4 

81 
92S 
402 

■.<7 
520 

(i.> 
](!2 
324 
47:5 
2;<2 
204 
,GI(i 
IXI 
481 
C94 

6iS 
;•! 
438 
1^4 
2-i4 
,UHl) 

]:.8 

655 

424 

2s2 

,IS4 

07 

41 

&44 

4",M> 

98 

8:! 

37fi 

282 

106 

278 

450 

4L2 

2fll 

390 

]94 

111 



sr,3 = 3 

c -. d. 

»- ^ c 



fl. 415. 126 

8S.7.S9.414 
4. :«7. ;<o7 
4.024.0H3 
1.. 587. 024 

l(i.24:i.45i 
6. 428. »lll 
2,7:iS,;{!)5 
4.7X2.118 
].:«). 0;i2 
8,641.8i:< 
896.810 
2.955.78:5 
3.047.674 

11, 494.. 543 

1 , 355. 51 6 
1.109.405 
3.646 .526 
2.71 6. 2!K) 

10,157,009 

3.249.032 

13.514, I •56 

11.041.654 

1.524.392 

9.697.9S7 

3,527.404 

393.191 

3, 621.34!! 

512.433 

573. («) 

2.319,1.52 

1,393, 41 8 

1.238.613 

678.345 

14,034.180 

3,439.710 

4.160.(I,S4 

].5.4^0.S4S 

17.493.463 

y,0,S1.406 

358. 9S4 

G,.544,277 

1,G10,S;85 

2,232,.5Sfl 

16,933,703 

4,.S57.692 

12..5:';o.S30 

4 207.sr.5 

2.4r2.6-:6 

322.004.517 

692.313 

2-19. 724 

9..5S6. 114 

1,240.671 

591.449 

390,877 

3,215,034 

2,190,852 

1,288,692 

4, 516, .566 

3.224,763 

2,037,441 

3.714.075 

2. .592. 487 
1,013,831 
7,028,9:54 



a - ~ r|- :z 

c^ 5 " — •'^ ^ 

K = c ^ c o 



711,894.2:54 00 



vix liT, 

6. •506. 
6.o:56. 

2. :5S0. 
24.:565. 

9.642. 

4.107, 

7.098, 

1.995. 
12.962. 

1.345. 

4.4:53. 

4.. 571. 
17.241. 

2.0:53. 

1.664. 

5.469. 

4.0.5!». 
15.235, 

4.87:5. 
20.271. 
](i.562. 

2,2S6. 

1.046. 

5,291. 
.5S9. 

5,4:52. 
76S. 
859. 

3.478. 

2.090. 

1.857. 

1.017. 
21,051. 

5. 159. 

6,240, 

2:{.22l. 

26. 2:59. 

1:5, 622. 

5:58. 

9.816, 

2.425. 

3, :548, 
25, 41 K I. 

7.2S6. 

18.796. 

6.311. 

3. (lis. 

483.006. 

1,0.38. 

374. 

14.;579 

1,861 

8S7 

586 

4,8:57, 

3.286, 

1.9:53 

6,774, 

4.837, 

3. 056, 

5, .57 1 

3,888 

1,.520, 

10.543 



689 CO 
121 00 
(;55 00 
121 00 
.536 00 
179 00 
.549 00 
.592 00 
177 00 
048 00 
719 00 
215 (XI 
674 (10 
511 00 
814 10 
259 00 
107 00 
789 00 

4:55 on 

513 00 
.548 00 
231 00 
l,S4 00 
.i,S8 00 
9.-s:) 00 
1 06 CO 
7,-56 00 
I 23 00 
649 00 
575 00 
728 00 
112 00 
919 00 
.522 00 
270 00 
550 00 
126 00 
272 00 
t)94 to 
109 00 
976 00 
4:5 00 
477 00 
,S08 00 
5.">4 00 
403 00 
251 00 
2.S2 00 
9:59 00 
775 00 
469 00 
.586 00 
171 00 
.006 00 
.173 00 
315 00 
.581 00 
278 00 
0.38 00 
849 00 
1.52 00 
161 00 
112 00 
7:50 00 
7-16 00 
,401 00 



IMl'ltOVED AND UXIJirKOVED LANDS. 



Adams 

A lleirlicny , 
Armstrong 

lieaver 

r>ed ford . . 
15 



1,067,841,:551 00 



K'air 

Kradford 

ISncks 

liiiller 

<'ainbria 

CanifKui 

<'aibon 

Centre 

<'liester 

Clarion 

Clearfield 

Clinton 

Columbia 

Crawford 

Cninberlaad 

Daniiliin 

Delaware 

Elk 

Ki ie 

Fayeite 

Forest 

Franklin 

FultiMi 

Greene 

Hnntiiigdon 

Indiana 

Jett'er-^cui 

.luniata 

Lancaster 

l.awrence 

I.eliaiioii , 

Leliigli 

Luzerne 

Lycoming 

JM'Keaii 

Sleicer 

Miflliii 

M (Ml roe 

iMontffomery 

Montinir 

Koriliampton 

Nortliumberlaud. 

I'erry 

I'liiladelphia 

I'ike 

I'otter. 

Schuylkill 

Snyder 

^(unerset 

Sullivan 

Susnuehaniia 

Tioga 

Union 

Venango 

Warren 

AVasliington 

Wayne 

Westmoreland ... 

AVvoming 

York 



o 



214,516 

292,089 
2:50,915 
17ii.861 
197.250 
374.-560 

98.2.H5 
366. «51 
315,853 
27:5,1-58 

93, 438 
6.485 



25, 
1.52. 
374. 
162. 
116.: 



54.8-52 
]:56.7IO 
328. 555 
2:i9.784 
172.-5.S6 

89,4:5.S 

l(i.lJ4 
279.868 
2:55. (Ki6 

10.890 
26-5.517 

86.9:15 
2:50.594 
168.818 
2-56. 023 
101.220 

97,. 509 
462. S:53 
14.8. .509 
1:59, 4,H1 
181,097 
194.115 
163,892 

28, 164 
260,109 

97.687 

83,663 
256,909 

5:5.182 
170. (j62 
147.129 
136.809 

37.518 

27.:503 

56,307 
109,1:55 

92.580 
249,615 

36,089 
290.997 
187,;505 

70,7-52 
122,874 

83,762 
409,863 
110,718 
342,083 

87,953 
411,;541 



11,515,965 



C.2 



•a 



58. .509 

93. .570 

126.1-55 

71.974 

211.527 

97. 448 

.52. .500 

226.464 

48.7S6 

1.57.883 

1:56.4-57 

62.777 

34.(520 

90, :-t62 

68,154 

111,317 

1.56.9-55 

72.519 

6,S. 443 

197.6^5 

49.7-58 

01.249 

11.316 

28,7:59 

1:54.889 

14.5.066 

37.256 

92.703 

117,902 

107,748 

l,S(i,076 

172.164 

1:55.722 

66 ..557 

76.8.58 

.50.663 

43. 883 

.39,217 

174,:581 

143.291 

50.689 

129.0-56 

60.763 

110.311 

27,8-7 

]() -IS3 

].",404 

46.4-52 

126.2-5 

2.786 

88. 459 

111.727 

75.318 

45,313 

2-54.442 

69,353 

1.50,016 

166.798 

19,075 

98. :540 

134,508 

114,004 

200,880 

144,014 

72.212 

i;53. 181 



6,478,235 



►,T 



514.611.060 

56.44,s.818 

i:5.6S1.426 

]4.19,S.7I3 

9. 49-5. 1 19 

43.6.58,465 

8.098.146 

25.1-58.245 

40.2,S9.213 

18.2:50.848 

4.8:54.076 

l.;5:52. 188 

1.4.S4.2I0 

1:5.-565.198 

4(i. 737. (>88 

7. 7,vl, 127 

5.93l.;560 

4.797,040 

9.O1-5.460 

21.905.661 

22. 47-1.. 577 

19.0-53.4:53 

19,2,s,S.727 

1.019,820 

2:5,991,607 

1S,2-5'1.958 

619.:593 

23,77.5.174 

2.-V;5.042 

13.554.374 

9.41-5.678 

12.945.069 

6.:5(i2.623 

6.351.175 

70.724.908 

11.614.044 

19.016,8(8 

23,.5;5.5.476 

21.565.724 

11,212.3(56 

1,566.2-50 

22.048,2(19 

9,1:5.3.277 

4,4.59,114 

40,902,050 

4.615,6.55 

20.991,169 

12.4:50,987 

8.750.895 

18.94.5.000 

2,213,32.5 

2.942,318 

8.64:5.6-55 

5.769.403 

12.04:5.715 

1,658.109 

16.707.011 

10,92:5. !r25 

7,891,977 

7.211,006 

6.976,674 

39.01.5,006 

8.816,220 

28.210,826 

6.6:53.160 

36.:558,484 



1,043,431,582 




5fi8 



lid 



CLINTON COUNTY. 




BY D. S. MAYNARD, LOCK HAVEN. 

|REVIOTJS to Mfii-ch 11, 1752, the territory embraced within the 
present limits of Clinton county was a portion of Chester, one of 
the three original counties into which the Province of Pennsylvania 
was divided by William Penn ; but on that date Berks county was 

formed, taking that part of Chester which contained what is now Clinton. By 

act of March 21, 1772, ^Northumberland county was taken, in part, from Berks, 

including the present 

Clinton. When Lycom 

ing county was cut off 

from Northumberland in 

1795, it also comprised 

all the area now in Clin- 
ton, a portion of which 

was taken in the forma- 
tion of Centre in 1800. 

Therefore, when Clinton 

was organized by the act 

of 1839, it took portions 

of Centre and Lycoming. 

The townships of Bald 

Eagle, Lamar, and Logan 

were stricken from Cen 

tre, the others from Ly- 



coming. The first section 
of the act organizing the 
county is as follows : 

" That all those parts 
of the counties of Ly- 
coming and Centre, and 

lying within the following boundaries, viz., beginning at Pine creek, where the 
north line of L3^coming county crosses said creek ; thence a straight line to the 
house of William Herrod ; thence following tlie Coudersport and Jersey Shore 
turnpike, the several courses and distances thereof, to the middle of Pine creek ; 
thence down the said creek, the several courses thereof, to its junction with the 
West Branch of the river Susquehanna ; thence a straight line to the north-east 
corner of Centre county ; thence to include Logan, Lamar, and Bald Eagle town- 
ships, in Centre county ; thence along the Lycoming county line to the south- 
west corner of said county ; thence by the lines of Clearfield, M'Kean, Potter, 

569 




CLINTON COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LOCK HAVEN. 
[From a Photograpti by D. Mallo;, Lock Haven.] 



670 HISTO E Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

and Tioga counties to tlie place of beginning ; and the same is hereby' created 
into a separate county, to be called ' Clinton,' the seat of justice to be fixed by 
commissioners hereinafter appointed." 

Clinton count}', as well as Lock Haven, the country seat, owes its origin to the 
indefatigable exertions of an exceedingl}^ eccentric individual, the irrepressible 
and indomitable Jerry Church, a "York State Yankee," whose name (if not 
face) was once familiar to every citizen of the county. The efforts made by this 
man to organize the county Avere strenuously opposed b}' leading citizens of 
both Centre and Lj^coming counties. In a unique and amusing book called 
"Travels of Jerry Church," published .in 1845, that worthy gives his own 
account of the organization of the county as follows : 

" I now undertook to divide the counties of Lycoming and Centre, and make 
a new count}^ to be called Clinton. I had petitions printed to that effect, and 
sent them to Ilarrisburg, to have them presented to the Legislature, and then 
went down myself to have the matter represented in good order. My friend 
John Gamble was our member from Lj'coming at that time, and he reported a 
bill. The people of the town of Williamsport, the county scat of Lycoming, and 
Bellefonte, the county seat of Centre county, then had to be up and be doing 
something to prevent the division ; and the^^ commenced pouring in their rcmon- 
strances, and praying aloud to the Legislature not to have any part of either 
county taken off for the purpose of making a new one, for it was nothing more 
or less than some of Jerr^^ Church's Yankee notions. However, I did not 
despair. I still kept asking every year, for three successive years, and attended 
the Legislature myself every Avintcr. I then had a gentleman who had become 
a citizen of the town of Lock Haven, by the name of John Moorhoad, who 
harped in with me — a very large, portly looking man, and rather the best borer 
in town ; and, by the bye, a very clever man. We entered into the division 
together. We had to state a great number of facts to the members of the Legis- 
lature, and perhaps something more, in order to obtain full justice. We 
continued on for nearly three j'ears longer, knocking at the mercy-seat, and at 
last we received the law creating the count}^ of Clinton. In the year 1839, the 
county was organized b}' the Hon. Judge Burnside." 

"Eagle" was the name originally selected for the new county, but after 
several unsuccessful attempts to get the required legislation, that name was 
dropped and "Clinton" substituted as a ruse, intended to mislead the opponents 
of the new count}- movement. As the opposition in the Legislature had been so 
long and vigorousl}^ made against the forming of Uagle county, when that name, 
which had become familiar to every member, ceased to be presented, and Clinton 
appeared, the required act Avas passed, before man}' of the legislators kncAV that 
the name belonged to the same territory they had been voting against for several 
successive Avinters. 

Immediately after the county was organized, three commissioners. Colonel 
Cresswell, Major Colt, and Joseph Brestel were appointed to locate the county 
seat. After vieAving and considering A^arious locations, Lock Haven Avas chosen 
as the most desirable and appropriate place. Accordingly a site Avas selected for 
the public buildings near Avhat is now the lower end, at that time the centre of the 
town plot, three squares from the river; and sufTicient land for the purpose 



CLINTON COUNTY. 571 

donated bj' Jerry Church. Soon after, the building of the court house was 
commenced by John Moorhead, Robert Irwin, and George Ilower, and com- 
pleted in 1842, at a cost of twelve thousand dollars. In the meantime tlie courts 
were held, and other business of the county transacted in the public house of 
W. W. Barker, a portion of which was rented for " county purposes." Barker's 
tavern, as it was called, was located upon Water street, a short distance below 
the present court house, on the lot now occupied by the residence of John 
Quigley, Esq. 

Clinton county is located near the centre of the State, and is bounded as 
follows : on the south b}^ Centre, the central county of the State ; on the west 
b}' Clearfield and Cameron ; on tlie north by Potter and L3'Coming ; and on the 
cast b}^ Lycoming and Union. The county was originally divided into twelve 
townships: Allison, Bald Eagle, Chapman, Colebrook, Dunstable, Grove, Lum- 
ber, Limestone, Lamar, Logan, Pine Creek, and Wa^ne. The subsequent for- 
mation of several new townships, among others, Grugan from Chapman and 
Colebrook, in 1855; and Keating from Grove, in 18G0; and the taking of Lum- 
ber and the balance of Grove in the formation of Cameron county; the organi- 
zation of Xoyes from Chapman, in 1875 ; the division of Keating into East 
Keating and West Keating, the same 3'ear, and the absorbing of Allison b}' 
Lock Haven city and Lamar township, in 1870, makes the entire number of 
townships in the country at the present time nineteen, as follows: Bald Eagle, 
Beech Creek, Chapman, Colebrook, Crawford, Dunstable, Gallauher, Greene, 
Grugan, p]ast and West Keating, Lamar, Leidy, Logan, Noyes, Pine Creek, 
Porter, Wayne, and Woodward. 

This county is of irregular shape, being nearly sixty miles long and twenty 
wide, and contains nearly one thousand square miles. Its surface is varied by 
mountains, hills, and valley's, which were at one time entirelj' covered with a 
heavy growth of timber, consisting mainh^ of pine and oak, interspersed with 
chestnut, walnut, hemlock, mn[)le, ash, hickory-, etc. 

There arc several beautiful and higlilj' productive vallej's wdthin the limits of 
the county, the most important being the West Branch, the northern terminus 
of which is just above Lock Haven ; the Bald Eagle, through which the Bald 
Eagle creek finds its wa}' to the river ; Sugar, lying parallel with and near to the 
line of Centre count}', and Nittany, which lies between the Bald Eagle and Sugar 
valleys, and might truthfull}' be called the garden of Clinton county. 

The principal stream in the count}- is the West Branch of the Susquehanna, 
which flows nearly the entire length of its territor}', a distance of over fifty miles, 
and at the lower end "breaks through the Alleghen}'- mountain, which at this 
point seems to lose much of its loftiness, as if in courtesy to the beautiful 
stream." The Indian name of this stream was Otzinachson. 

In flowing through tlie count}' the West Branch takes a south-easterly 
course ; in passing Lock Haven, however, it runs almost due east. The other 
streams are the Sinnemahoning creek, which takes its rise in Potter county, 
and tnn[)ties into the West Branch at Keating station ; Kettle creek and Young 
woman's creek, both of Avhich also rise in Potter and join the river, the former at 
Westport, the latter at North Point ; Pine creek, which also originates in Potter, 
and after flowing through Tioga and Lycoming, foi'ms the boundary for a short 



572 



HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 




MAP OF THE GREAT OB BIG ISLAND. 



distance between the latter and Clinton, and reaches the river at the point where 
it enters Lj^coming ; then the Bald Eagle, which flows from Centre county 
and unites with the river just below Lock Haven; Beech creek, also originating 
in Centre, flows into the Bald Eagle at Beech Creek borough ; Fishing creek, 
having its source in the extreme eastern end of Sugar valley, near a point where 
the corners of Clinton, Centre, Lycoming, and Union counties meet, flows the 
entire length of said valley, breaking through the mountain at the western end, 

thence into Nittany valley, 
losing itself in the waters 
of Bald Eagle creek, at 
Mill Hall. 

The principal mountain 
in the county having a name 
and distinctive features, is 
the Bald Eagle or Muncy 
mountain, which extends 
diagonally across the entire 
width of the county. This 
mountain is the continua- 
tion of a range which, in 
almost a straight line, runs 
from Blair county in a north-easterly direction along the Bald Eagle creek, to 
the West Branch of the Susquehanna. It takes its name from the noted Indian 
chief Bald Eagle, who long years ago roamed in its fastnesses. 

The first important public improvement made in Clinton county was the 
West Branch canal, which was completed to Lock Haven in 1834, and the Bald 
Eagle branch extended to Bellefonte in 1846. This great enterprise did away 
with keel-boat navigation. After its construction the canal became the great 
thoroughfare, not only for freight, but passengers as well, who considered them- 
selves highly favored when they had the privilege of riding in a packet boat 
drawn by horses or mules, at the rate of five or six miles per hour. 

When the Sunbury and Erie railroad (now Philadelphia and Erie) was com- 
pleted to Lock Haven, in 1859, a great impetus was given to all branches of 
industry in the county. It was the beginning of a new era in the march of enter- 
prise. It greatly enhanced the value of real estate, the price of which has been 
steadily advancing ever since. On the opening of tiie Bald Eagle Valley rail- 
road, in 1864, a new impetus was given to the growth and prosperity of the 
count}'^, especially that portion lying along the Bald Eagle creek. 

Very few realize the extent to which the manufacture of lumber has been 
carried on in this county during the past twenty 3'ears. It is estimated that the 
average per year since 1860 has been one hundred million feet, making an aggre- 
gate of over fifteen hundred millions up to the present time, tlie value of which 
was not far from twenty-six million six hundred thousand dollars. The cost of 
cutting and manufactui-ing this has been not less than eleven dollars per thou- 
sand, amounting in the aggregate to the sum of fifteen million four hundred 
thousand dollars. Besides the lumber estimated, there has been great quantities 
of lath, pickets, and shingles manufactured. In addition to the vast amount 



CLINTON COUNTY. 573 

manufactured in the county, the value of the logs and square timber cut and run 
down the river to various points has been as much more. This immense busi 
ness has given emplo3'ment to several thousand men each year. 

The mineral wealth of this county consists of coal, iron ore, fire-clay, potter's 
clay, and an abundance of sand, suitable for the manufacture of glass ; also an 
inexhaustible supply of limestone, all of wdiich exist, to some extent, in nearly 
every township. Tlie north-western portion of the county is especially rich in 
mineral deposits. It lies within the limits of the Clearfield coal basin, and 
contains bituminous seams, belonging to that region, aggregating a thickness of 
not less than thirty feet. The quality of this coal, as is well known, is superior. 
In various other parts of the county, coal, for many years, has been known to 
exist, and for more than forty years has been more or less extensively mined, 
principally on Lick and Queen's [Quinn's] runs, and Tangascootac creek. 

Iron ore (mainly hematite) is quite plentifully distributed throughout the 
county. It has been found of various degrees of purity, yielding from fifteen or 
twenty per cent, to seventy-five or eighty of metallic iron through the furnace. 
The manufacture of iron from native ore has been to some extent eno-ao-ed in 
during the past thirty years; even as long ago as 1829 a man by the name of 
Friedlcy erected a furnace near the east end of Sugar valley, where there was 
plenty of ore of a good quality, but owing to the want of capital he suspended 
operations in a few years, after having made large quantities of good iron, A 
furnace was constructed, and iron also manufactured at Farrandsville, near the 
mouth of Lick run, in 1832 or 1833, but the works were allowed to go to ruin. 
About the same time Washington furnace, on Fishing creek, about eight miles 
from its moutli, was built, and has been in operation most of the time since. 
The ore used at this furnace is of the variety known as " pipe," and obtained in 
the immediate vicinity. The iron produced is of a very fine quality, being espe- 
ciall}' adapted to the manufacture of boiler plates, etc. In 1831 George Bressler, 
in company with Messrs. Ilarve}', AVilson, and Kinne}', erected a furnace at 
Mill Hall, near the mouth of Fishing creek. The ore was procured from the 
Bald Eagle mountain, near at hand. The undertaking proved unsuccessful, and 
after passing through a number of different hands, the works were abandoned. 

The manufacture of fire brick has been an important branch of industry in 
this county for many years, extensive works having been constructed at Queen's 
[Quinn's] run and Farrandsville. Only the ones at the latter place are now in 
operation. The material, both clay and coal for fuel, is obtained near by 
Extensive beds of potter's clay have recently been found on the nortii side of 
the West Branch, nearly opposite Lock Haven. This cliiy has been thoroughly 
tested, and found to be of superior qualit}^ for the manufacture of stoneware, and 
is now being used for that purpose at an establishment in operation at Lock 
Haven. 

Lime of a good qualit}'^ has for some time been manufactured in this county 
and shipped to other points at a distance. Marble of different degrees of fineness 
and various hues exists on Fishing creek, in Sugar valley, and also in Nittany 
valley, but as yet no extensive eflTort has been made to ascertain its extent and 
real value. 

A» compared with other sections of the State, it cannot be claimed thai 




574 HIS TOE Y OF PENJSS YL VANIA . 

Clinton is an agricultural county. In directing their attention to the lumbet 
interests, the citizens of this region have unfortunately lost siglit of the fact that. 
beneath the surface of the " broad acres" of Clinton there is more wealth than 
ever existed upon it. As a general thing the soil of the county, both on the 
highlands and in its valleys, is sand}', and, to a great or less extent, intermixed 
with loam, this being especially the case along the streams. Probably tiiere is 
not a single acre of mountain land in the ui)per West Branch region, that is not 
more or less strewn with sandstone, and the soil composed to a considerable 
degree of sand, as a result of disintegration ; yet this land is nearly all suscep 
tible of a high state of cultivation, as has been demonstrated by occasional 
clearings, some of which arc at a height of more than a thousand feet above 
the West Branch, and produce fine crops of wheat, oats, corn, buckwheat, and 
hay. Of such lands, now in market at from five to ten dollars per acre, there 
are many thousand acres in the county. 

The first actual settlement within the present limits of Clinton county was 
made previous to 1709, of which Meginness, in his "History of the West Branch 
Valley," speaks as follows: "The earliest settlement, of which I have any 
account, that was made up the river on the south side was by a man named 
Clarey Campbell, from Juniata. His cabin stood on the river, in the upper part 
of Lock IJaven. In 177G a trial took place between him and William Glass, 
who claimed his land. Charles Lukens, deputy surveyor, of Berks county, being 
a witness, testified as follows: 'When I went up in jSIarch, 17G9, to make the 
olllccr's surveys, I found Clarey Campbell living on this land with his famil3'.' " 

The other principal early settlers of the region were John McCormick, John 
Fleming, William Reed, Colonel Cocksey Long, and Jolin Myers, wlio all 
settled near the site of Lock Haven ; and Alexander and Robert Hamilton, 
William McElhatton, and the Proctors and Bairds. who located a few miles 
further down the river; and William Dunn, the original owner and settler of the 
Great Island, which lies about two miles below Lock Haven. These persons 
mostl}^ came from the lower counties of the State, and were principally, if not all, 
of Scotch or Irish descent, and possessed intelligence and energy. At the time 
they located on the West Branch, which was between the years 17GS and 1785, 
the country all around was a dense wilderness, and, as ma^' be supposed, infested 
with wild beasts and wilder Indians. A favorite route taken b}' predatory bands 
of red-skins in their descent upon the frontier settlements lay along the Sinnema- 
honing creek and the Susquehanna river, and during the eai'ly days of the 
settlement, on many occasions, the hardy " squatters " were aroused from their 
midnight slumbers and forced to fly to their arms in defence of their homes, 
oftimes being compelled to leave them to be plundered and destro3'ed by the 
merciless savages. 

One of the most important events of pioneer life in the West Branch Valley 
Avas what is known as "the big runawa}'," which occurred in June, 1778. At 
that time " Reed's Fort," located where Lock Haven now stands, was garrisoned 
by a " fearless few," under command of Colonel Long. It is said that AVilliam 
Reed and his five sons constituted one-third of the fighting strength of the fort, 
and that the Reeds and Flemings were a majority of the -whole number. 
During the year 1777, the Indians became very troublesome, and killed a 



II 



CLINTON COUNTY. 575 

number of the settlers. From various indications it was evident tliat a general 
invasion of the white settlements was imminent, and accordingl}', preparations 
were made to repel any attack that might be made. Considering tlie scarcity 
of fire-arms and military equipments generally, and the thinly settled condition 
of the country, it is a wonder that the inhabitants entertained the least hope of 
successfully opposing a horde of blood-thirsty savages ; but strange as it may 
appear, a number of the settlers, among them the Flemings, held out to the last 
against abandoning the fort. Early in 1778, a lone Indian appeared on tiie bank 
of the river opposite the fort, lie made various signs for some one to come 
Avith a canoe and take him over. The occupants of tlie fort being suspicious 
that his object was to entice some of the whites across the river for the purpose 
of betra3-ing them into tlic hands of confederates who might be concealed near 
at hand, hesitated to comply' with his request, still he insisted, and waded some 
distance out into the stream, to show that his intentions were honorable. It has 
been said that at this juncture INIrs. Heed, Avifc of William Reed, "seeing that 
none of the men would venture, jumped into a canoe, crossed over alone and 
brought him witli safety" to the fort. It is now stated, on the best autlioritj', 
that it was not ^NIi'S. Reed who took tlie Indian over, but a son of Job Chillaway, 
a friendly Indian, who, witli his Himily, was at the time under the protection of 
the garrison. On being taken into the fort, the strange Indian proved to be 
friendl}', and had come a great many miles to warn the settlers of the approach 
of a large nnd powerful band of warriors, who were " preparing to make a descent 
upon tiie valle}-, for the purpose of exterminating the settlements. Reing very 
much fatigued after his long journey, and feeling perfectly secure in the hands 
of tliose to Avliom he iiad just rendered such important service, the Indian laid 
down to rest, and soon full asleep." 

In giving an account of tliis occurrence, iNIeginness says: "A number of 
men about Llie fort were shooting at a maik, amongst wliom was one who was 
sliglitly intoxicated. Loading his ride, lie observed to some of them that he 
would make the bullet he V('as putting in kill an Indian. Little attention was paid 
to the remark at the lime, lie made good his word, however ; instead of shooting 
at the mark, he fired at the sleeping Indian, and shot him dead. A baser act of 
ingratitude cannot well be conccivetl. The murder was unprovoked and cowardly, 
and I'endered doubly worse, from the fact that the Indian had traveled many miles 
to inform them of their danger. The garrison were so exasperated at this 
inhuman and ungratefid act, that they threatened to lynch him on the spot: 
when, becoming alarmed, he lied, and was sulfered to escape," 

Immediately after being apprised of tlieir danger, a "council of war" was 
held by the garrison, when it was decided to evacuate the fort, and with all the 
inhabitants of the neigliborliood go to Fort Augusta (now Sunbury) for protec- 
tion. Accordingl}' jjreparations were made to depart; live stock, and supplies 
generally, wei'e placed upon rafts hastily constructed from whatever available 
material could be obtained. jNIany articles, such as household utensils, etc., that 
were considered too cumbersome to take along, and too valuable to lose, were 
hidden with the lio[)e of getting them again when peace should be restored. 
Among other things that were thus secreted was a stone crock filled with sand 
for scouring tinware, etc.; this was buried by the thoughtful Jane Reed, daughter 



5Y6 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

of William Reed, under the floor of her father's cabin. Thei'e was not much time 
to spare in arranging preliminaries; whatever was done had to be performed 
quickly, and in a fevv hours the settlers bade adieu to their homes, and began 
their flight to a place of safety, and the setting sun of that memorable day in 
June, 1778, shed its rays upon their deserted dwellings. In their flight; down 
the river the people from Reed's Fort and vicinity were joined by the other 
inhabitants of the valley, and all found refuge, as before stated, at Fort Augusta. 

After being driven from their possessions, the Reeds, Flemings, McCormicks, 
rand perhaps others, returned to their former homes in Chester county, remaining 
there till after the declaration of peace, in 1783, when again, five 3'ears after their 
flight, and ten 3'cars from the time they first settled on the West Branch, they 
returned to take possession of their homes, where they remained, most of them, 
to the end of their lives, never after having occasion to flee from the tomahawk 
and scalping knife. 

During the five j'^eai's' absence of the settlers, their buildings, though left to 
the "tender mercies" of the savages, were not destro3'ed, with the exception, 
perhaps, of one or two; and when their owners came to inspect them they were 
found to be in a tolerable state of preservation. After their return the people 
went to work with a will to fit up their homes, and it seems that the house of 
William Reed, being probably the most substantially built, had withstood the 
action of the weather better than any of the others, and was tliereforc the first to 
be put in order. While engaged in repairing the floor, some of the men discov- 
ered what they pronounced hidden treasures — a crock of silver. The result was 
quite an excitement among the people for a time, till Jane "put in an appear- 
ance " and claimed her "pewter sand," as it was called, which slie had deposited 
under the floor five years previous. That identical crock, now over one hundred 
years old, is still in possession of the Reed family. 

During times of comparative peace the settlers were often visited by the 
Indians, whom they always treated kindly, giving them food, etc., whenever 
they came around. Time after time Miss Jane Reed (who seems to have been 
chief cook not only for her father's family, but also of the garrison) exhausted 
her entire supplj* of bread in feeding bands of visiting red-skins. As it always 
gave off'ence to the Indians if the}'^ were not all treated alike, Jane was often 
at her wits' end to know how to make her bread reach around if she happened to 
have a scanty supply on hand when the}' made their appearance. On one occasion 
the young lady was trjdng on a hat which she had just purchased, when suddenly 
a band of sava2;es entered the cabin, and cazed with astonishment at what 
they, no doubt, considered a new fangled head dress. At length one of them, 
who was more bold than the rest, deliberately walked up to Miss Jane, and took 
the hat from her head, and after giving it a thorough examination, handed 
it to his companions, by each of whom, in turn, it was closely scrutinized and 
then replaced upon the head of its owner, after which the band departed without 
having the least apparent inclination to appropriate the singular looking article. 
It seems that Miss Jane had not a very exalted opinion of the Indians, at 
least as far as their stomachs were concerned, for one morning she found a mouse 
drowned in her cream pot, and exclaimed, with a twinkle in her eye, that she 
would give the cream to the Indians, for it was good enough for them. Accord 



CLINTON COUNTY. 577 

ingly she made it into butter, and the next time the scamps paid her a visit, she 
had the grim satisfaction of seeing them feast on butter and buttermilk to their 
hearts' content. 

Many of the early settlers of the county rendered valuable service to the 
country during the Revolutionary and Indian wars; in fact, during those times 
nearly every able-bodied man was a soldier. Living on the extreme western 
border of civilization, as the pioneers of Clinton then did, it ma}'^ be supposed 
tliat they had their full share of duties to perform in piotecting their homes and 
their lives from invading Indians. Consequently, as long as danger threatened 
their own families and firesides, very little fighting material could be spired to 
join the Continental troops in their various campaigns against the British. 
After the close of the Revolution, quite a number of persons who had taken part 
in that struggle settled within the present limits of the county. Among them 
was Major John P. De Haas, who located on Bald Eagle creek, about nine miles 
above its mouth, and Thomas and Francis Proctor, who acquired possession of 
a large tract of land on the river just below the mouth of the same stream. 
Thomas Proctor was captain of the first Continental company of artillery raised 
in Philadelphia. He was subsequently promoted to the rank of colonel, and his 
brother Francis, who was lieutenant of the same company, became captain. 
William Dunn, the owner of the " Big Island," also served some time as a soldier 
of the Revolution, participating in the battles of Germantown and Trenton. Mr. 
Dunn, with Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Hughes, were appointed a 
Committee of Safety at the beginning of the Revolution for Bald Eagle township 
(then Northumberland county). 

Immediately' after the restoration of peace, in 1783, a number of families, in 
addition to those who had been driven away by the Indians, came to the West 
Branch and settled. The lands lying between the river and Bald Eagle creek, 
being especially desirable, owing to their fertility and favorable location, 
particularly attracted those seeking frontier homes, and by the beginning of the 
year 1800 quite a settlement had there sprung up. 

To give the reader something of an idea how the land where Lock Haven 
now stands appeared seventy years ago, it may be stated that all of the territor}', 
comprising about two thousand acres, lying in the angle formed by the junction 
of Bald Eagle creek and the Susquehanna river, was then covered with a vigorous 
growth of pine and oak, with the exception of about a dozen cleared patches of a 
few acres each, scattered here and there over the tract. Fifteen hundred acres of 
said angle was granted to Dr. Francis Allison, in 1769, by the Proprietaries of 
the Province of Pennsylvania. A few years after receiving his patent, Dr. Allison 
sold his purchase to John Fleming, who took possession in 1773, and located 
on the lower end of the tract, where he died in 1777. In accordance with the 
provisions of his will, the estate after his death was divided among his heirs. 
About the 3'ear 1800, Dr. John Henderson, of Huntingdon, married Margaret 
Jamison, one of the Fleming heirs, and through her came into possession of a 
portion of the original " Allison tract," as it was called. 

The completion of the West Branch division of the Pennsylvania canal from 
Northumberland to Dunnsburg, opposite Lock Haven, in 1834, was the beginning 
of a new and important era in the history of the West Branch valle3\ For 
2 M 



578 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

several years the work of building the canal had progressed, and finally culmi- 
nated in the construction of the Lock Haven dam. During the construction of 
these works, a large number of adventurers from various parts of the country 
visited the locality ; some of them remained and took an active part in the affairs 
of the community for years after. Several of the Irish laborers located on 
lands in the vicinity, and made industrious, law-abiding citizens. Of the specu- 
lating spirits who were attracted thither by the prospect of a bright future, Jerry 
Church was the most original, enterprising, and venturesome, and although the 
region round about and above the mouth of Bald Eagle creek had been looked 
upon for many years, by the settlers and others, as desirable for agricultural pur- 
poses, and destined to become populous, productive, and wealthy as a farming 
district, it remained for the energetic Jerry to conceive and consummate the idea 
of laying out a town on that beautiful plain. Accordingly, in October, 1833, he 
purchased Dr. Henderson's farm of two hundred acres, for which he paid twenty 
thousand dollars, and immediately proceeded to lay out the tract into lots, streets, 
and alleys. On the 4th of November, 1833, a public sale of lots took place, 
when quite a number were disposed of to the "highest and best bidders." The 
first lot sold was the one on which the Montour House is now located. It was 
bought by Frank Smith, Esq. The name Lock Haven was given to the town 
because of the existence in its vicinity of two locks in the canal, and a raft harbor 
or haren in the river. 

It was not long after Lock Haven was laid out before it assumed the propor- 
tions and characteristics of a thriving town. The impulse given to its growth by 
the building of the public works soon caused it to rank among the enterprising 
ani prosperous inland villages of the State. The circumstances attending its 
origin were such as to render its inception almost an absolute necessity, and 
after viewing the location and its surroundings, it did not take the shrewd Jerry 
Church long to realize that such was the case. The influx of strangers to the 
neighborhood, in consequence of the. building and opening of the West Branch 
canal (and the extension to Bellefonte), at once created a demand for business 
places of various kinds. Hotels became necessary, to accommodate those con- 
nected with and having charge of the works ; stores were needed to furnish 
boatmen and others with supplies. In fact nothing but some providential 
calamity could have prevented the springing up and development of a flourishing 
town just where Lock Haven is situated. The location itself has natural attrac- 
tions sufficient to justify the assertion that, aside from its acquired advantages, 
a more desirable sio-ht for a large town could not well have been found within 
the confines of the State. A healthful climate, fertile soil, grand and romantic 
scenery, pure air and water, all conspire to render the location especially desirable 
as a place of residence. Nature is accused of partiality in the distribution of her 
favors. She is charged with scattering them with a lavish hand in some places 
and parsimoniously withholding them in others. Whether this charge is true or 
false, it is indisputable that the region of which Lock Haven is the geographical 
centre has received a full share of her richest bounties, of which fact Jerry 
Church and his coadjutors were not unmindful when Clinton county was orga- 
nized and Lock Haven made the seat of justice. The formation of Clinton 
county, and the selection of Lock Haven as a site for the public buildings, was 



CLINTON COUNTY. 679 

the consummation of a wish dear to the heart of Jerry Church, From the time 
he made tlie purchase of Dr. Henderson he had exerted himself to the utmost 
to bring about tliat I'esult. 

After the building of the court-liouse, the next important event in the history 
of Locic Haven was the construction of the West Branch boom, in 1849, concern- 
ing whicli H. L. Deiffonbach, Esq., formerly editor of the Clinton Democrat., says : 
" From this period the rapid growth of Lock Haven commenced. Property 
doubled, trebled, and quadrupled in value, and soon the fields around the town 
were dotted with houses, and the streets filled with an industrious, energetic, and 
prosperous population." 

The completion of the Sunbury and Erie (now Philadelphia and Erie) railroad 
to Lock Haven, in 1859, was another important event in the history, not only of 
the town, but of Clinton county and the entire West Branch valley. The build- 
ing of this road placed Lock Haven in direct and easy communication with the 
principal commercial cities of the country, and at once gave the community 
advantages and facilities which gi-eatly increased its growth and prosperity. 

Lock Haven was incorporated as a borough April 25, 1840, and became a city 
March 28, 1870, having a population at that time of six thousand seven hundred 
and eight3'-six. 

The first jail in Clinton was built soon after the county was organized. It 
was constructed of logs, and stood near where the present one is located. On 
October 1, 1851, Colonel Anthony Kleckner was awarded the contract to build a 
new jail, which was completed the following year, at a cost of five thousand five 
hundred and seventy-five dollars. In 1871 the building "was remodeled and 
enlarged, which cost twenty-two thousand two hundred and forty dollars. 
As the population and business of the county increased, it was found that the 
court house, built in 1842, was not large enough ; therefore it was decided to erect 
a new one. Accordingly a location was selected on Water street, just above the 
river bridge, and the present structure erected, costing ninety-three thousand dol- 
lars. It was dedicated on Monday, February 8, 1869, on which occasion 
addresses were delivered by the Hon. C. A. Mayer, president judge of the dis- 
trict, and H. T. Beardsley, Esq. The following extract from Mr. Beardsley's 
remarks is given, because the circumstances under which it was delivered, and the 
facts which it contains, render it a part of the history of the county : 

" This county was organized, and the first court held in December, 1839. The 
court then, and for the years 1840 and 1841, was held in a part of a twostory 
building that then stood on Water street, above the canal, knowni as 'Barker's 
Tavern.' That house was burned down in 1855. It was what is known as a 
double front, that is, two rooms in front, with a hall between those rooms. The 
part on the east side of the hall was the court room, and was about twenty-eight 
feet in length by sixteen in width. Think of it, a court room twenty-eight by 
sixteen. Over this court room, in the second story, were the county offices, being 
two in number, and in size about fourteen by sixteen feet each. The front one 
was used as the commissioners' and treasurer's office ; and the back one as the 
ofllce of the prothonotary, register and recorder, clerk of the courts, etc., one 
man easily performing all the duties in the last mentioned ofllce. You may be 
curious to know where the sheriflT's office was. 'Old Sheriff Miller ' discharged 



580 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVAl^IA. 





PULPIT ROCKS, NEAR ROUND ISLAND, CLINTON COUNTY. 



CLINTON COUNTY. 581 

the duties of that office at the period of which I am speaking. I recollect him 
well. A dark-visaged, good-natured, genial man ; but that does not inform you 
where he had his otlice. It was not in the court house, nor was it in his own 
dwelling in Dunnstown, nor, I may add, was it in any other house in Lock Haven, 
Dunnstown, or in Clinton county. All who recollect him will witness that he wore 
a high-crowned hat, and allow me to inform you, that in that hat he kept his 
office. He placed an empty cigar box in the prothonotary's office, in which that 
official placed the writs that were occasionally issued, marking the da}^ and hour 
of their being so deposited, and that was considered a delivery to the sheriff, 
who, upon coming to town, would transfer them to his hat, and the records of 
this court will show that very many of them never found their way back to the 
court house." 

In all the wars in w'hich the United States have been engaged, Clinton county 
has furnished her full share of troops. Quite a number of her citizens partici- 
pated in the war of 1812, and several from the county took part in the war with 
Mexico. During the great Rebellion, the A^arious calls of the government for 
troops met with patriotic and ready responses, and the county not only contri- 
buted her full quota of able-bodied private soldiers, but furnished a complement 
of brave and efficient commissioned officers, many of whom did honor to them- 
selves and to the country by especial acts of gallantry on the field of battle. 
The following are their names: Colonels Phaon Jarrett, C. A. Lyman, H. C. 
Bolinger, H. M. Bassert. Majors Jesse Merrill, afterwards major-general N. G. 
of Penn'a., Charles Wingard, Sylvester Barrows. Captains W. C. Kress, K. S. 
Barker, W. W. White, C. W. Walker, J. W. Smith, John B. Johnson, now 
colonel in the regular arm}-, George B. Donahay, W. S. Chatham, A. H. 
McDonald, B. K. Jackman, William Shank, Thomas B. Quay, Samuel H. Brown. 
First Lieutenants John S. Haynes, John A. Cogley, George Curtin, R. R. Bitner, 
Alexander Blackburn, J. W. Devling, William Hollingsworth, Joseph Showers, 
William Kauffman, William Crispin, Austin Stull, George W. Thomas, John P. 
Straw. Second Lieutenants James R. Conlj^, David Hayne, Thomas C. Lebo, 
now captain in the regular army, Edward Barnum, Daniel Wolf, Samuel AV. 
Philips, E. P. McCormick. 

Lock Haven has sixty streets, the aggregate length of which is over twenty- 
five miles, and more than two hundred business places, thirteen church struc- 
tures, and fourteen church organizations. It has fifteen secret societies, and four 
fire companies, three banks, and four printing offices, each issuing a weekly 
newspaper. The latitude of Lock Haven is 41° 5' 30" north; the longitude, 
west of Greenwich, 77° 30' ; west of Washington, 2° 12'. The average rain-fall 
per year, including water contained in snow, forty inches. The mean temperature 
in the summer is Q1^° ; in the winter, 47|-°. 

Beside Lock Haven the most important town in Clinton county is Renovo, 
located on the west branch of the Susquehanna, twenty-seven miles above the for- 
mer place. It is emphatically a railroad town, that is, it owes its existence to the 
erection at that point of extensiA^e car-shops by the Philadelphia and Erie rail- 
road company, in 1863. The town is beautifully situated in a delightful valley, 
surrounded by high mountains on all sides. It contained a population of 1,940 in 
1870, which has steadily increased. It has an elegant hotel, owned by the railroad 




582 



CLINTON COUNTY. 



583 



company, and named after the town. It contains three churches, eleven public 
schools, a public hall, a bank, and a weekly newspaper. Renovo was incorporated 
as a borough in 1866. 

There are but three other incorporated villages in the county : Mill Hall, 
Beech Creek, and Logansville. Mill Hall was laid out in 1806, by Nathan 
Harvey, and became a borough in 1850. Its population is now about five 
hundred. Beech Creek was started about the year 1812, by Michael Quigley. 
The first store in the place was kept by " Buck " Clafliu, father of Victoria 
Woodhull. It was incorporated in 1869. Its population in 18*10 was 384 
Logansville was laid out in 1^40, by Colonel Anthony Kleckner, and incor- 
porated in 1864. Its population in 1870 was 414, now about 500. 

The other principal villages in the county are, Salona, Clintondale, Tylers- 
ville, Hyner, North Point, and Westport. 




COLUMBIA COUNTY. 




BY JOHN G. FREEZE, BLOOMSBURG. 

OLUMBIA COUNTY was taken from Northumberland by an act of 
22d March, 1813. By the bill organizing the county, the Governor 
was authorized to a[)point the commissioners to select and locate 
the county seat, and they recommended Danville as the site 
Thereupon, on the 21st February, 1815, Turbut and Chillisquaque townships 
were stricken off, and re-annexed to Northumberland. This act placed Danville 
largely upon one side of the county, and tlie question of removing the county 
seat to Bloomsburg immediately commenced. To check it, on the 22d Januai-y, 

1816, part of the 
above townships 
was re-annexed to 
Columbia county. 
On the 3d March, 
1818, a portion of 
Columbia county 
was annexed to 
Schuylkill, and 
was called Union 
township. The 
removal question 
still continuing to 
agitate tlie public 
mind, on the 24th 
February, 1845, 
the Legislature 
passed an act au- 
thorizing a vote 
on the question 
of a re-location of 

the county seat of Columbia county, and at the October election following, it 
was decided by a popular vote to remove it to Bloomsburg; and thus ended a 
long and bitter local contest. On May 3, 1850, the county of Montour was 
erected out of part of Columbia ; and a fierce contest arose as to the repeal of 
that act, which finally resulted in the passage, on the 15th January, 1853, of an 
act to straighten the division line between the two counties, by which a portion 
of the territory was re-annexed to Columbia. 

The county still contains about five hundred square miles, and has now nearly 
thirty' thousand inhabitants. It occupies a part of the Apalachian mountainous 

584 




COIiUMBIA COUNTY COURT HOUSE. 



COLUMBIA COUNTY. 685 

belt, between the anthracite formations on the S.E., and the Allegheny moun- 
tains on the N,W. The county is quite broken, though the mountain ranges 
are not hio;h. The arable land is mostly' red shale and limestone. Little moun- 
tain, Catawissa, Long mountain, and Knob mountain are the principal eleva- 
tions. The Muncy hills send some spurs into the county. A heavy belt of 
limestone runs the entire length of the county. 

The Susquehanna river enters the county at Berwick, dividing about one- 
third to the east side, and two-thirds to the west side. Its principal tributaries 
upon the east side are Catawissa creek and Roaring cieek, and on the west 
Fishing creek, which is a large stream, being itself fed by Huntington, 
Hemlock, and Little Fishing creek, besides smaller streams, and which flcjws 
into the Susquehanna near Bloomsburg. There is a passenger bridge over the 
river at Berwick, and another at Catawissa, and the bridge of the Catawissa 
branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad at Rupert, at the mouth of 
Fishing creek. There is a rope ferry at Bloomsburg, one at Espy, and another 
at Mifflinville. There are large deposits of iron ore at Bloomsburg, as well as 
limestone, and a considerable anthracite coal basin at the southeast end of the 
count}^, bordering on Schuylkill. 

The North Branch canal passes along the right bank of the Susquehanna 
through the county. The Catawissa railroad, now under lease to the Philadel- 
phia and Reading railroad, runs through the count}-, crossing the Susquehanna 
river at Rupert, near the mouth of Fishing creek. The Danville, Hazleton, and 
Wilkes-Barre, running from Sunbury in Northumberland county, to Tomhickon 
in Luzerne county, passes along the left bank of the Susquehanna to Catawissa, 
and then up the Scotch run, leaving the county near Glen City. The Lacka- 
wanna and Bloomsburg, from Scranton to Northumberland, passes along on the 
right bank of the Susquehanna, through Bloomsburg, the wiiole length of the 
count}'. These are all in successful operation. The projected improvements are 
the North and West Branch railroad, to run from Wilkes-Barre by Bloomsburg 
to Williamsport. It passes down the left bank of the Susquehanna, crosses at 
Bloomsburg, and up the valley of the Fishing creek. Consideraljle grading has 
been done on this road. The Hunlock Creek and Muncy railroad intersects 
the northern portion of the county. A preliminary survey has been made, but 
the work is not at present continuing. 

The earliest historical bands of Indians on the territory of Columbia county 
were the Shawanese, who had a village on the flats about the mouth of Fishing 
creek near Bloomsburg, another at Catawissa, and another at the mouth of 
Briar creek. The Delawares were also within the valley, vassals to the Six Na- 
tions. The territory lay in the route of travel for hunting or for war. "The 
Wyoming path" left Muncy on the West Branch, ran up Glade Run, then 
through a gap in the hills to Fishing creek, passed on into Luzerne count}-, 
through the Nescopec gap, and up the North Branch to Wyoming. The Fish- 
ing creek path started in the flats near Bloomsburg, up Fishing creek by 
Orangeville, to near Long Pond, thence across to Tunkhannock creek. It was 
on this very path, about six miles above Bloomsburg, that Van Campen, the 
great Indian fighter, was captured. 

In the year 1712, Mr. James McClure settled upon the west bank of the 



586 HI8T0BY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

North Branch of the Susquehanna, about one mile above the mouth of Fishing 
creek, in what is now Columbia county. He obtained a patent for his farm, 
under the name of " McClure's Choice." He was a man of position and influ- 
ence, and when the war of the Revolution was raging was prominent in the 
councils of his country. On the 8th February, 1716, the members of the Com- 
mittee of Safety for Wyoming township were Mr. James McClure, Mr. Thomas 
Clayton, and Mr. Peter Melick, whose descendants are still in the county. 
Major Moses Van Campen married James McClure's eldest daughter. 

Within the same j^ear of 1772, Evan Owen located himself on a farm at the 
mouth of Fishing creek, and above Mr. James McClure, came in their order, 
Thomas Clayton, John Doan, John Webb, George Espy, and the Gingles family. 
There was also, previous to the Revolution, a settlement at the mouth of Briar 
creek. 

The territory of what is now Columbia county was considerably overrun by 
the Indians during the border and Revolutionary wars. Upon several occasions 
the inhabitants were massacred by or fled before their savage enemies. They 
protected themselves as well as their numbers and strength enabled them, and 
erected forts at several points in the county. But little more than the location 
can now be ascertained, and even that is sometimes uncertain. 

Fort Bosley was on the Chillisquaque, on the site of the present borough of 
Washingtonville. 

Fort Rice was also on the Chillisquaque, near its head-waters. It was 
attacked unsuccessfully in September, 1780, being relieved by a force under 
General Potter, who followed the enemy about flfty miles up Fishing creek with- 
out reaching them. 

Fort Wheeler was on the Fishing creek, about three miles above its mouth. 
It was begun b^' Van Campen, in April, 1778, and was a stockade sufficiently 
large to accommodate all the families of the settlement. It was attacked before 
it was entirely completed, in May, 1778, but withstood the assault. It was near 
Light Street. 

Fort Jenkins was on the Susquehanna river, near Briar creek, on the farm of 
Jacob Hill, and on the very spot where his house now stands. It was attacked in 
April, 1779, and again in 1780, in the spring, and it was evacuated in the fall, and 
burned by the Indians about September, 1780. 

Fort McClure was built by Van Campen, in 1781. It was on the spot on 
which the dwelling-house now stands, on the James McClure farm, about one 
mile above the mouth of Fishing creek. Here he made his head-quarters, and 
thence led his scouting parties. 

Having alluded to the Indian forts located within the count}', we insert a 
portion of the " Narrative of Van Campen," who erected the fort just named. 

Major Moses Van Campen, or Van Camp, as it was usually pronounced, and 
his brother Jacobus, or Cobus Van Camp, were famous in the border wars of the 
Susquehanna. The father of the family was a Low Dutchman, probably fi*om the 
Minisink settlements on the Delaware. In the winter of 1838, then living at 
Dansville, New York, he sent a petition to Congress for a pension, from which the 
following passages are extracted : 

" My first service was in the year 1777, when I served three months under 



GOLVMBIA COUNTY. 587 

Colonel John Kelly, who stationed us at Big Isle, on the West Branch of the 
Susquehanna. Nothing particular transpired during that time, and in March, 
1718, I was appointed lieutenant of a company of six months' men. Shortly 
afterward I was ordered b}- Colonel Samuel Hunter to proceed with about twent}'^ 
men to Fishing creek (which empties into the North Branch of the Susquehanna, 
about twenty miles from Northumberland), and to build a fort about tliree miles 
from its mouth, for the reception of the inhabitants in case of an alarm from the 
Indians. In May, my fort being nearly completed, our spies discovered a large 
body of Indians making their way towards the fort. The neighboring residents 
had barely time to fly to the fort for protection, leaving their goods behind. 
The Indians soon made their appearance, and having plundered and burnt the 
houses, attacked the fort, keeping a steady fire upon us during the day. At night 
they withdrew, burning and destroying ever3'thing in their route. What loss 
they sustained we could not ascertain, as they carried off all the dead and 
wounded, though from the marks of blood on the ground, it must have been 
considerable. The inhabitants that took shelter in the fort had built a yard for 
their cattle at the head of a small flat, at a short distance from the fort ; and one 
evening in the month of June, just as they were milking them, m}' sentinel called 
my attention to some movement in the brush, which I soon discovered to be 
Indians making their way to the cattle yard. There was no time to be lost ; I 
immediately selected ten of my sharp-shooters, and under cover of a rise of land, 
got between them and the milkers. On ascending the ridge we found ourselves 
within pistol shot of them ; I fired first, and killed the leader, but a volley from 
my men did no further execution, the Indians running oS" at once. In the mean- 
time the milk pails flew in every direction, and the best runner got to the fort 
first. As the season advanced Indian hostilities increased, and notwithstanding 
the vigilance of our scouts, which were constantly out, houses were burnt and 
families murdered." 

In 1779 Van Campen, as quarter-master, accompanied General Sullivan's 
expedition to ravage the Indian towns on the Genesee. He distingushed him- 
self in several skirmishes at Newtown and Hog Back hill. 

" On the return of the army, I was taken with the camp-fever, and was removed 
to the fort which I had built in '78, where my father was still living. In the 
course of the winter I recovered my health, and my father's house having been 
burnt in '78 by the party which attacked the before-mentioned fort, my father 
requested me to go with him and a younger brother to our farm, about four miles 
distant, to make preparations for building another, and raising some grain. But 
little apprehension was entertained of molestations from the Indians this season, 
as they had been so completely routed the 3^ear before. We left the fort about 
the last of March, accompanied b}'' my uncle and his son, about twelve years old, 
and one Peter Pence. We had been on our farms about four or five days, when, 
on the morning of the 30th of March, we were surprised by a party of ten Indians. 
My father was lunged through with a war-spear, his throat was cut, and he was 
scalped ; while my brother was tomahawked, scalped, and thrown into the fire 
before my eyes. While I was struggling with a warrior, the fellow who had 
killed my father drew his spear from his body and made a violent thrust at me. 
I shrank from the spear ; the savage who had hold of me turned it with his hand 



588 HIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

so that it only penetrated my vest and shirt They were then satisfied with 
taking me prisoner, as they had the same morning taken my uncle's little son 
and Pence, though they killed ray uncle. The same party, before they reached 
us, had touched on the lower settlements of Wyoming, and killed a Mr. Upson, 
and took a boy prisoner of the name of Rogers. We were now marched off up 
Fishing creek, and in the afternoon of the same day we came to Huntington, 
where the Indians found four white men at a sugar camp, who fortunately dis- 
covered the Indians anid fled to a house; the Indians only fired on them, and 
wounded a Captain Ransom, when they continued their course till night. Having 
encamped and made their fire, we, the prisoners, were tied and well secured, five 
Indians lying on one side of us, and five on the other; in the morning they pur- 
sued their course, and, leaving the waters of Fishing creek, touched the head- 
waters of Hunlock creek, where they found one Abraham Pike, his wife and child. 
Pike was made prisoner, but his wife and child they painted, and told Joggo^ 
squaiv, go home. They continued their course that day, and encamped the same 
night in the same manner as the previous. It came into my mind tiiat some- 
times individuals performed wonderful actions, and surmounted the greatest 
danger. I then decided that these fellows must die ; and thought of the plan to 
dispatch them. The next day I had an opportunity to communicate my plan to 
my fellow-prisoners ; they treated it as a visionary scheme for three men to 
attempt to dispatch ten Indians. I spread before them the advantages that three 
men would have over ten when asleep ; and that we would be the first prisoners 
that would be taken into their towns and villages after our army had destroyed 
their corn, that we should be tied to the stake and suffer a cruel death ; we had 
now an inch of ground to fight on, and if we failed, it would only be death, and 
we miglit as well die one way as another. That day passed away, and having 
encamped for the night, we lay as before. In the morning we came to the river, 
and saw their canoes ; they had descended the river and run their canoes upon 
Little Tunkhannock creek, so called. They crossed the river and set their canoes 
adrift. I renewed my suggestion to my companions to dispatch them that night, 
and urged they must decide the question. They agreed to make the trial ; but 
how shall we do it, was the question. Disarm them, and each take a tomahawk, 
and come to close work at once. There are three of us ; plant our blows with 
judgment, and three times three will make nine, and the tenth one we can kill at 
our leisure. They agreed to disarm them, and after that, one take possession of the 
guns and fire, at the one side of the four, and the other two to take tomahawks on 
the other side and dispatch them. I observed that it would be a very uncertain 
way ; the first shot fired would give the alarm ; they would discover it to be the 
prisoners, and might defeat us. I had to yield to their plan. Peter Pence was 
chosen to fire the guns. Pike and myself to tomahawk ; we cut and carried plenty 
of wood to give them a good fire ; the prisoners were tied and laid in their places ; 
after I was laid down, one of them had occasion to use his knife ; he dropped it 
at my feet ; I turned my foot over it and concealed it ; they all lay down and fell 
asleep. About midnight I got up and found them in a sound sleep. I slipped to 
Pence, who rose ; I cut him loose and handed him the knife ; he did the same for 
me, and I in turn took the knife and cut Pike loose ; in a minute's time we dis- 
armed them. Pence took his station at the guns. Pike and myself with our 



I 



COLUMBIA COUNTY. 589 

tomahawks took our stations ; I was to tomahawk three on the right wing, and 
Pike two on the left. That moment Pike's two awoke, and were getting up ; 
here Pike proved a coward, and laid down. It was a critical moment. I saw 
there was no time to be lost ; their heads turned up fair ; I dispatched them in 
a moment, and turned to mj' lot as per agreement, and as 1 was about to dispatch 
the last on my side of the fire, Pence shot and did good execution ; there was 
only one at the off wing that his ball did not reach ; his name was Mohawke, a 
stout, bold, daring fellow. In the alarm he jumped off about three rods from the 
fire ; he saw it was the prisoners who made the attack, and giving the war-whoop, 
he darted to take possession of the guns ; I was as quick to prevent him ; the 
contest was then between him and myself. As I raised my tomahawk, he turned 
quick to jump from me ; I followed him and struck at him, but missing his head, 
my tomahawk struck his shoulder, or rather the back of his neck ; he pitched 
forward and fell ; and the same time my foot slipped, and I fell by his side ; we 
clinched ; his arm was naked ; he caught me round my neck ; at the same time I 
caught him with my left arm around the body, and gave him a close hug, at the 
same time feeling for his knife, but could not reach it. 

" In our scuffle my tomahawk dropped out. My head was under the wounded 
shoulder, and almost suffocated me with his blood. I made a violent spring, and 
broke from his hold ; we both rose at the same time, and he ran ; it took me some 
time to clear the blood from m}^ eyes ; my tomahawk had got covered up, and I 
could not find it in time to overtake him ; he was the only one of the party that 
escaped. Pike was powerless. I alwa3's had a reverence for Christian devotion. 
Pike was trying to pi'ay, and Pence swearing at him, charging him with cowar- 
dice, and saying it was no time to pray — he ought to fight ; we were masters of 
the ground, and in possession of all their guns, blankets, match coats, etc. I 
then turned my attention to scalping them, and recovering the scalps of my 
father, brother, and others, I strung them all on my belt for safe-keeping. 
We kept our ground till morning, and built a raft, it being near the bank of 
the river where they had encamped, about fifteen miles below Tioga Point ; 
we got all our plunder on it, and set sail for Wyoming, the nearest settle- 
ment. Our raft gave way, when we made for land; but we lost consi- 
derable property, tliough we saved our guns and ammunition, and took to 
land ; we reached Wyalusing late in the afternoon. Came to the narrows ; 
discovered a smoke below, and a raft laying at the shore, by which we were 
certain that a party of Indians had passed us in the course of the day, and had 
halted for the night. There was no alternative for us but to rout them or go 
over the mountain ; the snow on the north side of the hill was deep ; we knew 
from the appearance of the raft that the party must be small; we had two rifles 
each ; my only fear was of Pike's covvardice. To know the woi'st of it, we agreed 
that I should ascertain their number, and give the signal for the attack. I crept 
down the side of the hill so near as to see their fires and packs, but saw no 
Indians. I concluded they had gone hunting for meat, and that this was a good 
opportunity for us to make off with their raft to the opposite side of the river. 
I gave the signal ; they came and threw their packs on to the raft, which was 
made of small, dry pine timber; with poles and paddles we drove her briskly 
across the river, and had got nearly out of reach of shot, when two of them came 



590 HIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

in; they fired — their sliots did no injury ; we soon got under cover of an island, 
and went several miles ; we had waded deep creeks through the day, the night 
was cold ; we landed on an island and found a sink hole, in which we made our 
fire ; after warming, we were alarmed by a cracking in the crust. Pike supposed 
the Indians had got on to the island, and was for calling for quarters ; to keep 
him quiet we threatened him with his life; the stepping grew i^lainer, and seemed 
coming directly to the fire ; I kept a watch, and soon a noble racoon came under 
the light. I shot the racoon, when Pike jumped up and called out, ' Quarters, 
gentlemen ; quarters, gentlemen ! ' I took my game by the leg and threw it 
down to the fire. ' Here, you cowardly rascal,' I cried, ' skin that and give us 
a roast for supper.' The next night we reached Wyoming, and there was much 
joy to see us ; we rested one day, and it being not safe to go to Northumberland 
by land, we procured a canoe, and with Pence and my little cousin, we descended 
the river by night. We came to Fort Jenkins before day, where I found Colonel 
Kelly and about one hundred men encamped out of the fort. He came across 
from the West Branch by the heads of Chillisquaque to Fishing creek, the end of 
the Nob mountain, so called at that day, where my father and brother were 
killed ; he had buried my father and uncle ; my brother was burnt, a small part 
of him only was to be found. Colonel Kelly informed me that my mother and 
her children were in the fort, and it was thought that I was killed likewise. 
Colonel Kellj'^ went into the fort to prepare her mind to see me ; I took off my 
belt of scalps and handed them to an officer to keep. Human nature was not 
sufficient to stand the interview. She had just lost a husband and a son, and 
one had returned to take her by the hand, and one, too, that she supposed was 
killed. 

" The day after, I went to Sunbury, where I was received with joy ; m}' scalps 
were exhibited, the cannons were fired, etc. Before my return a commission 
had been sent me as ensign of a company to be commanded by Captain Thomas 
Robinson ; this was, as I understood, a part of the quota which Pennsylvania 
had to raise for the Continental Line. One Joseph Alexander was commissioned 
as lieutenant, but did not accept his commission. The summer of 1780 was 
spent in the recruiting service ; our company was organized, and was retained 
for the defence of the frontier service. In February, 1781, I was promoted to a 
lieutenanc}^, and entered upon the active duty of an officer, by heading scouts ; 
and as Captain Robinson was no woodsman nor marksman, he preferred that I 
should encounter the danger and head the scouts. We kept up a constant chain 
of scouts around the frontier settlements, from the North to the West Branch 
of the Susquehanna, by the way of the head-waters of Little Fishing creek, 
Chillisquaque, Muncy, etc. In the spring of 1781, we built a fort on the widow 
McClure's plantation, called McClure's Fort, where our provisions were stored." 

Mr. Van Campcn, the same summer, went np the West Branch. He was 
taken prisoner by the Indians. On arriving at the Indian village of Cauandai- 
gua, on the Genesee, he says : 

" We were pi-epared to run the Indian gauntlet ; the warriors don't whip, it 
is the young Indians and squaws. Thej^ meet yovi in sight of their council-house, 
where they select the prisoners from the ranks of the warriors, bring them in 
front, and when read}^, the word joggo is given ; the prisoners start, the whippers 



COLUMBIA COUNTY. 59 1 

follow after; and if they outrun you, you will be severely whipped. I was 
placed in front of my men; the word being given, we started. Being then 
young and full of nerve, I led the way ; two young squaws came running up to 
join the whipping party ; and when they saw us start, they halted, and stood 
shoulder to shoulder with their whips ; when I came near them I bounded and 
kicked them over ; we all came down together ; there was considerable kicking 
amongst us, so much so that they showed their under-dress, which appeared to be 
of a beautiful yellow color; I had not time to help them up. It was truly 
diverting to the warriors ; they yelled and shouted till they made the air ring. 
They halted at that village for one day, and thence went to Fort Niagara, where 
I was delivered up to the British. I was adopted, according to the Indian cus- 
tom, into Colonel Butler's family, then the commanding officer of the British 
and Indians at that place. I was to supply the loss of his son, Captain Butler, 
who was killed late in the fall of 1781, by the Americans. In honor to me as 
his adopted son, I was confined in a privale room, and not put under a British 
guard. M}^ troubles soon began ; the Indians were informed by the Tories that 
knew me that I had been a prisoner before, and had killed my captors * they 
were outrageous, and went to Butler and demanded me, and, as I was told, 
offered to bring in fourteen prisoners in my place. Butler sent an officer to 
examine me on the subject ; he came and infoi-med me their Indians had laid 
heavy accusations against me ; they were informed that I had been a prisoner 
before, and had killed the party, and that they had demanded me to be given up 
to them, and that his colonel wished to know the fact. I observed, ' Sir, it is a 
serious question to answer ; I will never deny the truth ; I have been a prisoner 
before, and killed the part}-, and returned to the service of my country; but, sir, I 
consider myself to be a prisoner of war to the British, and I presume you will 
have more honor than to deliver me up to the savages. I know what my fate will 
be, and please to inform your colonel that we have it in our power to retaliate.' 
He left me, and in a short time returned and stated that he was authorized to 
say to me that there was no alternative for me to save my life but to abandon 
the rebel cause and join the British standard ; that I should take the same rank 
in the British service as I did in the rebel service. I replied, ' No sir, no ; give 
me the stake, the tomahawk, or the knife, before a British commission ; liberty 
or death is our motto ; ' he then left me. Some time after a lady came to my 
room, with whom I had been well acquainted before the Revolution ; we had been 
schoolmates ; she was then married to a British officer, a captain of the Queen's 
rangers ; he came with her. She had been to Colonel Butler, and she was 
authorized to make me the same offer as the officer had done ; I thanked her for 
the trouble she had taken for my safety, but could not accept of the offer ; she 
observed how much more honorable would it be to be an officer in the British 
service. I observed that I could not dispose of myself in that way; I belonged 
to the Congress of the United States, and that I would abide the consequence ; 
she left me. and that was the last I heard of it. A guard was set at the door of 
my apartment. I was soon afterwards sent down Lake Ontario to Montreal, 
whence a British ship brought me to New York. In the month of March, 1783, 
I was exchanged, and had orders to take up arms again. I joined my company 
in March at Northumberland ; about that time Captain Robinson received orders 



592 



HIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 



to march his company to Wj'oming, to keep garrison at Wilkes-Barre fort. He 
sent myself and Ensign Cliambers with the company to that station, where we 
lay till November, 1783. Our army was then discharged, and our company 
likewise ; poor and pennyless, we retired to the shades of private life." 

In the war of 1812, Columbia county furnished a company, but I have not 
recovered any particulars or names. 

In the Mex- 
ican war, the 




C o 1 u m b i a 
Guards, com- 
manded by Cap- 
tain F r i c k , 
achieved a high 
reputation. 

In the Union 
war Columbia 
county sent a 
large number of 
men into the 
field, and some 
of her citizens 
secured a high 
militar3' posi- 
tion, notably 
General Wel- 
lington H. Ent, 
Colonel Samuel 
Knorr, Captain 
Charles B . 
Brock way. 

The general 
educational in- 
terests of the 
count}-, under 
the common 
school system, 
are in a very 
satisfactory 
condition, and 
need not be 
particularized. 

But the State Normal school at Bloomsburg is an enterprise that should not 
be passed over. A charter for the incoiporation of the Bloomsburg Literary 
Institute having been secured, on the 2d of Ma}', 1866, the corporators and others 
met, organized, and adjourned to meet again on the 4th, when measures were 
resolved upon to put the Institute in permanent condition. A building, costing 
about twenty-five thousand dollars, was erected, and formally opened on 



o 

» 

O 

o 

n 

< 



o 
o 
W 
cc 

■< 
s 
a 
o 

h 



COLUMBIA COUNTY. 593 

the 3d da}^ of April, 1861. The situation and building so pleased Mr. Superin- 
tendent Wickersham that he urged the addition of grounds and building for a 
State Normal school, and on 9th March, 1868, it was resolved upon. The corner- 
stone of the building was laid by Governor Geary, June 25, 1868. On the 8th 
February, 1869, application was made by the Board of Trustees to have the Insti- 
tute recognized as a State Normal school, A committee was appointed, who, on 
19th February, 1869, made the official visit and examination. On the same day 
the committee reported favorably, and on the 22d of February, 1869, Hon. Mr 
Wickersham, State Superintendent, formally recognized the said Bloomsburg 
Literary Institute as the State Normal school of the Sixth district. 

The school continued in operation, with increasing success, until September 
4, 1875, when the boarding hall took fire and burned down. It was a total loss. 
The trustees took immediate measures to rebuild, and on the 14th October fol- 
lowing let the new building for forty-seven thousand and ninety-eight dollars. It 
is one hundred and sixty-two feet front, with elevation and projection, and 
one hundred and fifteen feet deep, in the form of a T. It was finished by 
April 1, 18*16, and occupied for the spring term. 

There is no finer view in the State than that from Institute Hill, overlooking 
the town and the surrounding country. 

Bloomsburg lies upon a bluff on the south bank of the Fishing creek, and 
about one mile from the Susquehanna, the Fishing creek emptying into the 
Susquehanna, about two miles below the town. The location is beautiful in all 
respects. Between the mouth of ttie creek and the town the Shawanese Indians 
had a village, and in 1772 Mr. James McClure located his farm near the same 
point, and in 1781 a fort was erected there. In 1802 the town was laid out by 
Ludwig Eyer, by the name of Bloomsburg. In 1846 it became the county seat of 
Columbia county ; in 1869 was made the educational centre of the north-eastern 
portion of the State by the completion of the buildings for the Sixth Normal 
School district of the State. In 1870 it was organized as the town of Blooms- 
burg, and includes as such, the wiiole of what at that date was Bloom township. 
It contains within its borders the furnaces of the Bloomsburg iron company, and 
the furnace of William Neal & Sons ; the foundry of Sharpless & Son, of Turn- 
bach & Hess, and of Harman & Hassert, the car and machine shops of Lockard 
& Brother, and the planing mill of the Bloomsburg lumber company, besides 
other smaller manufacturing establishments of various kinds. It has an Episco- 
pal, a Presbyterian, a Methodist, a Catholic, a Lutheran, a German Reformed, 
a Baptist, and several other places of religious worship. It has five hotels, an 
opera house, and a dozen or more school houses, besides the Normal School 
buildings. It has three money institutions, the First National, the Blooms- 
burg and Columbia county banks. The North Branch canal and the Lacka- 
wanna and Bloomsburg railroad both run through the town, and the pro- 
jected North and West Branch railroad also is located within its limits. 
It contains about four thousand five hundred inhabitants. There are pub- 
lished in it The Columbian, The Bepublican, The Sentinel, The Home Trade 
Journal, and by the students of the Normal School, The Normal Mentor. 

Catawissa is a large village, on the left bank of the Susquehanna, at the 
mouth of Catawissa creek, about four miles south of Bloomsburg. The scenery 
2n 



594 



HISTOBT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 




ANCIENT friends' MEETING HOUSE, CATAWISSA. 



about the place is fine and picturesque. The town contains about one tliousand 
of a population. The furnaces in the neighborliood have been demolislied, but the 
paper mill, the tanneries, the car shops of the Catawissa railroad, and other 
industries, give the place a lively aspect. The places of worship are a Lutheran, 
a German Reformed, a Methodist, and an Episcopal chui'ch. There is also 
yet standing, a Friends' meeting house, and there has been lately erected a 
fine Masonic and town hall. The German race at present prevails about 
Catawissa. It was originally a Quaker settlement, and on a beautiful shady 

knoll, a little apart from the dust 
and din of the village, stands the 
venerable Quaker meeting house, a 
perishable monument of a race of 
early settlers that have nearly all 
passed away. "And where are 
they gone ?" we inquired of an 
aged Friend sitting with one or 
two sisters on the bench under 
the shade of the tall trees that 
overhang the meeting-house. "Ah," 
said he, " some are dead, but many 
are gone to Ohio, and still further 
west. Once there was a large meeting here, but now there are but few of us to 
sit together." Pennsylvania exhibits many similar instances in which the 
original settlers have yielded to another and more numerous race. 

Catawissa was laid out in It ST, by William Hughes, a Quaker from Berks 
countv. Isaiah Hughes kept the first store. Among the early pioneers were 
William Collins, James Watson, John Lloyd, Reuben Fenton, Benjamin Sharp- 
less, and other Quakers. .John Mears, a famous Quaker preacher and physician, 
a man of great energy of character, afterwards became proprietor of the town by 
buying up the quit-:ents. In 1196 James Watson laid out an addition to the 
town. Among the Germans, Christian Brobst came about 1793, and George 
Knappenberger had previously taken the ferry. The place was then noted for its 
shad fishery. John Ilauch was one of the first to build a furnace in this region, 
on the Catawissa, in 181G. Redmond Conyngham, Esq., who has devoted much 
research to the aboriginal liistory of the State, says the Piscatawese or Ganga- 
wese or Conoj's (Kenhawas), had a wigwam on the Catawese at Catawese, now 
Catawissa. It is a good plan to identify the Indian name of a place with its j^re- 
sent name. The Catawissa railroad passes through the village, and the Danville, 
Ilazleton, and Wilkes-Barre, Avithin a few hundred yards. The Catawissa deposit 
bank is located in the town, and a fine new passenger bridge spans the Susque- 
hanna. 

Berwick was originally settled by Evan Owen in 1783. It was organized as 
a borough in 1818. It is built on a bluff on the right bank of the Susquehanna, 
on the eastern boundary of the count}', on the very line of Luzerne county. It 
is twelve miles east from Bloomsburg. The Methodists, Baptists, and Presby- 
terians, have large congregations and commodious houses for public worship. 
There is a fine Odd Fellows hall, and a large public school house. There are 



I 



COLUMBIA COUNTY. 595 

several hotels, a large founchy, car shops, and rolling mill in operation, mainly 
under charsje of Jackson & Woodin. 

The North Branch canal and the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg railroad pass 
along the foot of the bluff upon which the town is built. It is the terminus of the 
Berwick and Towanda turnpike, leading to Newtown, in New York ; as it is also 
of the Nescopcc and Mauch Chunk. There is a bridge over the Susquehanna at 
this place, and there is als(5 located here a national bank. It was at Berwick, 
May 3, 1826, that the steamboat Susquehanna, Captain Collins, of Baltimore, 
blew up, ascending Nescopec Falls. And it was at Berwick on July 4, 182J^, 
that ground was broken for the construction of the North Branch canal. The 
population is about one thousand five hundred. Tlie Berivick Independent is 
published here. 

Rupert is in Montour township, two miles south of Bloomsburg, at the 
intersection of the Catawissa and the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg railroads, at 
the mouth of Fishing creek. It has about twenty dwellings, hotel, blacksmith 
shop, etc. The railroad depots make it a well-known point. Buckhorn is in 
Hemlock township, four miles west of Bloomsburg. It has about forty 
dwellings, two stores, a tavern, blacksmith shop, wheel-wright shop, large three- 
story school house, and meeting house. Jerseytown is in Madison township, 
twelve miles west from Bloomsburg. It has about fifty dwellings, meeting 
house, school house, two taverns, stores, etc., etc. Milville is in Greenwood 
township, and about twelve miles north-west of Bloomsburg. The township is 
mainly settled by the Friends. The village has about twenty dwellings, hotel, 
grist mill, shops, etc., etc. Eyer Grove is also in Greenwood, has twelve or 
fifteen dwellings, grist mill, meeting house, and shops and stores. Rohrsburq 
is also in Greenwood; was laid out about 1825, by Frederick Rohr ; has twenty 
to thirty dwellings, and the usual number of shops, stores, meeting house, and 
hotel. Cole's Creek is in Sugarloaf township, tAventy miles north from Blooms- 
burg, at the confiuence of Cole's creek and Big Fishing creek. Has grist mill, 
post olFice, store, smith shop, meeting house, etc. Benton, in township of same 
name, sixteen miles north from Bloomsburg, has hotel, meeting house, stores, 
shops, and thirty to fifty dwellings. It is on Big Fishing creek. Orangeville, 
in Orange township, was settled before 1*785. Clement G. Ricketts opened a 
store there in 1822. It has sixty to seventy dwellings, two meeting houses, an 
academy, stores, taverns, grist mill, tannery, foundry', etc., etc. It is also on 
Big Fishing creek. Light Street is in Scott township, three miles north of 
Bloomsburg. It has seventy to eighty dwelling houses, meeting house, stores, 
school houses, tannerj-, etc. Espytown is also in Scott township, three miles 
east of Bloomsburg. It is about the same size as Light Street, and is one of the 
depots of the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg railroad. Mifflinville is a staid 
village, in Miftlin township, nine miles east of Bloomsburg, on the east bank of 
the Susquehanna. It contains about seventy dwellings. The North and West 
Branch railroad will, when built, pass through the village. Mainvtlle, in Main 
township, six miles south-east from Bloomsburg, has fifteen to twenty dwellings, 
grist mill, and forgo, etc. It is on the Catawissa creek, and a depot of the 
Catawissa railroad. Beaver Yalley, in Beaver township, twelve miles south-east 
from Bloomsburg, has half a dozen dwellings, and is a depot of Catawissa 



696 



HISTOB 1 OF P ENNS YL VANIA. 



railroad. Centralia borough in Conyngham township, twenty miles south-east, 
of Bloomsburg, in the coal mining region, contains several hundred dwellings, 
Episcopal and Catholic churches, and several denominational meeting houses. 
Slabtown, in Locust township, on Roaring creek, with a dozen dwellings, stores, 
shops, hotel, etc., eleven miles south-east of Bloomsburg ; and Numidia, two 
miles beyond, in same towaiship, of about the same size. Glen City, in Beaver 
township, twenty miles south-east from Bloomsburg, a mining village, has about 
twenty dwellings, shops, etc. 

Townships and Boroughs. — When Columbia county was organized in 1813, 
it contained the following twelve townships, viz.: Bloom, Briar Creek, Chillis- 
quaque, Catawissa, Derry, Fishing Creek, Greenwood, Hemlock, Mahoning, Mifflin, 
Sugarloaf, and Turbit. The erection of Montour county carried off the follow- 
ing four of these originals, viz. : Chillisquaque, Derry, Mahoning, and Turbit. 
The townships and boroughs of Columbia county, and date of organization, are 
as follows : 



Bloom. . ... 
Briar Creek . . 
Catawissa. . . . 
Fishing Creek 
Greenwood . . . 

Hemlock 

Mifflin 



Original. 



Sugarloaf 



Madison.. 

Mount Pleasant. . 
Berwick borough 
Roaring Creek. . . 
Montour 



isn 

1818 
1818 
1832 
1837 



Jackson 

Orange 

Franklin 

Main. , 

Centre 

Beaver 

Benton 

Pine 

Locust 

Scott 

Conjmgham 

Centralia borough 

The Town of Bloomsburg 



1838 
1839 
1843 

1844 
1844 
1845 
1850 
1853 
1853 
1853 
1856 
1866 
1870 




MAIN EXHIBITION BUILDING— 187G. 



CEAWFOED COUNTY. 



BY SAMUEL P. BATES, LL.D., MEADVILLE. 



jHE first representative of English speaking people in America to 
traverse the forests, then unbroken bj' the hand of cultivation, which 
afterwards became Crawford county, was George Washington, then 
a major of the Virginia militia, destined to be largely instrumental 
in the establishment of the American name and nation, and create for himself 
undjang renown. In the first years of European colonization upon this conti- 
nent, two nations played important parts, the French and the English. In point 





CRAWFORD COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MEADVILLE. 

(From a Photograph by J. D. Dunn.] 

of numbers and power they were, for a time, quite equally matched. While the 
English held the seaboard, from Massachusetts bay to Georgia, the French laid 
claim to Canada and the Mississippi valley, stretching away to the Gulf. 

About the middle of the seventeenth century, the French Jesuits showed great 
zeal in their attempts to proselyte the Indians, and to spread the French name 
and power. In 1619, Robert Cavalier de la Salle constructed, beneath the 
sombre shades of the forest which fringed the northern shore of Lake Erie, a 
craft of sixty tons burden, which he named the Griffin, and, setting sail, ploughed 

597 



598 EISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

the waters of the great lakes, hitherto unvexed by the keel of civilized man. 
Moviug up Erie, Huron, and Michigan, and crossing over to the Mississippi, he 
descended the Father of Waters to the Gulf, and laid claim to all the territory 
which the river drains, even to its remotest tributaries, the French maintaining 
that the right to the mouth of a river governs its sources. Had this claim 
been vindicated, Pennsylvania and Virginia would have been despoiled of the 
half of their heritage. Against this pretension the Governors of both States 
loudly protested, and prepared to defend their rights. In Yirginia was formed 
the Ohio company, organized to promote emigration and settlement in its 
western territorj^ ; and so eager were its hardy pioneers to possess the choicest 
lands, that they pushed far into the boundaries of Pennsylvania, though suppos- 
ing they were still on Virginia soil, and commenced building a fort at the junc- 
tion of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, which afterwards became fort 
Duquesne, now the very midst of the city of Pittsburgh. The French in Canada, 
learning of this occupation by the Ohio company, sent an armed force, which 
dispossessed the Virginians and continued the fortifications on French account. 

By the treaty of Utrecht, of 1713, Louisiana was confirmed to the French, 
but it was provided " that France should never molest tlie Five Nations, subject 
to the dominion of Great Britain." The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which con- 
cluded a four 3^ears' war between France and England, in 1748, confirmed the 
rio'hts of Great Britain. But the boundaries of the Five Nations — now become 
the Six Nations — were indefinite, and the French Avere determined to hold the 
entire valley of the Mississippi. To that end they built a line of forts, commencing 
with Presqu'Isle, near the city of Erie, and continuing it at Le Banif, now 
Waterford — at Venango, near Fi'anklin — at Duquesne, now Pittsbui-gh, and so on 
down the Ohio, and planted plates of copper or lead along the route, on which 
were inscribed their claims. 

To ascertain what was the temper and what the purposes of the French, 
Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddle, of Virginia, sent Major Washington, in 1753, to 
confer with the French commandant at Le Boeuf. It was a tedious journey, 
made in mid-winter, and required nerve and resolution to accomplish it. On 
arriving, he was politely received, but referred to the chief in command in 
Canada. It was evident that the troops in possession would 3'ield to no 
argument but force, and Washington ascertained, in the progress of a conversa- 
tion with a subordinate ofliicer, that it was the intention to maintain their 
occupation of this territory. Virginia, intent on defending the interests of the 
Ohio Company, sent a force of militia, under Major Washington, who surprised 
a body of French at the Great Meadows, on the morning of the 28th of Ma^^, 
1754. and routed it completely; but on the 4th of July following, having been 
confronted at Fort Necessity by a superior force, was obliged, after nine hours of 
severe fighting, to surrender. Early in the spring of 1755, General Braddock, 
with a body of regulars brought direct from Ireland, accompanied with a force 
of militia under Washington, again marched against the French. But when 
nearing Fort Duquesne, he was attacked by French and Indians lying in 
ambush, and his little army completely routed. Again, in July, 1758, General 
Forbes, with a force accompanied with militia under Colonels Bouquet and 
Washington, advanced upon the foe on the Ohio, and, after severe fighting in 



GBAWFOBD COUNTY. 599 

frojt of Fort Dnqiiesne, the French were driven out, and, henceforward, no 
more encroached upon the territory of tlie colonies. 

But the western portion of Pennsylvania was still subject to the savages, 
having never been acquired by either treat^'^ or purchase, and so it remained till 
after the close of the Revolution, and, consequently, was not open to white 
occnjDancy. In October, 1*784, a treaty was concluded at Fort Stanwix, with the 
Six Nations, whereby the authorities of Pennsjdvania gained by purchase all the 
territor}^, not before acquired, within its chartered limits, and this purchase was 
confirmed by a treaty concluded by the Wyandots and Delawares, in January, 
1785, at Fort Mcintosh, situated at the mouth of the BeaA'er river. But though 
the Six Nations were quieted b}'- treaty, the Indian tribes along the Ohio were 
still intent on preserving, in their own right, the lands to the north of that river 
and east of the Allegheny, to which they may have been prompted by the 
emissaries of the French, who still held Louisiana. Hence, all visitors from the 
colonies upon the territory in question, for the purpose of settlement, were met 
by roving bands of these Indians who maintained a hostile front. 

To overawe and subdue them, military expeditions were undertaken by 
Mcintosh in 1118, by Brodhead in 1780, by Crawford in 1782, by Harmar in 
1789, by St. Clair in 1791, and by Wayne in 1792, which resulted with varying 
fortune. During all this time the frontier was lit up by the blaze- of savage 
warfare, and the tomahawk and scalping knife were bus}' with their fell work. 
Finally, the campaign, conducted b^' General Anthony Wayne with his characte- 
ristic energy and skill, ended in tiiumph in 1795, and the treaty, by him 
concluded, for ever put an end to this sanguinary struggle, wherein neither 
helpless infancy nor trembling age was exempt, and which was accompanied by 
every crime which debases manhood and effaces from the human character every 
trace of its heaven-born attributes. 

Hence, though the purchase was fairly made in 1785, it was ten years later 
before the territory could be said to be fairly open to settlement. It was well 
known, however, that the lands west of the Allegheny were of excellent quality, 
and naturally' tempted the cupidity of the adventurous, even though still subject 
to savage sway. Washington, in passing up the Yenango river (French creek), 
on his journey to Le Boeuf, in 1753, made this entry on the 7th of December: 
" We passed over much good land since we left Yenango (Franklin), and 
through several extensive and very rich meadows, one of which I believe was 
nearly four miles in length, and considerably wide in some places." There is no 
doubt that these expressions of Washington, " much good land," and " extensive 
and very rich meadows," were recurring in the minds of manj^, and caused them 
to look with longing eyes towards this goodly country, even during the long and 
gloomy years of the Revolution. When that Avar came to an end in 1783, and in 
1785 these lands were purchased of the Indians, the disposition to acquire titles 
to them was active. Three separate companies, with large capital, each sought 
to secure vast stretches of this territory. They were the Holland Land 
compau}', the Population company, and the North American Land compan}'. 
By the act of 1792, titles could oulj^ be perfected by actual settlement for the 
space of five j-ears, which must be begun within two years from the date of its 
location. But an important proviso was attached, that if settlers were prevented 



600 HISTO E Y OF PFNNS YL VANIA. 

by armed enemies of the United States from settlement, the title was to become 
valid the same as if settled. This left the question open and indefinite, and gave 
rise to endless litigation, the Holland Land compan}'- contending that, Indian 
hostilities having prevented actual settlement for the space of two j'ears, they 
could then perfect their titles without actual settlement, and without waiting for 
the end of the five years. It was decided pro and con in the lower courts 
repeatedly, and taken up on appeal, until it finally reached the Supreme Court 
of the United States, when Chief Justice Marshall delivered an opinion in favor 
of the company, Mr. Justice Washington declaring : " Though the great theatre 
of the war lies far to the north-west of the land in dispute, 3'et it is clearly 
proved that this country during this period was exposed to the repeated 
irruptions of the enemy, killing and plundering such of the whites as they met 
with in defenceless situations. We find the settlers sometimes working out in the 
day-time in the neighborhood of forts, and retui'ning at night within their walls 
for protection ; sometimes giving up the pursuit in despair, and returning to the 
settled part of the countr}^ ; then returning to this country and again abandoning 
it. We sometimes meet with a few men daring and liard}^ enough to attempt 
the cultivation of their lands ; associating implements of husbandry witli the 
instruments of war — the character of the husbandman with that of the soldier — 
and yet I do not recollect any instance in which, with this enterprising, daring 
spirit, a single individual was able to make such a settlement as the law 
required." 

Such " daring and hardy" men as are here referred to by Judge Washington, 
were those who first settled Crawford count3^ In 1*787, DaA'id Mead, in com- 
pany with his brother John, sons of Darius Mead, of Hudson, New York, having 
taken up land in the Wyoming Vallej'^, and been dispossessed through the 
conflicting claims of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, made their way through the 
forests, and across mountains to the mouth of the Yenango river, and thence up 
that stream till they reached a broad valley, nearly five miles in length, on ' 
whose bosom now reposes the city of Meadville, and the one, undoubtedly, 
referred to by Washington. Two years previous, at the instance of the general 
government, a party of engineers, headed by William Bowen under military 
escort, made a survey of a large body of land in this corner of the State, embra- 
cing the sixth, seventh, and eighth sections, which had been set aside for the 
payment of bounties to soldiers of the Revolution. 

Having had some experience in selecting lands for settlement, these two 
pioneers made a thorough examination of the territory, and chose this valley for 
their future habitation. They found the flats above the confluence of the Cussa- 
wago with the Yenango river cleared, and covered with luxuriant grass, having 
been previously cultivated by the natives, and perhaps b}^ the French, who had 
a fort on what is now Dock street, Meadville. Returning to the Susquehanna, 
in the spring of the following j'ear, they came again, accompanied by Thomas 
Martin, John Watson, James F. Randolph, Thomas Grant, Cornelius Yan Horn, 
and Christopher Snyder. With the exception of Grant i\xQy all selected lands 
on the western side of the river, now Yalonia, and the tracts above. Grant 
chose the section on which is now Meadville, and made his home at the head of 
Water street. Soon tiring of the frontier, he transferred his tract to David 



GBAWFOBD COUNTY. 601 

Mead, who thus became the proprietor and real founder of the city which took 
his name. In the spring of the following year came the families of some of these 
men. Sarah Mead, daugliter of DaA'id, was the first child born within the new 
settlement. Subsequently came Samuel Lord, John Wentworth, Frederick 
Haymaker, Frederick Baum, Robert Fitz Randolph, and Dai'ius Mead. These 
were the pioneers ; but as the report of fine lands upon the Yenango spread, 
settlers came in great numbers. There were a few families of Indians inhabitin*^ 
the neighborhood, who became the fast friends of the white men, prominent 
among whom were Canadochta and his three sons, Flying Cloud', Standing 
Stone, and Big Sun, and Half-town, a half brother of Cornplanter, Strike 
Neck, and Wire Ears. 

To the beginning of 1791, few disturbances from hostile Indians occurred, and 
little danger was apprehended ; but the defeat of the army under General Harmar, 
and subsequently that led by St. Clair, left the hostile tribes of Ohio and western 
Pennsylvania free to prosecute their nefarious schemes of murder, arson, and 
fiendish torture, upon the helpless frontiersmen. Early in this year. Flying 
Cloud, the ever faithful friend of the whites, gave notice that the savages were 
upon the war path. For safety, the settlers repaired to the stockade fort at 
Franklin. It was seed time, and these provident men were loath to let the time 
pass for planting, and thus fail of a crop for the sustenance of their families. 
Accordingly, four of them, Cornelius Van Horn, William Gregg, Thomas Ray, 
and Christopher Lantz, returned with their horses, and commenced ploughing. 
Vengeful Indians came skulking upon their track, and, singling out Van Horn, 
when the others were away, seized him and his horses, and commenced the march 
westward. Eight miles away, near Conneaut lake, they stopped for the night, 
where Van Horn managed to elude them, and made his way back, when he found 
that Gregg had been killed, and, as subsequently ascertained, Ray was made cap- 
tive and led away to Detroit. 

Hostilities continued during 1192; but General Anthony Wayne, who had 
now been placed at the head of the troops sent against the savages, gave them 
sufficient employment. Early in the year, a company of twenty-four men, under 
Ensign Bond, was detailed fi'om Wajaie's army to protect this settlement, and 
was quartered at Meadville. But as the campaign became active, it was sum- 
moned away, and the families of the settlers again retired to the stockade at 
Franklin. The numbers had considerably increased by 1794, and a militia com- 
pany was formed for self-protection, Cornelius Van Horn being elected Captain, 
and a block-house was erected near the head of Water street. On the 10th of 
August, James Dickson, a resolute Scotchman, was fired upon by Indians in con- 
cealment near the outskirts of the settlement, and severely wounded in the hand 
and shoulder. By dexterous management with his gun, of which he held the fire, 
he baffled the endeaA^ors of his assailants to capture him, and, though bleeding 
profusely, reached the block-house. The alarm was given, and pursuit promptly 
made; but the wily foe escaped. Ten da3'S later General Wayne inflicted a 
crushing defeat, and Indian warfare in this part of the State was at an end, though 
occasional depredations were committed by isolated parties for some time, James 
Findley and Barnabas McCormick having been murdered in cold blood, in June 
of the following year, six miles below Meadville, on the river valley. 



602 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

The tide of settlement now began to set strongly towards this portion of the 
State, stimulated, no doubt, by the organized efforts of land companies to gain 
titles to the best lands, and by tlie settlers themselves to perfect their claims. 
What afterward became Meadville, Mead, Rockdale, and Vernon, were settled 
simultaneously in 1787; East Fallowfield, Greenwood, Hayfield, Oil Creek, and 
Titusville, in 1790; Fairfield and Woodcock in 1791 ; Venango in 1794 ; Bloom- 
field, Cussawago, Randolph, Richmond, South Shenango, and Spring, in 1795; 
Cambridge and West Fallowfield in 1797 ; Conneaut, North Shenango, Pine, and 
Sadsbury, in 1798; Athens, Beaver, Rome, and Summit, in 1800. The remain- 
ing townships, with the exception of Wayne, have been subsequently^ erected from 
the territory of other townships, Sparta, Summer Hill, and Troy, in 1830; Steu- 
ben in 1861 ; West Shenango in 1863, and Union in 1867. 

The opening of the year 1795 marked a new era in the history of these settle- 
ments. During the three preceding years the pioneers had labored under gi*eat 
depression and discouragement. At times, when the labors of the husbandmen 
should be performed, their work was interrupted, and they were driven with their 
families for safety to the common fort. But a better da^'^ seemed now dawning, 
and a reasonable prospect that the fierce sounds of savage warfare would be no 
longer heard, and that the sons of the forest would cease from their trade of 
blood. Buildings erected were of a more permanent character, and the settlement, 
though far away from the sunny abiding places where clustered their early asso- 
ciations, began to be looked upon as home. A saw-mill was constructed near the 
block-house as early as 1789, from which the settlers were supplied with lumber, 
and the surplus was rafted to Pittsburgh ; but as late as 1795 grain was ground 
by hand-mills or broken in a mortar. 

The thought of establishing the location of a town which should serve as a 
centre for distribution and supply, early occupied the minds of the settlers, and 
none seemed more fit than this goodly valle}', where three considerable streams, 
two from the west, the Cussawago and Watson's run, and one. Mill run, from the 
east, poured their currents into the Venango, leaving in their tracks fertile val- 
le3^s and eas\^ grades for highways to lead out in all directions. Though the 
earliest settlements had been chiefly made on the west side of the river, above the 
mouth of the Cussawago, doubtless on account of the lands having been 
previousl}' cleared and cultivated, and because there was a deep alluvial soil pro- 
ducing fine crops with little labor, yet the site for the town was chosen on the 
opposite side, probably on account of the surface being higher, and not liable to 
overflow, as had been the sad experience on the right bank, and also, it may be, 
because the will of David Mead, who had established himself here, was more 
imperious than those of his companions. In 1792 the part immediately upon the 
river was laid out, lots offered for sale, and the embryo city was named 
Meadville. Through the exertions of Major Roger Alden, a soldier of the Revo- 
lution, and the first agent of the Holland Land company, and Doctor Kennedy, 
the plan of the town was greatly enlarged and improved in 1795. Only a small 
portion of the valley, along the river front, was at that time cleared, all the lower 
part being covered by a dense hemlock forest, the covert of the deer, and the more 
elevated portions, where are now some of the finest residences, had a massive 
growth of oak, and beech, and chestnut. 



GEAWFOllD COUNTY. 603 

The thougbt of these hardy pioneers was early given to provision for the edu- 
cation of their children, and a school was established in the block-house, to which 
allusion has been made, situated on the triangular lot at the corner of Water 
street and Steer's alley. It was originally built for defence, was of logs, two- 
stories in height, surmounted by a sentry box ; the second-story projecting over 
the first, and was pi-ovided with a cannon. This building stood until 1828. The 
lot was donated by the founder for school purposes. David Mead was the first 
justice, and the Governor having failed to provide him with one, he acted as his 
own constable. He had served as justice in the Wyoming settlement, and con- 
tinued to hold that office until 1799, when he was made associate judge. 

Prior to the 3^ear 1173, all this section of the colony, held under the charter 
of King Charles II., though not yet purchased from the Indians, formed a part of 
the county of Bedford. At that date the county of Westmoreland was orga- 
nized, and this portion of the State, by that act, was embraced in its limits. In 
September, 1788, the county of Allegheny was organized, which was made to 
embrace all the territory north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers. Till 
the end of the century it remained thus. By an act of the Legislature of the 12th 
of March, 1800, the county of Crawford was erected and was made to embrace all 
the north-western portion of the State, including Erie, Warren, Venango, and 
Mercer, with the count}^ seat at Meadville. Erie became a separate county on 
the 2d of April, 1803, and Yenango and Warren, April 1, 1805. It was named 
for the unfortunate General William Crawford, who was burned by the Indians 
at Sandusky, on tlie 11th of June, 1782. 

What finally became Crawford county was entirely surrounded by the parts 
thus stricken off, with the exception of its western boundary, where it meets 
Ohio, Erie forming its northern limit, WaiTcn and Venango its eastern, and 
Venango and Mercer its southern. Its length from east to west is forty-one 
miles, and its width twenty-four, and contains nine hundred and seventy-four 
square miles, nearly as much arable land as the entire State of Rhode Island. 
Its surface is for the most part heavily rolling, the State road, running from the 
south-western corner to the north-eastern, crossing nearly at right angles what 
seem an interminable series of eai'thy billows, at nearly regular intervals of eight 
or ten miles. The soil is unsurpassed for grazing, for corn and oats, and, along 
the rich vallej's, for wheat. Copious springs of pure water are everywhere 
abundant, and shade, grateful to flocks and herds, has been left in profusion on 
hillside and vale. In some portions are dense forests, still the lurking places of 
the deer. Its principal stream is the Venango, meandering through it from north- 
west to south-east, which is fed by the Conneautee, the Cussawago, and the Con- 
neaut outlet on its riglit bank, and by Mudd}^ creek. Woodcock creek. Mill run, 
and the Sugar creeks on its left. The sum of four hundred pounds was appro- 
priated by Congress, in 1791, to improve the navigation of this stream; and, 
before obstructed by mill dams, was navigable to Waterfoi-d, for boats of twenty 
tons burden at certain seasons of the year, and is still employed for rafting lum- 
ber. Extensive lumber and flouring mills are situated upon it at intervals of a 
few miles. The western portion is watered by the Shcnango, a considerable 
stream running south and emptying into the Beaver, and by the Conneaut creek, 
which runs north and empties into lake Erie. In the east is the Oil creek, which 



604 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

empties into the Allegheny at Oil city, six miles above the mouth of the 
Venango. The great water-shed, which divides the waters that descend to the 
gulf from those which flow to Lake Erie, and marks the boundary between the 
Mississippi basin and that of the great lakes, cuts into the western portion, and 
upon its summit, where are dead flats of considerable extent, is Conneaut lake, a 
sheet of five miles in length by two in breadth, and the Conneaut marsh and 
Pymatuning swamp. The lake is the largest body of water in the State. The 
Pymatuning swamp undoubtedly at one time formed the basin of an extensive 
lake, but was partially drained by the deepening of its outlet, and has been 
filling with sediment and the annual accumulations of rank growths of vegeta- 
tion. In cutting trenches thi'ough it, fallen timber and the stumps of trees are 
found in perfect preservation. It is now mostly covered b}'^ a growth of tamaracs, 
where, in tlie autumn, vast flocks of pigeons make their roosting place. In the 
eastern part are Sugar and Oil Creek lakes, smaller but picturesque sheets. 

The slates and shales of the Chemung and Portage groups underlie its sur- 
face, but it is destitute of calcareous rock, with the exception of a bed of marl, of 
over thirty acres in extent, situated near the head of Conneaut lake, from which, 
by burning, a dark grayish lime is made, and also a deposit of similar marl in the 
Pymatuning swamp. Sedimentary flag stone abounds in most parts, though as 
j-et no quarr}'^ of the best quality has ever been opened. Red and yellow sand- 
stone, yielding and easily wrought when flrst taken from the quarry, but which 
hardens by exposure to air and light, are found in abundance. Iron ore exists in 
the southern section, as also bituminous coal. 

From the earliest knowledge of the valley of the Oil creek, an exceedingly 
volatile substance was known to exist, which, when floating upon the surface of 
the water, reflected in the sunlight the most beautiful and variegated colors. In 
the extensive flat lands upon this stream are found many acres of pits dug in the 
soil and lined with split logs, doubtless constructed for the purpose of collecting 
this fluid, as the water which rises in them is found to be covered with it. By 
whom they were constructed is not known ; but it must have been long ago — as no 
traces can be discovered of the stumps where the timber used in lining them was 
cut, and huge trees are growing in the ver}'^ midst of the cradles — and b}^ an intel- 
ligent people, as much skill, involving the use of eff"ective tools, is shown in their 
construction. The French of a generation or two before its settlement may have 
fashioned them. They were certainly not the work of the nomadic Indians of our 
day. The more probable view is that they must be referred to the mound build- 
ers of a much earlier period. The composition of this substance is believed to be 
akin to that of the bituminous coal of the fields below. It was used by the 
natives as a medicine and in their strange worship. Assembling at certain 
points, having drained the waters of the streams on which it floats, quantities by 
this means having collected, .they applied the torch, and while sheets of flame 
were ascending heavenward, uttered demoniac yells. It was known to the French 
two centuries and a half ago, their missionaries and military explorers having 
been led to the springs by the natives. Joseph Delaroche Daillon, in a letter of 
the 18th of July, 1621, published in Sagard's " History du Canada " describes it. 
Charlevoix, an agent of the French government, in his journals of 1720, makes 
mention of it, and Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, very minutely de- 



CRAWFOBD COUNTY. 605 

scribes it as taken from the earth in the Kanawha valley. Considerable qnan'tities 
were collected of the surface oil, and it was sold for medicinal purposes and for 
lighting; but it was never an article much consumed till 1859. In that year Mr 
E. L. Drake commenced drilling, with the expectation of finding it in quantities 
He wqis not disappointed, and the current wliich he thus diverted has been united 
with similar ones, till the volume would equal a considerable stream steadily 
flowing. It is used chiefly for illumination, but largely for lubrication and in the 
mechanic arts. In a single year nearly seven million barrels have been produced. 

'J'he act of the Legislature authorizing the formation of the county, empowered 
the commissioners to fix the county seat at Meadville, provided the people of 
that place would contribute $4,000 towards the establishment of an institution of 
learning. This sum was speedily raised, and the commissioners had no further 
discretion. The school, as has been noticed, was commenced in the block-house ; 
but in 1802 an act of the Legislature was passed incorporating the institution. 
David Mead and six others were appointed trustees. Grounds were subse- 
quently acquired on the south-west corner of Chestnut and Liberty streets, and 
a one story brick building with two rooms was erected thereon. In the fall of 
1805 the Meadville Academy was opened under the charge of the Rev. Joseph 
Stockton, who, in addition to an extensive scientific course, taught also Latin and 
Greek. This building remained for twenty years, and at successive periods Cary, 
Kerr, Douglas, Reynolds, and De France taught therein. It was finally purchased, 
and gave place to a private residence, and the building now used for the public 
high school was erected. McKinney, Leffingwell, and Donnelly, among others, 
were at its head, the latter for a period of seventeen years. It received donations 
from the State at various times, and had a small endowment fund that was used 
for keeping the building in repair. In 1852 it entered upon a sphere of enlarged 
usefulness as a county academy, being attended by over three hundred pupils 
annually for several years. In 1861, by act of Assembly, the property and 
funds were given into the hands of the board of control of the city of Meadville 
for the use of a public high school, to which pupils from the county may be 
admitted. 

During the early history of the county, and until 1834, when the iree school 
law was enacted, schools were established as the settlers could unite for the pur- 
pose, and were supported by their patrons. In sparse settlements it was 
impossible to accommodate all in this way. Some few of the indigent were 
taught at the expense of the county under the law of 1809, which provided for 
the " instruction of the poor gratis." But most parents were too independent to 
report themselves too poor to pay for the tuition of their children. There were 
in various sections men of great learning who gave instruction in the languages, 
notable among whom were Mr. Gamble, of the Shenangoes, and David Derickson, 
of Meadville. In 1838 the free school system began to go into operation, and 
rapidly the whole school-going population was gathered in. In 1854, upon the 
I'evisal of the law, a regeneration of the schools occurred ; new buildings Avere 
erected, with improved furniture and appliances, and teachers were held to a 
strict examination and acco^^ntabilit3^ With opportunities so meagre as were 
afforded in that early period, it is a matter of congratulation that education was 
60 general and so good as it was. 



606 niSTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Especially is it a subject of pi'icle that the early settlers entertained so exalt- 
ed an idea of higher education, which led them early to make provision for an 
academy, making it a condition of securing the county seat ; but also, not 
many years after, and while yet the county was new and the means of realizing 
money were few, to found a college and make it the seat of the most advanced 
culture of the period. On the evening of Tliursday, the 20th of June, 1815, at a 
public meeting held at the court house in Meadville, at which Major Roger 
Alden presided, and John Reynolds acted as secretary, it was resolved to 
establish a college, which should be called Allegheny-, from the river which 
drains all this region ; that Timothy Alden, a brother of the major, a native of 
Massachusetts, a graduate of Harvard Universit}^, and an eminent teacher at 
Boston, and also at New York, should be president, and the Rev. Robert John- 
son, a learned Presb3'teriaa divine, should be vice-president. A committee was 
appointed to ask the Legislature for a charter, another to prepare rules for its 
government, and a third to open books for receiving subscriptions. The sum of 
six thousand dollars was subscribed, and a charter was obtained on the 17th of 
March, 1817, with the following named persons as the Board of Trustees: 
Roger Alden, William McArthur, Jesse Moore, John Brooks, William Clark, 
Henry Hurst, Samuel Lord, Samuel Torbett, Ralph Martin, Patrick Farrell}', 
Thomas Atkinson, John Reynolds, David Burns, William Foster, and Daniel 
Perkins, and two thousand dollars, which were subsequently increased to seven 
thousand, were appropriated. 

The site for a building was selected upon the hillside, a mile to the north of 
the town, which it overlooked, a most delectable spot, commanding a view of 
the charming valleys, which approach from every point of the compass, and the 
beautiful hills, half covered with forest, which tower up on all sides and kiss the 
sky in seeming nearness. A plot of five acres, subsequently enlarged to ten, 
and lately to twenty, was contributed by Samuel Lord, upon which a substantial 
and imposing structure of brick, with fine cut freestone trimmings, was erected, 
and the infant institution was fairly launched. The president, Dr. Alden, was 
a man of versatile talents, a prodig}^ in lingual acquirements, to whom diflicul- 
ties and seemingl}^ insurmountable obstacles were meat and drink. He orga- 
nized, he taught, he visited the cities of New York and New England soliciting 
aid. His plaus were successful. The institution took form beneath his plastic 
hand. To the plea of the necessities of his dear college, valuable private librar- 
ies dropped into its alcoves. That of the Rev. Wm. Bentley, D.D., of Salem, 
Massachusetts, was especially rich in lexicons, theological books, and such 
treasures of the Latin and Greek fathers as few colleges in the United States 
possessed ; and those of Isaiah Thomas, LL.D., of Worcester, Mass., and James 
Winthrop, LL.D., of Cambridge, Mass., comprised thp best miscellaneous 
wi'itings, making the entire collection in the different departments of literature 
and science " most rare and valuable." Contributions were also made to cabi- 
nets in natural history, and apparatus for chemical and philosophical experi- 
ments. 

But though fortune seemed to smile upon the early labors of its founders, yet 
the period of growth was one beset by many hardships. Money was diflieult to 
command, and few of the sons of the frontiersmen could spare the time or secure 



CB AW FORD COUNTY. 



607 



the means requisite to compass a liberal education. A proposition was made to 
found a German professorship with a view to enlisting that element of the 
population ; likewise one to have a mathematical professorship endowed by the 
Masonic fraternity, to secure their active co-operation ; and finall}-, to change it to 
a military school. But none of these projects were successful, and in 1833, its 
management was assumed by the Erie and Pittsburgh conferences of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, under which it has remained to the present day. At this 
date Dr. Alden gave place, as president, to Martin Ruter, D.D., who was suc- 
ceeded by Homer J. Clark, D.D., in 183'7 ; John Barker, D.D., in 1847 ; George 
Loomis, D.D., in 1860 ; and Lucius II. Bugbee, in 1875. Its alumni number 
over five hundred, among whom are men adorning all the learned professions. 




a^ffia??*?^^^^'' 



"* %J?g^y5?,«,.,.,^„,_. 



1 ?v,?-f V^^ A\ 




MEADVir-E, FROM THEOLOGIOAIi SEMINAKY, LOOKINO NORTH-WEST. 
[From B Photograph by J. D. Dunn, Meadville.] 

In 1851, a large building, designed for chapel, library, laboratorj^, and cabinets, 
was erected, and in 1864 a boarding hall, capable of accommodating one hundred 
students was added. The cabinets in the various departments of natural history, 
mostly collected under the administration of Dr. Loomis, are equalled in few 
institvitions of the United States. 

The Meadville Theological school was established mainly through the influence 
of the late H. J. Iluidekoper, a native of Holland, who succeeded Major Alden 
in the agency of the Holland Land company, and was one of the most influential 
and intelligent of the early settlers. It was opened in 1844, under the presidency 
of Rufus P. Stebbins, D.D., and in 1854 a commodious and substantial building 
was erected on an elevated site to the east of the town, commanding a beautiful 



608 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YLYANIA. 

view of the Cussawago valley and the dark pine forests which skirt its mouth. 
It was principally endowed by the Unitarian denomination, though the Society 
of Christians extended some aid. It has a productive endowment fund of over 
one hundred thousand dollars, and property in buildings and library amounting to 
over thirty thousand dollars. Rev. Oliver Stearns, D.D., became president in 1856, 
and the Rev. A. A. Livermore, D.D., in 1864. The school has a library of over 
twelve thousand volumes, and numbers over one hundred and fifty graduates. 
It is a circumstance for which it may claim credit that nearly all the periodical 
and newspaper publications of the Unitarian denomination are under the edito- 
rial charge of its alumni. 

On the 2d of Januar}^, 1803, was issued at Meadville the initial number of 
the Crawford Messenger^ the first paper published in this portion of the State, 
and for a long series of years held its place as the most respectable. It was 
founded by Thomas Atkinson and W. Brendle. In an editorial of September, 
1828, Mr, Atkinson makes the following interesting record: " In two months 
more, twenty-five years will have elapsed since we arrived in this village with 
our printing establishment, being the first, and for several subsequent years, the 
only one north-west of the Allegheny river. How short the period, 3^et how 
fruitful in interesting events! Our village at that time consisted of a few 
scattered tenements, or what might be properly termed huts. It is now surpassed 
by few, if any, in West Pennsylvania, for its numerous, commodious, and in 
many instances, beautiful dwelling houses, churches, academy, court-house, with 
a splendid edifice for a college ; all affording pleasing evidence of the enterprise, 
the taste, and the liberality of its inhabitants. Then we were without roads, 
nothing but Indian paths, by which to wend our way from one point to another. 
Now turnpikes and capacious roads converge to it from every quarter. Then 
the mail passed between Pittsburgh and Erie once in two weeks — now, eighteen 
stages arrive and depart weekly. Then we had not un frequently to pack our 
paper on horsback upwards of two hundred miles ; on one hundred and thirty 
of this distance there were but three or four houses — now, however, thanks to 
an enterprising citizen o-f the village, it can be had as conveniently as could be 
desired. Our country is marching onward." Since the time when Mr. Atkinson 
congratulated himself and his readers on the gi'eat changes which had occurred, 
a half century has elapsed, and the progress which has been made far out-reaches 
the contrasts of that early day. There are at present published in Meadville, 
the Crawford Journal^ weekly ; the Crawford Democrat ; the Crawford county 
Post (German), weekly ; the Meadville Republican^ daily and weekly ; in Con- 
neautville, the Conneautville Courier^ weekly ; in Titusville, the Herald and 
Courier^ both daily and weekly, and the Sunday Press ; in Cambridge, the 
Index, weekly ; and in Linesville, the Linesville Leader, weekly. 

As we have noted, David Mead was the first commissioned justice, which 
office he continued to hold until 1199, when he was made a judge, and in 1800 
was held the first court. Judges Mead and Kelso presiding. At the session of 
April, 1801, Alexander Addison presided as president judge, and David Mead 
having resigned, William Bell was commissioned in his place. Judge Addison 
has been succeeded in the office of president judge by Moore, Shi^Dpen, Eldred, 
Thompson, Church, Galbraith, Derickson, Brown, Johnson, Vincent, and Lowrie. 



CRA WFOBD COUNTY. 609 

By an act of the Legislature of March 5th, 1804, the commissioners were directed 
to erect a court-house upon the public square. The present edifice was com- 
menced on the 10th of September, 1867, and was completed in October, 1869. 
It occupies a commanding location, is constructed of pressed brick, with red 
sandstone trimmings, and is one of the most pleasing pieces of architecture, of 
the renaissance style, which the State, outside of Philadelphia, can boast. 

The contrasts of twenty-five years in the means of travel and communication 
as depicted by Mr. Atkinson, convey some conception of the difficulties experi- 
enced. It was not uncommon for salt to be carried on pack horses, and even on 
the backs of men, long distances in that early day. But in 1828, the Beaver and 
Erie canal was constructed, stretching from Lake Erie, near the village of Girard, 
to the mouth of the Beaver river, on the Ohio, and thence to Pittsburgh, which 
greatly improved the means of transportation. The summit between these two 
points is Conneaut lake, which, as we have seen, is upon the divide which separates 
the Mississippi river system from that of the great lakes. Boats were accord- 
ingly locked up from Pittsburgh to the Conneaut lake, and from there down to 
Lake Erie. Conneaut lake was hence made the reservoir for feeding the canal in 
both directions. To make it at all times serviceable, its mouth was dammed and 
its surface raised eleven feet, greatl}' increasing its size, and to feed it the water 
was taken from the Yenango river, two miles above Meadville, conducted by the 
left bank to Shaw's landing, seven miles below, where it was led across the stream 
by an aqueduct, high above its natural level, and thence forward to the lake. 
This feeder gave Meadville all the advantages of the main line which followed the 
valleys of the Shenango and Conneaut creeks, leaving Meadville twenty miles 
away. In its day it served an important purpose. But the hour was rapidly 
approaching, then little dreamed of, when this vast public work, with its miles of 
solid masonry, executed with vast labor, would be thrown aside as a cast-off 
garment. 

As late as 1857 there was not a mile of railway within the borders of the 
county. In less than ten years from that date it had more miles than any other 
county in the State. The Erie and Pittsburgh railroad follows substantially the 
course of the canal, traversing the whole length of its western border, and was 
completed in 1858. The Atlantic and Great Western, with broad gauge to cor- 
respond to the Erie, was constructed in 1861-2, and passes in a somewhat 
circuitous course from north-east to south-west through the central part, having 
large and substantial shops of brick and stone at Meadville. At about the same 
time the Oil Creek and Allegheny Yalley road, extending through the whole 
length of the eastern part, was built, and likewise the Franklin branch of the 
Atlantic and Great Western, reaching from Meadville to Oil City. Subsequently 
tlie Union and Titusville was constructed, giving complete rail communication 
with every part. The two most important were projected before oil was 
discovered, and hence independently of the necessities which it created. The 
others were the outgrowth of the surprising development of that wonderful fluid. 

Though considerable manufacturing in iron and wood and wool has, from an 

early day, been carried on, to which may now be added those of oil, and the wants 

which the production of oil has given rise to, yet it cannot be properly termed a 

manufacturing county. Conneautville, a village in the western part, on the line 

2o 



1 



610 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

of the canal, was for many years the rival of Meadville in enterprise and business 
capacity, and far outstretched Titusville, the principal village of the extreme 
east; but upon the discovery of oil in 1859, the latter suddenly sprang into 
importance, and shot forward until it had surpassed Meadville in population, and 
is still a place of much wealth and business, though, since the subsidence of oil, 
has fallen behind its more staid and sedate neighbor. Mosiertown, Harmons- 
burg, Evansburg, Linesville, Espyville, Hartstown, and Adamsville, in the west, 
are all villages long settled, and the centres of a prosperous population. In the 
centre are Cambridge, Venango, Saegertown, Geneva, and Cochranton, and in 
the east Spartansburg, Riceville, Centreville, Townville, Tryonville, and Oil 
Creek, which share in the general prosperity. 

The population of the county in 1800 was 2,346 ; in 1830 it had increased to 
16,030; in 1870 to 63,832. The early settlers were chiefly German, Scotch-Irish, 
and emigrants from New England and New York, and such, substantially, 
the population has continued to be. Wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, and hay were 
the staple products of the soil, of which in the early settlement more was pro- 
duced than consumed. From the first, however, the soil seemed better adapted to 
grazing than to grain, and to within a recent period the chief product for export 
was stock, though not in a pi'ofitable way. Immense numbers of cattle were 
raised, but they were not usuall}' kept until they were more than three years old. 
They were then sold for a price that barely covered the cost of production, and 
were driven away to the luxuriant meadows of Lancaster and Chester, where they 
attained great weight, and were sold at high prices for the Philadelphia market. 
That custom has now almost entirely ceased. Some twenty years ago a great 
impetus was given to stock breeding by the introduction, especially in the 
western portion, of fine blooded horses, cattle, sheep, and swine, and the county 
fairs held at Coilneautville and Meadville, served to stimulate competition and 
local pride in securing perfection. The agents of Louis Napoleon bought horses 
here for the imperial stables, and many of the proudest stepping animals that 
make their appearance on Broadway and Chestnut street were gathered from the 
rich pasturage of Crawford. A limited number of farmers in difl;"erent sections of 
the county made excellent butter, which did not suffer by comparison with the 
noted Orange county makes of New York. 

But the true sphere of the farmers had not yet been reached. To raise 
enough buckwheat for home consumption, to fatten a few bullocks and swine 
and sheep, and to furnish a few pounds of butter carried to market on cabbage 
leaves, was not putting the rich grasses of its hillsides and intervals to their 
most pr<^table and natural use. It was not until 1870 that any considerable 
concert of action was secured in cheese-making at factories. Since that period 
this business has rapidly increased, until now nearly every section in its broad 
domain is covered by it. The great increase in the amount of money realized 
from the dairy products has stimulated production, and now the pure water, the 
fine shade, and the excellent grass are utilized in the production of milk 
Already the Meadville cheese exchange rivals that of the famous Little Falls. 
During the j^ear 1875 there were sixty nine factories in operation, giving an 
aggregate product of ten million pounds, valued at one million dollars. 

A large number of the early settlers bad served in the Revolutionary army, 



CEAWFORD COUNTY. 611 

of whom Major Roger Alden, mentioned before, was one of the most pro- 
minent. They were among the best citizens, and showed by their sober and 
industrious habits that the fortunes of the camp and the battle-field had not 
destro3'ed their capacity for usefulness in private life. In 1812-15, the war was 
brought near to our borders, and when Perr}^ prepared his fleet at Erie, he found 
among the most useful and resolute of his mechanics, men from this county, and 
when he set sail to meet the foe, that those same brawny arms were skillful and 
ready in handling the musket. Seeing that this part of the State was exposed to 
invasion from its near contiguitj' to Canada, and reflecting upon what the con- 
sequence might have been had the British fleet been victorious instead of the 
American, the Legislature of Pennsylvania ordered the erection of an arsenal at 
Meadville, and concentrated there several powerful batteries of artillery ; this 
location being just far enough away from the border to be secure from sudden 
seizure, and near enough to be of service should an enemy attempt invasion. In 
1855, through the influence of Senator Darwin A. Finney, the necessity for keep- 
ing a military depot at this point having passed away, on account of the im- 
proved means of rapid transit, the Legislature donated the property which had 
now become centrally located, to the city of Meadville for school purposes, and 
in 18G8 a beautiful structure was erected thereon. 

But it was the war of Rebellion which called out the military strength and 
powers of the countj^, and illustrated the nerve and stern qualities of which its 
citizens are composed. In the three months' service the Erie regiment was 
largely made up of volunteers from its borders. In the three years and veteran 
service the Ninth and Tenth Reserves, the Fifty-seventh, the Eighty-third, the 
One Hundred and Eleventh, the One Hundred and Forty-fifth, the One Hundred 
and Fiftieth, One Hundred and Sixty-third (Eighteenth cavahy), and One Hun- 
dred and Ninetieth regiments were composed largely of its hardy sons. Colonel 
Henry S. Huidekoper, of the One Hundred and Fiftieth, lost his right arm at 
Gettysburg ; Major A. J. Mason, of the One Hundred and Forty -fifth, was killed 
in the battle of Fredericksburg, and numbers of others of various ranks were 
killed or wounded, there being few townships throughout its borders but have 
some graves of soldiers to cherish and decorate. Company K, of the One Hun- 
dred and Fiftieth regiment, better known as the Bucktails, was selected on its 
arrival at Washington for the bodj^ guard to Mr. Lincoln, which oflflce it faith- 
fully performed for two years, winning the respect and confidence of the Presi- 
dent and his family, and served as escort at his funeral. No troops won a more 
enviable reputation in the great army of the Union than the Bucktails, and to 
wear its significant emblem was a proud distinction. 






CUMBERLAND COU^^TY. 



BY I. DANIEL RUPP. 

[With acknowledgments to E. S. Wagoner and J. A. Murray, D.Z).] 

ilUMBERLAND county was named after a maritime county of England, 
bordering on Scotland. The name is derived from the Keltic, 
Kimbriland. The Kimbrie, or Keltic races, once inhabited the 
County of Cumberland in England. 
Cumberland county was, when erected, the sixth county in Pennsylvania, 
Philadelphia, Bucks, and Chester having been established in 1682, Lancaster 




'~^^-=^—tM^ 




CUMBERLAND COUNTY COURT HOUSE, CARLISLE. 

[From a Photograph by Choate, Carlisle.] 

1729, and York 1749. Among other inhabitants of North or Cumberland Valley, 
were James Silvers and William Magaw, who presented petitions to the Assembly 
praying for the establishing of a new county. An act for that purpose was 
passed January 27, 1750. The commissioners appointed to carry ont— the 
provi&ioBS of the act of Assembly were Robert McCoy, Benjamin Chambers, 
David Magaw, James Mclntire, and John_^cCormick. 

The act provided, establishing Cumberland, formed of part of Lancaster 

612 



CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 613 

county, says : " That all and singular lands lying within the Province of Penn- 
sylvania, to the westward of the Susquehanna, and nortliward and westward of 
the county of York, be erected into a county, to be called Cumberland ; bounded 
northward and westward with the line of the Provinces, eastward partly with the 
Susquehanna and partly with said county of York ; and southward, in part by 
the line dividing said province from that of Maryland." To the end, that the 
boundaries between York and Cumberland may be better ascertained, it was 
further enacted that commissioners on the part of York county should be 
appointed to act in conjunction in the premises with the commissioners of Cum- 
berland. The commissioners of York county were Thomas Cox, Michael Tanner, 
Geca:g^.gwope, Nathan Hussey, and John Wright, Jr. 

When the commissioners of both counties met to fix the boundary line 
between York and Cumberland, they disagreed. The commissioners of Cumber- 
land wished that the dividing line commence opposite the mouth of the Swatara 
creek, and run along the ridge of the South mountain (or Trent hills or Priest 
hills), while those of York county wished that the Yellow Breeches creek should 
form part of the dividing line. The difficulties were settled by an act passed 
February 9, USl. 

The ample limits of Cumberland, when first established, were gradually 
reduced by the formation of other counties, viz., by the erection of Bedford, 
mi; of Northumberland, in2 ; of Franklin, 1784; of Mifflin, 1189; and of 
Perry, 1820. 

Cumberland, as now formed, is bounded on the north by Perry ; on the east by 
the Susquehanna river, which separates it from Dauphin ; on the south by York 
and Adams ; and on the west by Franklin. Length, thirty-four miles ; breadth, 
sixteen ; area, five hundred and forty-four square miles — three hundred and forty- 
eight thousand one hundred and sixty acres, of which about two-thirds are 
improved. 

The natural boundary of Cumberland is the Blue mountain on the north, 
called by the Indians Kau-ta-tin- Chunk, Kittatinny, Main, or Principal moun- 
tain ; and south by the South mountain. Between these two natural boundaries 
the greater portion of the county lies. The surface is comparatively level, 
especially the lime-stone portion. The slate region, north of the Conodogwinet 
creek, is somewhat uneven and hilly. South and north, along the South mountain, 
where ridgea abound, the surface is mostly rough, and only partially cultivated ; 
much of it is covered with timber. The geological formation of these r-idgea 
is almost wholly composed of hard, white sand-stone. At the Pine Grove 
furnace, on Mountain creek, is a detached bed of limestone, of limited extent, 
surrounded by mountain sand-stone and connected with a deposit of brown 
argillaceous and hematite iron ore, which is productive, and has been worlvcd for 
many years. All along the northern side of the South mountain, near the con- 
tact of the white sand-stone witli the lime-stone, iron ore is abundant, and is 
extensively used for the supply of furnaces. Further north, and wholly within 
the lime-stone formation, pipe ore and other varieties of excellent quality may 
be obtained in many places. The rocks of the Blue mountain are the coarse 
gray and reddish sand-stones. 

From elevated points on the Blue mountain one has a commanding or 



614 HIS TOE Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

imposing prospect of a most cliarming and beautiful broad valley, extending 
soutli and east, between tlie two natural boundaries. A wide and diversified 
landscape of woodland, highly improved farms, and numerous villages and 
towns, spread before the view like an immense picture, stretching away in the 
distance until fading in the dim horizon, and the eye wanders in delighted 
admiration of the beautiful, A^aried, and extended scene. 

The Conodogwinet is the largest stream of water in the county. It rises in 
Franklin county, moving steadily in a sinuous course until it reaches the Susque- 
hanna at West Fairview, affording ample water power to many mills on its banks. 
Means' run, the main south tributary of the Conodogwinet, rises at the foot of 
the South mountain. It flows along the boundary line between Franklin and 
Cumberland, through Shippensburg, a distance of eight miles, until it empties 
into the Conodogwinet. The Yellow Breeches rises from many large springs in 
the south-western part of the county, along the South mountain, flowing through 
and along the southern portion of the county, emptying into the Susquehanna 
at New Cumberland, three miles below Harrisburg. It is a clear and rapid 
stream, scarcely freezing over in the winter. It affords a vast amount of water 
power to mills, forges, and furnaces upon it and its several branches. Other 
large springs rise within this county. One at Springfield, south of Newville, 
affords much water power. It runs northward and empties into the Conodo- 
gwinet, having its banks studded with mills. LeTort's spring, south of Carlisle, 
also yields water power. Silvers' spring, in Silvers' Spring township, has its 
source about one mile south of the Conodogwinet, into which it empties, and 
aflTords water power to two mills. A number of springs exist near the head of 
tlic Yellow Breeches, in the south-western part of the count}^, and several in the 
south-eastern part. Near Doubling gap, at the foot of the Blue mountain, is a 
spring strongly impregnated with sulphur. Carlisle springs, four miles from 
the town, acquired some note in years gone by as a fashionable place of resort. 
At Mount Rock, seven miles west of Carlisle, a large spring issues from a lime- 
stone rock, the water from which, after running a short distance, sinks again 
into the earth and passes under a hill, once more re-appears on the north side and 
pursues its course to the Conodogwinet. Cedar run, in the eastern part of the 
county, affords water power to a mill, near where it empties into the Yellow 
Breeches creek. Green spring rises a few miles north of Oakville, runs north- 
ward, and empties into the Conodogwinet creek. 

The agricultural resources arc equal to any other county of the same popula- 
tion in the State. None can boast of more highly cultivated and productive 
farms than Cumberland. Many of the cultivators of the soil are of German 
descent, of whose ancestors Governor George Thomas, of the Province of Penn- 
sylvania, wrote to the Bishop of Exeter, April 23, IHI : "The Germans of 
Pennsjdvania are, I believe, three-fifths of the population (whole population then 
two hundred thousand). They have, by their industry, been the principal instru- 
ments of raising the State to its present flourishing condition, beyond any of his 
Majesty's colonies in North America." Of the three hundred and forty-eight 
thousand one hundred and sixty acres of land, more than two-thirds, i. e., 
two hundred and thirty-nine thousand seven hundred and eighty-four acres, are 
improved. 



CUMBEBLAND COUNTY, 615 

Iron manufactories of different kinds are carried on to considerable extent. 
There are eight or nine furnaces and five or six forges, in which large quantities of 
pig metal and forged iron are made from the ore found in this region. The 
furnaces and forges, the rolling mills and nail factory, give em3doyment to a 
large number of working men, to miners of ore, wood-choppers, furnace tenders, 
forge men, and other operatives. Timber of various kinds is abundant in the 
mountains, affording a sufficient supply for iron works and for domestic purposes. 

Prior to the whites settling in the North Vallc}'-, now Cumberland Valley, the 
Shawanese Indians had fixed habitations on the west side of the Susquehanna, 
on the Conodogwinet creek, as also at the mouth of the Yellow Breeches. With 
the migration of that nation to the Ohio, on the advent of the European, about 
1725, these villages were deserted, and the Cumberland "Valley ceased to be the 
home of the aborigines. 

The first settlers in Cumberland county were principally Scotch-Irish, with 
some English. The immigration of the Scotch-Irish into Pennsylvania began 
about 1715, and the number annually increased to such an extent that the Pro- 
vincial Secretary, in writing to the Proprietaries, says : " It looks as if Ireland is 
to send all her inhabitants, for last week not less than six ships arrived, and 
every day two or three arrive also. The common fear is that they thus crowd 
where they are not wanted." The early Scotch-Irish settlers of Cumberland 
Valley were of " the better sort " — a Christian people. Prominent among them 
were the families of Calhoun, Kenn}'^, Spray, Shannon, Dicke}^, Bigham, Cham- 
bers, Irwin, Berryhill, Noble, Crawford, Fulton, McClellan, Rose, Sample, West, 
Huston, Buchajmn, Reed, McGuire, McMeans, Caruthers, Quigly, Morton, 
Armstrong, Nelson, McCormick, Elliot, Dunning, Junkin, Gray, Star, Silvers, 
Stevenson, Hunter, Douglass, Mitchell, Holmes, Finley, Irvine, Hamilton, Orr, 
McDonald, Parker, Denny, Lamberton, Murray, and Blair. 

After 1734 the influx of immigrants into the Cumberland Valley increased 
fast. By reason of feuds in 1749, between the German and Irish in York 
county, the Proprietaries instructed their agents, in order to prevent further 
difficulties and disturbances, not to sell any more lands in York county to the 
Irish, but hold strong inducements by advantageous overtures to settle in the 
North or Kittatinny valley. The first settlers were being supplanted by Germans 
as early as 1757-60, many of the Scotch-Irish removing further west after the 
Revolution. We find among the German families in Cumberland county, as 
early as 1761, the names of Wertzberger, Gramlich, Stark, Albert, Kunckel, 
Huber, Renninger, Weber, Legner, Kast, Seyler, Diehl, Hamuth, Kistner, Sen- 
zenbach, Hausman, Bucher, Kimmel, Herman. After 1770, Rupp, Sclinebele, 
Schwartz, Seller, Longsdorff, Kuhn, Emhoff, Braun, Strack, Boor, Grieger, 
Bernhardt, Bielman, Brandt, Fame, Bollinger, Kreutzer, Scholl, Schopp, Coover, 
Keisecker, Stegmuller, Kauffmann, and Frankenberger. 

Between 1750 and 1755 there figured a character of some note in Cumberland 
county. Captain Jack, the " black hunter," the " black rifle," the " wild hunter 
of Juniata," the " black hunter of the forest," was a white man. He entered the 
woods with a few enterprising companions, built his cabin, cleared a little land, 
and amused himself with the pleasures of fishing and hunting. He felt happy, 
for lie had not a care. But on an evening, when he returned from a day of sport. 



< 



616 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

he found his cabin burnt, and his wife and children murdered. From that 
moment he forsook civilized man, lived in caves, protected the frontier inhabi- 
tants from the Indians, and seized every opportunity for revenge that offered. 
He was a terror to the Indians; a protector to tlie Avhites. On one occasion, near 
Juniata, in the middle of a dark night, a family was suddenly awakened by the 
report of a gun. They jumped from their huts, and by the glimmering light from 
their chimney, saw an Indian fall to rise no more. The open door exposed to 
view the " wild hunter." " I saved your lives," he cried ; then turned and was 
buried in the gloom of night. He never shot without good cause. His look was 
as unerring as his aim. He formed an association to defend the settlers against 
savage aggressions. On a given signal they would unite. Their exploits were 
heard of, in 1756, on the Conococheague and Juniata. He was sometimes called 
the Half Indian ; and Colonel Armstrong, in a letter to the Governor, says : 
" The company, under the command of the Half Indian, having left the Great 
Cove, the Indians took advantage and murdered many." He also, through 
Colonel Croghan, proffered his aid to Braddock. " He will march with his 
hunters," says the Colonel ; " they are dressed in hunting shirts, moccasins, etc., 
are well armed, and are equally regardless of heat or cold. They require no 
shelter for the night — they ask no pay." What was the real name of this 
mysterious personage has never been ascertained. It is supposed that he gave 
the name to " Jack's mountain" — an enduring and appropriate monviment. 

Soon after ihe defeat of the Vii'ginia forces and the capitulation of Fort 
Necessity, July 4, 1154, the inhabitants on the frontiers of Cumberland Valley 
were in imminent danger of being surprised by the Indians. The people 
petitioned Governor Hamilton for protection, by furnishing them arms and 
ammunition. After the defeat of General Braddock the alarmed people once and 
again begged of the Governor for a supply of arms and ammunition. Governor 
Morris, Hamilton's successor, summoned the Assembly to meet in November. 
No sooner assembled when he called their attention to the true, but sad, state of 
affairs. In order to protect the inhabitants against the incursions of the Indians 
west of the Susquehanna, a chain or line of block-houses, stockades, and forts, 
was erected from the Susquehanna to the Potomac, some at the public expense, 
others by individuals at their own cost. To these places of protection, hun- 
dreds of refugees resorted to escape the tomahawk and scalping knife, or worse 
yet, captivity and the stake. In this chain or line of places of defence, they 
may be named in the order, beginning at or near the Susquehanna — McCormick's 
fort, in East Pennsboro' township, nearJhfi-Susquehanna ; Fort Pleasant, or 
Hendrick's fort ; Fort Lowther, at Carlisle ; Forts Morris and Franklin, at Ship- 
pensburg ; Fort Loudoun, at the base of the Blue mountain ; Chambers' fort, 
McDowell's fort, a private fort erected as early as 1756; fort at Rev. Steel's, 
three miles east of Mercersburg ; fort at Maxwell's ; Davis' fort, near the Mary- 
land line. There were other forts north of the Blue mountain. Notwithstanding 
this cordon and the vigilance of the people, the hostile savages made maraud- 
mg incursions into Cumberland Valley, along the Blue mountain for the distance 
of eighty miles. 

Governor Morris, in his message to the Assembly, in August, 1756, sets forth 
briefly what the Indians had done in the summer of that year. " The French 



CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 611 

and their allies made several invasions, and have, in the most inhuman and bar- 
barous manner, murdered great numbers of our people, and carried others into 
captivity, being greatl}^ emboldened by a series of successes, not only attempted 
but took Fort Granville (now Lewistown) on the 30th of July, then commanded by 
Lieutenant Armstrong, carried off the greater part of the garrison, from whom, 
doubtless, the enemy will be informed of the weakness of the frontier, and how 
incapable we are of defending ourselves against the incursions, which will be a 
great inducement for them to redouble their attack, and in all probability, for 
the remaining inhabitants of the county to evacuate it. Great numbers of the 
inhabitants are fled already, and others" preparing to go off, finding that it is 
not in the power of the troops of this government to prevent the ravages of the 
restless, barbarous, and merciless enemy. It is, therefore, greatly to be doubted 
that without a further protection, the inhabitants of this county will shortly 
endeavor to save themselves by flight, which must be productive of considerable 
inconvenience to his majesty's interest in general, and to the welfare of this 
Province in particular." 

The savages still made incursions and continued the work of blood and 
butchery. The people of East Pennsborough township were in imminent danger 
of being murdered by the direful fiends. To save themselves, many of the 
people fled. Those who remained supplicated government for protection. The 
following petition was sent to Secretary Peters at Philadelphia: "August 24, 
1756 — The humble supplication of the remaining inhabitants of East Penns- 
borough township, in Cumberland county, letting your worship know something 
of our melancholy state, we are at present, by reason of the savage Indians, who 
have not only killed our Christian neighbors, but are coming nearer to us in 
their late slaughter ; and almost every day numbers on our frontiers are leaving 
their places and travelling further down among the inhabitants, and we are made 
quite incapable of holding our frontiers good any longer, unless your worship 
can prevail with our honorable Governor and Assembly to be pleased to send us 
speedy relief. May it please all to whom this shall come, to consider what an 
evil case we will be exposed to, in leaving our places, grain, and cattle ; for we 
are not able to buy provisions for our families, much less for our cattle. And to 
live here we cannot, we are so weak-handed, and those not removed are not 
provided with guns and ammunition ; and we have agreed with a guard of four- 
teen men in number ; and if it were in our power to pay for a guard, we should 
be satisfied, but we are not able to pay them. Begging for God's sake you may 
take pity-'Uptjnrour poarfamvlies^, and that their necessities may be considered 
by all gentlemen that have charge of us." Signed by William Chestnut, John 
Sample, Francis McGuire, James McMullen,. Samuel McCormick, Tobias Hen- 
dricks, John McCormick, Rodger Walton, Robert McWhinney, James Silvers. 

In the'sprmg-'ana summer of 1757 the Indians invaded East Pennsboro'. In 
May, 175t, William Walker and another man were killed near McCormick's fort, 
at Conodogwinet. In July, of the same year, four persons were killed near Tobias 
Hendricks'. For the greater security of the inhabitants, Colonel Armstrong, of 
Carlisle, strenuously recommended " the people's working together in parties as 
large as possible, and have from William Maxwell's fort, near the temporary 
line (between Pennsylvania and Maryland), to John McCormick's, near the 






618 RISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Susquehanna, placed about twenty guards, and changing the stations as well as 
the number of each guard according to the necessity and convenience of 
the people." 

Companies of rangers scoured, in the summer of IVSY, the country between 
the Conodogwinet creek and the Blue mountain, from the Susquehanna west- 
ward, as far as ShippensbuKg, to route the savages who usually lurked in small 
parties, stealing through the woods and over fields to surprise laborers, to attack 
men, women, and children in the " light of day and dead of night," murdered all 
indiscriminately whom they had surprised, fired houses and barns, abducted women 
and children. On July 18, 1757, six men were killed or taken away near Ship- 
pensburg, while reaping in John Cesney's field. The savages murdered John 
Kirkpatrick, Dennis Oneidan ; captured John Cesne}', three of his grandsons, 
and one of John Kirkpatrick's children. The day following, not far from 
Shippensburg, in Joseph Stevenson's harvest field, the savages butchered 
inhumanly Joseph Mitchell, James Mitchell, William Mitchell, John Finlay, 
Robert Stevenson, Andrew Enslow, John Wiley, Allen Henderson, and William 
Gibson, carrying off Jane McCammon, Mary Minor, Janet Harper, and a son of 
John Finlay. July 27, Mr. McKisson was wounded, and his son taken from the 
South mountain. A letter, dated Carlisle, September 5, 1757, says three per- 
sons were killed by the Indians, six miles frpm Carlisle, and two persons abeut 
two miles from Silvers' old place. 

A longer list of tlie names of slain and captured might be added. In 
the summer of 1761 and later, many fled for shelter and protection to 
Shippensburg, Carlisle, and the lower end of the county. In Jul}^, 1763, 1,384 
of the poor distressed back inhabitants took refuge at Shippensburg. Of this 
number there were three hundred and one men, three hundred and forty-five 
women, and seven hundred and thirty-eight children — many of them had to lie in 
barns, stables, cellars, under leaky sheds — the dwelling houses were all crowded. 
In the lower end of the county every house, every barn, and every stable was 
crowded with miserable refugees, who having lost their horses, their cattle, their 
harvest, were reduced from independence and happiness to abject beggary and 
despair. The streets and roads were filled with people, the men distracted with 
grief for their losses ; and the desire for revenge, more poignantly excited by the 
disconsolate females and bereaved children, who wailed around them. In the 
woods for miles, on both sides of the Susquehanna, many families, with their 
cattle, sought shelter, being unable to find it in towns. 

Many of the inhabitants were Presb3^terians, of whom it is said : " They 
were patriots, haters of tyranny, known abbettors of the earliest resistance to 
their civil rights." Who, then, can dispute that patriotism was the leading trait 
among the people of the Cumberland Yalley. No sooner had the port of Boston 
been closed, and fifty-three days before the Continental Congress assembled in 
Philadelphia, when " a respectable meeting of the freeholders and freemen from 
several townships in Cumberland county, was held at Carlisle, on Tuesda\^, the 
12th day of July, 1774, John Montgomery, Esquire, in the chair. At that 
meeting the following resolutions were offered and unanimously adopted : 

] . liesolved, That the late act of the Parliament of Great Britain, b}' which the 
port of Boston is shut up, is oppressive to that town and subversive of the rights 



CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 619 

and liberties of the colony of Massachusetts Bay ; that the principle upon which 
that act is founded is not more subversive of the rights and liberties of that 
colony than it is of all other British colonies in North America ; and, therefore, 
the inhabitants of Boston are suffering in the common cause of all these colonies. 

2. That every vigorous and prudent measure ought speedily and unanimously 
to be adopted by these colonies for obtaining redress for the grievances of the 
same, or of a still more severe nature, under which they and the other inhabi- 
tants of the colonies may, by a further operation of the same principle, 
hereafter labor. 

3. That a Congress of Deputies from all the colonies will be our pi-oper 
method for obtaining these purposes. 

4. That the same purposes will, in the opinion of this meeting, be promoted 
by an arrangement of all the colonies not to import any merchandise from, nor 
to export any merchandise to. Great Britain, Ireland, or the British West Indies, 
nor to use any such merchandise so imported, nor tea imported from any place 
whatever, till these purposes be obtained ; but that the inhabitants of this 
county will join any restriction of that agreement which the general Congress 
may think it necessary for the colonies to confine themselves to. 

5. That the inhabitants of this county will contribute to the relief of their 
suffering brethren in Boston at any time when they shall receive notice that such 
relief will be most seasonable. 

6. That a committee be immediately appointed for this county to correspond 
with the committees of this Province, or of the other provinces, upon the great 
objects of the public attention ; and to co-operate in every measure conducing to 
the general welfare of British America. 

7. That the committee consist of the following persons, viz.: James Wilson, 
John Armstrong, John Montgomery, William Irvine, Robert Callender, William 
Thompson, John Calhoun, Jonathan Hoge, Robert Magaw, Ephraim Blaine, John 
Allison, John Harris, and Robert Miller, or any five of them, 

8. That James Wilson, Robert Magaw, and William Irvine be the deputies 
appointed to meet the deputies from other counties of this Province, at Philadel- 
phia, on Friday next, the 22d July, in order to concert measures preparatory 
to the general Congress. 

On receiving the news of the battle of Lexington, the county committee 
met. May 4, 1775, on a very short notice. It is recorded that about three 
thousand men had associated ; the arms returned to be about fifteen hundred. 
The committee voted five hundred effective men, besides commissioned officers, 
to be immediately drafted, taken into pay, armed and disciplined, to march on 
the first emergency ; to be paid and supported as long as necessary by a tax on 
all estates, real and personal, in the county ; the returns to be taken by the 
township committees ; and the tax laid by the commissioners and assessors ; the 
pay of the officers and men as usual in times past. Among other subjects pro- 
posed was the mode of drafting, or taking into pay, arming and victualling 
immediately the men, and the choice of fields, and other affairs formed the subject 
of deliberation. " The strength or spirit of this county," said one present, 
" perhaps may appear small if judged by the number of men proposed ; but when 
it is considered that we are ready to raise fifteen hundred or two thousand, 



620 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

should we have support from the Province, and that independent, and in uncer- 
tain expectation of support, we have voluntarily drawn upon this county a debt 
of about twenty-seven thousand pounds per annum, I hope we shall not appear 
contemptible. We make great improvements in military discipline. It is yet 
uncertain who may go." 

Soon after the meeting, held July 12, 1775, several volunteer companies were 
raised and marched to Massachusetts. The first was that of Captain William 
Hendricks, who was killed at Quebec, and of whom Provost Smith, in his funeral 
oration on the death of Greneral Montgomery, delivered before Congress, February 
19, 1776, says: "I must not omit, however, the name of the brave Captain 
Hendricks, who commanded one of the Pennsylvania rifle companies, and who was 
known to me from infancy. He was indeed prodigal of life, and courted danger 
out of his tour of duty. The command of the guard belonged to him on the 
morning of attack, but he solicited and obtained leave to occupy a more con- 
spicuous post." Hendricks' parents resided at what is now known as Oyster's 
Point, two miles west of Harrisburg. His first lieutenant, John McClellan, 
perished on the march through the wilderness. Lieutenant Nichols, afterwards 
General Nichols, was for many years after the war a prominent citizen of Cum- 
berland county. One of his sergeants, Dr. Thomas Gibson, of Carlisle, was 
appointed assistant surgeon, and died at Yalley Forge in the winter of 1788. The 
only other members of his company whose names have come down to us were 
Henry Crow, of Dauphin county. Sergeants Grier (whose wife accompanied the 
expedition, and who is very honorabl}'' mentioned by Judge Heniy), and William 
McCoy ; privates John Blair, John Carswell, James Hogge, David Lamb, who 
died in Centre county, in 1825; Thomas Lesley, who was afterwards killed at 
Fort Mifflin, in November, 1777, John McMurdy, who resided in the western part 
of this State in 1816 ; John McChesney, and Henry McEwen, who died in 
Centre county, in October, 1823. 

James Chambers, the oldest son of Benjamin Chambers, raised a company of 
infantry from the neighborhood, which he commanded as a captain, and in 1775, 
inarched, accompanied by two younger brothers, William and Benjamin, as 
cadets, to join the American army, then encamped on the high ground of Boston, 
where the royal army was besieged. They were also with the army during the 
arduous and trying campaigns of 1776-77 in the Jerseys, and were engaged in 
the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, 1777. 

In October, 1794, General Washington rendezvoused some days at Carlisle 
with twelve thousand soldiers, on his way westward to quell " the Whiskey 
Insurrection." On the 1st of October Governor Thomas Miflfiin, of Pennsylvania, 
arrived at Carlisle, and in the evening delivered an animated address in the 
Presbyterian church. On Saturday, the 4th, George Washington, President of 
the United States, accompanied by Secretary Hamilton, and his private secre- 
tary, Mr. Dandridge, and a large company of soldiers, besides a great mass of 
yeomanry, members of the Senate and House of Representatives, arrived. A line 
was formed, composed of cavalry, with sixteen pieces of cannon, with the infantry 
from various parts of Pennsylvania, amounting in the whole to near four thousand 
men. The court house was illuminated in the evening by the Federal citizens, 
a transparency exhibited with this inscription in front : " Washington is ever 



GUMBEBLAND COUNTY. 621 

Triumphant." On one side, " The Reign of the Laws ; " on the other, '" Woe to 
Anarchists." 

Two companies, a ti'oop of light horse, and the old company of Carlisle light 
infantry, promptly offered their services to the Government, and joined the 
troops which assembled October 11, 1794, and which joined Washington — 
marched to the west — the field of the Whiskey Insurrection. After a long and 
fatiguing march to Fort Pitt, their services being over, they were ordered to 
return to Carlisle, and were honorably discharged. 

In the war of 1812, the Carlisle infantry company, organized in 1184, again 
ti*a versed the ground which they had in part passed over in 1*794, in their march 
to suppress the Whiske}^ Insurrection. On the 24th of February, 1814, these 
pitched their tents, and about the first of March following took up the line of 
march with a detachment consisting of the Mount Rock infantry. Captain James 
Piper, the Carlisle rifle company, Captain George Hendel, Captain Roberts' com- 
pany. Captain David Mouland's companj^, and Captain Mitchell's company, 
mustering in all a detachment of five hundred and sixty, of as fine-looking and 
brave men as ever marched to the lines, and when there, their deeds on that occa- 
sion ai"e not forgotten. On their arrival at the Lake, the Carlisle infantry, Mount 
Rock infantry, and Captain Mitchell's company stepped aboard the fleet then on 
Lake Erie, and under the command of the late Jesse D. Elliot, commander, after a 
cruise to the head of the Lake. In thirt}^ days they returned to Erie, and in a 
few days shipped again for Upper Canada, and after burning a town and breaking 
up the enemy's camp and destroying their stores, they returned to Erie, then 
marched to Buffalo, to join General Brown's army. Some of those gallant 
soldiers were at the capture of Fort Erie and Upper Canada. Shortly after the 
Carlise infantry was detached by order of Major General Brown to the city of 
Albany, with three companies of British prisoners captured at Fort Erie. 
Captain James Piper's company was stationed at BuflFalo ready for fight. The 
Carlisle infantry, with British prisoners, on the arrival at their place of destina- 
tion at Greenbush barracks, delivered the British prisoners, did garrison duty 
there to the 28th of August, at which time the commanding officer received 
orders from General Brown to give that company an honorable discharge from 
the United States service. One of the privates, Edward Armor, attained the 
rank of brigadier general. The Carlisle Guards, under Captain Joseph 
Halbert, marched to Philadelphia, and the Patriotic Blues, under Captain 
Jacob Squier, were some time in the entrenchments at Baltimoi'e, in September, 
1814, at the time when General Ross, the British commander, made an attack on 
Baltimore. 

In the late conflict, or civil war, between the North and South, Cumberland 
county was equally prompt with any other count}' in the State to take arms in 
the defence of our common country against the Southern chivahy, who would 
have moved heaven and earth to destroy the national government. Many of 
the citizens of Cumberland oflFered up their lives upon the altar of their country, 
to maintain the honor, integrity, and supremacy of the national government in 
the war for an individual union from the north to the south, from east to west, 
from Maine to Florida, from the Atlantic to the Pacific — bound inseparably by 
the mutual friendship of the victorious and subdued. 



1 



622 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



On the 16th of June, 1863, General Jenkins, of the Southern Confederacy, 
with nine liundred and fifty cavalr}'^, entered Chambersburg. On the 23d his 
advance force re-entered, when the Union troops in town fell back. On the 2Yth 
this advance force moved eastward toward Carlisle. General Knipe, command- 
ing the Union troops, abandoned Carlisle, considering it folly to offer resistance 
to so formidable an enemy. At ten o'clock, a.m., Saturday, June 2*7, 1863, 
the advance of Lee's forces (Jenkins' cavalry) entered Carlisle from the west end 
of Main street. There were about four or five hundred mounted cavalry. They 
passed down Main street to the junction of the Trindle Spring and Dillsburg 
roads, where some of them proceeded to the Garrison ; some returned to the town 
and halted in the public square. 

General Jenkins made a requisition, on the borough authorities, for fifteen hun- 
dred rations, to be furnished within one hour, and to be deposited in the market 
house. The demand was complied with, but not so soon as required. Jenkins' 
men having regaled themselves, and baited their steeds, re-mounted them ; the 
riders passed up and down the different streets, visited the Garrison and other 
places of note. 

At two P.M. General E well's corps came in. They moved along shouting, 
laughing, playing and singing " Dixie,^' as they went through town to the Garri- 
son. Dole's brigade encamped in the College campus. Soon after their arrival 
the town was filled with officers. Most of them were perfect gentlemen in their 
manner. General Ewell and staff, numbering nearly thirty men, established their 
head-quarters at the barracks. General Ewell dispatched one of his aids to town, 
with an extravagant demand on the authorities of the borough for supplies. The 
General wanted one thousand five hundred barrels of flour, large supplies of medi- 
cine, several cases of amputating instruments. He did not forget to demand a 
large quantitj' of quinine and chloroform. The authorities did not comply with 
the unreasonable demand, because the articles demanded were not to be had in 
Carlisle. 

Before nightfall Rodes' division of Ewell's corps passed through the town, 
and encamped in and around the, militaiy post. Guards were posted on the cor- 
ners of the principal streets, who carried out the ordei's of General Ewell, "that 
no violence and outrage would be permitted." The authorities having failed to 
meet the unreasonable requisitions, on Sunday morning squads of soldiers, each 
accompanied by an officer, were commanded to help themselves, which they did 
by taking from stores and warehouses such articles as were needed. 

On Monday the railroad bridge was desti'oyed. Towards the close of the 
day the citizens breathed somewhat easier than they had since Saturday at five 
P.M., for it was rumored that an order had been issued for the entire force to 
leave. The citizens were kept in suspense till early Tuesday morning, when the 
trains of Rodes' division began to move, and brigade after brigade passed, until 
the main army had disappeared between six and nine o'clock. About two hnn- 
di'ed calvar}' were left in town doing provost duty. They too left on Tuesday 
evening. As usual, soon good feeling prevailed in the borough. Rebel pickets 
thronged both the turnpike and the Trindle Spring road, and some of them were 
near Carlisle. At two o'clock p.m., a cavalry force of four hundred made their 
appearance on the Dillsburg road, and in the evening entered the town. They 



CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 623 

were commanded by Colonel Cochran. At about eleven o'clock p.m., General 
Jenkins' command, which had been doing picket duty between Carlise and 
Harrisburg, returned to the town. Before Wednesday morning's dawn the town 
was clear of rebels. At sunrise on Wednesday, Captain Boyd's efficient command 
entered the town. Having fed his men and baited their steeds, he started after 
the departing enemy. During the day regiment after regiment arrived and took 
position on the public squares. A battery of artillery also arrived and took 
position along Hanover street. At half-past six General Smith arrived, preceded 
by three regiments of infantry and about one hundred cavalry. He selected ar^ 
eligible point or prominent position for his artillery. Scarce had this been done> 
when, at about seven o'clock, a body of the cavalry of the enemy made their 
appearance at the junction of the Trindle Spring and Dillsburg road. Soon 
there was a call to arms. The infantry flew to their positions. The members of 
Captain Low's, Captain Kuhn's, Captain Black's, and Captain Smiley's compa- 
nies of the town militia, each man on his own account, hurried to the eastern 
section of the town, and selecting secure positions, opened a very telling fire on 
the force, which compelled them to fall back. Soon the shelling of the town 
commenced, which the enemy kept up for half an hour. This was followed by 
raking Main street with more deadly missiles, " grape and canister,^^ till near 
nightfall, when a rebel officer came in with a flag of truce to General Smith's 
headquarters, demanding an unconditional surrender of the town. No such 
surrender was promised to be made. The bearer of the flag of truce returned to 
the rebel command, reported the result of his interview with General Smith. 
Vexingly chagrined, a second shelling of the town, more terrific than the first, 
was commenced. To increase the already general consternation of the citizens 
of the town, the rebels applied the burning torch ; the gas works, the barracks, 
private dwellings, etc., were fired, and while the smoke and flames rose in 
volumes skyward, a truce-bearer again interviewed General Smith, touching the 
surrender of the town. The General refused to comply with the demand ; 
which was soon followed by a third shelling, which, however, did not last as long 
as either of the others. By three o'clock, Thursday morning, the officer, with his 
command, left by way of the Boiling Spring road, thence to Papertown, then 
across the South mountain for Gettysburg, to join Lee's forces in battle. 

Providentially not one of the citizens was personally injui'ed. Not a soldier 
was killed ; some fifteen were wounded, viz. : Stewart Patterson, First Philadel- 
phia Artillery; George McNutt, Blue Reserves; William Prevost, lieutenant 
Thirty-seventh New York ; Robert Welds, Second Blue Reserves ; John Codey, 
Thirty-seventh New York ; H. C. McCleo, corporal, Twent\'-seventh New York ; 
W. B. Walter, First Gray Reserves; Mr. Ashmead, Philadelphia Artillery; P. 
Garrat, Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania; Walter Scott, Philadelphia Battery; A. T. 
Dorets, Thirty-seventh New York ; J. W. Collady, Gray Reserves. 

The principal suffei'ers were Lyne & Saxton, hardware dealers ; Haverstick & 
Elliot, druggists ; R. Moore, shoe dealer ; Eby, Myers, Halbert, & Fleming, 
grocers; Woodward & Smidt, Henderson & Reed, forwarding merchants; James 
& Bosler, blacksmiths, were relieved of all their tools, the bellows and anvil 
excepted. 

Carlisle, the seat of justice, was so named from Carlisle, in Cumberland 



624 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

county, England, was originally a Roman station called " Luguvallum," abbre- 
viated b}' the Saxons to Luel, to which "Caer," or city, being prefixed, the result 
is Caerluel or Carlisle. Carlisle was laid out in 1151, in pursuance of letters of 
instruction and by the direction of the Proprietaries. A survey of the town and 
lands adjacent was made by John Armstrong, 1762. After Carlisle was laid out, 
the courts were removed from Shippensburg. The removal of the courts pro- 
duced not a little excitement among the settlers of the western portion of the 
count}^ In a petition from inhabitants of Cumberland county to the Assembly, 
they say : " That a majority of the trustees, to purchase a piece of land, had 
made a return to the Governor of a place at a branch of the Conecochague creek, 
about eight miles from Shippensburg by the Great Road (laid out 1135) to Vir- 
ginia, was selected as a location for the court house and prison there, and withal 
submitting Shippensburg to the Governor's choice, which they were fully per- 
suaded would have quieted the citizens, although it be north-east of the centre ; 
yet it had pleased the Governor to remove the courts of justice to the LeTort's 
spring, a place almost at the end of the county, there it seems, intending the 
location of the court house, to the great grief and damage of the far greater part 
of the county." 

The first courts in Cai^lisle were held in a temporary log building, on the north- 
east corner of Centre Square. In 1153 there were only five dwellings in the 
place. In a letter from John O'Neal to Governor Hamilton, dated at Carlisle, 
May 21, 1153, he writes: "If the lots were clear of the brushwood, it would 
give a different aspect to the town. The situation, however, is a handsome one; 
in the centre of a valley, with a mountain bounding it on the north and south, of 
a distance of seven miles. The wood consists principally of oak and hickory. 
The limestone will be of great advantage to future settlers, being in abundance. 
A lime kiln stands on the centre square, near what is called the 'deep 
quarry,' from which is obtained good building stone. A large stream 
(Conodogwinet) of water runs about two miles from the village, which may, at 
a future period, be rendered navigable. A fine spring flows to the east, called 
LeTort, after the Indian interpreter, who settled on its head about the year 
1120. The Indian wigwams in the vicinity of the Great Beaver pond, are to 
men an object of particular curiosity. A large number of the Delawares, Shaw- 
anese, and Tuscaroras continue in this vicinity ; the greater number have gone to 
the west. The Irish immigrants here have acted with inconsidei'ate rashness in 
entering upon Indian lands not purchased. [The land in Cumberland valley was 
not purchased by the Proprietaries from the Indians until 1136.] It is a matter 
of regret that the}'- do not conciliate and cultivate the good will of the red men. 
I have directed several block-houses to be erected agreeably to your desire." 

In the same year, 1153, another block-house, or stoccade, was erected, of curi- 
ous construction. The western gate was in High street, between Hanover and 
Pitt street, opposite lot number one hundred. It was constructed of oak-logs, 
about seventeen feet in length, were set up-right in a ditch, dug to the depth of four 
feet ; each log was about twelve inches in diameter. In the interior were plat- 
forms made of clapboard, and raised four or five feet from the ground. Upon 
these the men stood and fired through loop holes. At each corner was a swivel 
gun, and fixed as occasion required, to let the Indians know that such kind of 



(JUMBEBLAND COUNTY. 625 

guns were within. " Ttiree wells were sunk within the line of the fortress, one of 
which was on lot number one hundred and twenty -five ; another between lots one 
hundred and nine and one hundred and seventeen ; a third on the line between lots 
one hundred and twent^^-four and one hundred and sixteen. This last was for 
many years known as the ' King's well.' Within this fort, called Fort Lowther, 
women and children from the Green spring, and the countr3'^ around, often sought 
protection from the tomahawk of the savage. Its force, in 1755, consisted of M\>y 
men, and that at Fort Franklin, at Shippensburg, of the same number." 

From a pamphlet containing the charter and ordinances of the borough of 
Carlisle, we learn that in October, 1753, a treaty of " amity and friendship " was 
held at Carlisle with the Ohio Indians, by Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Morris, and 
William Peters, commissioners. The expenses of this treaty, including presents 
to the Indians, amounted to fourteen hundred pounds. Shortly after this period, 
the dispute arose between the Governor and Council, and the Assembly, on the 
subject of a complaint made by the Shawanese Indians, that the Proprietary 
government had surveyed all the lands on the Conodogwinet into a manor, and 
driven them from their hunting ground, without a purchase, and contrary to 
treat3\ 

The first weekly post between Philadelphia and Carlisle was established in 
1757, intended the better to enable his honor the Governor and the Assembly to 
communicate with his Majesty's subjects on the frontier. 

The town of Carlisle, in 1760, was made the scene of a barbarous murder. 
Doctor John, a friendly Indian of the Delaware tribe, was massacred, together 
with his wife and two children. Captain Callender, who was one of the inquest, 
was sent for by the Assembly, and, after interrogating him on the subject, they 
offered a reward of one hundred pounds for the apprehension of each person con- 
cerned in the murder. The excitement occasioned by the assassination of Doctor 
John's family was immense, for it was feared the Indians might seek to avenge 
the murder on the settlers. About noonday, on the 4th of July, 1763, one of a 
party of horsemen, who were seen riding rapidl}' through the town, stopped a 
moment to quench his thirst, and communicated the information that Presqu'Isle, 
LeBceuf, and Yenango, had been captured by the French and Indians. The 
greatest alarm spread among the citizens of the town and neighboring country. 
The roads were crowded in a little while with women and children, hastening to 
Lancaster for safety. The pastor of the Episcopal church headed his congrega- 
tion, encouraging them on the way. Some retired to the breastworks. Colonel 
Bouquet, in a letter addressed to the Governor, dated the day previous, at Car- 
lisle, urged the propi-iet3^ of the people of York assisting in building the posts 
here, and " sowing the harvest," as their county was protected by Cumberland. 

The terror of the citizens subsided but little until Colonel Bouquet conquered 
the Indians in the following year, 1764, and compelled them to sue for peace. 
One of the conditions upon which peace was granted, was that the Indians should 
deliver up all the women and children whom they had taken into captivity. 
Among them were many who had been seized when very young, and had grown 
up to womanhood in the wigwam of the savage. They had contracted the wild 
habits of their captors, learned their language and forgotten their own, and were 
bound to them by ties of the strongest affection. Many a mother found a lost 
2p 



626 HISTOE F OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

child ; many were unable to designate their children. The separation between 
the Indians and their prisoners was heart-rending. The hardy son of the forest 
shed torrents of tears, and every captive left the wigwam with reluctance. Some 
afterwards made their escape and returned to the Indians. Many had inter- 
married with the natives, but all were left to freedom of choice, and those who 
remained unmarried had been treated with delicacy. One female, who had been 
captured at the age of fourteen, had become the wife of an Indian and the mother 
of several children. When informed that she was about to be delivered to her 
parents, her grief could not be alleviated. " Can I," said she, " enter my parents' 
dwelling ? Will they be kind to my children ? Will my old companions asso- 
ciate with the wife of an Indian chief? And my husband, who has been so kind 
— I will not desert him ! " That night she fled from the camp to her husband 
and children. 

A great number of the restored prisoners were brought to Carlisle, and Colo- 
nel Bouquet advertised for those who had lost children to come here and look for 
them. Among those that came was an old woman, whose child, a little girl, had 
been taken from her several years before ; but she was unable to designate her 
daughter or converse with the released captives. With breaking heart, the old 
woman lamented to Colonel Bouquet her hapless lot, telling him how she used 
many years ago to sing to her little daughter a hymn of which the child was so 
fond. She was requested by the colonel to sing it then, which she did in these 

words : 

"Alone, yet not alone am I, 

Though in this solitude so drear ; 
I feel my Saviour always nigli, 
He comes my every hour to cheer," 

and the long-lost daughter rushed into the arms of her mother. 

Quietude being secured to the citizens by the termination of the Indian war, 
they directed their attention to the improvement of their village and the cultiva- 
tion of the soil. No important public event disturbed them in their peaceful 
occupations, until the disputes which preceded the war of the Revolution arose 
between the colonies and the mother country. The tyrannical sway of the 
British sceptre over the colonies found but few advocates among the inhabitants 
of Carlisle, and when a resort to warfare became necessaiy, many of them 
unhesitatingly obeyed their country's call, and bore arms in her defence. 

During the war Carlisle was made a place of rendezvous for the American 
troops ; and in consequence of being located at a distance from the theatre of 
war, British prisoners were frequently sent hither for secure confinement. Of 
these. Major Andrd and Lieutenant Despard, who had been taken by Montgom- 
ery, near Lake Champtain, while here, in 1716, occupied the stone house at the 
corner of South Hanover street and Locust alley, and were on a parole of honor 
of six miles ; but were prohibited going out of the town except in military dress. 
Mrs. Ramsey, an unflinching Whig, detected two Tories in conversation with these 
officers, and immediately made known the circumstance to William Brown, Esq., 
one of the county committee. The Tories were imprisoned. Upon their persons 
were discovered letters written in French, but no one could be found to inter- 
pret them, and their contents were never known. After this Andr^ and Despard 



CUMBEBLAND COUNTY. 627 

were not allowed to leave the town. They had fowling-pieces of superior work- 
manship, but now, being unable to use them, they broke them to pieces, declaring 
that " no rebel should ever burn powder in them." During their confinement 
one Thompson enlisted a company of militia in what is now Perry county, 
and marched them to Carlisle. Eager to make a display of his own bravery and 
that of his recruits, he drew up his soldiers at night in front of the house of 
Andrd and his companion, and swore lustily he would have their lives, because, 
as he alleged, the Americans who were pi'isoners of war in the hands of the Brit- 
ish were dying by starvation. Through the importunities, however, of Mrs. 
Ramsey, Captain Thompson, who had formerly been an apprentice to her hus- 
band, was made to desist ; and as he countermarched his compan^^, with a menac- 
ing nod of the head he halloed to the objects of his wrath, "' You may thank my 
old mistress for 3'our lives." They were afterwards removed to York, but before 
their departure, sent to Mrs. Ramsey a box of spermaceti candles, with a note 
requesting her acceptance of the donation, as an acknowledgment of her many 
acts of kindness. The present was declined, Mrs. Ramsey averring that she was 
too stannch a Whig to accept a gratuity from a British officer. Despard was exe- 
cuted at London, in 1803, for high treason. With the fate of the unfortunate 
Andrd every one is familiar. 

The first Presbyterian church of Carlisle is the lineal and ecclesiastical repre- 
sentative of two earlier congregations. The earlier of these was composed of 
nearly all the first settlers in this part of the valley, who were almost exclusively 
emigrants from the north of Ireland, and were decided Presbyterians. Their 
first place of meeting was in West Pennsborough, about two miles north-west of 
the present town of Carlisle, now called Meeting House Springs. Their house of 
worship must have been erected within a year or two of the first settlements 
west of the Susquehanna river (1730-33), and their pulpit was supplied by Rev. 
Thomas Craighead and others. Their first regularly settled pastor was 
Rev. Samuel Thompson, who was ordained and installed over them, Novem- 
ber 14, 1739, and continued with them until 1747. For some years after 
this, owing to some " unhappy controversies and jealousies" in the general church 
of that period, the congregation, like most others in this region, was " reduced 
and disordered," and no preacher could be settled until 1756, when Rev. 
John Steel was installed over them. In 1759, owing doubtless to those dissen- 
sions, a separate congregation was formed and commenced building a house of 
worship in Carlisle, and Rev. George Duffield (afterward chaplain to the 
Continental Congress) became its minister. About the same time Mr. Steel's 
congregation also began to erect a house of worship in the borough, and both 
congregations appeared to have been engaged in zealous rivalry of each other on 
the same ground. The house in which Mr. DuIHeld's people worshipped was 
situated near the north-west corner of Hanover and Pomfret streets. The build- 
ing erected by Mr. Steel's people was the same which is now occupied by the 
First Presbyterian Church. Some preparations had been made for the building 
as early as January 30, 1757, but it was not suflflciently advanced to be occupied 
for worship until the beginning of 1773. In 1776 the two congregations united 
to finish off the building and to worship in the same house. Mr. Duffield 
had been removed (about 1772) to the third church of Philadelphia.; the building 



628 



HISTOB Y OF P ENNS YL VANIA. 



in which he ministered was soon afterwards consumed by fire. During the confusion 
incident to the Revolutionary war, however, so many of the people and ministers 
were absent in the patriot army, that public worship was but irregularly 
maintained, and the house was therefore not actual)}' completed until 1785, when 
the two congregations agreed to worship alternately in it, on condition that Mr, 
Duffield's people should erect a gallery in it, and otherwise complete what was 
unfinished. Both congregations finally consummated their union in 1785, and 
called the Rev. Dr. Robert Davidson, of Philadelphia, to be their pastor, who 
was also a professor in Dickinson college. The pastorate of Dr. Davidson 
continued until his death (December 13, 1812). In September, 1815, Rev. 
George Duffleld (grandson of the former minister of Carlisle) was invited to 
take charge of the church, and in September, 1816, he was ordained and installed 

pastor. After a. suc- 
cessful ministr}"- of 
about twenty years he 
resigned, and was suc- 
ceeded by the Rev. W. 
T. Sprole, as stated 
supply, for about six 
3^ears. In 1844 Rev. 
Ellis J. Newlin was in- 
stalled pastor, and re- 
mained until 1847, and 
soon after Rev. Con- 
way P. Wing was 
called, and was in- 
stalled as pastor in 
1848, in which office 
he remained until Oc- 
tober, 1875, when he 
resigned ; and in April, 
1876, tlie Rev. Joseph 
Vance was installed 
pastor of the church. 

Carlisle is situated 
in the midst of the 
Cumberland valley, seventeen miles west of Hjirrisburg. Its streets are wide, 
with a spacious public square in the centre. Through the centre of High street 
runs the Cumberland Valley railroad. The turnpike to Chambersburg and to 
Pittsburgh passes through the town, and another turnpike runs to Baltimore. 
Being pleasantly situated, in the midst of a healthy and fertile countr}', hand- 
somely' laid out, and well built, inhabited by a well-bred and intelligent popula- 
tion, Carlisle is one of the most agreeable places in the interior of Pennsylvania. 
The county buildings are a court house and jail. In 1766 a court house of 
brick was erected on the south-west of the centre square, which was destroyed by 
fire on the night between the 23d and 24th of March, 1841. Soon after the 
destruction of the former court house another was erected, south of the former, 




soldiers' monument, CARLISLE. 

[From a Photograph by Choate, Carlisle.] 



CUMBEELANB COUNTY. 629 

in the north-west angle of the public square, at a cost of forty-five thousand 
dollars. 

The United States barracks, located within the borough limits, north-east of 
the town, about one-half mile from the court house, were built in 1717 by Hessians 
captured at Trenton. They were for many years a school for cavalry. When 
Lee's advance forces invaded Cumberland county the barracks were laid in ashes 
by them, in June, 1863. For several years the barracks have been abandoned by 
the government. The churches are: two Presbyterian, one Episcopal, one Ger- 
man Reformed, two Lutheran, two Methodist, one Church of God, one Evan- 
gelical Association, one Roman Catholic, and three African churches. 

Dickinson College, bcautifuU}^ and favorably located at Carlisle, was chartered 
by the Legislature in 1783, and named in honor of John Dickinson, President of 
the Supreme Executive Council, in memory of his great and important services 
to his country, and in commemoration of his very liberal donation to the institu- 
tion. In 1784 the first faculty was organized, and the Rev. Charles Nisbet, D.D., 
of Montrose, Scotland, was elected president. The following year he arrived in 
America, and soon afterwards was installed in office, which position he occupied 
till his death, in 1804. He was a man of extensive and varied learning, who, 
amid great discouragements, labored earnestly and prodigiously in his new 
sphere, and doubtless the college grew and flourished as much as those early 
times would permit. In Conrad's edition of '' Sanderson's Biography of the 
Signers of the Declaration of Independence," it is stated that the distinguished 
Dr. Benjamin Rush, himself one of the immortal signers, " was a principal agent 
in founding Dickinson College at Carlisle, and was chiefly instrumental in bring- 
ing from Scotland Dr. Nisbet, who for several years presided over that 
institution." 

The first, or " old college" building, stood on the south side of Liberty alley, 
a short distance west of Bedford street. The first edifice on the present grounds 
was erected in 1802, but burnt down in 1803, and rebuilt in 1804, and is now 
known as the West College, to distinguish it from the East College, built in 
1836-'87, and from the South College, reconstructed the 3'ear following. A large 
stone building, erected many 3'ears since for a diff"erent purpose, but, in later 
times transformed into "North College," was destroyed by fire some years ago, 
and has never been rebuilt. 

The Rev. Robert Davidson, D.D., a member of the faculty, worthily and 
acceptably succeeded Dr. Nisbet in the presidency, pro tempore, until 1809, when 
he resigned, for the full work of the pastoral office, and the Rev. Jeremiah At- 
water, D.D., was elected president. Under his directions the college was compara- 
tively prosperous. In 1815 he resigned, and then the Rev. John McKnight, D.D., 
served as president one 3'ear. Afterwards the operations of the college suspended 
till 1821, when, by legislative enactment, six thousand dollars in cash, and an 
annuity of two thousand dollars for five years were granted, in exchange for cer- 
tain lands belonging to the corporation, and the Rev. John M. Mason, D.D., was 
chosen president. He commenced and continued his administration under favor- 
able auspices, but failing health obliged him to resign in 1824. In the same year 
the Rev. William Neill, D.D., succeeded Dr. Mason. During his presidency the 
Legislature donated three thousand dollars a year for seven years — which kept it 



630 



HIS TOE Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 



in existence, but a want of proi^er liarmony between tlie trustees and faculty, and 
among the trustees as well as among tlie faculty, led Dr. Neill, in 1829, to resign. 
He was succeeded by the Rev. Samuel B. Howe, D.D., who had been a tutor in 
the college in 1811, and who, having received a legacy of dissensions, which 
accumulated while he remained, also resigned the presidencj^, in 1832, to accept 
of a pastoral charge, and the college again suspended operations. Although the 
career of the college, under the old regime, had been one of many and varied 
changes, yet it has been very justly acknowledged that among the presidents and 
professors were men of distinguislied ability and professional skill, and old Dick- 
inson had the honor of educating many persons who became eminent in subse- 




DICKINSON COLLEGE, CARLISLE. 
[From a Photograph by Chapman, Carlisle.] 

quent life. " Among its four hundred and forty alumni one became President of 
the United States, one chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
one justice of the same court, two district or territorial judges, three justices of 
State supreme courts, two senators in Congress, ten representatives in Congress, 
eleven presidents of colleges, sixteen professors in colleges, sixt3^-eight ministers 
of the gospel, one bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church, and one governor 
of a State." 

In 1833, the college was transferred to the Methodist Episcopal Church by the 
resignation, from time to time, of the old trustees, and by the election of others, 
until finally a complete change was effected in the control and management of the 
institution. The first president under the transfer was the Rev. John P. Durbin, 
D.D., whose able and successful administration continued till 1845, when he 
resigned, and the Rev. Robert Emory was elected his worthy successor. He 
died in 1848, beloved and lamented, and was succeeded by the Rev. Jesse T. 
Peck, D.D., Avho resigned in 1852, when the Rev. Charles Collins, D.D., was 
chosen to fill the place. He was a man of dignity, learning, and educational ex- 



CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 631 

perience. In 1860 he resigned, to take charge of a literary institution in Ten- 
nessee. The Rev. H. M. Johnson, D.D., succeeded to the office. He had been 
a professor in the college, a superior classical and biblical scholar, and of fair 
executive talent ; he died in 1868. He was succeeded by the Rev. R. L, Dashiel, 
D.D., alilce eloquent and popular, and the first graduate of the college who had 
attained to its presidency. At this time all the members of the faculty were 
alumni of the institution. Dr. Dashiel resigned in 1872, having been elected, by 
the General Conference, missionary secretary of his church ; and the Rev. J. A. 
McCauley, D.D., an alumnus of the college and a scholarly gentleman, was 
elected to succeed him, who is still at the head of the institution, having asso- 
ciated with him in the faculty, professors Charles F. Himes, Ph.D., Henry M. 
Harman, D.D., James H. Graham, LL.D., Rev. J. A. Lippincott, A.M., William 
R. Fisher, and Rev. Charles J. Little, A.M. 

The pei'manent endowment funds of the college amount to over two hundred 
thousand dollai's, distributed among the educational boards of the patronizing 
conferences and the board of trustees, the larger proportion being held bj"- the 
Baltimore Conference. In the libraries are twenty-seven thousand volumes, and 
among these are many rare and valuable books. The appliances for scientific 
instruction have been greatly improved, and are increasing from year to year. 

According to an historical sketch, by Dr. Wm. H. Allen, it appears that 
under the regime of the Methodist church the number of students exceeds that of 
the former regime, and " their names are found in almost every position of use- 
fulness and honor. In the forum and the field, in the sacred desk and legislative 
halls, in foreign missions and in bishops' chairs, in science and literature, in the 
cabinet and on the bench of justice, in manufactures, agriculture and commerce, 
they are doing manly work for God and men, and conferring new honor on the 
institution which was the nurse of their youth. . . . Among many whom 
Dickinson honors and who honor her, are many names : in the office of bishop, 
Cummins and Bowman; as pulpit orators, Tiffany and Ridgaway; in the fields 
of science, Baird and Himes ; in literature. Deems, Conway, and Crooks ; in 
jurisprudence, Fisher; in politics, Cresswell, Todd, and Albright; in classical 
and biblical learning, professor Harman. Add to these no small number of the 
younger alumni, who emulate the fame of those just named, and who will in due 
time gather laurels as green as theirs. Happy is the mother who has reared 
such sons." 

Shippensburg, on the western border of Cumberland county, is the oldest 
town, except York, west of the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania. After Cumber- 
land county was organized the courts were held here, and then I'emoved to 
Carlisle. Great excitement was caused by the removal of the courts. During 
the French and Indian war two forts were erected here — Fort Morris in 1755, 
and Fort Franklin in 1756. The dwelling-houses, prior to 1756, were built of 
stone or wood. In the spring and summer of 1755, it was a magazine to store 
provisions for General Braddock's army. The supply for Braddock's forces 
were very inadequate. The incidents in the early history of this place are 
replete with thrilling interest. Years ago Shippensburg was a ver}' brisk town, 
made so by hundreds of wagons stopping on their way from Philadelphia to 
Pittsburgh, and on their returning eastward. Since the railroad has been in 



632 



HIS TO BY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



operation, wagoning through this place has nearly ceased. The town will, 
however, always command a reasonable share of business by way of trade and 
manufacture. The Cumberland Valley railroad passes through the place. The 
town is situated in the heart of a fertile country, twenty-one miles south-west of 
Carlisle, thirty-seven miles from Harrisburg, and eleven miles east from Cham- 
bersburg. It was incorporated into a borough in 1817. The Cumberland Valley 
State Normal school of the seventh district is located at Shippensburg. The 
present principal is Rev. I. N. Hayes. 

Mechanicsburg is a beautiful and flourishing borough, in the heart of the 
most fertile and best improved regions of Cumberland valley, eight miles from 
Harrisburg and ten from Carlisle. It was incorporated as a borough, April 12, 
1828. Its local advantages are many, being situated on the Cumberland Valley 

railroad, and also accessible 
by well improved roads 
from various sections of the 
country. The surrounding 
vicinage is densely settled 
by a wealthy and indus- 
trious population. The 
town has rapidly increased, 
and now [1876], has a 
population of three thou- 
sand one hundred. It is 
finely laid out, and in the 
older portions well and 
compactly built. A gas 
and water company supplies 
the town with these neces- 
sary elements of comfort 
and convenience. An im- 
posing town and masonic hall, with market house attached, adds also to the appear- 
ance and advantage of the place. The only manufacturing interests of special 
mention are a foundry and car shops, agricultural implement factor}', steam saw 
and planing mill, and the Trindle Spring paper mill, adjacent to the town. Few 
towns of the same size can boast of as many and as fine churches, seven of which, 
with their beautiful towering spires, point the devout worshipper to Heaven. 
The educational interests of the town are well provided for. The public 
schools, under a local board of directors, are systematically and carefully graded. 
In addition to these two private educational enterprises have been in successful 
operation for several years. The Cumberland Valley Institute, the older of the 
two, is situated at the west end of the town. Rev. 0. Ege and Son, principals, and 
was founded in 1853 by Rev. Jos. Loose, and was by him successfully conducted 
for several years. It has been under the present management since 1860. The 
Irving Female College is situated at Irvington — a name given to the eastern end 
of the town of Mechanicsburg — in the midst of a beautiful grove and grounds. It 
was founded in 1856 b}' Solomon P. Gorgas, and incorporated as a college by the 
Legislature of the State in 1857, since which time it has enjoyed a good and sub- 




IRVINQ FEMAI^E COI.L,EGE, MECHANICSBURG. 



CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 633 

stantial patronage from this and adjoining States, about two hundred young 
ladies having graduated from her halls. The buildings are imposing in appear- 
ance, substantially built of brick, conveniently arranged, and comfortably fitted 
up with the modern conveniences, and every thing calculated to make it an 
attractive and safe home, with full and thorough educational advantages for young 
ladies. Rev. T. P. Ege, A.M., is the pre^nt proprietor and president. 

Newville borough is located on Big Spring, twelve miles north-west from 
Carlisle, within half a mile of Cumberland Yalley railroad. The town was 
incorporated February 26th, 1817. It is a thriving place. 

Newburgh borough, in Hopewell township, was laid out by Mr. Trimble, 
about 1836. 

Springfield village derives its name from a large spring, which thi'ows out 
a volume of water to turn several mill wheels within a few rods of the spring or 
head. It is fourteen miles south-west of Carlisle. 

Papertown, or Mount Holly, a post-village, south of Carlisle, on the Carlisle 
and Hanover turnpike, laid out some forty years ago by Barber & Mullen, then 
owners of an extensive paper mill. It is quite a business place. The original 
paper mill has grown into three, and are still owned by the sons of the original 
Mullen, who established the first mill. 

RoxBERRY is a small village, strung along nearly one-half mile on the road 
leading from Mechanicsburg to Carlisle. It is two miles west of Mechanicsburg. 
Sixty years ago Paul Reamer erected the first house here. 

HoGESTOWN, a post-village on the turnpike leading from Harrisburg to 
Carlisle, is nine miles west of Harrisburg. It contains about forty houses. A 
small stream called Hoge's run flows hard by the village, and empties into the 
Conodogwinet not far off. 

Middlesex, a post-village on the turnpike from Harrisburg to Carlisle, is 
three miles from Carlisle, near the confluence of LeTort's creek with the Conodo- 
gwinet. It contains twenty houses, a grist mill, saw mill, and woolen factory. 

New Kingston, a post-village, on the turnpike from Harrisburg to Carlisle, 
six miles from the latter, was laid out by John King about fifty years ago. It is 
situated in a well improved portion of the count3\ At an early period in the 
history of Cumberland Valley, Joseph Junkin, the ancestor of the Junkins of 
Pennsylvania, took up five hundred acres of land, including the present site of 
New Kingston. On this tract he built a stone house, now owned by Mr. Kanaga. 
In this house his son, Joseph Junkin, was born, January 22, 1150. He took an 
active part in the Revolution of 1776, and commanded a company at the battle 
of Brandywine, where he was severely wounded. It is recorded of him, " he 
was self-taught." He had been a justice of the peace and practical surveyor. 
He died in Mercer county. Pa., February 21, 1831. His son, Rev. George 
Junkin, D.D., LL.D., was born in the stone house, November 1, 1790; who 
closed Ms eventful life in Philadelphia, May 20, 1868. 

LiSBURN, a post-village on the Yellow Breeches creek, on the road leading 
from Carlisle to York, sixteen miles from the former, was laid out in 1760, 
by Gerard Erwin. It consists of fifty houses. 

Churchtown is a post-village, so named because of a church held in common 
by Lutherans and German Reformed, which had been erected here twenty 



634 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

years before the town was commenced. It is on the main road from Shippens- 
burg to Mechanicsburg, six miles from Carlisle, and contains between forty 
and fifty dwellings. Seventy years ago Jacob Wise built the first house here. 

WoRLEYSTOWN, in Monroe township, on the main road leading from Carlisle 
to Dillsburg in York count}', seven miles east from Carlisle, is near the Yellow 
Breeches creek. It was laid out about sixty years ago. 

Shepherdstown, a post-village in Upper Allen township, on the State road, 
leading from near the Susquehanna to Gettysburg, is situated on a hill, having a 
commanding view of the Cumberland A^'alley. 

Shiremanstown is a post-village, partly in Lower Allen, and pai'tly in Hamp- 
den township, on the road from Carlisle to New Cumberland, usually called 
Simpson's Ferry road, five miles west of Harrisburg, twelve miles east of Car- 
lisle. The first house erected here, and occupied by the widow of George 
Suavely (Schnebely), was in the summer of 1813. About the year 1823, Martin 
Zearing erected the first brick house in the village. 

New Cumberland, a post-town and borough, was known for some years as 
Haldeman's town, laid out by Jacob M. Haldeman, about 1810. It is a thriving 
place, three miles below the Cumberland Valley railroad bridge, at the conflu- 
ence of the Yellow Breeches creek with the Susquehanna. The York turn- 
pike and the Northern Central railroad pass through the borough. The lumber 
business is carried on extensively. In the early part of the last century, the 
Shawanese Indians had a village here. Peter Chartier, Indian agent, had his 
station here. About the year 1*724, he left for the western part of Pennsyl- 
vania, settled on or near the Allegheny river, forty miles above Pittsburgh, at 
Oldtown, or Chartier's Old town. He proved treacherous to the English, ac- 
cepting a military commission under the French. He prevailed upon some 
Chawanoes, or Shawanese, of Old Town, to remove to the French settlements on 
the Mississippi. 

Bridge Port, at the west end of Cumberland Valley railroad bridge, consists 
of some five or six dwellings, and a warehouse. At this point the Northern 
Central railway, from Baltimore to Sunbury, intersects the Cumberland Valley 
railroad. 

Wormleysburg, immediately above the Harrisburg bridge, on the right 
bank of the Susquehanna, was laid out in 1815, by John Wormley, whose name 
it bears. 

West Fairview, a post-village at the confluence of the Conodogwinet with 
the Susquehanna, about two miles above the Harrisburg bridge, was laid out in 
1815 by Abraham Neidig. Contiguous to it are the Messrs. McCormick's exten- 
sive rolling mill and nail factory. The Northern Central railway passes through 
the village. 

Whitehill, on the Cumberland Valley railroad, one mile west of the Sus- 
quehanna, consists of nine or ten dwellings, and a warehouse. This place sprung 
up nearly forty years ago. It was named after Robert Whitehill, who settled in 
niO, in Cumberland count3\ 

Camp Hill is a post-village on the Harrisburg and Carlisle turnpike, two 
miles west of the Susquehanna. It contains one church, and a school building, in 
which " are taught, clothed, and fed," orphans of Union soldiers who fell in the 



CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 



635 



late conflict between the North and South. The place is noted in the early 
history of the county as the station of an Indian agenc}", under Tobias Hen- 
dricks, Esq. 

Oyster's Point is one half mile west of Camp Hill. Near this point there 
occurred a skirmish, June 28, 1863, in one of Jacob Rupp's fields, between the 
rebel advance and Captain E. S. Miller's Battery of Philadelphia. 

MiLLTOWN, or Cedar Spring mills, a post-village in Lower Allen township, con- 
tains a church, a grist mill, saw mill, etc., pleasantly situated in a dell, about 
two minutes walk of the Susquehanna. Caspar and Adam Weber erected a mill 
here upwards of a hundred years ago. 




VIEW ON THE WISSAHICKON. 




fi3G 



DAUPHIN COUNTY. 



BY A. 



BOYD HAMILTON, HARRISBURQ. 




HE territory now forming the counties of Dauphin and Lebanon was 
erected into the county of Dauphin, March 4, 1785, with an area of 
821 square miles, containing 525,000 acres of surface ; a length of 
fifty miles, and a breadth of thirty-three. In 1813 the inhabitants of 
the eastern end of the county pressed a claim, and were successful in convincing 
the Legislature of its propriety, for the erection of a new county to be called 
" Lebanon, " 
which was ac- 
o r d i n g 1 y 
erected Feb- 
ruary 16, 
1813 — more 
than n i n e- 
t e e n-t w e n- 
tieths of it 
taken from 
D a u p h in. 
Additional 
territory was 
taken from 
Lancaster 
and Berks, to 
remedy some 
irregularities 
in its boun- 
dary. This 
left Dauphin 

as it is at present, with 559 square miles of area, and 357,000 acres of surface. 
The name " Dauphin " was suggested by the prime movers for the formation of 
the new county in honor of the title at that time held by the eldest son of the 
King of France. 

This county is bounded on the north by Northumberland, east by Lebanon 
and Schuylkill, south by Lancaster, west by York, Cumberland, Perry, and 
Juniata counties. The western line is forty-eight miles in extent along the 
western shore of the Susquehanna river, including the whole stream, with all its 
picturesque islands, from the Mahantango creek north, to the Conewago falls 
south. Going in either direction, the tourist looks upon one of the most delight- 
ful and romantic landscapes that is to be found in this region of gorgeous 
acenery. The surface of the county is generally susceptible of cultivation, and 

637 




THE HARRIS MANSION, BUII.T IN 1766. 
[From a Fhotograpli by D. C. Burnite— 1S63.] 



638 HI^ TOR Y OF PEI^MS YL VANIA. 

containing a very small area of swamp, in fact it is almost insignificant, as all its 
water courses find their way to their main receptacle, the Susquehanna, by a 
rapid descent. The Swatara creek, a stream of large capacity, pierces a 
productive valley, and receives in its course the important affluents of Manada, 
Bow, and Beaver creeks, entering the Susquehanna at the thriving borough of 
Middletowu. The Little Conewago creek is the boundary between Dauphin and 
Lancaster, discharging its waters at Conewago falls, at which point the river 
descends about sixteen feet in a mile. The Paxton creek rises in the Kittatinny 
mountain, and after a course of eight or ten miles finds its outlet at Harrisburg. 
Fishing creek, rising near the head of Manada, discharges its waters at Fort 
Hunter. Stony creek, a fine stream, rises in Schuylkill county, with almost its 
entire course through the township of Middle Paxton, has its mouth at the town 
of Dauphin. Then we have, with steady volume, Clark and Powell, Armstrong 
Wiconisco, and Mahantango creeks, the latter forming the boundary between 
Dauphin and Northumberland. All these are useful streams, affluents of the 
Susquehanna, and utilized for many industrial purposes. 

The mountain region of the county is a marvel of beauty, at certain periods 
brilliant beyond the " pen's descriptive power." Below or south of the " endless 
chain of hills " — the Kittatinny — there are hills, perhaps five hundred feet above 
the low water of the Susquehanna, but frequent depressions afford access to a 
more elevated region, complicated, useful, a picture so natural, that no word de- 
scription can do justice to its wonderful beauty. Here are fertile valleys, rapid 
streams, exuberant forests, and a mass of mountains : Peters', Berry's, Bear, 
Mahantango, Mahanoy, inhabited by a stalwart race. The eye embraces an 
acute triangle from the river to the eastern border of rough aspect, but of 
exceptionable value. Many descriptions of the surface of this county are to be 
found in printed works, the careful labor of competent persons. Their general 
agreement is remarkable. No county in the State has been more correctly por- 
traved. The features given by Scott, in 1805, are reproduced with uncommon 
uniformity by Trego, Haldcman, Strickland, the State Surveys, and in Day's 
Collections, all works of value and presented to the world after deliberate 
revision. All these descriptions agree that that portion of the county east and 
south of Harrisburg is quite as thoroughly cultivated and as substantially 
improved as any part of Pennsylvania. It is a region of softly rolling hills 
gushing rills, and fertile vales. 

Its general geological features are underlying limestone, with an occasional 
outcrop. So of the Kittatinny, covering all its territory from the Lebanon and 
Lancaster boundaries to the Susquehanna, with its northern limit in the ridges, 
upon the first slope of which stands the State Capitol building at Harrisburg. 
Belts of slate are contained within this area of limestone, but the whole so pecu- 
liarly situated, that at no point south of the mountain which bounds it on the 
north is it necessary to transport lime, for building or for the farm, more than 
three miles. 

On the northern slope of Kittatinny, along the courses of Fishing and Stony 
creeks, are variegated shales nearly vertical, and, of consequence, presenting an 
unusual geological feature in these narrow valleys. Some coal has been dis- 
covered near the head-waters of Stony creek. Red shale is the distinguishing 



DAUPHIN COUNTY. 



639 



feature of the valleys north of these creeks, enclosing all the coal formation of 
the county, unless it be those of Big Lick and Bear mountains. Most of the 
free burning coal east of the bituminous fields is obtained in the Lykens valley. 
The ridges or mountains in this region have less than one thousand feet of eleva- 
tion, with the coal strata descending towards the centres of the vallevs at an 
angle of about forty-five degrees, aflTording great facilities for economical mining. 
The geological survey of the State, now in progress, may develop information 
of value in relation to other mineral formations in the county, but to this period 
the searches for copper near Hummelstown, for iron ore at other points, for lead 
in the Swatara ridges, have not developed into profitable enterprises. Unless 
they do so, these deposits will not add to the wealth of the county or of the 
State. 

In the territory north of the Kittatinny the valleys are narrow, yet fertile. 
Some of them are cultivated with great intelligence and consequent profit. The 
free use of lime, judicious rotation, a profitable market, have so constantly added 
to the value of the farm lands above Peters' mountain that their owners are 
among the most prosperous and wealthy of the county, notwithstanding the 
abruptness of its hills or the frowning aspect of its mountains. This portion of 
our contribution could be extended to great length, but sufficient has been said 
to form a judgment of the productiveness of the soil of Dauphin county, of its 
surface, of the material wealth drawn from it, and such general information as 
can be condensed in this brief statement. 

At the time of the organization of the county it contained a population of 
nearly 16,000, although in 1190, when the first census was taken, the number was 
only 18,117, due probably to the emigration of great numbers of the Scotch- 
Irish, who removed either westward or southward. In 1800 — 22,270 ; in 1810 

31,883 ; in 1820 — 21,653, a decrease, owing to the formation from it of the county 
of Lebanon, February 16, 1813, which, by this census, had a population of 
16,975 ; the separate enumeration of 1830 was 25,243; in 1840 — 30,118; in 1850 
—35,754; in 1860—46,756; in 1870—60,740; in 1876— at least 75,000. 

At what eventful era the footsteps of the white man trod the green sward of 
this locality there is no certaint3^ After the founding of Philadelphia, William 
Penn planned the laying out of a city on the Susquehanna, yet it is not certain that 
the founder, in his several visits to that majestic river, ever came farther north 
than the Swatara. The first persons therefore to spy out this goodly heritage of 
ours were French traders, one of whom located at the mouth of Paxtang creek, 
towards the close of the seventeenth century. Of this individual, Peter Bazalion, 
little is known, but until the period when the intrigues of the French and 
especially' the encroachments of Lord Baltimore, began to be feared, he acted as 
principal interpreter at Indian conferences. He subsequently went to the Ohio, 
with the remaining French ti'aders, and after 1725-6 he is lost sight of At 
this period there were Indian villages at the mouths of the Swahadowry (Swa- 
tara) and Peshtank (Paxtang), on Duncan's Island, and perchance at the 
Mahantango. 

It being considered necessary to license English traders so as to i^revent 
communication with the French on the Ohio, among the first was John Harris, a 
native of Yorkshire, England, who came to America previous to 1698,. He entered 



uo 



niSTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 



this then lacrative field, the Indian trade, at the suggestion of his friend, Edward 
Shippen, who was a member of the Provincial Council. 

In January, 1705, John Harris received a license from the Commissioners of 
Property, authorizing and allowing him to "seat himself on the Susquehanna," 
and "to erect such buildings as are necessary for his trade, and to enclose and 
improve such quantities of land as he shall think fit." At once he set about build- 
ing a log house near the Ganawese (Conoy) settlement, but the Indians made com- 
plaint to the government that it made them " uneasie," desiring to know if they 
encouraged it. It was during one of his expeditions that Harris first beheld the 
beauty and advantages of the location at Paxtang, It was the best fording place 
on the Susquehanna, and then, as now in these later days, on the great highway 
between the north and south, the east and west. At the period referred to, the 

lands lying between the 
Conewago or Lechay hills, 
and the Kittatinny moun- 
tains, had not been purchased 
from the Indians. Of course 
neither John Harris nor the 
early Scotch-Irish settlers 
could locate, except by the 
right of squatter sovereignty 
or as licensed traders. 

About the years 1718 or 
'19, an attempt was made to 
burn John Harris by a ma- 
rauding band of drunken In- 
dians, the details of which 
our limited space forbids 
giving. The remains of the tree to which Harris was bound by the savages 
who hitd doomed him to a death of torture, but providentially delivered, yet 
stands in Harris Park, at the foot of which he was subsequently buried at his 
own request in 1748. 

From 1720 to 1730 came the Scotetlrish immigration, among whom were 
the families of Allen, Allison, Armstrong, Boyd, Berryhill, Barnett, Bell, Black, 
Canipbell, Chambers, Clark, Carothers, Grain, Cowden, Carson, Calhoun, Craig, 
Caldwell, Cunningham, Cochran, Dixon, Dickey, Dougherty, Elderj^ Espy, Fos- 
ter, Ferguson, Gilmore, Green, Gray, Graham, Galbraith, Henderson, Hays, 
Hampton, Jones, Johnson, Kelly, Laird, ^^fiCgrmicli, McClure, McNair, 
McCord, McCreight, McDonald, McKee, McArthur, McMurray, McKnight, 
McKeehan, Mitchell, Murray, Montgomery, Ramsej'-, Rogers, Rutherford, Reed, 
Robinson, Sloan, Sterrett, Snodgrass, Strain, Stewart, Smith, Simpson, Sturgeon, 
Todd, Wilson^ and Wallace. These settled principally on the Swatara and its 
tributaries, although there were scattered settlements along the foot of the first 

range of mountains. Soon after followed isolated families of the German 

Palatinate immigration, among which were those of Brightbill, Fisher, Graybill, 
Gingerich, Hetrick, Hummel, Hoover, Keller, Miller, Meyers, Rife, Rickart, 
Sees, Scheetz, Nisley, Neidig, Backenstoe, and Schneider. 




THE GRAVE OF JOHN HARRIS — 1876. 
[From a Photograph by Lerue Lemer.] 



DAUPHIN COUNTY. 641 

By virtue of a warrant from the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, bearing date 
January 1, 1725-26, five hundred acres of land were granted to John Harris, 
father of the founder of Harrisburg, and subsequently, on the 17th of December, 
1733, by patent, granted three hundred acres of allowance land, upon which he 
had commenced a settlement on the present site of the city, about the j'ear 1725. 
The land included in the latter patent extended from what is now the line of 
Cumberland street, some distance south of the present northern boundary of 
the city, and including also a part of the present site of the city, with its 
several additions. 

Until the year 1735-36, there was no regularly constructed road to the 
Susquehanna. At a session of the Provincial Council, held in Philadelphia in 
January of that year, on the petition of sundry inhabitants of Chester and Lan- 
caster counties, it was ordered that viewers be appointed to locate one. Subse- 
quently this was done, and the highway opened from the Susquehanna to the 
Delaware river, and in years after continued westward to the Ohio. 

The second John Harris, son of the pioneer and the founder of Harrisburg, 
was a prominent personage during the Indian wars, and the principal military 
storekeeper on the frontier. His letters to the governors of the Province, and 
other officials, would make an interesting page in the annals of the locality. By 
a grant from Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, Proprietaries, to John Harris, 
Jr., bearing date of record "ye 19th February, 1753," that gentleman was allowed 
the right of running a ferry across the Susquehanna, from which originated the 
first name of the place, which, previous to the organization of the county, was 
known as Harris' Ferry. 

There are a number of letters from John Harris, Conrad Weiser, and others, 
at this period, to Edward Shippen, complaining of the insecurity of life and pro- 
perty, owing to the depredations of the Indians, and their tenor is a continual 
and just complaint of the outrages committed bj' the savages, and requests to the 
authorities for protection and arms. 

The most interesting event of this period was the extermination of the sf)-called 
Conestoga Indians by the Paxtang rangers, full notes of which we have given 
in the General History. It is not to be wondered at, that when the first mutter- 
ings of the storm were heard, the inhabitants of this entire section were ripe for 
revolution. 

As early as the spring of 1774, meetings were held in the diflferent townships, 
the resolves of only two of which are preserved. The earliest was that of an 
assembly of the inhabitants of Hanover, in the upper part of Lancaster county, 
now Dauphin, held on Saturday, June 4, 1774, Colonel Timothy Green, chairman, 
"to express their sentiments on the present critical state of affairs." It was then 
and there "unanimously resolved :" 

" 1st. That the recent action of the Parliament of Great Britain is iniquitous 
and oppressive. 

" 2d. That it is the bounden duty of the inhabitants of America to oppose 
ever}' measure which tends to deprive them of their just prerogatives. 

" 3d. That in a closer union of the colonies lies the safeguard of the people. 

" 4th. That in the event of Great Britain attempting to force unjust laws upon 
us by the strength of arms, our cause we leave to Heaven and our rifles. 
2q 



642 SIS TOE T OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

" 5th. That a committee of nine be appointed who shall act for us and in our 
behalf as emergencies may require." 

The committee consisted of Colonel Timothy Green, James Carothers, 
Josiah Espy, Robert Dixon, Thomas Copenheffer, William Clark, James Stewart, 
Joseph Barnett, and John Rogers. 

Following in the footsteps of these brave men, on Friday following, June 10, 
1774, a similar meeting was held at Middletown, Colonel James Burd, chairman, 
at which stirring resolves were concurred in, and which subsequently served as 
the text of those passed at the meeting at Lancaster. 

Not to be behind their Scotch-Irish neighbors, the German inhabitants 
located in the east of the count}^ met at Frederickstown (now Huramels- 
town), on Saturday, the 11th of June, at which Captain Frederick Hummel was 
chairman. The resolves presented by Captain Joseph Sherer were somewhat 
similarly drawn. 

The inhabitants, as Governor Fenn prophesied two years before, were ripe for 
revolution, and when the stirring battle-drum aroused the new-born nation, the 
people of Dauphin valiantly armed for the strife. One of the first compa- 
nies raised in the colonies was that of Captain Matthew Smith, of Paxtang. 
Within ten days after the receipt of the news of the battle of Lexington, this 
company was armed and equipped, ready for service. Composing this pioneer 
body of patriots was the best blood of the county. Archibald Steele and 
Michael Simpson were the lieutenants. It was the second company to arrive 
in front of Boston coming south of the Hudson river, and was subsequently 
ordered to join General Arnold in his unfortunate campaign against Quebec. 
The most reliable account of that expedition was written by a member of this 
very Paxtang company, John Joseph Henry, afterwards president judge of Lan- 
caster and Dauphin counties. They were enlisted for one year. The majority, 
however, were taken prisoners at Quebec, while a large percentage died of 
wounds and exposure. 

In .March, 1776, Captain John Murray's company was raised in Paxtang 
township, attached to the rifle battalion of Colonel Samuel Miles. This 
company participated in the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Princeton, 
and Trenton. 

Captain Patrick Anderson's company was raised in the lower part of the 
county in January, 1776. It was attached to Colonel Atlee's musketry battalion, 
suffered severely at Long Island, re-organized under Captain Ambrose Grain, a 
gallant officer, placed in the Pennsylvania State regiment of foot, commanded 
by Colonel John Bull, and subsequently, in the re-arrangement of the line, the 
13th Pennsylvania, under Colonel Walter Stewart, so conspicuous in the battle 
of Yorktown. 

Captain John Marshall's company was from Hanover, enlisted in March, 
1776, and attached to Colonel Miles' battalion, participating in the various 
battles in which that brave command distinguished itself. Of this company the 
remaining officers were First Lieutenant John Clark, March 15, 1776 ; Second 
Lieutenant Thomas Gourley, March 15, 1776, promoted to first lieutenant of the 
9th Pennsylvania, December 7, 1776; Third Lieutenant Stephen Hanna, March 
19, 1776. 



DAUPHIN COUNTY. 643 

Captain Smith's company, on the expiration of its term of service 
re-enlisted in the 1st Pennsylvania (Colonel Hand), with Captain Michael 
Simpson, December, 1776, who retired from the army Jannary, 1, 1781. David 
Harris commanded a company in this regiment, Jnly, 1776 (resigned, October, 
1777), of which also James Hamilton, formerly lieutenant in Captain John 
Murray's company, was promoted major (retiring January 1, 1783). Major 
Hamilton was captured at the battle of Brandywine. 

In the 10th Pennsylvania (Colonel Joseph Penrose) were Captain John 
Stoner's company, December 4, 1776; and Captain Robert Sample's, December 
4, 1776 (retired January 1, 1781). John Steel, first lieutenant of the former 
company, was killed at Brandywine, September 11, 1777. 

In the 12th Pennsylvania (Colonel William Cook) was the company of 
Captain John Harris, October 14, 1776; First Lieutenant John Reily, October 
16, 1776 (subsequently promoted to captain, and mustered out with the regiment, 
November 3, 1783); Second Lieutenant John Carothers, October 16, 1776 
(killed at Germantown). 

The foregoing were the different companies raised in this part of the country 
it the outset of the Revolution. Following these in succession were the 
associators, the minute-men of Pennsylvania ; and at one period the entire 
county was so bare of men that the old men, the women, and the lads of ten 
and twelve years not only done the planting and harvesting, but took up arms 
to defend their homes in the threatened invasion by Indians and Tories after the 
massacre of Wyoming ; and at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and German- 
town, the militia of Dauphin fought and bled and died. There were over one 
hundred and fifty commissioned officers, and the number of patriots who saw 
active service, from Dauphin county, was over two thousand. 

In the war of 1812 the military organizations from Dauphin county which 
armed for the conflict were the companies of Captains Thomas Walker, Richai'd 
M. Grain, John Carothers, Jeremiah Rees, Thomas Mcllhenny, Peter Snyder 
John B. Moorhead, James Todd, Richard Knight, John Elder, Isaac Smith, 
Philip Fedderhoff, and Gawin Henrj', quite a formidable array. Some of these 
marched as far as Baltimore at the time of the British attack on that city, while 
others went no further than York. 

In the war with Mexico, consequent upon the annexation of Texas, among 
the troops which went out to that far-off land to vindicate the honor of our 
country and preserve its prestige, were the Cameron Guards, under command of 
Captain Edward C. Williams. They made a good record, their gallant conduct 
at Cerro Gordo, Chepultepec, and the Garreta, won for them high renown, and 
the commendation of their venerated commander-in-chief. 

Coming down to later times, when the perpetuity of the Union was threat- 
ened, and the great North rose up like a giant in its sti'ength to crush secession 
and rebellion, the events are so fresh in the remembrances of all that we shall 
only refer to them in brief. The first public meeting held after the firing upon 
Fort Sumter, in the State of Pennsylvania, was in the court house at Harrisburg, 
General Simon Cameron being chairman thereof. Dauphin countj^, foremost 
in tendering men and means to the government for that bitter, deadly strife, 
furnished her full quota of volunteers. Twice Harrisburg was the objective 






644 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVAI^IA. 



point of the Confederate troops, and at one time (June, 1863) the enemy's pickets 
were within two miles of the city. Active preparations were made for its 
defence, and fortifications erected on the bluff opposite, and named " Fort 
Washington." This was the only fortification deserving a name erected in any 
of the Northern States. Rifle pits were dug along the banks of the river, in 
front of Harris park, and every preparation made to give the enemy a warm 
reception. The Union victory at Gettysburg checked the further advance, and 
with it the last attempt to invade the north. Six hundred of the citizens of the 
county lost their lives on southern battlefields. 

Within the present limits of Dauphin county there were organized in the 

early daj's of the Province of Penn- 
sylvania three Presbyterian church- 
es. The worshipers, however 
seized by the restless spirit of the 
age, have scattered, and on the 
altar of one alone are the fires of 
Presbyterianism kept burning. In 
as brief a manner as possible we 
shall refer to these relics of the 
past. 

On the line of the Lebanon Val- 
ley railroad, at Derry station, stands 
a weather-beaten log edifice, erected 
as early as 1729, the congregation 
having been organized previous to 
1125. It is located on what was 
then termed, in the old Penn 
patents, the " Barrens of Derry." 
The building is constructed of oak logs, about two feet thick, which are covered 
over with hemlock boards on the outside. The inside is in tolerable preser- 
vation, the material used in the construction of the pews and floors being 
yellow pine, cherry, and oak. The iron-work is of the most primitive and 
antique description, and the heavy hand-wrought nails by which the hinges 
are secured to the pews and entrance doors are extremely tenacious and 
diflBcult to loosen. The window-glass was originally imported from Eng- 
land, but few panes, however, remain. In the interior, pegs are placed in 
the wall, and were used by the sturdy pioneers to hang their rifles upon, as 
attacks by the Indians in the Provincial days were of frequent occurrence, 
and there is still to be seen many a hostile bullet imbedded in the solid oak walls. 
The pulpit is quite low and narrow, crescent-shaped, and is entered by narrow 
steps from the east side. Above it on the south side is a large window which 
contains thirty-eight panes of glass of different sizes. The sash is made of 
pewter, and was brought from England. The communion service, which is still 
preserved, consists of four mugs and platters of pewter, manufactured in London, 
and presented to the church by some dissenting English friends one hundred and 
fifty years ago. At the main entrance lies a large stone as a stoop, which is 
greatly worn by the tread of the thousands who have passed over it. About 




OLD DERBY CHURCH— 1870. 
[From a PhotograpU by Lerue Lemer.] 



DAUPHIN COUNTY. 



645 



thirty paces north-west stands the session-house and pastor's study during the 
days of public worship. The burial-ground is a few yards north of the study, 
and is enclosed with a stone wall, capped and neatly built. There is only one 
entrance, which is at the centre of the west side. The Rev. Robert Evans, 
church missionary, ministered to the congregation during its early years, having 
founded the church. He died in Virginia, in 1727. Ilev. William Bertram was 
the first regular minister. His remains lie in the graveyard, near the south-west 
corner. He died May 2, 1746. His successor, Rev. John Roan, is buried 
near b}^, dying in October, 1775. Many ministers of note have preached at 
Derry, among whom were the Rev. David Brainard, Rev. Charles Beatty, and 




INTERIOR VIEW OP DERRY CHURCH. 

[From a Photograph by Lerue Lemer.] 



that galaxy of early missionaries, Anderson, Evans, McMillan, Duffield, Gray, the 
Tennents, Carmichael, etc. At present no services are held in Derry church. 

Paxtang church was organized in 1729, and Rev. James Anderson of Donegal 
preached there. On the 11th October, 1732, Rev. William Bertram accepted a call, 
and was installed, in November following, pastor of Derry and Paxtang. The Rev. 
John Elder, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, accepted a call in 1738, 
and came with the promise of a stipend of sixty pounds in money. The Rev. 
Mr. Bertram was paid " one-half in money, the other half in hemp, linen yarn, 
or linen cloth at market price." The present church building was erected about 
1740. It is a plain, unpretending, limestone fabric, erected on the site of the 
original log house. The building is not large, and is entered by two doors. 
Formerly the pulpit stood in the middle of the house, fronting the southerly 
door. It became a receptacle for squirrels and hornets before it was removed. 
It is now remodeled, and the entire room neatly furnished. Formerly, at the 



646 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



south-east corner of the church building was a log house about fourteen feet 
square, long used by Parson Elder as his study, and subsequently as a school- 
house. From this building the Rev. Elder on Sundays would march to his pulpit, 
his crowd of hearers parting for him to pass without his speaking a word to 

them, so dignified was 



the sacred office es- 
teemed. Into this 
building trusty fire- 
arms were taken for 
some years hy those 
who worshipped there, 
and, on more than one 
occasion, the parson 
himself, who was a 
colonel in the Pro- 
vincial service du- 
ring the French and 
Indian war, had his 
own musket within 
reach. To the south- 




OLD PAXTANG CHURCH. 
[Frora a Photograph by Lerue Lemer.] 



east of the church is the burial-ground, surrounded by a firm stone wall. 
There lie in calm repose men who were prominent in the State before and during 
the Revolution. Rev. John Elder, William Maclay, who, with Robert Morris 
of Philadelphia, represented Pennsylvania in the first Senate of the United 
States ; John Harris, the founder of the city of Harrisburg, General Michael 
Simpson, and Greueral James Crouch, heroes of the Revolution ; the McClures, 
the Forsters, the Gilmores, the Grays, the Wills, the Rutherfords, the Espys, 
and generations of Scotch- 
Irish settlers. 

Nearly eleven miles 
from Harrisburg, on the 
Manada^ a tributary of 
the Swatara, are the re- 
mains of an ancient stone 
structure, which, with the 
walled grave-yard, are the 
only monuments of old 
Hanover church, once pro- 
minent in the early his- 
tory of our State. A few 
years since it was deemed ' 
expedient to dispose of 
the church edifice (the 

building being in a tumble-down condition), the brick school-house, and other 
property belonging thereto, the congregation having long since passed away, for 
the purpose of creating a permanent fund to keep the grave-yard in repair. It 
was a plain, substantial, stone structure, corresponding somewhat to the build- 




OLD HANOVER CHURCH. 
[From a Photograph by A. G. Keet.; 



DAUPHIN COUNTY. 



64T 




FIRST ENGLISH CHURCH AT HARRISBURG- 

IFrom a Pencil Sketch by Hugh Hamilton, M.D.] 



-1809. 



ing at Paxtang. The original name of the old Hanover church was Monnoday 
(Manada). The first record we have is of the date of lIBb, although its organi- 
zation must have been some years earlier. In that year Donegal Presbytery 
sent Rev. Thomas Craighead to preach at Monnoday, and this appears to be the 
first time the congregation was known to that body. The year following, the 
Rev. Richard 
S a n c k e y was 
sent there, who 
for thirty years 
ministered to 
that flock. Sub- 
sequently to the 
celebrated Pax- 
tang aff'air at 
Conestoga and 
Lancaster, the 
Rev. Richard 
Sanckey, with 
thirty or forty 
families of his 
c ong regation, 
emigrated to 

the Virginia Valley, and Captain Lazarus Stewart, with an equal number, 
removed to Wyoming, taking sides with the Connecticut intruders. These 
immigrations cost the church most of its members, and the county some of its 
most industrious and intelligent citizens. In 1783, the Rev. James Snodgrass, 
whose remains lie in the grave-yard, came to be the pastor. For fiftj'-eight 
years he served the congregation, and was its last minister. 

The first church erected within the corporate limits of Harrisburg was a 

hewn log edifice, on the corner of Third street and 
Cherry alley, in 1188, by the German Reformed 
and Lutheran congregations, who previously wor- 
shipped in a small log school-house on the north 
corner of Third and Walnut streets. The log 
church was subsequently used as a school-house, 
until in the march of improvement it was removed. 
The first English, or Presbyterian church, was 
commenced in 1802, on the corner of Second 
street and Cherry alley, and formally dedicated 
Februar}^ 12, 1809. It was constructed of brick. 
Until 1826 these were the only religious denomina- 
tions that had a local habitation. Subsequentl}' 
the Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Baptists, and 
other congregations erected places of worship. At this time few towns present 
finer specimens of church architecture than are to be found in Harrisburg. 

Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, and the county seat of Dauphin, 
was created a borough by the act of 13th April, 1791. On the formation of the 




FIRST GERMAN CHURCH — 1788. 
fFrom a Sketch by J. M. Beck— 1S4C.] 



648 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

county of Dauphin, in 1785, the seat of justice was fixed at Harris' ferry, but in 
the commissions of the officers of the county the town was named Louisburg, 
in honor of Louis XVI., then King of France. On the minutes of the second 
court held in the town, the following endorsement appears on the docket : " The 
name of the county town, or seat of the courts, is altered from ' Harrisburg ' to 
' Louisbourg,' in consequence of the Supreme Executive Council of the Common- 
wealth so styling it." It was not, however, until the act of incorporation passed 
that this gross injustice was remedied. 

In the year 1792 the first newspaper was established in the borough by John 
Wyeth. During the so-called Whiskey Insurrection, President Washington 
remained over night in the town, receiving the congratulatory address of the 
inhabitants, to which he courteously replied. An academy was opened in 1790, 
which was formally incorporated as the Harrisburg Academy in 1 809. By the act 
of February, 1810, the offices of State government were removed to Harrisburg 
in 1812, since which period it has remained the capital of Pennsylvania. On 
the 31st of May, 1819, the corner-stone of the Capitol was laid by Governor 
Findlay, with appropriate ceremonies. The building was completed in 1821, and 
first occupied by the General Assembly on the 3d of January, 1822. On the 
30th of January, 1825, the great Lafayette arrived on a visit to Harrisburg. On 
March 14, 1827, the first corner-stone of the locks of the Pennsylvania canal 
was laid in lock No. 6, at the foot of Walnut street, Harrisburg, in the 
presence of the Governor, members of the Legislature, and a great concourse of 
citizens. By the act of the 11th April, 1827, the Lancasterian system of educa- 
tion was established. In the month of September, 1836, the first locomotive 
arrived over the Harrisburg and Lancaster railroad. This was the forerunner 
of that system of internal improvements which has so largely assisted in develop- 
ing the material wealth of this locality. The Cumberland Valley railroad was 
opened in July, 1837 ; the Pennsylvania, westward, in 1848. With these means 
of transit, Harrisburg began to take rank as a manufacturing town, and, in 1860, 
it received its highest corporate honors, that of a city. A new impetus was thus 
given to its growth, and from that time forward its industrial establishments 
have increased marvelously, the most notable of which are the Lochiel iron 
wox'ks, the Harrisburg car and machine shops, the Paxton, Price, and Wister 
furnaces, the Chesapeake nail works. Eagle machine works, six foundries, Harris- 
burg cotton mill, and many others in all departments of manufacture, with an 
invested capital aggregating twelve millions of dollars. As in wealth and 
importance it has largely increased, so it has in population. Its pleasant loca- 
tion and admirable facilities for transportation, with nearness to the iron and 
coal mines, has invited capital, and it is destined to be one of the greatest manu- 
facturing centres in the State. 

Five miles north of Harrisburg lies a narrow elevation of gravel and boulders, 
bounded on the west by the broad Susquehanna, projecting boldly into the stream ; 
eastward stretching into the narrow valley of Fishing creek, the waters of which 
wash the northern base of this projecting knoll. . . . A faint trace of the family, 
the first to avail itself of this beautiful location, is found as early as 1718. 
Benjamin Chambers, the senior of four brothers, sturdy Presbyterians from the 
north of Ireland, himself a man of remarkable determination, was the name of 



DAUPHIN COUNTY. 



649 



the person who " took up "Fort Hunter. It, has been stated by Mr. Garrard and 
other historical writers that Benjamin Chambers came to the Pro\ince as an adven- 
turer in the old Pennsylvania company ; but the person who came at that period was 
an English Quaker, and settled near Philadelphia, at the Swedes' ferry, afterwards 
Gray's ferry, on the Schuylkill. Our settler was of a different religious faith and na- 
tionality. In this locality we first hear of the brothers Benjamin, James, Joseph, and 
Robert Chambers, about 1720, at the "mouth of Fishing creek;" whether at^ 
what is now known as Little Conewago, dividing Dauphin from Lancaster 
county, or Fishing creek at Hunter's, we have no means of determining. In 
1725-6, a title under the fashion of that period was acquired " at the mouth of 
Fishing creek," for one thousand acres, from Robert Hunter, a straggling white 
trader, who had wedded "Mrs. 



Corondowana, alias Mrs. Mon- 
tour," a chieftainess of the Conoys, 
"about a year and a half" before 
April, 1723, of which marriage 
loud complaint was made to " Pat'ck 
Gordon, Esq., Lt.-Gov'r, and the 
Coun'I." This transaction on the 
borders made a commotion at the 
council board of the Penn family, 
and therefore fixes the date of the 
settlement of Chambers and its cer- 
tain location. Subsequently the 
provincial authorities confirmed all 
that had taken place, through land 
office forms, about 1783-37. A 
few hundred yards from what after- 
wards was the fort a mill was built, 
about 1736, part of which yet re- 
mains on the west side of the Penn- 
sylvania canal, and is used to this 
day for its original purpose. The 
site of this Indian fort was in the possession of the McAllisters for three- 
quarters of a century. 

MiDDLETOWN was SO named from its being located midway between Lancaster 
and Carlisle, It is the oldest town in Dauphin county, having been laid out 
thirty years before Harrisburg, and seven years before Hummelstown, and is 
nine miles by the turnpike south-east of Harrisburg on the. Pennsylvania rail- 
road, near the confluence of the Susquehanna and Swatara, at which the Pennsyl- 
vania and Union canal unite. It was laid out in 1755, by George Fisher, in the 
centre of a large tract of land bounded by the streams alluded to, conveyed to 
him by his father, John Fisher, a merchant of Philadelphia. The site was that 
of an ancient Indian village. The town was incorporated into a borough, Feb- 
ruary 19, 1828. Portsmouth, between Middletown and the Susquehanna, was 
laid out in 1809, by George Fisher, son of Mr. Fisher who laid out Middletown, 
and at first called Harbortown. The same was changed to Portsmouth in 1814. 




"FORT HUNTER. 

[From a Photograph by D. C. Burnite.] 



g50 HISTOB Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

The Union and Pennsylvania canajs, the Harrisburg and Lancaster railroad all 
intersect here. By the act of Assembly, March 9, 1851, it was consolidated with 
Middletown, and the name Portsmouth is rarely heard. Between Ports- 
mouth and Middletown, on the plain, stands the Emmaus Institute, devoted to 
the education of poor orphan children, where it is said the children " are to be 
carefully trained in the doctrines of the Evangelical Lutheran Church." Instruc- 
tion is given in the German and English languages, and the charter has been so 
altered by the Legislature as to permit the establishment of a literary and scien- 
tific department in connection with the orphan house, in which all the branches 
of modern learning are taught. The institution owes its origin to the liberality 
of Mr. George Frey. Middletown is a thriving manufacturing town, and con- 
tains an enterprising population. 

The original proprietor of the town being a Friend, several of this denomi- 
nation from the city and the lower counties followed him ; and these, with several 
Scotch-Irish merchants, formed the first inhabitants of the village, who enjoyed, 
up to the period of the Revolution, a \Qry extensive and lucrative trade with the 
Indian nations and others settled on the Susquehanna and Juniata, and also with 
the Western traders. Several of the Scotch-Irish merchants entered the army, 
whence few returned. During the Revolutionary war a commissary department 
was established here, where the small boats for General Sullivan's army were 
built, and his troops supplied with provisions and military stores for his 
expedition against the Six Nations. After the war, trade again revived, and 
flourished extensively until 17 96, after which it gradually declined. Until then 
the mouth of the Swatara was considered the termination of the navigation of 
the Susquehanna and its tributary streams. So far down it was deemed safe ; 
below this it was thought to be impracticable, on account of the numerous and 
dangerous falls and cataracts impeding its bed. In 1796 an enterprising German 
miller by the name of Kreider, from the neighborhood of Huntingdon, on the 
Juniata, appeared in the Swatara with the first ark ever built in those waters, fully 
freighted with flour, with which he safely descended to Baltimore, where he was 
amply compensated for his meritorious adventure. His success becoming known 
throughout the interior, many arks were built, and the next year many of them, 
fully freighted, arrived safely at tide-water. This trade increasing, a number of 
enterprising young men were induced to examine critically the river from 
Swatara to tide-water, by which they became excellent pilots. The enterprise of 
John Kreider thus diverted the trade of this place to Baltimore, where it 
principally centred, until the Union canal was completed, when it was again 
generally arrested to its old post. It would probably have so continued if the 
Pennsylvania canal had not been eontinued to Columbia, by which the principal 
obstruction in the river, the Conewago Falls,'was completely obviated. 

HuMMELSTOWN, situated on the line of the Lebanon Valley railroad, was laid 
out by Mr. Frederick Hummel, October 26, 1762. It was for many years called 
Frcderickstown ; the precise date of the change in the name of the town is un- 
known. It joins Derry township, though, of course, since its incorporation as 
a borough in 1874, enjoying a separate and distinct municipal government, nine 
miles from Harrisburg, on the old turnpike road leading to Reading; seated 
in a fertile limestone region, highly cultivated by wealthy and industrious farm- 



DA UPHIN CO UlfTY. ^5 1 

ers of German descent. Among its oldest settlers were Jacob Hummel, Sr. 
John Fox, Frederick Hummel, George Gish, George Fox, Christian Spayd, 
Frederick Richert, Daniel Baum, Adam Dean. During the Revolution of 1176 
Hummelstown was made a place of deposit for arms, ammunition, etc., whence 
the garrisons on the West Branch were supplied. It is a place of considerable 
business activity, located as it is in a fine farming country. About a half mile 
south-west of the town is a large cave which in former days was widely celebrated 
It is a quarter of a mile in length, and contained at one time large numbers 
of beautiful stalactites. The curiosity-hunter has broken these, while the walls, 
blackened by the torches of numerous visitors, render it less a curiosity than 
formerly. 

MiLLERSBURG borough was laid out in 180Y, by Daniel Miller, after whom it 
is named. It is pleasantly situated north of Berry's mountain, at the mouth of 
the Wiconisco creek, on the line of the Northern Central and the terminus of the 
Lykens Valley railroad. The first settlers of this region were Huguenots. 
Frauds Jaques, or Jacobs, resided some time at Halifax, but afterwards located 
here, where he had " taken up " several thousand acres of land. Among others, 
Kleim Larue (Laroi), Shorra or Jury, Werts, Daniel Stoever, Shutts, were early 
settlers here. Millersburg is a place of considerable importance, being situated 
near the coal regions, with which it communicates by the Lykens Yalley rail- 
road, and with Harrisburg by the Wiconisco canal and the main line. The site 
of the present town was formerly a pine forest, and the original lot owners could 
procure enough of pine lumber to build a comfortable dwelling. The place was 
settled some 3^ears prior to the time it was laid out. Daniel Miller, the proprie- 
tor, and John Miller, his brother, emigrated from Lancaster county about the 
3'ear 1790, and "took up" some four hundred acres of land and commenced a 
settlement, probably in the year 1794, which was finally laid out into town 
lots, as above stated. On the 8th of April, 1850, an act was passed and 
approved by the Legislature of Pennsylvania incorporating Millersburg into a 
borough. 

Duncan's Island is a flourishing settlement, at the mouth of the Juniata, 
fourteen miles above Harrisburg. The name properly belongs to the narrow 
alluvial island, about two miles in length, at the point of which the village is 
situated. This island and its fellow, Haldeman's island, although apparently in 
Perry county, are really in Dauphin, Perry having been formed from Cumber- 
land, and the original boundary of that county having been the western shore of 
the Susquehanna. Haldeman's island is not of alluvial origin, but is elevated 
above the neighboring plateau. The river here is nearly a mile in width, and is 
crossed by a wooden bridge, on the Burr plan, resting upon man}' piers, the 
whole constructed with an elegance and strength equal to, if not surpassing, 
those of any public work in the country. A dam across the river, just below the 
bridge, creates a pool, upon which boats cross by means of the double towing- 
path attached to the bridge. The canal continues up Duncan's island, divei'ging 
at its upper end into the Juniata and Susquehanna divisions. The Juniata 
division then crosses the Juniata river on a splendid aqueduct, with wooden 
superstructure, and continues up the right bank to the rope-ferry, twelve miles 
above. There is also a fine bridge across the mouth of the Juniata. 



652 HIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Berrysburq borough is on the road leading from Millersburg through Lykens 
Valley into Schuylkill county. It was laid out about 1838, and incorporated as 
a borough May 24, 1871. Uniontown borough (Pillow post office), situated 
about four miles north of Berrysburg, on the Northumberland county line, is a 
thrifty town. It was incorporated April 20, 1864. 

Steelton, formerly Baldwin, was laid out by Rudolph F. Kelker in April, 1866. 
It owes its origin and importance to the location of the Pennsylvania steel works, 
around which extensive establishments have gathered a population of nearly fif- 
teen hundred. These works are one of the greatest industries in the United 
States. Between the limits of Steelton and the city of Harrisburg lies the town of 
Ewiugton, laid out in 1875 by Messrs. Purdy and Ewing. Its close proximity 
to the great manufacturing establishments adds materially to its growth and pros- 
perity. 

Halifax was laid out in 1794 by George Sheafer and Peter Rise. It derived 
its name from being the location of the celebrated provincial fort erected in 1756. 
Fort Halifax was constructed at the mouth of Armstrong creek, about half a mile 
above the town, the well of which yet exists. 

Lykens and Wiconisco are two of the most important towns in the northern 
part of the county, located in the midst of the celebrated Lykens Valley coal 
mines. The former town was laid out by Edward Gratz in 1848. It was, how- 
ever, an old settlement, and lots were sold as early as 1838, although it did not 
come into importance until the development of the coal trade. Coal was dis- 
covered here as early as 1825 by Jacob Burd and Richard Kimes. Lykens was 
incorporated as a borough April 3, 1872. Wiconisco, separated from the former 
by Wiconisco creek, was laid out by Thomas Gooch and Peter W. Sheafer, in 
1848. It was first settled twenty years previous. The Lykens Valley railroad 
runs to both towns. 

Among the early settlers in the Lykens valley was Andrew Lycan, after 
whom the locality is named. His house, which stood until about 1870, was 
situated near the present site of Oakdale, a few yards north of the bridge that 
crosses the Wiconisco creek. It was built of hewn logs, with windows about 
nine inches square, which were used as port holes. From the Provincial records 
we learn that on the 7th of March, 1756, his house was attacked by the Indians. 
Lj'can had with him his son, a negro man, a boy, and John Revalt, and Ludwig 
Shutt, two of his neighbors. Lycan and Revalt, whilst engaged earl}' in the 
morning foddering the cattle, had two guns fired at them, but, unhurt, ran to 
the house, and prepared for an engagement. In order to get a shot at the 
enemy, John Lycan, Revalt, and Shutt, crept out of the house, but were 
instantly fired upon by five Indians, and were all wounded. Lycan, the 
father, perceiving over the hog-house an Indian, named Joshua James, fired upon 
and killed him ; he also saw two white men run from the hog-house, and get at 
a little distance from it. The people in the house now endeavored to escape, 
and were pursued by sixteen Indians. John Lycan and Revalt, unable from 
their wounds to continue the fight, fled with the negro, whilst Andrew Lycan, 
Shutt, and the boy faced the foe. One of the Indians approached the boy, and 
whilst in the act of striking him with his tomahawk, was shot dead by Shuttj 
and at the same instant Lycan killed another. These two heroic men con- 



DAUPHIN COUNTY. 



653 



tinned the combat for some time, and killed and wounded several of their adver- 
saries. Their bravery daunted the enemy, who did not dare to close upon them 
even though they were compelled, from fatigue and loss of blood, to sit down 
upon a log to rest themselves ; and they finally succeeded in making good their 
retreat to Hanover township. Several of the Indians were recognised as Dela- 
wares, and were well known in the neighborhood. 

Dauphin was laid out in 1826 by Hon. Innis Green, and named at first Po]'t 
Lyon, subsequently Greensburg in honor of its founder. The name of the post- 
office being Dauphin, this was adopted for the town in the act of 31st of March, 
1845, incorporating it into a borough. Dauphin is delightfully situated at the con- 
fluence of Stony creek with the Susquehanna, eight miles from the city of Harris- 
burg. It has several industrial establishments, and contains a population of over 
eight hundred. 

Gratz borough was laid out by Simon Gratz, after whom it was named, in 
1805. It was incorporated a borough by act of Assembly, April 3, 1852. It con- 
tains a population of about five hundred. 

WiLLiAMSTOWN, in Williams township, was laid out in 1869. It is located on 
the Summit Branch railroad, near the colliery named for it. 

Besides the foregoing towns there are a number of others of which we shall 
simply give the date of laying out : Highspire, 1814 ; Linglestown, 1165 ; Union 
Deposit, 1845; Rockville, 1839; Fisherville, 1848. 

The townships of Peshtank, Lebanon, and Derry covered the territory within 
the bounds of the county of Dauphin and Lebanon in 1729, when Lancaster 
county was formed. From the time of the organization of the former county 
until 1813, when Lebanon was sepai'ated therefrom, the townships were as fol- 
lows, with the date of erection : Paxton, 1*729 ; Lebanon, 1729 ; Derry, 1729 ; Han- 
over from Derry, 1737 ; Bethel from Lebanon, 1739 ; Heidelberg, 1757 ; London- 
derry, 1768; Upper Paxton, 1767; West Hanover, 1785; East Hanover, 1785; 
Middle Paxton, 1787; Swatara, 1799; Annville, 1799; Halifax, 1804, and Ly- 
kens, 1810. When Lebanon county was created, the townships of Lebanon, East 
and West Hanover, Heidelberg, Bethel, and Annville, were lost to Dauphin. 
Since that period there have been erected in this county : Susquehanna, 1815 ; 
Mifflin, 1819; Rush, 1820; Jackson, 1828; Wiconisco, 1840; Lower Swatara, 
with new lines for Swatara, 1840 ; South, East, and West Hanover, all in 1842 ; 
Jefferson, 1842; Washington, 1846; Reed, 1849; Conewago, 1850; Williams, 1868; 
and Wayne, 1878. 




654 



DELAWARE COUNTY. 



BY H. G. ASHMEAD, CHESTER. 

ITHIN the boundaries of Delaware county, the first settlement of 
Europeans, of which we have authentic record, in the State of Penn- 
sylvania, was made. So, too, many of the most important acts of 
government were, for the first time in tlie Province, exercised 
within its limits, although it did not receive its distinctive organization until 
September 26th, 1789, when, by act of Assembly, John Sellers, Thomas Tucker 





THE OLD TOWN HALIi AT CHESTER. 

[Fao-simile of an Old Engraving.] 

and Charles Dilworth, or any two of them, were empowered commissioners " to 
run and mark the lines dividing the counties of Chester and Delaware." This 
was done by a zig-zag line " so as not to split or divide plantations" from 
Chad's ford, by the way of Dilworthstown to Montgomery county. The new 
county was sixteen miles in length, eleven in breadth, its area being 177 square 
miles, and containing 113,289 acres. It is bounded on the north by Philadelphia 
and Montgomery counties, on the west by Chester, on the south and west by the 

655 



656 EISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

State of Delaware, and on the south and east by the river Delaware. In 1190, 
when the first national census was taken, and which was but a short time after 
its formation, its total population was 9,483 ; in 1875 it was 39,403. During the 
first fifty years immediately following its establishment, the growth of the 
county was tardy, and it is only within the last thirty years that it has exhibited 
much progressive energies. 

The surface of the county is gently undulating, although towards the north- 
western boundary it is decidedly hilly. The principal streams draining the ter- 
ritory and emptying into the Delaware are Cobb's, Darby, Crum, Ridley, Chester, 
Hook, Naaman's creeks, and the Brandywine, which forms its western boundary. 
Geologically the county lies entirely within the primitive formation, with the 
exception of the alluvial tract along the Delaware, the prevailing rock being 
granite, gneiss, and feldspar, the quarries of the former fui'nishing much of the 
building material used in Philadelphia and its vicinity. The breakwater at Cape 
Henlopen is almost entirely constructed of this stone. Whetstones of an ex- 
cellent quality are procured near Darby creek, and exported to all parts of the 
"D'nion. In Newtown, Middletown, Providence, and Edgmont townships are 
quarried the beautiful serpentine stone so extensively used in ornamental archi- 
tecture in New York, Philadelphia, and other cities. 

The first woolen mill in the county was established by an English family 
named Bottomley, in 1810, who converted an old saw mill, in Concord, into a 
factory, to the amazement of the residents in the neighborhood. About the 
breaking out of the war of 1812, Mr. Kelly erected a factor}^ on Cobb's creek, in 
Haverford, and from these small beginnings the enormous manufacturing in- 
terests of Delaware county have grown, until there were, in 1815, 314 factories, 
employing 6,448 persons, requiring a capital of $5,921,181, and producing goods 
annually to the value of $11,641,654. There are also six ship-yards in Chester 
and South Chester borough, which, when business is active, employ fifteen 
hundred workmen. There are twenty-seven flouring mills, employing seventy- 
nine hands, $150,000 capital, and producing annually $612,400. There are 
89,438 acres of improved farming lands, which in 1810 produced 121,398 
bushels of wheat, 6,209 of rye, 319,411 of oats, 2,411 of barley, which, together 
with market gardening, orchard produce, the hay crop, and the value of animals 
sold for slaughter, amounted to $3,430,518. The value of all farm lands was 
$19,288,121 ; farming implements and machinery, $524,363. In 1810 there were 
4,219 horses, 12,116 milch cows, 454 oxen, 3,138 beeves, 2,142 sheep, and 1,159 

swine. 

In the present township of Tinicum the first European settlement in Pennsyl- 
vania, of which we have record, was made. Here it was that Colonel John 
Printz, a Swedish military' officer of note, accompanied by a few adventurers of 
the same nationality, located in 1643, erected a fort of "groenen" (?) logs, and 
named the settlement New Gottenburg. A short time thereafter. Governor 
Printz built near-by a pretentious mansion house, the bricks being, it is said, 
brought from Sweden for that purpose. This dwelling received the name 
Printzhoff, and, we are told by Ferris, after standing over one hundred and sixty 
years, was accidentally destroyed by fire during the early part of the present 
century — a statement, however, which has frequently been questioned by local 



DELAWARE COUNTY. 657 

historians. In 1646 the colonists erected a commodious wooden church, which 
was consecrated by Rev. John Campanius, on the 4th of September of that year, 
and located a grave-yard at that point, in which " the first corpse that was 
buried was Andrew Hanson's daughter Catherine, and she was buried on the 
28t,h of October, whicli was Simon's and Jude's day." Martin, in his history of 
Chester, informs us that thei'e is good reason to believe that the site of Printz 
hall, the church, and burial place, have been washed entirely away by the encroach- 
ments of the river, and that in the early part of this century human bones and 
pieces of coffin wood were frequently found protruding from the river bank as 
it receded. 

It is not proposed in this count}^ sketch to recapitulate those incidents, which 
have been treated at some length in the General History of the State. The 
Swedish settlement having been considered elsewhere, it is unnecessary to more 
than refer to it here. The same course will be followed in respect to other 
events as the narrative advances. 

The marriage of Governor Printz's daughter, Armegard, to John Papegoya, at 
Tinicum, in 1644, is believed to have been the first instance in which a matri- 
monial ceremony was performed between Europeans within the limits of the 
present State of Penns^dvania. Over the meadows at that place the sound of the 
first "church-going bell" on the American continent called the worshippers 
together in the old Swedes' church. In May, 16'73, Armegot Printz — she so 
wrote her name in the receipt — to obtain money, of which she appears to have 
been much in need, sold that bell to the congregation of the adherents of the Augs- 
burg Confession, at Laus Deo. To re-purchase it the Swedish settlers gave their 
labor for two years at harvest time as the consideration. What subsequently 
became of the bell after its return to Tinicum is not known. The church building, 
as well as Printz Hall, were certainly uninjured b}^ Peter Stuyvesant when he cap- 
tured New Gottenburg, in 1655; notwithstanding we are told by Campanius 
that the Dutch conqueror destroyed that place. When Governor Andros visited 
the Delaware, in 1675, the New Castle court decreed, when designating places of 
meeting for worship, "that the church at Tinicum Island do serve for Upland 
and parts adjacent," which was twenty years after Stuyvesant's conquests. 
Lewis, in the history of Chester county, says that the Swedes came from New 
Castle and places along the Delaware, both above and below, to worship in that 
building. 

The first mention made of a settlement at Upland, the site of the now thriving 
city of Chester, occurs at the interview between Huddie and the Passayunk 
Indians, in 1648. Campanius, who left New Sweden in the same year, spoke of 
Upland to his grandson as " a fortified place in which some houses were built." 
Martin believes that 1645 is probably the precise date of the settlement of the 
town, an opinion generall}- accepted as correct. The settlement consistid of a 
few scattered dwellings, sufficient at the time to demand recognition as a point 
of considerable importance, although from Campanius' description it would 
appear that the houses Avere located within the enclosure of the fortress. A 
court, crude in its procedure, was held here by the Swedish settlers. The precise 
date of its establishment is unknown, but it must have been previous to 1658, for 
at that time " one Jurgin, the Finn on Crooked Kill," was appointed court ines- 
2 R 



658 HISTOB Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

senger. In the same year Evert Pieterson held the position of school-master, 
with twenty-five pupils under his charge. This was twenty-five years before 
Enoch Flower established his school in Philadelphia, thus showing that the latter 
was not the first pedagogue mentioned in our State annals. In 1661 the first 
application for divorce, of which we have record, was made to the Upland court. 
A Finn and his wife, who are supposed to have resided in the vicinity of Marcus 
Hook, lived together in a state of constant strife, the wife being almost daily 
whipped by the husband, and "often expelled from the house like a dog," until 
the priest, the sheriff, the commissioners, and the neighbors, united in petitioning 
the court for a divorce. The whole subject was referred to the Governor, but 
with what success is not known. 

Tradition states that the first highway laid out in Pennsylvania was the 
present Essex street, which was to the west of the famous Essex House. 
Whether that be so cannot now be determined. Martin claims that Edgmont 
street had that honor, while Armstrong states that the road to Darby was the first 
highway. It is known, however, that in the early part of 16tt, the New Castle 
court, which had concurrent jurisdiction with the Upland court, made an order 
that " highways should be cleared from place to place," which decree is said by 
Dr. Smith, in his valuable History of Delaware county, to be the first road law 
ever promulgated in the Province. In the same year, on the records of Upland 
court, occurs the first appointment of a guardian for minors. 

In 1669 Marcus Jacobus, popularly known as " the Long Finn," and Henry 
Coleman, both residing below Upland, were charged with inciting an insurrec- 
tion. The only treasonable (?) act shown on the trial of Jacobus was " raising of 
speeches, very seditious and false, tending to the disturbance of his Majesty's 
peace and the laws of the government." The commissioners who were appointed 
to try the case found that, although the prisoner had merited death, his igno- 
rance was such that in justice his life might be spared, and the}'' sentenced him 
" to be publicly and severely whipped and stigmatized or branded in the face 
with the letter R, with an inscription written in great letters and put upon his 
breast, that he receive that punishment for attempting rebellion," after which he 
was to be sent to Barbadoes or some other of the remote plantations and sold. 
In January, 1670, the prisoner, after having undergone the former parts of his 
sentence, was put on board the Fort Albany, a vessel bound for Barbadoes, after 
which all record of the unfortunate man ceases. Coleman, his confederate, it is 
thought, took shelter among the Indians, with whom he was on friendly terms, 
and remained among them several years, until in the lapse of time his offence 
was entirely overlooked. This instance of punishment by branding with the 
letter designating the crime is the only one which occurs in our annals. The 
custom, however, of compelling convicts to wear a letter upon their breasts as a 
punishment, was frequent in colonial times. In HIY, the court at Chester sen- 
tenced a prisoner found guilty of theft to pay four-fold the cost of the article 
stolen, and " to be whipped with twenty-one lashes, and wear a Roman T of a blue 
color for the space of six months, not less than four inches long each way, and one 
inch broad." In 1732 wearing the letter of the crime ceased to be part of the sen- 
tences pronounced upon culprits, although in 1753, one Owen Oberlack, alias 
John Bradley, was convicted of speaking seditious words, and was sentenced to 



DELAWARE COUNTY. 



659 



stand in the pillory, at Chester, one hour, with the words " I stand here for 
speaking seditious words against the best of kings," written in a large hand and 
affixed to his back. 

The records of Upland court, in 1678, show the first commitment of a lunatic 
in the State, and the erection of the first asylum for the insane. The circum- 
stances are thus briefly stated : "Jan Cornellissen, of Ammasland, complaining to 
ye court that his son Erick is bereft of his natural sences, and is turned quyt 
madd, and yt hee being a poore man is not able to maintain him — ordered : that 
three or 4 p'rsonsbee hired to build a Little Block house at Ammasland for to put 
in the sd madman, and att the next court order will bee taken yt a small Levy bee 
Laid to pay for the building of ye house and the maintaining of 3'e sd madd man 
according to Laws of ye government." These records, which have been published 




HOUSE WHEKE PENN RESIDED WHILE AT CHESTER. 



by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, afford an interesting field to the 
antiquary and historian. In them are found the earliest instances of the common 
law usages in this State, usages with which, we are taught, much of the liberty 
of the citizen is connected. The first jury that is known to have been empan- 
elled in Pennsylvania was in a trial at Upland, in 1678. On September 12th, 1682, 
the first grand jury summoned in the Colony sat at Upland, and the first order 
for filing an administrator's account was made at that court. 

In 1675, Robert Wade, who had emigrated from England in the ship Griffith, 
settled at Upland, on the west side of the creek, on the Printzdorp estate, which 
had been granted Armegard Printz, by the Swedish sovereign. How Wade 
acquired title to the property is unknown, but, certain it is, that in that year 
William Edmuudson, a prominent minister of tlie Society of Friends, found 
Wade at Upland, and at his house a meeting occurred, which was the first known 



660 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

to have been held by members of that Societ}^ in Pennsylvania. It is believed 
that in that year several Quaker families, the first of that denomination in the 
Province, settled at Upland. This fact is evidenced by the journal of George 
Fox, who in returning from a religious visit to New England, in 1672, passed 
through the whole extent of Delaware county, and does not record that in his 
ride to New Castle he met with a member of the societ}^, of which he was the 
founder, although he mentions having stopped over night at the house of a 
Swede. 

In the present city of Chester, Deputy Governor Markham- organized the 
Proprietary government, on the 3d day of August, 1681, and it was there, in the 
sam.e year, the interview occurred between Lord Baltimore and Markham, during 
which, by astronomical observations, it became manifest that the parallel of 40°, 
the southern boundary of Pennsylvauia, was twelve miles further to the north. 
In this discovery began the memorable controversy between the Lords Baltimore 
and the family of Penn, which lasted seventy years, until it was finally set at 
rest by a decree of Lord Chancellor Hardwick, resulting in a line being surveyed 
by Mason and Dixon, two London surveyors, which, more than half a century 
after, during the Missouri Compromise debate, was declared by John Randolph 
to be the line that divided the free from the slave-holding States, and accepted 
as such, its name has since become as " familiar as a household word." 

Proud tells us that the Bristol Factor, Roger Drew, commander, " arrived at 
the place where Chester now stands on the 11th of December, 1681, where the 
passengers seeing some houses, w^ent on shore at Robert Wade's landing, near 
the lower side of Chester creek ; and the river having froze up that night, the 
passengers remained there all winter." These emigrants built huts to accommo- 
date themselves and families, while others made excavations in the earth in 
which to obtain shelter. In such a cave Emanuel Grubb was born. He was said 
to have been, but the statement is inaccurate, the first born of English parentage 
in the Province. In 1682, more than two months before Penn's arrival, John 
Sharpless and family settled on Ridlc}' creek, two miles to the north-west of 
Chester, and were compelled to harbor under the shelter of the branches of a 
large tree that the father felled for that purpose. In six weeks thereafter he had 
completed a house, which was placed in such a way against a solid rock that the 
latter served as a chimney. The cold weather had set in by the time it was 
completed, and when the family occupied their new dwelling the glowing fire 
against the chimney rock warmed the rattlesnakes that had sought shelter there 
from their winter torpor, and they crawled forth into the cabin in great numbers. 
Upon the rock Sharpless cut his initials, " I. S.," and the date " 1682," and they 
are distinguishable to this day. 

Martin asserts that William Penn landed at Upland, on Sunday, the 29th of 
October, 1682, but Dr. Smith maintains that "neither the hour, the day, nor the 
manner of his landing is certainly known." The landing is believed to have been 
made near the Essex House, then occupied by Robert Wade, which stood, 
although in ruins, until the beginning of this century, at what is now the north- 
west corner of Penn and Front streets. When the present building was erected 
in 1850, the foundations of the old structure were found, and a well that had in 
time been filled in was disclosed, in which an ancient bucket in tolerable good 



DEL AW ABE COUNTY. 



661 



preservation was discovered. In 1850 the Pennsylvania Historical Society loca- 
ted a pine tree on the exact spot at which the landing occurred, but that has 
since been cleared away before the steady pressure of material improvement. Had 
the tree remained it would have stood some distance in the roadwa}' of the street. 

Traditions cluster very thickly about this important event in the history of 
the State. It seems unquestioned that Penn changed the name of Upland imme- 
diately after he landed there, but the dramatic story, that he turned to Pearson, 
one of his fellow voyagers (?), and said : " Providence has brought us here 
safel}^; thou hast been the companion of my perils; what wilt thou that I should 
call this place ? " and that the latter replied : "Cliester, in remembrance of the 
city whence I came," is seriously doubted by many of our best informed histo- 
rians. Of a similar dubious cliaracter is the tradition that in discharging a 
portion of the stores from the Welcome, a large cask or bale fell upon the leg or 
arm of one of the crew and injured it so seriously that it became necessary to 
amputate the limb. At that time but one ph^'sician was with the colony at 
Upland, and the rude system of leechcraft, then in vogue, which did not accept 
Ambrose Fare's idea that the arteries could be tied, employed boiling pitch to 
arrest the flow of blood. After the com- 
pletion of his work, the surgeon unfortu- 
nately dropped some of the blazing pitch 
upon himself, which ignited his cloth- 
ing, and he was burned so severely that 
he subsequently died in great agony. 
This latter story may have had its origin 
in the fact that when Penn visited his 
colony a second time, in 1699, before 
going on his vessel the next morning to 
proceed to Philadelphia, he visited the 
town and crossed from the west to the 

east side of the creek in a boat. As he landed, several young men fired salutes 
in his honor from two small cannon. One of the artillerists, by inserting the 
cartridge before the piece had been sponged out, caused a premature discharge, 
wounding him so badly that it was necessary to amputate his left arm. 

On the 4th of December, 1682, the first Assembly of Pennsylvania convened 
at Chester, lasting several days, when it was dissolved by the Proprietary in 
person. Tradition connected an old building which stood until within recent 
years on the west side of Edgmont street, nearly opposite Graham street, as the 
place where this body sat, and in commemoration of that event it was known as the 
Old Assembly House. Investigations of Dr. Smith, Martin, and others, has es- 
tablished the now undoubted fact that that structure was the first meeting-house 
of Friends in Chester, and was not erected until 1693, nearly eleven years subse- 
quent to the meeting of the Legislature. All the historians mentioned unite in the 
opinion that the House of Defence was the building made use of for that purpose, 
and tliat in the same structure court was held in 1683, over which the Proprietary 
in person presided. William Penn, however, is said frequently to have preached 
in the old meeting-house. 

Penn, it is thought, resided principally at Chester during the wintei of 1682-3, 




FIRST MEETING HOUSE OF FRIENDS 
AT CHESTER. 



662 HISTOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

and is said to have made his home in an old building that was standing until 
within thirty odd years, a short distance below the creek, on the east side of the 
King's highway. In early days it was a noted tavern, known throughout the 
colony as the " Black Bear Inn." Penn was in Chester on the 10th of March, 
1683, two days before the Assembly met in Philadelphia, at which the plow was 
designated as the official seal of the county of Chester. In this year the noted 
Chester Mills, the first ever erected by English settlers, were constructed on the 
site of the present village of Upland. The frames and machinery had been brought 
from England in the Welcome. Bj^ the verbal agreement of the ten share- 
holders in the enterprise, Caleb Pusey was appointed agent and manager for the 
interest of all. This selection was most happy, for Pusey showed energy in con- 
tending with unlooked-for difficulties in carrying out the project. Lewis states 
that William Penn was present when the first log was laid in the first dam on 
Chester creek. The best information respecting these mills is furnished in an 
old deed, dated December I9fch, 1705, by which Samuel Carpenter of Philadel- 
phia transferred his half interest in the mill property to Caleb Pusey. It is 
stated therein that in 1683 Pusey did erect, at the joint charge of all the owners, 
acorn mill and dam near his new dwelling, still standing at Upland in excellent 
preservation. After the mill and dam were swept away by a flood, Pusey, with 
the consent of the share-holders then in the Province, erected another mill and 
dam further up the creek, but that was swept away also, and he constructed a 
third one at a considerable distance beyond the others, and a race was made to 
convey the water to the mill. The expense attending these constant repairs was 
so great that the outlay far exceeded the earnings of the mill, and as the parties 
i-efused, with the exception of Penn and Pusey, to pay their proportions of the 
costs, suit was brought, and the interest of the remaining share-holders sold to 
Samuel Carpenter, in satisfaction of the judgment obtained. Thus he became a 
partner, and a rude iron vane in commemoration of that circumstance was placed 
on the building. It bore the initials W. P. (William Penn), S. C. (Samuel 
Carpenter), C. P. (Caleb Pusey), and the date 1699. This ancient relic now sur- 
mounts the building of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadel- 
phia. In 1705, Carpenter sold his interest to Pusey, and the interest of Penn 
seems to have become a charge upon the land, which was recognized until the 
Revolution extinguished the title of the " Chief Lords of the Fee." About 
1745, a new mill was built by Joseph Pennell, the then owner of the propertj-, the 
old structure having been injured by fire, and a dam-breast was erected in 1752, 
by Samuel Shaw. That stone mill stood until 1858, when it was totally de- 
stroyed by an accidental fire. The circumstances connected with this old mill- 
site have been given with some fullness, because it was the second enterprise of 
that character in the colon}', the first being the Swede's mill on Cobb's creek, ot 
which little is known, and whose exact site cannot now be ascertained. 

In 1684, four years before the Salem witch-craft delusion exhibited itself in 
New England, an old woman, Margaret Matson, residing near the mouth or 
Crum creek, in the present township of Ridley, was indicted for witchcraft, and 
was tried before Governor Penn, his council, ajid a jury, sitting as a Superior 
Court at Philadelphia. The accused pleaded not guilty. The evidence was of a 
similar character to that which was presented in all such cases — general rumor 



DELAWARE COUNTY. 663 

and absurd circumstances. The verdict of the jury was that the prisoner was 
" Guilty of haveing the Common fame of a Witch, but not Guilty in manner and 
forme as Shee Stands Indicted." She was subsequently discharged, upon enter- 
ing bail for her good behavior for six months. 

The last Indian title to lands in Delaware county was extinguished in Octo- 
ber, 1685. The peaceful process by which Penn strove to obtain the actual and 
undisputed possession of the territory comprised in his charter from the Crown, 
has been much commended by historians, and while it is proper that he should 
receive just credit for that course, it should not be forgotten that the Swedes, 
Dutch, and other settlers in this locality, had pursued that policy for two and 
thirty years before a member of the Society of Friends is known to have been a 
resident of Pennsylvania. In 1688, a rumor prevailed that the Indians had con- 
spired to destroy the entire white inhabitants, which plot had been discovered by 
a Dutch settler near Chester. On the day designated as the one appointed for 
the massacre, about ten o'clock at night, a man rode hastily into Chester and 
reported that three families about nine miles distant had been murdered b}'" the 
savages. Three persons went to those places and found the houses deserted, but 
no signs of violence were present. Rumor stated that five hundred warriors had 
gathered at Naaman's creek, and a scout from Marcus Hook reported that such 
an assemblage had actually taken place, but it was seven miles further down the 
Brandywine, and that the aged Indian king, who was lame, the women and 
children, had been removed to a place of safety. When this report was brought 
to Philadelphia, one of the council — Proud says it was Caleb Pusey, but Dr. 
Smith shows that Pusey was not at that time a member — volunteered to proceed 
to the Indian town, without arms, to learn the truth, provided five others would 
accompany him. The party rode to the town, were received in a kindly manner 
by the Indians, learned that no hostilities were contemplated, and the report was 
without foundation. A recent writer in the Penn llonthly declares " that Caleb 
Pusey going out unarmed into the forest to meet a threatened attack of the 
savages, is a more heroic figure than blustering Miles Standish, girt with the 
sword he fought with in Flanders." 

The records of the courts of Chester county, before the eastern section became 
Delaware county, abound with interest, but we cannot devote much space to the 
history that lies recorded within those age-discolored documents and papers. In 
1689, a jury of women, the first ever empanelled in Pennsylvania, was called to 
examine a female convict and report whether she could physically undergo the 
corporal punishment the court had ordered. In 1690, Robert Roman, of Chi- 
chester, was indicted for practicing geomanc}^, pled guilty, and was ordered by 
the court to pay five pounds fine, the costs, and promise never to practice that art. 
but behave himself well for the future. From 1714 to 1159, the punishment for 
most offences seems to have been confined to public whippings. In 1722, three 
persons at one time were under sentence of death at Chester, and the Governor 
was petitioned in their behalf. Two of these culprits, of whom one was a woman, 
were respited, but the other, William Battin, who had been convicted of "divers 
horrid, complicated crimes," was ordered to be executed " and hung in chains." 

The progress of Chester county, including that portion whicli subsequently 
became Delaware county, up to the Revolutionary war, was steady but not rapid. 



664 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

which may be accounted for by the system of land starving, practiced in early 
times, by which the soil became so much exhausted that it would not return the 
cost of planting, and many of the inhabitants were compelled to seek other loca- 
lities where the ground would yield bountifull}' until it was in turn robbed of its 
strength. The history of the county until the cloud of war began to threaten the 
colonies, is of but little interest, and that confined almost exclusively to its own 
locality. In 1748, a regiment of soldiers, called the " Associators," were orga- 
nized to resist the depredations of French and Spanish privateers, of which 
Andrew McDowell was commissioned colonel,! but whether they ever saw active 
service is not known. Certain it is, that a military organization with a similar 
name was in existence in Pennsylvania in 1716. The time was hastening on 
when the patriotic spirit of the people was to be earnestly aroused. When the 
passage of the Boston Port bill was announced, messengers were dispatched from 
Philadelphia to the surrounding counties, urging them to take active steps to pro- 
tect their liberty. On the 4th day of July, 1774, a public call was issued to the 
people to assemble at the court house, in Chester, on the 13th, and at that 
meeting Anthony Wayne was appointed on the committee to act for the county. 
In December following, Wayne was chosen chairman of the committee then 
appointed, and on September 25, 1775, he published an address, in which he 
declared that " the abhorrent idea of separating from the mother country was per- 
nicious in its nature." In the fall of 1775, chevaux-de-frize were thrown across the 
main channel of the Delaware, nearly opposite the Lazaretto, and two tiers of the 
same obstruction were sunk near Marcus Hook. In April, 1776, the recruits of 
Chester count}^ assembled in cantonment at Chester and Marcus Hook, and in 
May of that year the first powder mill in the Province, for the use of the colo- 
nists, located by Dr. Robert Harris "on Crum creek, about three miles from Ches- 
ter," began operations, and was expected to deliver one ton of powder on the first 
of June, " and the same quantity weekly," thereafter. When Howe was menacing 
Philadelphia, in August, 1777, by the Delaware, a camp of instruction was formed 
at Chester, and on the 16th of that month, a thousand troops are mentioned as 
being present, who were forwarded as rapidly as expedient to the front. A private 
letter states that on the 29tb of August, 1777, eighteen hundred of these men, 
indifferently drilled, had been ordered away. Recruiting and organizing were 
continued until the eve of the battle of Brandywine. 

It is unnecessary to refer to that disastrous battle in this sketch, its story has 
been told elsewhere in this volume, and the more its details are examined the more 
it becomes evident that " somebody blundered " outrageously on the part of the 
American commanders, but to whom the blame rightly attaches is not so clear. 
In that conflict the Marquis de Lafayette was wounded. Washington, in his 
letter from Chester on the night of the defeat, reported him as wounded in the 
leg, but the Marquis, wlien on his visit in 1824, stated that his wound was in the 
left foot. Wounded as he was, the brave Frenchman stationed a guard at 
Chester bridge to arrest stragglers, and return them to their several commands. 
The army appears to have been much demoralized, and extended even to 
those divisions that preserved some order as they fled to Chester by different 
routes, and arriving at different hours of the night. On the second day following 
the battle, an encampment of the British army was made in Delaware county, and 



DELAWABK COUNTY. 665 

General Howe established his head-quarters in mh old stone house still standing 
in Village Green, in Aston township. While the army lay there in cantonment, 
three Hessians entered the dwelling of Jonathan Martin, in Middletown town- 
ship, and compelled the inmates to point out to them where articles they desired 
were secreted, and one of them inflicted a slight wound on the hand of one of the 
Martin daughters. From thence they visited the house of Mr. Cox, in Chester 
township, and appropriated trinkets, money, and other valuables belonging to the 
family. Miss Martin and Miss Cox next day called at Howe's head-quarters 
and personally complained of these outrages. He ordered the soldiers to form in 
line, when the girls pointed out the three men that had been to their houses. 
Yarious evolutions were resorted to so that the positions of the men might be 
changed, but at every trial the same men were indicated. They were then 
searched, and part of the stolen property was found upon them. A court-mar- 
tial sentenced two of them to be hung, while the third man was to act as 
executioner, the choice to be decided by lots. This sentence was carried out 
fully. Two of the men were hung on an apple tree in Ashton, and when the 
British army moved away the bodies were left still suspended from the fatal limb. 

On the 23d of October, 1177, when the English fleet sailed up the river, the 
frigate Augusta, which subsequently was destroyed by an explosion of her maga- 
zine in the attack on Fort Mifflin, opened fire on Chester as she sailed by, 
several of her shot telling on the houses still standing, which marks are now 
shown with pride by the owners of the buildings. After the capture of Philadel- 
phia by the British, the frigate Vulture lay off* Chester, and was used as a prison 
ship. 

One day while the American array was encamped at White Marsh, Montgom- 
ery county, Samuel Levis, of Upper Darby, an aged Quaker and a sterling Whig, 
met a party of American soldiers who were reconnoitering the English lines. 
The old man, who would not take an active part in the war for conscience sake, 
volunteered to aid them in learning the movements of the enemy. With that 
object he fastened his horse to a tall hickory tree which grew on the dividing 
line of Upper Darby and Springfield townships, and began ascending the tree. 
His hat was in the way as he clambered up. Tossing it to the ground, he 
mounted to the topmost branches, and with a telescope began to scan the coun- 
try in the direction of the city. While thus employed, a scouting party of 
British dragoons appeared, and noticed Friend Levis perched in the tree, so 
intent on his observations that he was unaware of the approach of the enemy. 
He was compelled to descend to become a prisoner, and he was refused permis- 
sion to recover his hat. He and his horse were taken to Philadelphia, where he 
was thrown into jail, detained several days, and finally discharged, but he never 
succeeded in recovering possession of his horse or hat. With the evacuation of 
Philadelphia the war cloud lifted from Delaware county, and from that time the 
feet of hostile armed troops have not trodden its soil. 

The town of Chester was the seat of justice until 1186. After the Revolu- 
tionary war had closed, strong eff'orts were made to remove the county buildings 
to a more central locality. In 1184 an act of Assembly was procured to remove 
the county seat to the Turk's Head, since West Chester, and buildings for that 
purpose were being erected under the supervision of Colonel Hannum. That act 



666 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



was afterwards repealed, and a number of citizens of the borough of Chester 
determined to demolish the buildings in course of construction. Major Harper 
commanded this force, which, with a field piece, marched directly upon the objec- 
tive point. At the General Greene tavern, a few miles eastward of West Chester, 
tliey quartered for the night, determined to begin the work of demolition the 
following morning. Colonel Hannum was apprised of the meditated attack, and 
(luring the night made preparations. Arms and ammunition were collected, 
Idopholes cut in the walls for musketry, and men collected in the building. In 
the morning Harper advanced, placed his artillery in position, and was about to 
open fire, when wise counsel prevailed, and hostilities were suspended. Amicable 
relations were established, and the cannon was repeatedly fired in honor of the 
peace that had been made between the rival factions. In IT 86 another removal 

act was passed, and under 
its provisions the transfer 
of the seat of justice was 
fully consummated. In 
1789 the county of Dela- 
ware was created, and the 
old town of Chester be- 
came the county seat, and 
remained such for sixty- 
two years, when the old 
argument that its position 
was too far eastward was 
urged against it. In 1847 
the Assembly enacted a 
law providing for the 
removal of the seat of 
justice, should the people of the county at the October election, to whom the 
question was to be left, decide for such change. The removalists obtained a 
majorit}^ of seven hundred, and in 1851 the courts and county offices were 
removed to Media, the present seat. 

On Saturday, the 5th of August, 1843, a furious rain storm, followed by a 
tornado, visited Delaware county. The largest trees were uprooted, fences torn 
away, and crops levelled to the ground ; rain fell in torrents for hours ; the 
small streams in all parts of the county were immediately swollen, and in several 
cases horses were drowned in attempting to ford them. About six o'clock 
in the evening the several creeks rose to an unprecedented height, and the water 
rushed with irresistible force to the Delaware, carrying everything befoi;e it. 
Houses, bridges, stacks of hay, trees, carriages, carts, furniture, and ever3'thing 
was swept before the mighty torrent. The water rose in Chester creek, at 
Chester, in one hour, twentj^-two feet, and the rise was much greater in the 
creeks farther up the stream. In Chester the damage exceeded thirty-five thou- 
sand dollars, while the loss throughout the county exceeded a quarter of a 
million. Nineteen persons were drowned, and travel on the railroads and high- 
ways was greatly impeded. 

The military history of Delaware county in the Revolutionary war has been 




I 



EIDLEY PABK LAKE. 



DELAWARE COUNTY. 661 

given elsewhere in this sketch. During the whisliey insurrection a company of 
infantry, in command of Captain William Graham, marched with the armj^ under 
Governor Lee to the scene of the outbreak. In the war of 1812 the Delaware 
County Fencibles, eighty-seven men, commanded by Captain James Serrill, and 
the Mifflin Guards, Captain Samuel Anderson, volunteered for the war, but being 
sent into cantonment, they with others were ordered to defend the Delaware from 
General Ross and Admiral Cockburn's threatened attack in the summer of 1814. 
During the civil war her record is most honoi'able. Under President Lincoln's 
first call for volunteers, the Union Blues, seventy-eight men, commanded by Captain 
Henry B. Edwards, were mustered into the 9th Pennsylvania, and were actively 
engaged. Company K of the 26th Penns3'lvania, Colonel W. F. Small, was re- 
cruited in the county and commanded by Captain William L. Grubb. The Dela- 
ware County Fusiliers, Captain Samuel Litzenberg, became company B of the 124th 
Pennsylvania Volunteers, while Gideon's Band, Captain Norris L. Yarnall, became 
company D, and the Delaware County Yolunteers, Captain James Barton, Jr., 
became company H of the same regiment. Slifer Phalanx, Captain Samuel A. 
Dyer, became company F of the First Pennsylvania Reserves, or the thirtieth 
of the line. In July, 1861, Captain W, L. Laws recruited a cavalry company in 
this county, which was mustered into service as company I, 60th Regiment Third 
Pennsylvania cavalry, William K. Grant being substituted as captain. Thirty- 
two other men recruited by Laws were distributed in other companies in the 
same regiment. Besides these organizations, there were emergency companies 
that responded previous to the battles of Antietara and Gettysburg. Companies 
B, C, D, E, F, and II of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania militia, were recruited 
in this county ; as were also Company I of the Twent^'-fourth, G of the Twenty- 
eighth, A of the Thirty-seventh, A of One Hundred and Ninty-seventh Regi- 
ments. Chester Guards also responded to the call. Among the officers from 
the count}' who attained the command of regiments by promotion were Brevet 
Brigadier-General William Cooper Talley, Colonel Samuel A. Dyer, Colonel 
Charles L. Leiper, and Lieutenant-Colonel William C. Gray. In the other 
branch of the public service Delaware county furnished to the regular navy 
Admiral David D. Porter, Rear-Admiral Frederick Engle, Commander William 
D. Porter, and Captain Pierce Crosby. ' 

Under the provisions of the Constitution of 1873, Delaware county became a 
separate judicial district, and in 1874 Governor Hartranft appointed Hon. John 
M. Broomall president judge. At the ensuing election, in November, Thomas J. 
Clayton, Esq., was elected to that position, and took his seat in January, 1875. 

We append in a concise form an account of the various townships in the 
countv, setting forth their formation, with other local information appertaining 
to each. 

Aston was organized into a township in 1687, and is supposed to have 
derived its name from the town of Aston in Berkshire, in old England. 
At Village Green, in this township, during the Revolution, General Howe was 
encamped for several days, and it was there that the incident of the execution of 
the Hessian marauders, heretofoi'e recorded, occurred. The manufLicturing 
villages of Rockdale, Cooperville, Llewellyn, and Lenni, are also located in this 
township, and are thrifty, busy places. The West Chester and Philadelphia 



668 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



railroad, and the Baltimore Central railroad, traverse this township, the stations 
of the former being Lenni and Pennelton, and on the latter Morgan's, Knowlton, 
Glen Riddle, and Baltimore junction. There ai'e a Presbyterian, Episcopal, 
Catholic, and two Methodist churches, and six public schools in Aston. 

Bethel, the smallest township, except Tinicum,is believed to have been organ- 
ized in 1694, before which time it was a part of Concord. Its name is supposed 
to have been derived from the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Beth, with 
the termination eZ, signifying the "house of God." Bethel Hamlet, Dr. Smith 
states, is spoken of at a very early date, and it was probably built closely 
together by the early settlers to contribute to their safety from attacks by the 
Indians. The first road in the township was laid out in 1686, and was known as 
the Concord and Chichester road, a name it still retains. Booth's Corner, and 

Chelsea, thriving villages, are located 
within its borders, each of which contains 
a Methodist church. There are three 
school houses in the township. 

Birmingham was among the earliest 
of the townships designated by the Pro- 
prietary government, but the precise date 
of its settlement cannot now be ascer- 
tained. Mr. Lewis states that it was 
originally called Burmagham, and that it 
so appears upon a map, entitled " A map 
of the improved parts of Pennsyl- 
vania," a work which was commenced 
by the order of William Penn, in 1681, 
although the date of its publication 
must have been several years later. This 
valuable relic was in the possession of 
Mrs. Deborah Logan, of Stenton, where 
Mr. Lewis saw it while writing his 
history of Chester county, in 1824. Dr. Smith places the 
date of its formation into the township as probably about 
1686, where Friends' meetings are spoken of at William 
Brainton's (Brinton's) residence, and as he migrated from 
the vicinity of Birmingham, England, that name was 
given to the new township in commemoration of his early home. In 1718 a 
Friends meeting-house, said to have been constructed of cedar logs, was built 
on or near the site of the present edifice, and the old grave-yard was dedicated 
some eight years previously. About 1762, the present structure, one of the 
scenes of the duplex battle of Brandywine, was erected, and the grave-3'ard 
enclosed with a stone wall. After the battle the meeting-house was made an 
hospital, and during the conflict the American riflemen are said to have used the 
cemetery wall as a breast work, and within its enclosure a number of the killed 
of both armies were interred. Dark spots on the oaken floor are yet pointed out 
as the stains made by the blood of the wounded. In 1717, the Brandywine 
Baptist church, the first regularly Baptist religious congregation established 




">** 



^^^^^X^^ 



GLEN OF GLENOLDEN 

In Ridley Township. 



DELAWARE COUNTY. 669 

permanently in Delaware county, was located in this township. From a remote 
date the Brandy wine, at a point on the property of Francis Chadsle}^, was 
fordal)le, and was known as Chadsley's ford. In 1137 public travel had become 
of such consequence that John ChaVls (the name had then been changed) entered 
into a contract with the commissioners of the county to maintain a ferry boat 
there, and it seems to have been continued until within a short time before the 
outbreak of the Revolution. The old houses where Lafayette and Washington 
had their head-quarters are still standing near the ford. In 1789, the line divid- 
ing Delaware from Chester county was run so as to include about two-thirds of 
the original township within the limits of the former county. Near the site of 
the battle field, the village of Chad's Ford has been erected, and manufacturing 
interests are being rapidly developed in that vicinity. The Baltimore Central 
railroad traverses the township from cast to west, with stations on Brandywine 
Summit and Chad's Ford. 

The city of Chester has been heretofore mentioned in this sketch. It is 
believed to have been settled in 1G45, and in the early times was a place of 
considerable importance. The main prominent events connected with its history 
have been related, and under the present head the purpose is to refer especially 
to its antiquities, its torpor, and its recent marvelous' growth. Friends grave- 
3'ard, on Edgmont avenue, above Sixth street, was laid out in 1683, and is the 
most ancient memorial of former times in the city. Within this ancient " God's 
acre," the remains of many of the most active men in the colony ai'e interred. 
Among these are the bodies of David Lloyd, chief justice of the Pi'ovince from 
lin to 1731; Caleb Cowplaud, an associate judge of the supreme provincial 
court; Henry Hale Graham, who was appointed president judge of this district, 
but who died in January, 1790, while a delegate to the convention that framed 
the first constitution of the State, and before taking his seat on the bench ; Davis 
Bevan, a gallant and brave soldier of the Revolution ; John Salkeld, a noted 
Friends preacher, nearly a century and a half since : Dr. Preston, the founder 
of Preston's Retreat, in Philadelphia, and other personages of considerable local 
renown. The Yeates or Logan House, on Second street, near Edgmont, built by 
Jasper Yeates, in 1700, is the oldest structure in the city, and in former 
years its pictured tiled chimney-places were much admired. At the foot of 
Welsli street, and now the p3^rotechnic works of Professor Jackson, stands the 
Greenbank mansion-house. This noted memorial of the past was erected in 1721, 
by David Lloyd, the ablest man in the colony at that time, and the date of the 
building, and his own and his wife's initials, are cut upon a large stone in the 
gable end of the house. 

Many years afterward the estate passed into the possession of Commodore 
David Porter, and here Admiral David D. Porter, and Commander William 
Porter, whose capture of Forts Donaldson and Henry in the late war 
made him famous at the cost of his own life, were born. Here, too, 
Admiral Farragut and other distinguished naval officers spent their boy- 
hood years as inmates of the Porter household. In 1724 the present 
city hall, formerly the court house of Chester, and afterwards of Dela- 
ware county, until the removal of the seat of justice in 1850, was built, and it is 
at this time one of the most substantial structures in the city. About 1735 John 






670 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Salkeld built the house on Norris street, near the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and 
Baltimore railroad, which was for many years used as the tenant house on the 
Kenilworth estate. In 1736 the present Friends meeting-house, below Market 
square, was erected. Chester contains several hostelries that exceed in age any 
others to be found in the State. The present City hotel, at Third and Edgmont 
streets, was conveyed by William Preston to Solon Hanley, in 1150, by the title 
of " Blue Anchor Tavern." The Washington house, opposite the city hall, was 
built previous to 1755, and the exact date of the erection of the Columbia hotel is 
not known, but before and during the Revolution it was kept by Mrs. Marj- Withey, 
and it is said during her lifetime to have been the best kept tavern in America. 
The Steamboat hotel, at the foot of Market street, is one of the old landmarks. 
When the ill-fated British frigate Augusta passed up the river in 1777, she 
opened fire on the town, and a cannon ball passed through the upper story of the 
building. At the north-east corner of Market and Second streets stands an 
ancient house that in former days was known as the " Blue Ball Inn," from its 
peculiar sign, and is believed to have been erected about the middle of the last 
century. A peculiar incident connected with the structure are the holes where 
the scaffolding fitted into the walls while building have never been filled in, owing 
to the fact that in former times, when masons were not paid for their work, they 
refused to fill in these holes, and no others of the same trade would do it until 
the builders had been paid their claim. In the old house at the corner of Third 
and Edgmont streets, Lafayette was taken after the battle of Brandy wine, and 
therein his wounds were dressed. In the old mansion, built by Major Ander- 
son, a Revolutionary officer, in 1803, at the corner of Fifth and Welsh streets, 
Lafayette was entertained during his visit to Chester in 1825. The service of 
china used on that occasion is still in the house in excellent preservation. St. 
Paul's Episcopal church-yard is one of the most noted points in the ancient 
borough. The present edifice is comparatively a recent structure. The old 
building, which was opened and dedicated on St. Paul's day, July, 1702, was 
taken down in 1850 and the present one substituted. The church organization 
have still in their possession two silver chalices, one bearing the inscription, 
" Annse Reginae," and the other a gift from Sir Jefferis Jefferies. They were 
both presented in 1702. In the vestibule of the present church is inserted in the 
wall a memorial stone — the first known to have been used in the colon}' — to 
James Sanderland, which in early times formed the front part of the Sanderland 
pew, having been placed on its edge for that purpose. The slab is gray sand- 
stone, six feet high, four wide, and about six inches in thickness. The emblems 
upon it are clearly cut and executed with much artistic skill. Along its border, 
in large capital letters, are the words : " here lies interrd the bodie of james 

SANDELANDES, MERCHANT, IN UPLAND, IN PENNSYLVANIA, WHO DEPARTED THIS 
MORTAL LIFE APRILE 12, 1692, AGED 56 YEARS, AND HIS WIFE ANN SANDELANDES." 

The face of the stone is divided into two parts, the upper bearing in cypher the 
initials I. S. and A. S. and the arms of the Sandelandes family. Around the border, 
and dividing the upper from the lower half, are many emblems of mortality, the 
tolling bell, skull and cross bones, the empty hour glass, an upright coffin, bear- 
ing on its side the words : " Memento mori, tempus Deum," and in either corner 
crossed a sceptre and mattock, and a mattock and spade. An old stone, now 



DELAWABE COUNTY 671 

for safe keeping in a closet in the Sunday-school rooms, states : " Here lyeth the 
body of Charles Brooks, who Dyed [no date], also Frances Brooks, who Dyed 
August ye 9th, 1704, aged 50. 

" In barbarian bondage and cruel tyranny 
Fourteen years together I served in slavery ; 
After this, money brought me to my country fair, 
At last I was drowned in the river Delaware." 

In the old church-yard is a slab to the memory of Paul Jackson, A.M., who 
died in 1767. He was the first person who received a degree (A.M.) in the Col- 
lege of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania), and was a surgeon in the 
Braddock expedition. Major William Anderson also reposes in this ancient en- 
closure. He was a captain during the Revolutionary war, participating in many 
of the most important battles, and was present at the siege of Yorktown. After 
the formation of the Constitution he represented this district in Congress for 
many years. His daughter became the wife of Commodore David Porter, and 
mother of Admiral David D. Porter and Commander William Porter. But the 
most important memorial is the obelisk to John Morton, the signer of the De- 
claration of Independence, who was the first of those men to die, his death oc- 
curring in April, 1777. It is not necessary to transcribe the inscriptions, except 
that on the east side of the shaft, which is as follows : " In voting by States 
upon the question of the Independence of the American Colonies, there was a 
tie until the vote of Pennsylvania was given, two members from which voted in 
the affirmative, and two in the negative. The tie continued until the vote of the 
last member, John Morton, decided the promulgation of the glorious diploma 
of American Freedom." Unfortunately there is no contemporaneous historical 
account to establish these facts, and this stone, erected sixty odd years after the 
event, can hardly be accepted as of much authority. An interesting incident con- 
nected with " Old Chester," is that in 1739 George Whitefield preached there to 
about seven thousand people, and was accompanied thither from Philadelphia 
by almost one hundred and fifty gentlemen on horseback. Chester was for many 
years a place of but little importance and without any indications of future pros- 
peritj^ When it was determined to remove the county seat, it was believed it 
would become of much less consequence. About 1850, several enterprising men 
who saw its capability as a manufacturing site, purchased large farms in the 
vicinity, laid out streets, solicited manufacturers to locate, offering them induce- 
ments to do so, until in 1876 it is one of the most flourishing cities of its size in 
the Union. Chester and South Chester borough, which are divided from 
each other by Lamokin run, and must within a few years be united, form busy 
hives of industry, are estimated to contain a population of thirteen thousand 
people, and have within their incorpoi'ated limits twenty-five cotton and woolen 
factories, six ship yards — one of them the mammoth establishment of John 
Roach & Son, from whence was launched the City of Peking and City of 
Tokio, the largest steamships, with the exception of the Great Eastern, ever 
built in the world — one rolling mill, one planing mill, one car shop, one sugar 
refinery, one brass foundry, three carriage factories, one axe factor}-, and lesser 
industrial establishments. There are two National and one State bank ; five 



6T2 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Methodist, three Presbyterian, two Baptist, two Episcopal, two Catholic, and one 
Friends meeting house, and a young men's Christian and several literary 
associations. The Chester Library company, organized in 1769, still exists, 
but with little, except its old age, to attract attention. It has eight hundred 
or a thousand volumes upon its shelves. The Pennsylvania Military academy was 
located in this city in 1868 by act of Assembly. The buildings, which are spa- 
cious and attractive, are located in the north ward, nearly at the edge of the city 
limits. Colonel Theodore Hyatt is President of the academy. It is a popu- 
lar institution, and is well supplied with apparatus, and a library of fifteen 




CHESTER MILITARY ACADEMY. 

hundred volumes. Chester has been a mausoleum of newspapers ; more joui-nals 
have been born, died, and buried there than in any city of a like size in the 
State. At the present time there are five weeklies and one daily paper published 
in this city, and they are edited with good taste and much ability. The Dela- 
ware County Republican, founded by Y. S. Walter, in 1833, and owned and edited 
by him ; the Delaioare County Democrat, owned and edited by Colonel W. C. 
Talley ; Delo.ware County Advocate, owned and edited by John Spencer ; Weekly 
Mail, by Joseph Desilver & Company ; Democratic Pilot, by William 
Orr; The Public Press, by Higgins & Simpson; The Delaware County 
Paper, edited and published by Ashmead & McFeeters, and Daily Neivs, 
by William A. Todd. There are twenty-eight public schools in the city 
of Chester. The borough of South Chester was incorporated by act of As- 
sembly in 1870, and is an active progressive borough, containing one Metho- 
dist and one Baptist church, six public schools, and a population now estimated at 



DELAWARE COUNTY. 673 

about sixteen hundred. The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore, the 
Reading, and the Chester Creek railroads, afford access to Chester from every 
section of the country, and its communication with Philadelphia is close, by reason 
of the constant trains going to and coming from that city. 

North Chester borough was incorporated by act of Assembly, March 14, 
1873. It includes within its area the villages of Powhattan, Waterville, 
and Shoemakerville. It has a Baptist chapel. Friends meeting, and four public 
schools. Chester rural and the Catholic cemeteries are located within it. In 
the former the Delaware county soldiers' monument — a handsome bronze figure 
of a soldier standing at ease — has been placed. 

Chichester township, comprising Upper and Lower Chichester, was among 
the most ancient settlements in the count3^ The name first appeared in 1682, 
when the inhabitants of Marcus Hook petitioned Governor Markham to change 
the name to Chichester, after the ancient city in Sussex, England, and although 
the request was complied with, the ancient settlement is known to this day as 
Marcus Hook. The " old King's highway " passes through both these town- 
ships, as does also "the road from Concord to Chichester," laid out in 1686, 
and the road from Birmingham to Chester, laid out in 1687. In 1722 the separa- 
tion of the original township into Upper and Lower Chichester had taken place, 
but the exact date of the establishment of the separate townships is not 
known. Lower Chichester contains the borough of Marcus Hook, which was 
" taken up by a company of six persons, under a patent granted b}' Sir Edward 
Andros." In 1701 it was created a borough by William Penn. The first Friends 
meeting was established there in 1682, and in 1685 James Brown conveyed two 
acres of ground to the Friends, upon which to build a meeting-house and lay out 
a burial place. 

In 1702 St. Martin's Episcopal church congregation occupied an old frame 
building on the site of the present edifice, when the Society for Propagating the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts sent over Rev. Henry Nichols as missionary. The 
frame building was used as a church until 1746, when the present structure was 
erected. The ancient borough has now and then shown a disposition to throw 
oflT the sluggishness that has retarded its progress, but it fails to eff'ect much 
material growth, and the principal business is fishing, although at no distant day 
it must become an active thrifty community. There are three churches in the 
borough — a Baptist, founded in 1789; St. Martin's, in 1702; and a Methodist. 
The population of Marcus Hook is about one thousand. 

CoNCORr, the largest township in the county, was organized in 1683, and 
received its name from the harmonious feeling that had been noticeable among 
the settlers there. The first road laid out in Concord was that from Birmingham 
to Chester, constructed in 1687. Friends meeting was established there in 1684. 
In 1697 John Mendenhall leased to trustees land for a meeting-house and grave- 
yard at an annual I'ent of " one pepper corn yearly for ever." The meeting-house 
that was erected thereon stood until 1728, when a brick one took its place, which 
was in turn in 1788 partiall}^ desti'oyed by fire. St. John's Episcopal church was 
built originally in 1727, but the present edifice by that name was erected in 1833. 
In 1730 the first Roman Catholic church in the county was located at Ivy Mills, 
by the Jesuit society from Maryland, and for a century and a quarter religious 
2 s 



674 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

services were held at the residence of the Wilcox family, until the present 
church structure was erected. One year before this, in 1729, Thomas Wilcox 
purchased a tract of land and built the second paper mill in the Province of 
Pennsylvania, although at this time most of the business of the Messrs. Wilcox 
has been removed to Glen Mills. The small old, ivy-covered mills, in which the 
bank notes, papers for the country, including much that was used for the Conti- 
nental currency, was made, is yet standing, and paper is still made there by 
hand. The Baltimore Central traverses the county from east to west* with stations 
at Ivy Mills, Woodland, and Concord. 

Darby and Upper Darby, included in one township, was settled in 1682, and 
the name is doubtless derived from Derby, in England. In 1747 the townships 
were practically divided b}^ an agreement made in town meeting, in 1786, that 
division was confirmed by the court, and the present line of demarcation indicated. 
That portion lying to the north of the line was designated as Upper Darby. Darby 
was one of the oldest settlements in the Province, and here, about 1695, 
the Darby mills were erected. A deed in 1697 mentions "three water grist mills 
and fulling mills," the latter believed to have been the first erected in the State. 
The present borough of Darby was one of the most ancient settlements. In 1684 
Friends meetings were first held there, in 1688 a meeting-house of logs was 
erected, and in 1699 the present sti'ucture was built. In 1743 the Darby Library 
company was founded, and in 1871, the company, then one hundred and twenty- 
eight years old, erected a commodious hall and librarj'^ room. This association, 
after lingering along for more than a century, began to develop considerable 
strength, and it has now a valuable collection of books, which in all probability 
will constantly increase in numbers. In 1777 five thousand militia were ordered 
to rendezvous at Darby, and after the battle of Brandywine the American army 
marched through the town on its way to Philadelphia. On March 3d, 1853, the 
ancient settlement was incorporated, since which time it has been making steady 
and rapid growth. It contains a Friends meeting-house, one Methodist and 
two Presbyterian churches. The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore 
railroad traverses the township. Upper Darby is much the larger portion of the 
ancient township. The principal village is Kelleysville, located on Darby ci'eek, 
and was named in honor of the late Charles Kelley, to whose exertions its pros- 
perity is mainly due. The town contains six cotton and woolen, two paper mills, 
and three churches. The West Chester railroad passes through the village. 
Clifton, which is in close proximity to Kelleysville, is also constantly increas- 
ing in importance. In Upper Darby is Clifton Hall, a private insane hospital. 
The Friends have a meeting-house, the Methodists have several churches, and 
there is also a New Jerusalem church, the only one in Delaware county. The Burd 
orphan asylum, also located in this township, was founded by Mrs. Eliza Howard 
Burd, who bequeathed in trust to the rector, warden, and vestry of St. Stephen's 
Church, in Philadelphia, a large estate to be applied to the establishment of an 
asylum for poor white female orphans, who should be baptized in the Episcopal 
church. The building was dedicated in 1866, and is built in the form of a Cross, 
in plain English Gothic architecture. 

Edqmont is believed to have been organized into a township in 1687, and the 
name is supposed to have been given it in memory of the place of the same name 



DELAWARE COUNTY. 6T5 

HI Shropshire, England. Dr. Smith relates the following tradition respecting the 
laying out of the road from Chester to Edgmont : " Henry HoUingsworth, the 
surveyor, caused an apple tree to be planted at the end of every mile. The sur- 
veyor happened to be at variance with Richard Crosby, who then resided in 
Middletown township. It so happened that one of the miles ended on Richard's 
lands, but instead of planting an apple-tree, the surveyor took an axe and bent two 
saplings so as to cross each other at the spot, saying at the time, ' Richard Crosby, 
thee crosses me, and I will cross thee.' " Some of these apple-trees were standing 
within a quarter of a century since. A curious upheaval of rocks, known as 
Castle rock, occurred in Edgmont, and is often visited by tourists. The town- 
ship contains the villages of Howellville and Edgmont. 

Haverford township is wholly located in what was known in early colonial 
days as the " Welsh Tract," and its name is derived from Haverford West, 
Pembrokeshire, South Wales. The first settlement was made there in 1682, by 
three families, and they appear to have sufi'ered much from the Indians, who 
slew their hogs. In 1684 a burial-ground was located at Haverford, and in 
1700, Haverford Friends meeting-house was built. The original structure, 
although it has been enlarged at its north end, still stands, and in that old 
building William Penn preached to Welsh Friends, who sat quietly listening to 
an address from the Proprietar}^, of which they did not understand a word. 
The timbers of which this houseof worship were built are heavy, and show the marks 
of the saw and axe upon them to this da}^ A number of chestnut boards, which were 
the first lining of the building, are still doing service. It was in going to this 
meeting that Penn, overtaking a little girl, Rebecca Wood, walking in the same 
direction, caused her to mount behind him, " and so rode away upon the bare back, 
and, being without shoes or stockings, her bare legs and feet hung dangling by the 
side of the governor's horse."/ The road from Haverford to Darby was laid out in 
IBS'!, and upon it are still some of the old mile-stones, bearing the Penn arms, that 
were brought over from England by order of the Proprietar3^ " Clifton Hall," ^V^.^ut,-. 
a manor-house erected in the township hy Henry Lewis, in 16^82, was noted in ">vi'' 
early colonial times for its sumptuousness, is still standing, although 
modernized. It is now known as " The Grrange," and owned by John Ashhurst. 
Cooperstown is a small and the only village in this township, Haverford 
College was established in 1832, by the orthodox branch of the Society of 
Friends. The buildings are large and commodious, and its reputation as an 
institution of learning is deservedly high. It possesses a well-selected library 
of ten thousand volumes. 

Marple became a township early in the j^ear 1684. The derivation of 
this name is not known. Dr. Smith informs us that in many of the ancient 
records the name is spelt Marpool ; but Holmes, the first surve3'or-general, in his 
map gives it the modern spelling. About 1833 the Presbyterians erected a 
church in Marple village, which was the first religious body organized in the 
township, since which time a colored Methodist church has been built there. 
Several whetstone quarries are located in this township, as are also chrome 
mines. 

Middletown, which appears on the old map mentioned by Mr. Lewis, as Mid- 
dle township, and derived its name from its supposed central location, was orga- 



676 HISTOBT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

nized at an early date, but Dr. Smith has failed to find any notice of it, as such, 
previous to 1681. The Edgmont great road, which was formerly known as the 
road from Edgmont to the King's Highway in Chester, was laid out in 1681. The 
old Middleto-\f n cliureh, as it is aflfectionately termed, the first Presbyterian church 
organized in Delaware county, is located in this township ; the precise date of its 
erection is, however, not known. In 1736, Dr. Isaac Watts, the poet, presented a 
copy of Baxter's Directory to this church. According to the instructions of the 
donor, which are written on the inside of the cover, it is " intrusted to ye care of 
Protestant Dissenting Ministers who preaches there, and to his successors, to be 
used by him or them in their weekly studj^s, when they please, and to be secured 
and devoted to the use of this Congregation on ye Lord's daj'^s." This volume 
is yet preserved as a sacred relic. The earliest inscription in the old church- 
yard is dated 1724, but the most noticeable is a stone to the memory of Dr. 
Barnard Van Leer, a prominent man of his daj^, who died in 1790, aged 104 
years. After he had become a centenarian, he rode thirty miles on horseback 
in one day, and, when 102 years old, was cruelly beaten by burglars, because of 
his refusal to disclose where he had secreted his money. From these injuries he 
never recovered. The Eriends have also two meeting-houses in the township, 
and the Methodists a church. The Penns^dvania Training School for Feeble- 
minded Children is located in Middletown. This institution was organized in 
May, 1853, and located on School lane, near Germantown. It being cramped, 
the Legislature authorized its removal, and the present site was purchased and 
building erected at a cost of $140,000. In the fall of 1859 the new institution 
was opened, and its irpportance became so manifest that liberal bequests to it by 
individuals, and generous appropriations by the State, were made to it. 
Dr. Isaac N. Kerlin is the superintendent, and as each year rolls by, its impor- 
tance as a noble charity becomes more and more apparent. 

The county house for Delaware county is also located in Middletown. The 
West Chester and Philadelphia railroad and the Chester Creek railroad traverses 
this township. On the former are stations at Greenwood, Glen Riddle, Lenni, 
Baltimore Junction, Pennelton, and Darlington, while on the latter are Knowlton, 
Presbyterian Ford, Glen Riddle, Lenni, and Baltimore Junction. The site of 
Knowlton, sa3'^s Dr. Smith, until " 1800 was a wilderness." Near the head gates 
of the mill there were formerly the marks of a grave, the occupant of which 
tradition named " Moggey," and from that circumstance the crossing of the creek 
was named Moggey's ford. As Moggey had the reputation of making her appear- 
ance occasionally, it required no little courage in the traveler in early times to 
cross the ford at night. Lenni, located near the centre of the township, contains 
a general store, school-house, and other evidences of thrift; it is the only village 
entirely within the township, although parts of Glen Riddle and other manufac- 
turing places extend into its borders. 

Newtown was organized in 1686. Its original settlers were Welsh emigrants. 
Dr. Smith states that it was laid out in what was called a townstead in the centre, 
and the first purchases of land in the "town" ship were entitled to a certain 
numl)er of acres in the townstead or village, and from that fact the name of the 
township is probably derived. The Goshen road, which traversed the township 
from east to west, was laid out in 1719. When St. David's Episcopal church was 



DELAWARE COUNTY. CH 

established is not definitely known, but tradition records that a log church was 
erected, and towards the latter part of the seventeenth century the settlers gar- 
risoned themselves against the Indians within it. The present foundation of the 
brick church edifice was laid in May, 1115, and finished during that year. In 
the niche of the north wall of the church is this inscription : " a.d. 1*717." The 
stone was placed there manj^ years after the church was built, in a vacant place 
caused by the fall of a stone bearing a similar date. That date is an error, since 
documentary evidence shows conclusively that the church was finished two years 
prior to that, and is the oldest church edifice in Delaware county. The oldest 
tombstone in the 3'ard is to Edward Hughes, the rector, who was interred on the 
16th of December, 1716. On the 4th of July, 1809, the Pennsylvania State 
Society of the Cincinnati removed the remains of General Anthou}^ Wayne from 
Presqu'Isle to this old grave-yard, and erected a plain marble shaft to his 
memory. Friends meeting was established in the township in 1697, and a 
meeting-house erected in 1710 ; also, in 1832, a Baptist church was built. 

Newtown Square, Newtown Centre, originally the " townstead," and Cen- 
tre Square, are thrifty villages located on the West Chester and Philadelphia 
turnpike. 

Providence was settled among the earliest of the tier of townships, back of 
and immediately along the river side. It is first mentioned in the records of the 
October court, 1683, when "the inhabitants of Providence make application for 
a highway to the town of Chester." In 1686 Upper Providence was recognized 
as a separate township, and in contradistinction, the lower part of the municipa- 
lity was designated as Nether Providence. In the former is located the borough 
of Media, the county seat of Delaware county, to which circumstance it owes its 
past and present importance. After the removal act was passed the commission- 
ers purchased fort3'-eight acres of land from Sarah Briggs, at a cost of $5,760, 
upon which the future town was plotted. It was first proposed to designate the 
inchoate seat as Providence, but, although its location was a special dispensation 
to those persons having land to sell in the vicinity, the name of Media was 
adopted. It was incorporated as a borough, March 11, 1850, and, owing to the 
removal of all the county offices there, grew rapidly for a few years, since which 
time it has increased slowly, both in population and private improvements. 
The Delaware County Institute of Sciences, located in the borough, has a 
commodious hall, which was erected at a cost of $10,000. This society was 
organized in 1833, and has become since that time an active body, which has 
done and is still doing much to popularize scientific and historical knowledge 
among the people of the county. The library contains many costly books, 
together with a number of valuable MSS. and papers relating to the history' of 
the county. The museum has a number of interesting and curious articles, and 
specimens illustrative of the natural sciences. In 1855 the first number of the 
Delaware County American was issued from the county seat, by Vernon & 
Cooper, since which time it has grown until it is one of the largest papers pub- 
lished in the State. There are one Episcopal, one Presbyterian, and a Methodist 
church in the borough. The population of Media in 1870 was 1,045, and the 
assessed value of real and personal property in 1875 was $1,114,975. The popu- 
lation of Upper Providence, independently of the borough of Media, in 1870, 



678 



HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



was 758 ; the number of public schools three, and the assessed value of real and 
pergonal property was, in 1875, $693,795. Nether Providence townshii) was 
organized in 1686, as heretofore mentioned. A portion of Media and an addi- 
tion to it, designated South Media, is located in this township. There are also 
Briggsville, Hinkson's Corner, Waterville, the extensive woolen mills at Walling- 
ford, Bancroft's Bank, and the Lenni paper mills. The West Chester and Phila- 
delphia railroad passes through both the Providence townships. 

Radnor was said to have been settled by emigrants from Radnorshire, Wales, 
about 1683, although no documentary evidence of a prior settlement can be 
found by Dr. Smith before 1685. Almost the entire land included within the 




Svsii 



DELAWARE COtTNTY COURT HOUSE, MEDIA. 

boundaries of the township was patented in 1681, to Richard David or Davies, 
but it nowhere appears that the owner of the estate of five thousand acres ever 
saw his purchase. In 1688 the Welsh inhabitants of Radnor and Haverford 
refused to recognize the validity of the line that located them within Chester 
county, and in 1689 they cast their vote for members of Assembly with the 
county of Philadelphia, but the poll was rejected by the Governor and Council, 
and a new election ordered so far as related to the members for whom they had 
voted was concerned. In 1693 a Friends meeting-house was built in Radnor, 
and in 1718 the present Radnor Friends meeting-house was erected. In the 
grave-yard attached to the meeting-house the first body interred was that of 
Gwenllian, wife of Howell James, 11th mo., 31st, 1686. Yillanova College, 
named in honor of St. Thomas of Villanova, was founded in 1846, by the Augus- 
tinian Fathers, and incorporated in 1848 by the State, with power to confer 



DEL AW ABE COUNTY. 



619 



degrees in the arts and sciences. It employs twelve professors, and its average 
attendance of students is about one hundred. The college building is capacious, 
and in connection with it is a hall capable of seating four hundred persons. 
The Methodists early made a lodgment in this township, and the congregation 
of that denomination in Radnor is one of the oldest in the county. The Penn- 
sylvania railroad touches Delaware county only in this township, and the sta- 
tions on that road are Villanova, Upton, Radnor (otherwise Morgan's Cor- 
ner), and Wayne, where a pretty village, called Louella, has sprung up around 
the station. The Baptists have a church in the township, their place of wor- 
ship Radnor Hall, having been constituted in 1841. 

Ridley, which was named in honor of Ridley, who died at the stake in 1554, 
originally under the 
government of the 
Duke of York, em- 
braced the neck of 
land known as Cal- 
koen's Hook (Tur- 
key Point), Ammas- 
land, and Tiuicum. 
In 1G86 Calkoen's 
Hook was annexed 
to Darby, and in the 
following year Rid- 
ley township was or- 
ganized. At Lelper- 
ville, Thomas Lei- 
per, a man of posi- 
tion and a brave 
soldier of the Revo- 
lution, constructed, 
in October, 1809, the 
second railroad ever 
laid in the United 
States, the first 
being that laid at 
Beacon Hill, Boston, 

by Silas Whitney, in 1807. It has been said that the Leiper road was con- 
structed in 1806, but subsequent investigation has demonstrated that date to be 
erroneous. The old Darby Creek ferry-house, which for many years was used 
as a liotel, is still standing, and on one of the mantles are the figures 1098, which 
is believed to be the date of the erection of the building. Leiperville, which was 
laid out by Thomas Leiper, and named after him, is the only village of any size 
in Ihe township, although Ridley Park, Prospect Park, and Norwood are rapidly 
gathering together a number of ornate, and in some instances, imposing suburban 
dwellings. There are one Baptist, one Presbyterian, and one " Bible Christian " 
churches located in Ridley. The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore rail 
road traverses this township, and has stations at Crum Lynne, Ridley Park, and 




BIDIiEY PARK STATION, P., W. AND B. R. B. 



680 HISTOB Y OF PENN8 YL VANIA. 

Moore's. At Ridley the number of school-houses are five. The population in 
1815 was one thousand one hundred and forty-two, and the assessed value of real 
and personal property in 1875 was $1,616,840. 

Springfield township is believed by Dr. Smith to have been regularly organ- 
ized in 1686, but two years previous to that time Robert Taylor, one of the early 
settlers of the county, was appointed supervisor " from Chester creek to Croome 
creek " early in 1684. In 1688 the Ammasland road was laid out. On the left- 
hand side of the road leading from Springfield meeting-house to Chester stands 
the house in which Benjamin West was born, on the 10th of October, 1738. In 
1874 the upper part of this building was injured by fire, but the room in which 
West was born was untouched by the flames. The old structure has been reno- 
vated as when first constructed, and is now occupied as a residence by two of 
the professors of Swarthmore College. There is a tradition that a picture from 
the youthful pencil of West could be seen on the breast of one of the chimneys 
in one of the attics, but the story is as apocryphal in its character as the oft-told 
narrative of West drawing in ink, at seven years of age, the portrait of the child 
who he was instructed to watch in the cradle. The old Springfield meeting-house, 
built in 1738 and taken down in 1850, was the scene of the inquiry among the 
good Friends of that day, whether the society would permit Benjamin West to 
paint. Swarthmore College, under the management of the Hicksite branch of 
the Society of Friends, is located in this township. It was founded in 1866, and 
is now in a flourishing condition. The building is spacious and imposing, and 
the institution has a creditable museum, the nucleus of a library, and a 
depository of relics connecting with and relating to George Fox and William 
Penn, The board of managers consists of thirty-four members, who must be 
members of the Society of Friends. Professor Edward H. Magill is president of 
the college. Dr. Smith relates an extraordinary instance of the freaks of 
electricity that occurred in this township on the 3d of November, 1768. The 
lightning struck the house of Samuel Lewis, and, among other remarkable things, 
tore the lower part of the apparel entirely from off his daughter Margaret, rent 
her garters into a number of pieces, tore the upper leather of her shoes into frag- 
ments, and melted part of one of her silver shoe-buckles, without materially 
injuring the young lady. In 1810 " Indian Nelly," the last native known to have 
resided in Delaware county, made her home in Springfield. AA' allingford, Hay- 
ville, and Beatty's Hollow, are manufacturing places of considerable importance. 
The West Chester and Philadelphia railroad passes through the southern section 
of this township, and has stations at Morton, Oakdale, and Swarthmore. The 
population of the township in 1-870 was one thousand two hundred and sixty- 
seven, and the assessed value of real and personal property in 1875, $1,075,720. 

Thornbury was organized as a township in 1687, and derived its name from 
Thornbury, Gloucestershire, England. When Delaware was set apart from 
Chester county the line of division was such that one-fourth of the old township 
was retained in the latter county. About forty years since the township 
was enlarged sO as to include a portion of Aston, in which Glen mills, the estab- 
lishment of Mark & James Wilcox, the manufacturers of all the paper used by the 
Government in legal tender and National bank notes, is located. There are consi- 
derable settlements around the manufacturing localities of Glen mills, Cheyney's 



BEL AW ABE COUNTY. 



681 



shops, and Thorntonville. The Philadelphia and West Chester railroad passes 
through the township, with stations at the two former mentioned places. An 
old road in the western part of the township is laid out, and follows the course 
of an old Indian trail. 

TiNicuM, the smallest municipality in the county, was made a separate town- 
ship on the petition of thirty-tbree of the inhabitants, by order of the August 
court of Chester county in 1781. During the Revolutionary war, when it was 
thought that General Howe was menacing Philadelphia by water, a temporary 
fortification was located at the mouth of Darby creek, on the present island of 
Tinicum. In 1782 the Supreme Council confiscated a large tract of land in this 
township, belonging to Joseph Galloway, who had taken part with the mother 




CKOZER THEOLOGICAIi SEMINARY AT UPLAND. 

country. The Lazaretto was established at Tinicum, and spacious buildings 
were erected to meet the requirements of a post which, when the quarantine was 
located, held the commercial supremacy of the nation. 

Upland was created a borough by the Court of Quarter Sessions, February 
22, 1869. The borough is the site of the noted Chester mills. The greater part 
of the property is owned by John P. Crozer's family. It is a busy manufac- 
turing place, neat and attractive. It contains four public schools, a Baptist 
church, and the Crozer The'ological seminary ; the seminary receiving an 
endowment fund of $390,000 from the Crozer family, and they are constantly 
aiding to its usefulness. The Pearl library, a gift of a daughter of John P. 
Crozer, contains between six and seven thousand volumes, many of which are 
rare and original, although composed almost exclusively of theological works. 



ELK COUNTY. 



[ With acknowledgments to C. JR. Earley, M.D., Jesse Kyler, Erasmus Morey, and Lyman 

Wilmarth.} 

ROM 1835 to 1842 applications were annually made to the Legislature 
for a new county, to be formed out of portions of Jefferson, M'Kean, 
and Clearfield ; and in the spring of 1843 the bill passed creating the 
county of Elk, and was organized for judicial purposes the year 
following. The commissioners to fix the county site, and to perform other duties 
in the organization of the county, until the proper officers could be elected by the 





VIEW OF THE BOKOUGH OF KIDGWAY, ELK COUNTY. 
[From a Photograph by C. R. Slade, Ridgway.] 

people, were Timothy Ives, of Potter, James W. Guthrie, of Clarion, and Z. H. 
Eddy, of Warren. They received offers of land sufficient in quantity for all the 
public buildings from persons in different parts of the county. Matthew 
McQuoin offered one hundred acres at the forks of the road leading to Brandy 
Camp, four miles east of Ridgway, now known as Boot Jack, and in addition 
would give a year's work toward the erection of the public buildings. Reuben 
Winslow promised that the expense of the buildings would be provided for, if the 

682 



ELK COUMTY. 683 

commissioners "would fix upon his place at the mouth of Trout run. The citizens 
of Ridgway, aided by a donation from John J. Ridgway, guaranteed the expense 
of erecting the buildings, also giving ground, with a never- failing spring attached, 
which offer the commissioners accepted, and located the seat of justice at 
Ridgway. They laid out the site for public buildings, and entered into a 
contract with Edward Derby for the erection of the court-house. This action of 
the commissioners was, however, violently opposed, and delays were created in 
the erection of the county buildings. Finding their efforts unavailing, the oppo- 
sition for a while ceased. 

The county seat having been fixed by the commissioners, the buildings com- 
pleted, and the courts in regular session, it was supposed that the time for 
disturbing the county by its removal was past. It was doomed otherwise. At 
the session of the Legislature in 1848-49, A. I. Wilcox was the member in the 
House, and Timothy Ives in the Senate. Will. A. Stokes, a lawyer of Phila- 
delphia, was interested in selling lands around St. Mary's to actual settlers, at a 
profit of some seven or eight hundred per cent., which sales would be accelerated 
by having the county seat at St. Mary's, where his political aspirations had led 
him to settle. He therefore procured the introduction, in the Legislature, of a 
bill to remove the county seat to St. Mary's ; but the people from Ridgway and 
other parts of the county entered such a vigorous protest that the plan failed. 

The name of the county was derived from the "noble animal which, upon the 
arrival of the first settlers, in large droves had a wide range over this forest 
domain." The encroachments of civilization, and the wanton destruction of these 
creatures, have completel}' exterminated them. 

The first court in Elk county was held at Caledonia, December 19, 1843. 
The first officers of the county were James L. Gillis and Issac Horton, associ- 
ate judges; W. J. B. Andrews, prothonotary ; Reuben Winslow, Chauncey 
Brockway, and — Brooks, commissioners. The first attorneys at this court, at 
which little business was done, were Benjamin R. Petriken, George R. Barrett, 
and Lewis B. Smith. The second court was held at Ridgway, in the sch©»l- 
house, on February 19, 1844. Present — Alexander McCalmont, president judge ; 
Isaac Horton, associate ; and Eusebius Kincaid, sheriff. 

The resources of the county consist in the main of coal and lumber. The 
fourth coal basin, according to Rogers, extends through the county from the 
north-west to the south-east, embracing perhaps fifty thousand acres, and passing 
near the centre of the county. On the Little Toby creek the aggregate thickness 
of the veins of bituminous coal that have been discovered has been found to 
average twenty-eight feet, and are seven in number, and two veins of cannel coal, 
averaging each about three feet in thickness. There are also two beds of lime, one 
of eight and one of four feet. The former is of excellent strength, being of a fossil- 
iferous character, though dark in color. There are several deposits of iron ore, 
containing from thirty to forty per cent, of metallic iron, being the ores of the 
carboniferous regions. In the western portion of the county, and also in the 
eastern portion, are found the fifth and third basins respectively. The veins of 
coal and minerals compare favorably, as reported by Professor Rogers. The 
developments of the coal fields of the county are as follows : the St. Mary's coal 
company and the Benzinger coal and iron company, in the vicinity of St. Mary's 



684 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

They are shipping coal of good quality, but, from the fact of the slight covering 
over the veins worked, the coal has a rusty and stained appearance. 

The North-western mining and exchange company own about thirty-three 
thousand acres of land, mostly underlaid with coal, situate in Fox and Horton 
townships, Elk count}'^, and Snyder township, Jefferson county. This company 
include, with their former lands, also the properties of the Daguscahonda 
improvement company and the Shawmuk coal company. They are now operating 
quite largely at the old works of the Daguscahonda company, shipping their pro- 
duction by way of the Earley branch of the Pennsylvania and Erie coal and rail- 
way company. This latter corporation is formed by a consolidation of several 
railroad companies whose lines are at present built, or to be constructed. One 
line, leading from the Philadelphia and Erie railroad to Earley, six miles in length, 
also the Shawmuk branch, about seventeen miles of track, both in this county, 
are under its control. The lumber and tanning business forms an active 
industr3\ There are three large tanneries (one said to be the largest in the 
world), emplo^'ing many men, and the numerous saw mills in the various parts 
of the county contribute greatl}^ to the prosperity of its inhabitants. 

A large body of land, containing about one hundred thousand acres, lying in 
what is now Benzinger, Fox, Horton, and Houston townships, the latter in Clear- 
field county, was patented to Samuel M. Fox, and was offered for sale and settle- 
ment by his heirs. Their agent, William Kersey, opened a road from the State 
road (now Bellefonte and Erie turnpike) to what is called the Burned Mill, 
alongside of the Daguscahonda railroad, thirty-three miles in length. These 
lands lay in what was then Jefferson, M'Kean, and Clearfield counties, most of 
it in the latter, which at that time could not poll over one hundred and sixty or 
one hundred and seventy votes, and was attached to Centre county. It had but 
one township, called Chinklacamoose. Amos Davis was the first actual settler. 
He resided, prior to 1810, some two or three years, on the tract north of Earley, 
where the steam saw mill stands. In the spring of the above year, John Kyler, 
who lived in Centre county, came to see the country, and located his place at 
Kyler's Corners, on Little Toby creek. That year and the summer following 
he packed his provisions on a horse to do him while clearing some land and 
putting up a cabin, and the last of May or first of June, 1812, moved his family 
to the country. Elijah Meredith had moved in a few days previous, and Jacob 
Wilson, Libni Taylor, and Samuel Miller at the time Kyler came. Miller 
located at Earley, and the year following Jonah Grriffith located on a farm where 
Centreville now is. Miller and Griffith both left the succeeding j^ear. 

The flaming hand-bill of the land-owners, in 1811, is a curiosity. From it 
we learn, " Within ten miles of the tract, and immediately upon the Sinnema- 
honing, salt works have been erected by a company who are interested in the 
property, and considerable quantities of salt have been already manufactured. 
Ir(m and coal may be had in the neighborhood, adequate to the most enlarged 
system of operations. . . . It is confidently believed that, taking into con- 
sideration the situation, soil, and general advantages that belong to this tract, 
there seldom has existed a more favorable opportunity for industrious and enter- 
prising men to acquire a handsome property upon more liberal terms. . . . 
The proprietors, duly estimating the advantages, both in a private and a national 



JELK COUNTY. 685 

view, from a system of education and tlie encouragement of moral and religious 
habits, have resolved upon appropriating one hundred and fifty acres of land, 
nearly in the centime of the tract, for the promotion of tliese salutary purposes. 
This tract will be granted to a church and school, the use of it remaining in the 
clergyman and preceptor who may be of competent abilities and approved of by 
the proprietors. . . . The subscribers purchased the propert}'- after a full 
and complete inspection of the soil and other local advantages, and a satisfactory 
investigation of the title. It is intended for the present to sell to actual settlers 
at two dollars per acre, at a credit of five years, two years without interest. A 
large compan}^, who may be desirous to fix themselves permanently upon the 
tract, will meet with liberal encouragement from the proprietors." 

Settlers from the New England States and New York were informed that the 
most direct route to these lands was from "Chenano;o Point to Dr. Willard's, at 
Tioga, thence to Ellis's, on the State road, by the way of Crooked creek, thence 
through Couder's Port to the Canoe Place on the Allegheny, seventeen miles 
west of Couder's Port, from whence a road is opened by the Portage branch of 
the Sinnemahoning, about twenty-three miles in a southern direction to the 
tract." 

In the spring of 1812, quite a number of settlers, induced bj^ the very favor- 
able and flattering terms of Messrs. Shippeu, McMurtrie & Co., land owners, 
located on Bennett's Branch of the Sinnemahoning, having been preceded by Dr. 
Daniel Rogers, the agent, in the autumn previous. The more prominent were 
Leonard Morey, who selected land one mile below Caledonia, on Bennett's Brancli, 
the year following, settled in Medoc run ; Captain Potter, who chose a flat oppo- 
site the mouth of the Medoc run ; Elder Jonathan Nichols and Hezekiah 
Warner, at Caledonia. Captain Potter finding no mill in the locality, burned 
out one end of a hickory log and made a mortar, fastened a pestle to a spring 
pole, and in that manner, to use his expression, "pounded our corn and made 
our ' Johnnj' cake.' " 

In 1813 Clearfield was divided into two townships — one Lawrence, in honor 
of the gallant commander of the Chesapeake, and the other Pike, after Greneral 
Zebulon M. Pike, killed at York, Canada, in April, 1813. The latter township 
comprised all what is now Elk count3^ By this division the township of Chink- 
lacamoose became extinct. During this season one of the proprietors came into 
the county, and made provision for cutting roads and erecting a mill. It was 
not, however, for two years after that the latter was built. It was the second, 
or old Kersey mill, now known as Conner's, superintended by William Fisher, 
from Centre county. Settlers from various sections began to find their way into 
the wilderness. Some made improvements, intending to locate, but never 
brought their families, or left soon after, if they did, discouraged at the prospects 
of " life in the woods." Among the permanent settlers in 1817-18, were William 
McCauley, James Reesman, James Green, Smith Mead, and Consider Brockway. 
The latter was the best prepared to make improvements of any family at that 
time, having a large family of boys, and of some means. He settled about four 
miles west of Kersey run. Between the years 1818 and 1823, Conrad Moyer, 
Libni Taylor, John Keller, Joel and Philetus Clark, Isaac Coleman, Uriah and 
Jonah Rogers, Colonel Webb, Milton Johnson, Anson Yial, and Isaac Horton, 



686 HISTOB Y OF PEWJ^S YL VANIA. 

were added to the settlement, and remained permanently. The latter located on 
Brandy Camp branch of Little Toby, now Horton township, and the following 
named, Dr. William Hoyt, John J. Bundy, James R. Hancock, Chauncey Brock- 
way, James Iddings, and Robert Thompson, remained a number of years and 
then left ; but all have some of their descendants living here. 

The first settlement nearest to Ridgway was at " the forks," where the east 
and west branches of the Clarion river unite, and was made by a Mr. David 
Johnson, from Salem county, New Jersey. This was long before Ridgway had 
a habitation or a name, and long previous to the organization of Potter, 
M'Kean, and Jefferson counties for judicial purposes. It was laid down upon 
the maps as Coopersport, named after a well-known and large land-holder, by 
which name it was called until within a few years, when it was changed to John- 
sonburg, in honor of its first founder. 

From 1825 to 1845, the plan of Fourier — that of communities with a union of 
labor and of capital, and working under fixed rules — was actively put into opera- 
tion in this section of Pennsylvania. On the main road, from Ridgway to 
Smethport, are the remains of Teutonia, once a large community, but jealousies 
grew up, and the members dispersed among the people at large and became 
industrious and useful citizens. The sudden advent and exit of this community 
had its prototype within half a mile of Teutonia. The mouldering wood and 
growth of trees of half a centurj^ mark the spot where was laid out the town of 
Instanter. Its plot is duly recorded in M'Kean county. Mr. Cooper, a large 
land owner, was the instigator if not the foi'erunner of the settlement. As the 
streets were marked out the buildings went up like magic ; but Madam Rumor 
spread a report that the land title was unsound, and on investigation such was 
found to be the fact. Work suddenly ceased, and the settlers left. 

Jacob Ridgway, of Philadelphia, was the owner of a large body of land in 
M'Kean county, the centre of which was about thirty miles from the York State 
line, also another large body of lands in Jefferson (now Elk county), the centre 
of which was near Montmorency, six miles north-east of Ridgway. To com- 
mence and carr}^ out his improvements in M'Kean was not so difKcult as in 
Jefi'erson. The former location was only eight miles from the established seat 
of justice in the county, and settlements had been pushed to within four miles of 
his location on that side, and within two or three miles of settlements on Potato 
creek. Mr. Ridgway selected high ground long since known as Bunker Hill, 
though it was first known as Clerraontville, under which cognomen its post office 
was establlslied. Mr. Ridgway here, as well as at Montmorency, selected 
elevated ground on which to make his improvements. That at Bunker Hill is 
probably three hundred feet above the waters of Potato creek, and Montmorency 
about four hundred and fifty feet above the Clarion at Ridgway. 

The superintendence of the work on Bunker Hill was confided to Paul E. 
Scull, and the settlement progressed rapidly under his supervision and the 
abundant resources of Mr. Ridgway. The latter, in turning his attention to his 
lands in Jefferson county, found that the selection of a location was a more 
difficult undertaking, from the fact of its remoteness from all human companionship. 
It was twenty-five miles from Bunker Hill, and twenty-three miles from Judge 
Bishop's, through a dense and heavy timbered wilderness. The nearest settlement 



J£LK COUNTY. 687 

on the south-east was Mr. Reesman's, a distance of sixteen miles. Mr. Ridgway 
secured James L. Gillis, a relative by marriage, as his agent. This was in 1821, 
when he entered upon the arduous task of carrying out the designs of the pro- 
prietor, and commenced what was called Montmorency. Mr. Gillis was a native of 
Washington county, New York. He served in a cavalry company in the war of 
1812, and was at the battle of Lundy's Lane. He was taken prisoner in a scout- 
ing expedition and sent to Quebec, and finally exchanged. From the close of the 
war until 1821 he held various official positions in Ontario county, whither he 
had removed at the age of nineteen. Such, in brief, was the history of the indi- 
vidual who, in 1821, commenced what was called the Ridgway settlement. 

From 1822 to 1824, Gillis had pushed his work rapidly on, with ample means, 
and by his herculean efforts nearly four hundred acres were cleared, a saw and 
grist mill erected on Mill creek, three miles west of Montmorency, and a carding 
machine was also put in operation. By great watchfulness and folding the sheep 
at night, and warned by their watch dogs, the settlers in Kersey contrived to 
raise sufficient wool to clothe themselves. A carding machine might heretofoi'e 
have been considered a convenience, rather than an article of necessity. It was 
surely not from any profit expected to be derived, that prompted Gillis to such 
an expense. From the fact that the grist and saw mills were placed upon Mill 
creek, Gillis and Ridgway expected that settlements would tend towards that 
quarter. The Olean road from Armstrong county to the New York State line 
crossed Gillis' road west from Mill creek, at right angles, some three miles west 
of the mill, where the land was highly favorable for cultivation. 

The laying out of the Olean road was a State work, and the land owners and 
settlers were quite enthusiastic with regard to it. It was never used except by 
returning lumbermen on foot from Pittsburgh to Allegheny and Cattaraugus 
counties. New York, for a number of years, and until the underbrush precluded all 
pedestrianism no teams passed over it. The failure of this road in stimulating 
settlement, suggested the gigantic project of that day and age, of opening the county 
by the construction of a turnpike, under the direction of a stock companj^, from 
Bellefonte to the New York State line, near Olean, a distance of one hundred and 
twenty miles — 'any and every mile of which was denominated a wilderness. In 
the winter of 1824 Mr. Gillis drew up a petition to the Legislature for a charter, 
his Kersey neighbors signed it, and with his sleigh and horses he crossed the 
Bennett's Branch near Morey's settlement, and thence to Karthaus, the first team 
that ever was driven through that twenty-three miles of wilderness. At Belle- 
fonte his petition was signed by a few. He then proceeded to Harrisburg. 
Judge Burnside was then Senator, and General John Mitchell a member of the 
House — both were from Centre county. The bill granting the charter passed 
that winter and became a law, but gave no help. Before the nextjneeting of the 
Legislature the feasibility of making the road was more apparent, and Mr. Gillis 
succeeded' in obtaining a subscription of twenty thousand dollars from the State 
to its stock. After innumerable difficulties, the road was finally completed. 

In the winter of 1832 and 1833, Messrs. L. Wilmarth, Arthur Hughes, and 
George Dickinson purchased of J. L. Gillis and Mr. Aylworth land and water 
power requisite for a lumbering establishment. At this period there were not 
exceeding seven families in Ridgway, to wit : Mr. Alyworth and Caleb Dill, on 



688 HISTO UY OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

the west side of the creek ; Enos Gillis, J. W. Gallagher, H. Karns, Thomas Bar- 
ber, and Joab Dobbin, on the east side. The commencement of building mills, 
etc., by Hughes & Dickinson, and the settlement by Colonel Wilcox this same 
year, tended much to encourage these denizens of forest life, and matters began 
to wear a more lively aspect. The Messrs. Gillis had succeeded in having 
several mail routes established which centered at Ridgway, as follows : from 
Kittanuing via Brookville to Ridgway, from the south ; from Bellefonte via 
Karthaus to Ridgway, from the east ; from Ridgway to Smethport and Olean, 
and from Ridgway to Warren, each weekly. 

The year 1833 was an era in Ridgway 's history marked by the commence- 
ment of the Wilcox settlement, the building of the mills, etc., alluded to. Mill- 
wrights and others advised putting the mills on the banks of the streams, but 
experience had demonstrated its dangers. James L. Gillis built a saw mill in 
1824 at the windfall, a mile and a quarter above the present village, and the first 
or second ice flood gorged and carried it away, and he was opposed to further 
trial of that sort. Although settlement commenced at Montmorency in 1822, 
and at Ridgw^a}^ in 1825, yet not a single death occurred during that whole 
period of time to 1833, eleven years. Whilst grubbing for the race one workman 
from Armstrong county was killed by the falling of a tree, and within the period 
of six months thereafter there were four deaths. There were no other deaths 
until about the year 1840 or '41. 

Whilst the surveys of the Sunbury and Erie (now the Philadelphia and Erie) 
railroad were in progress in 1836-37, there were no houses nor clearing between 
Shippen and Ridgway, and with the exception of a cabin at Johnsonburg, there 
were none between Ridgway and Tionesta waters. 

St. Mary's settlement was commenced a year previous to the organization of 
the county of Elk. It is now a large town, and a prominence is given to it as well 
as all other towns which ai'e on the line of a railroad. Had it, however, not been 
for the church, headed by Father Alexander, St. Mary's settlement would have 
been deserted, "and the clearings that were first made would have grown up to 
briars — the carnival ground of bears and foxes, a second edition of Instanter. 
Early in the summer of the year 1842, a number of Germans in the cities of 
Philadelphia and Baltimore associated themselves to form a German settlement 
on the community plan, and appointed John Albert, Nicolaus Reimel, and 
Michael Derleth, a committee to select a suitable place for such a settlement 
This committee came to Elk county during the summer of the same 3^ear, and 
selected thirty-five thousand acres of land — the site where the borough of St. 
Mary's and part of the settlement now is — and made a contract with Mr. Kings- 
bury for the purchase of them. In October of the same j^ear the first instalment 
of the intended settlement from Philadelphia came out and took up their 
residence at John Green's, in Kersey. A few days after the instalment from 
Baltimore came and joined the other party at Kersey. From Kersey these men 
opened a path to where the borough of St. Mary's now is, and, late as the season 
was, put up some log shanties along where now is St. Mary's street. 

Late in December of the same year, as they had built enough shanties, they 
took their families in, and began to cut down trees along St. Mary's road. All 
the work done was made in common, so also had they a common store where 



ELK COUNTY 



689 



they drew their rations. The clearing and the work in general progressed 
slov 'v. The community plan of working proved a failure, and during the first 
3'ear only a few town lots were cleared, although in the spring of 1843 the 
number of colonists was increased by the second instalment from Philadelphia 
and Baltimore. In the fall of the year 1842, Father Alexander, from Baltimore, 
came to the colony by invitation. This gentleman, a man of great learning and 
experience, and a lover of rural life, became soon convinced that the communit}'' 
plan would not work, and that the settlement was bound to break up, and the 
labor and money already spent in the undertaking lost. He conceived another 
plan to save it, but this could only be carried out by some person of influence and 




VIEW OP WILCOX, ELK COUNTY. 
[From a Photograph by D. W. Baldwin, Ridgway.] -^ 

means. He, therefore, after consultation with the colonists, went back to Balti- 
more, and laid his plans before Colonel Matthias Benzinger, a man known for his 
kindness, enterprise, and experience. He prevailed on Colonel Benzinger to 
come and look at the settlement. Late in the fall of 1843 Colonel Benzinger 
came to the colonj^, and after examination concluded to buy the lands. The 
Community society had their contract annulled with Mr. Kingsbury, and 
Colonel Benzinger then bought the colony lauds, with some others adjoining, 
making about sixty-six thousand six hundred acres. The following year, as soon 
as the season was favorable, part of the lands were laid out in farms of twenty- 
five, fifty, and one hundred acres, as also part of the village of St. Mary's, and 
2 T 



690 HISTOB Y OF P ENJ^SYL VANIA. 

gave each of the colonists of the Community society that remained twenty- five 
acres and one town lot free. Now each one was for himself, and the work and 
improvement went on well from that time. In the fall of 1844, George Weiss 
came to the colony. In the following spring he built his store-house and store 
on the north side of Elk creek. About the same time Colonel Benzinsrer 
engaged Ignatius Garner as agent and general director of the colony, and early 
in the year 1845 Mr. Garner went to Europe and came back in July with a good 
number of substantial settlers. From that time the colony made rapid progress ; 
settlers came from Europe and all parts of the United States. A large three- 
story log building was built on the south of Elk creek, with twenty-four rooms, 
where the colonists found shelter until they could build houses for themselves. 
At the same time a neat church was built, and also the large saw-mill on Elk 
and Silver creeks by Father Alexander, who made his residence here, and by his 
good example, cheerfulness, and liberality, contributed largely to the success of 
the colony. 

RiDGWAY, the county seat of Elk county, is situate upon the Philadelphia and 
Erie railroad, at the junction of Elk creek with the Clarion river. It is sur- 
rounded by hills where the largest and best springs of pure cold water exist, 
which is conveyed to the houses in pipes, supplying every dwelling and public 
building in the town with the very best water known. It is one of the oldest and 
most flourishing towns in the county, being laid out in 1833. The town was 
named in honor of Mr. Jacob Ridgway, who at the time owned a large amount 
of land in that locality. Among the leading business enterprises may be men- 
tioned two large tanneries and a machine shop and foundry. It contains four 
churches, court house, and county buildings, and a splendid public school build- 
ing in which is held a graded school. 

St. Mary's borough is situated in Benzinger township, on the line of the 
Philadelphia and Erie railroad, and where the Cehtreville road crosses, leading to 
Williamsville. It was incorporated into a borough, March 3, 1848. The 
principal business enterprises are coal mining, lumbering, etc. Among the 
prominent buildings may be mentioned three churches — two Roman Catholic and 
one Presbyterian, monastery of the Benedictine society, convent of the Benedic- 
tine Sisters, also a seminary under their direction, public school and town hall. 
The first Roman Catholic church under the management and direction of the 
Benedictine society, is a handsome stone edifice. The town has also two machine 
shops and foundries, a tannery, and planing mill. 

Wilcox is situated on the line of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad, fourteen 
miles west of Ridgway. The village was named after the Hon. A. I. Wilcox, and 
is a flourishing town, settled by energetic and enterprising citizens. It is the 
location of the Wilcox tanning company, said to have the largest tannery in the 
world. It is expected that the Pennsylvania and Erie coal and railway company's 
road, soon to be built, will pass through this place, which upon completion will 
add greatly to the prosperity of the town and its citizens. 

Williamsville is situated in Jones township, near the M'Kean county line, 
and on the Milesburg and Smethport turnpike. It was the old residence of the 
late Hon. William P. Wilcox, and is one of the oldest post offices of the county. 

WiLMARTH is situated on the line of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad. 



ELK COUNTY. 691 

nine miles west from Ridgway, and is near the old site of Johnsonburg or Coopers- 
port. It was established and built up by Lyman Wilmarth, Esq., for whom it 
was named. The principal business is lumbering. 

Arroyo is situated in Spring Creek township, on the Clarion river, ten miles 
below Ridgway. It was located by Thomas Irwin, Esq., who yet resides there. 
The principal business engaged in is lumbering. 

Benezette is situated in Benezette township, on the line of the Low Grade 
division of the Allegheny Valley railroad, sixteen miles west of Driftwood, on 
the Bennett's Branch of the Sinnemahoning. It was founded by Reuben 
Winslow, a very energetic and enterprising man, who lost his life in a collision 
of trains upon the Philadelphia and Erie railroad at Westport. 

Caledonia is situated in Jay township, on the Bennett's Branch of the Sinne- 
mahoning creek, twenty miles east of Ridgway, upon the Milesburg and Smeth- 
port turnpike, and was among the. earliest settled portions of the county. 
Among; the first settlers were Zebulon and Hezekiah Warner. 

Earley is situated on the Milesburg and Smethport turnpike, and at the 
terminus of the Daguscahonda railroad, eight and one-half miles east of Ridg- 
way, and one and one-half miles west of Centreville. It was laid out in 1865 by 
Dr. Charles R. Earley, an enterprising physician who came from Allegheny 
county, New York, to Elk, in 1846, after whom it is named. It is a mining 
town, and contains at present a depot, engine-house, tannery, stores, and a Pres- 
byterian church, in which other denominations are allowed to woi'ship when not 
in use by the society, 

Hellen is situated in Horton township, on the road leading from Ridgway to 
Brookville, and upon Little Toby creek, one-half mile below the junction of 
Brandy Camp creek with Little Toby. Among the first settlers were the 
Clarks, Daniel Oyster, Brockwa^^s, and others. 

Kersey post oflTice is situated at the town of Centreville, Fox township, and 
where the road from St. Mary's to Brookville crosses the Milesburg and Smeth- 
port turnpike. It was established by settlers of the old Kersey land company, 
and laid out in November, 1846, by John Green. The mail in olden times was 
carried on horseback from Milesburg to Smethport, once a week and return, a 
distance of one hundred and forty-five miles, by Conrad Caseman. 

Rauqht's Mills is situated in Millstone township, on the Clarion river, 
seven miles below Arroyo. Principal business engaged in is lumber. 

Weedville post office is at the mouth of Kersey run, on the Low Grade rail- 
road. The first settler was John Boyd, who came there in 1816. He bought 
several tracts of the company's land, and built a saw-mill. In 1817, Frederick 
Weed and Captain Weed, the father of Judge Charles Weed, of Ridgway, 
purchased Boyd's improvements. 

On the organization of the county, in 1843, the townships then formed were 
Benzette, Benzinger, Fox, Gibson, Jay, Jones, Ridgway, Spring Creek, and Ship- 
pen. Gibson and Shippen were subsequently absorbed by the formation of 
Cameron county. Highland and Horton were formed April 8, 1850, and Mill- 
stone, March 9, 1870. 




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692 



ERIE COUNTY. 




BY ISAAC MOORHEAD, ERIE. 

HE first occupants of the land embraced in our favored county, of 
whom we have any knowledge, were the Erie or Cat Indians. The 
Eries occupied the land on the south shore of Lake Erie, eastward 
to the foot of the lake. Yer^^ early in the seventeenth century, we 
find the Neutrie Nation and the Eries spoken of by the French priests, and we 
know that Jean Brebeuf and Jos Marie Chaumonot were on the south side of 
Lake Erie. Ketchurn, in his History of Bufi'alo, says "from their (the Iroquois) 
own traditions, confirmed by the earliest records of history, their most powerful 

enemies and rivals were the Eries 
or the Cat Nation, living upon the 
south side of the lake which bears 
their name." The Eries were anni- 
hilated as a nation by the Iroquois 
in 1655 or thereabouts, in a terrible 
battle of the former's own seeking,- 
east of the Genesee river, while 
en route to fight more particularly 
with the Senecas. Jealous of the 
power of the confederacy of the 
Five Nations, they staked all in one 
desperate battle on the soil of their 
enemies, and lost. Tradition has it 
that a fragment of the tribe escaped 
to the far west, and long years 
thereafter, according to Ketchurn, 
ascended the Ohio, crossed the country, and attacked the Ifenecas. A great 
battle was fought near Buffalo, in which the Eries were again defeated and slain 
to a man, and their bodies were burned and the ashes buried in a mound, which 
is still visible near the old Indian Mission Church, a monument at once of the 
indomitable courage of the tei-rible Eries and their brave conquerors, the 
Senecas. 

La Salle and his part}^, in their journey through the region lying south of 
Lake Erie, in the winter of 1680, encountered the wolves in such numbers as 
to be in danger of being overpowered by them. The extraordinary quantit3^ of 
game of all kinds upon the south shore of Lake Erie is spoken of by several of 
the early travelers from 1680 to 1124, and is accounted for by the fact that since 
the terrible war between the Eries and the Iroquois no one resided there, " It 
was not considered safe to even pass through the country." 

From " Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York,'' 

G93 




OLD BLOCK HOUSE AT ERIE. 
(From a Painting by Dr. Tliomas H. Sluart.) 



694 ERIE COUNTY. 

I note the following, a portion of the deposition of Stephen Coffen. who was 
taken prisoner b3'^ the French and Indians of Canada, at Menis, in the year 1747 : 
"... In September, 1752, the Depon't was in Quebec, and endea- 
voring to agree with some Indians to convey him to his own country, New- 
England, which the Indians acquainted the Gov't of, who immediately ordered 
him to Goal, where he lay three months ; at the time of his releasement the 
French were preparing for a march to Belle Riviere or Ohio, when he offered his 
service, but was rejected by the Gov'r, General Le Cain ; he, the said General, 
setting out for Montreal about the 3rd of January, 1753, to view and forward 
the Forces, Deponent applyed to Major Ramsey for liberty to go with the army 
to Ohio, who told him he would ask the Lieutenant De Ruoy, who agreed to it, 
upon which he was Equipped as a soldier, and sent with a Detachment of three 
liundred men to Montreal, under the Command of Mons. Babeer, who sett off imme- 
diately with said Command by Land and ice for Lake Erie; they in their way 
stopt a couple of days to refresh themselves at Cadaraghqui Port, also at 
Taranto, on the North side of Lake Ontario; then at Niagara Fort 15 days; 
from thence set off b}^ water, being April, and arrived at Chadakoin [now Port- 
land, Chatauqua county, N. Y.], on Lake Erie, where they were ordered to fell 
Timber and prepare it for building a Fort there, according to Govr's instructions; 
but Monsr. Morang coming up with 500 men and 20 Indians, put a stop to the 
erecting of a Fort at that place, by reason of his not liking the situation, and the 
River of Chadakoins being too shallow to carry any craft with provisions, ettc, 
to Belle Riviere. The Deponent says, there arose a warm debate between Messrs. 
Babeer and Morang thereon, the First insisting on building a Fort there, agree- 
able to his Instructions, otherwise on Morang's giving him an Instrument in 
writing to satisfy the Gov'r in that point, which Morang did, and then ordered 
Monsr. Mercie, who was both Commissary and Engeneer, to go along said Lake 
and look for a good situation, which he found, and returned in three days, it 
beino- 15 Leagues to the S. W. of Chadakoin ; they were then all ordered to repair 
thither ; when they arrived there were about 20 Indians fishing in the Lake, who 
immediately quit it on seeing the French. They fell to work and built a square 
fort of Chestnut Loggs, squared and lapt over each other to the height of 15 foot ; 
it is about 120 feet square, a Log-house in each square, a Gate to the Southward 
and another to the N. ward ; not one port-hole cut in any part of it ; when 
finished they called it Fort la Briske Isle. The indians who came from Canada 
with them, returned very much out of Temper, owing, as it was said among the 
army, to Morang's dogged behaviour and ill usage of them, but they, the Indians, 
said at Oswego, it was owing to the Frenche's misleading of them, by telling 
• liem falsehoods, which they said they had now found out, and left them. As 
^oon as the Fort was finished they marched southward, cutting a waggon Road 
through a fine, level country, twenty-one Miles to the River of Boeff (leaving 
Capt'n Depontency with a hundred Men to garrison the Fort la Briske Isle), 
they fell to work cutting timber boards, etc., for another Fort, while Monsr. 
Morang ordered Monsr. Bite with 50 Men to go to a place called by the Indians 
Ganagarah'hare, on the Banks of Belle Riviere, where the River Boeff empties 
into it. In the meantime Morang had got 3 large Boats or Battoes made to 
carry down the Baggage and provisions, ettc, to said place; Monsr. Bite on 



ERIE COUNTY. 695 

coming to said Indian place was asked what he wanted or intended ; he upon 
answering, it was their Father the Govr. of Canada's intention to build a tra- 
ding house for their and all their Brethren's conveniency, was told by the Indians 
that the Lands were theirs, and they would not have them build upon it ; the 
said Mr. Bite returning met two Englishmen traders, with their horses and 
goods, whom they bound and brought prisoners to Morang, who ordered them 
to Canada in irons ; the said Bite reported to Morang the situation was good, 
but the wate[r] in the River Boeft" too low at that time to carry down any 
Craft with provisions, ettc. A few days after, the Deponent saj^s, that about 
[one] hundred Indians called by the French Loos, came to the Fort La Riviere 
Boeff to see what the French wei'e adoing ; that Mons. Morang treated them 
very kindly, and then asked them to carry down some stores, ettc, to the Belle 
Riviere on horseback for payment, which he immediately advanced them on 
their undertaking to do it ; they sett off with full loads, but never delivered 
them to the French, which incensed them ver}'^ much, being not onl}^ a loss but 
a great disappointment. Morang, a Man of very peevish, choleric disposition, 
meeting with those and other crosses, and finding the season of the year too far 
advanced to build the Third fort, called all his officers together, and told them 
that as he had engaged and firmly promised the Govr. to finish the three 
Forts that season, and not being able to fulfill the same, was both affraid and 
ashamed to return to Canada, being sensible he had now forfeited the Gover- 
nour's favour for ever ; wherefore, rather than live in disgrace, he begged they 
would take him [as he then sat in a carriage made for him, being very sick 
sometime] and seat him in the middle of the Fort, and then set fire to it, and let 
him perish in the flames ; which was rejected by the officers, who, the Deponent 
says, had not the least regard for him, as he had behaved very ill to them all in 
general. The Deponent further saitli that about eight days before he left the 
Fort La Briske Isle, Chev: Le Crake arrived express from Canada, in a birch 
canoe, worked by 10 men, with orders (as the deponent afterwards heard) from 
the Governour Le Cain to Morang to make all the preparation possible again 
the spring of the year, to build then two forts at Chadakoin, one of them by 
Lake Erie, the other at the end of the carrying place at Lake Chadakoin ; which 
carrying place is 15 miles froni one Lake to the other ; the said Chevalier 
brought for Mons. Morang, a cross of St. Louis, which the rest of the officers 
would not allow him to take until the Govr. was acquainted of his conduct 
and behaviour ; the chev: returned immediately to Canada, after which the 
Deponent saith when the Fort la Riviere Boeff was finished [which is built of 
wood stockadoed triangularwise, and has two Logg Houses in the inside] Mons. 
Morang ordered all the party to return to Canada, for the winter season, except 
three hundred men, which he kept to garrison both forts and prepare materials 
ag'st the spring for the building other Forts ; he also sent Jean Coeur, an 
Officer and Interpreter, to stay the winter among the Indians at Ohio, in order 
to prevail with them, not only to allow the building Forts on their Lands, but 
also persuade them if possible to join the French interest against the English. 
The Deponent further saith that on the 28th of October inst. he sett off for 
Canada under the command of Captn. Deman, who had the command of 22 
Battoes with 20 men in each Battoe ; the remainder being TGO men, followed in 



696 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

a few clays, the 30th arrived at Chadakoin where they staid four days, during 
which time Mousr. Peon with 200 men cut a Waggon Road over the carryinc^ 
place from Lake Erie to Lake Chadakoin [Chautauqua] being 15 miles, viewed 
the situation, which proved to their liking, so sett off November 3d for Niagara, 
where we arrived the 6th ; it is a very poor, rotten, old wooden Fort with 25 
men in it ; they talked of rebuilding it next summer. We left 50 men here to 
build Battoes for the Army again the spring, also a Store House for provisions, 
stores, ettc, and staid here two days, then sett off for Canada ; all hands being 
fatigued with rowing all night, ordered to put ashore to breakfast within a mile 
of Oswego Garrison, at which time the Deponent saith, that he with a French- 
man slipt off, and got to the Fort, where they both were concealed until the 
Army passed ; from thence he came here. The Depnt. further saith that besides 
the 300 men with which he went up first under the command of Mons. Babeer 
and the 500 men Morang brought up afterwards, there came at different times 
with stores, ettc, 100 more, which made in all 1,500 men; three hundred of 
which remained to garrison the two Forts, 50 at Niagara, the rest all returned 
to Canada, and talked of going up again this winter, so as to be there the begin- 
ning of April ; they had two 6-pouuders and 7 four-pounders which they intended 
to have placed in the Fort at Ganagarah'hare, which was to have been called the 
Govr's Fort, but as that was not built, they left the guns in the Fort La Riviere 
Boeff, where Morang commands." 

The instructions to General Braddock, before setting out on his fatal expedi- 
tion, were, after reducing Duquesne, to proceed by way of Forts Le Boeuf and 
Presqu'Isle, to Niagara. In a letter from Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey, of 
New York, to Secretary Robinson, dated August 7, 1755, we find that " The 
third method of distressing the French is by the way of Oswego. To go 
thither we pass, as I observed before, through the country of our friendly 
Indians. We pass by water, a much less expensive carriage than by land. 
From Oswego we may go westward by water through the Lake Ontario to 
Niagara. If we become masters of this joass, the French cannot go to reinforce 
or victual their garrisons at Presqu'Isle, Beeve river, or on the Ohio, but with 
great diflticulty and expense, and by a tedious long passage. From the fort at 
Niagara there is a land carriage of about three leagues to the waters above the 
falls, thence we go into the Lake Erie, and so to the fort at Presqu'Isle, and if 
we take that, the French can carry no supplies of provisions nor send men to the 
head of Beeve river, or to the fort DuQuesne, on the Ohio, and of course the 
forts will be abandoned. The same Battoes which carry the ti'ain, provisions, 
ettc, for the army to Oswego may carry them to Niagara, and being transported 
above the falls, the same may carry them to Presqu'Isle, the fort on the south 
side of Lake Erie, so that it will be practicable to bring the expense of such an 
expedition into a moderate compass, far less than the, expense of wagons, horses, 
etc., which are necessary in an expedition by land from Yirginia to the Ohio ; 
besides that, proceeding from Virginia to fort DuQuesne, if it be taken, is only 
cutting off a toe, but taking Niagara and Presqu'-Isle, j^ou lopp off a limb from 
the French, and greatly disable them." 

The New York colonial papers contain a letter addressed to the Marquis de 
Vaudreuil, from which we read, " Presqu'Isle is on Lake Erie, and serves as a 



i 



EBIE COUNTY. 691 

dep6t for all the others on the Ohio ; the effects are next rode to the fort on the 
River an Boeuf, where they are put on board pirogues to run down to . . . 
The Marquis de Vaudreuil must be informed that during the first campaigns on 
the Ohio, a horrible waste and disorder prevailed at the Presqu'Isle and Niagara 
carrying places, which cost the King immense sums. We have remedied all the 
abuses that have come to our knowledge by submitting those portages to compe- 
tition. The first is at forty sous the piece, and the other, which is six leagues 
in extent, at fifty. . . . Hay is very abundant and good at Presqu'Isle. 
'Tis to be observed that the quantity of pirogues constructed at the 
River au Boeuf has exhausted all the large trees in the neighborhood of that 
post ; it is very important to send carpenters there soon to build some plank 
bateaux like those of the English. . . . M. de Yaudreuil has read in 
the letter of Sieur Benoist, the commandant at Presqu'Isle, the dangers the 
people are exposed to by this cursed traffic in brandy, which is maintained and 
protected, and whose source he will soon ascertain." 

Thus we see that the French, with the unceasing activity peculiar to their 
country, had, in the first half of the eighteenth centur}"-, established no less than four 
forts within the present bounds of Pennsylvania — two of them within the borders of 
what is now known as the county of Erie, and known respectively as Presqu'Isle and 
Riviere au Boeuf. From a letter of William Smith, D.D., of Pennsylvania, to a 
friend in London, printed in that city in 1755, I quote: "The French, well 
apprised of this defenceless and disjointed State, and presuming on the 
religious Principles of our ruling People, have, the Year before last, invaded the 
Province, and have actually throe Ports now erected far within the Limits of it. 
Justl}'', therefore, may we presume that, as soon as war is declared, they will take 
Possession of the whole, since they may really be said to have stronger Footing in 
it than we, having three Forts in it supported at Public Expense, and we but one 
Small Fort, supported only by private Gentlemen. 'Tis true our Neighbors, the 
Virginians, have taken the Alarm, and called on our Assistance to repel the com- 
mon Enemy, knowing that if the French hold Footing in Pennsylvania, their 
Turn must come next. In like manner, the several Governors, and ours among the 
rest, have received his Majesty's gracious Orders to raise Money and the armed 
Force of their respective Governments on such an Emergency ; and had these 
orders been complied with last Winter, the French would neither have been able 
to drive the Virginians from the Fort they had begun in the back Parts of Penn- 
sylvania, nor yet to get Possession of one-third Part of the Province, which they 
now have undoubtedly got thro' the Stubborness and Madness of our 
Assemblies." 

The principal employment of the Quakers of the lower counties of Pennsyl- 
vania, at this time, was getting gain, keeping themselves in the offices of trust 
and profit in the Province, and shutting their eyes to the condition of the defence- 
less people in the border counties. With great tact they had pushed the 
Palatines and other Germans into the country just west of their own, and stiil 
beyond them ; close upon the savages, they had placed that hardy and historic 
race, the Scotch-Irish, whose hands were as deft in the use of fire-arms as the 
plough or the loom. The border line of settlements were lighted up with the 
burning cabins of the people, and nearly every household counted its member 



698 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

slain or carried into captivity. The Scotch-Irish appealed in vain to Philadel- 
phia for help of men and arms, but the peaceful Assembly turned a deaf ear to the 
frontiers of their Province, and left the people to battle alone for their homes. 
They were not dismayed, for they had grown with the neglect and persecution of 
the government in their old home, and had still the arms of defence in their 
hands which they had used in the bitter wars of religious persecution beyond 
the sea. 

But Virginia had shown more care of her borders than we, and Robert Din- 
widdle, the Governor of that Province, sent Major George Washington, late in 
1763, with a letter to the commandant of the French forces on the Ohio, desiring 
to be acquainted " by whose Authority and Instructions you have lately marched 
from Canada with an armed Force ; and invaded the King of Gi'eat Britain's Ter- 
ritories," and requiring his peaceable departure. 

Washington, when he arrived at Fort La Riviere au Bccuf on the 11th of Decem- 
ber, remained until the 16th, and returned to Governor Dinwiddle with the answer 
from Le Gardeur de St. Pierre, the commandant whose absence detained Washing- 
ton, in which he said, "I shall transmit your Letter to the Marquis Duquisne. 
His Answer will be a Law to me ; and if he shall order me to communicate it to you. 
Sir, 3'ou may be assured I shall not fail to dispatch it to you forthwith." And so 
the white lilies of France continued to wave over Presqu'Isle. The batteaux 
and canoes of silver birch, laden with French soldiers and their savage allies, 
came from and departed to Montreal with great regularity. At Presqu'Isle, 
after their long and wearisome voyage of six hundred miles, by water, the soldiers 
and the officers, many of them gray-haired veterans, decorated with numerous 
and brilliant orders of distinction, gathered around the elevated cross, while their 
self-denying priests (who were always with them) chanted praises to Him who 
is over all, for protection vouchsafed in the journey past, and supplicating Divi>ne 
favor and assistance to them as they entered the wilderness on their march to La 
Belle Riviere. 

In 1759 Burinol commanded at Presqu'Isle, and had one hundred and 
three men, exclusive of officers, clerks, and priests. During this year the avail- 
able forces were drawn from the Pennsylvania forts for the defence of Niagara, 
which was besieged and taken by Sir William Johnson, who promptly sent word 
to Presqu'Isle, and the other forts, ordering the departure of the French. In 
1760, Major Rodgers, of the English army, took possession of Presqu'Isle, and 
in 1763 a treaty of peace was signed at Paris. In 1763 Pontiac's grand scheme 
of destroying all the English forts was completed, the attack to be made simul- 
taneously upon the 4th of June. Henry L. Harvey, editor of the Erie 06.seruer, 
gives the following account of the attack upon Fort Presqu'Isle : 

" The troops had retired to their quarters to procure their morning repast ; 
some had already finished, and were sauntering about the fortress or the shores 
of the lake. All were joyous, in holiday attire, and dreaming of nought but the 
pleasures ot the occasion. A knocking was heard at the gate, and three Indians 
were announced in hunting garb, desiring an interview with the commander. 
Their tale was soon told ; they said they belonged to a hunting party who had 
started to Niagara with a lot of furs ; that their canoes were bad, and they would 
prefer disposing of them here, if they could do so to advantage, and return 



EEIE COUNTY. 699 

rather than go further ; that their pai'ty were encamped by a small stream west 
of the fort, about a mile, where they had landed the previous night, and where 
they wished the commander to go and examine their peltries, as it was difficult 
to bring them, and they wished to embark from where they were if they did not 
trade. 

" The commander, accompanied by a clerk, left the fort with the Indians, 
charging his lieutenant that none should leave the fort, and none but its inmates 
be admitted until his return. Well would it probably have been had this order 
been obeyed. After the lapse of sufficient time for the captain to have visited 
the encampment of the Indians and return, a party of the latter — variously 
estimated, but probably about one hundred and fifty — advanced toward the fort, 
bearing upon their backs what appeared to be large packs of furs, which they 
informed the lieutenant that the captain had purchased, and ordered to be 
deposited in the fort. The stratagem succeeded, and when the party were all 
within the fort, the work of an instant, threw ofi" the packs and the short cloaks 
which covered their weapons — the whole being fastened by one loop and button 
at the neck. Resistance at this time was useless or ineffectual, and the work of 
death was as rapid as savage strength and weapons could make it. The 
shortened rifles which had been sawed off for the purpose of concealing them 
Under their cloaks and in the packs of furs were once discharged, and of what 
remained the tomahawk and knife wei'e made to do the execution. The history 
of savage war presents not a scene of more heartless or blood-thirst}' vengeance 
than was exhibited on this occasion, and few its equal in horror. The few who 
were taken prisoners in the fort were doomed to the various tortures devised by 
savage ingenuit}'^, until, save two individuals, all who awoke to celebrate that 
day at this fort, had passed away to the eternal world. 

" Of these two, one was a soldier who had gone into the woods near the fort, 
and on his return, observing a party of Indians dragging away some prisoners, 
he escaped, and immediately proceeded to Niagara. The other was a female 
who had taken shelter in a small building below the hill, near the mouth of the 
creek. Here she had remained undiscovered until near night of the fatal day, 
when she was drawn forth, but her life, for some reason, was spared, and she was 
made prisoner, and ultimately ransomed and restored to civilized life. She was 
subsequently married and settled in Canada, where she was living since the 
commencement of the present century. From her statement, and the informa- 
tion she obtained during her captivity, corroborated b^- other sources, this 
account of the massacre is gathered. Others have varied it so far as relates to 
the result, particularly Mr. Thatcher, who, in his Life of Pontiac, says : ' TJie 
officer who commanded at Presqu'Isle defended himself two days, during which 
time the savages are said to have fired his block-house about fifty times, but the 
soldiers extinguished the flames as often. It was then undermined, and a 
train laid for an explosion, when a capitulation was proposed and agreed upon, 
under which a part of the garrison was carried captive to the north-west. The 
officer was afterward given up at Detroit.' He does not, however, give any 
authority for his statements, while most writers concur that all were destroyed. 
The number who escaped from Le Boeuf is variously estimated from three to 
seven. Their escape was efi'ected through a secret or underground passage, 



700 HISTOB Y OF PJENNS YL VANIA. 

having its outlet in the direction of the swamp adjoining Le B(Euf lake. 
Tradition, however, says that of these only one survived to reach a civilized 
settlement." 

So at.lroitly was the whole campaign managed, that nine of the garrisons 
received no notice of the design in time to guard against it, and fall an easy 
conquest to the assailants. These were, besides the three already named, 
Sandusky, Washtenaw, on the Wabash river, St. Joseph's, on Lake Huron, 
Mackinaw, Green Bay, and Miami, on Lake Michigan. Niagara, Pittsburgh, 
Ligonier, and Bedford, were strongly invested, but withstood the attacks until 
relief arrived from the eastern settlements. The scattered settlers in their 
vicinity were generally murdered or forced to repair to the forts. Depredations 
and murders were committed as far east as Carlisle and Reading, and the whole 
country was generally alarmed. 

Colonel Bradstreet, in 1764, at the head of thi-ee thousand men, arrived at 
Presqu'Isle in five days from Niagara. He was on his way to Detroit. Colonel 
Bouquet at the same time was moving westward from Carlisle, by way of Fort 
Pitt, in a parallel line. Both armies were under orders from General Gage. 
Colonel Bouquet tells us that while he was at Fort Loudoun, dispatches came to 
him from Colonel Bradstreet, dated at Presqu'Isle, August 14th, announcing the 
completion of a treaty at that place with the Delawares and Shawanese. Bouquet 
knew the Indian character better than Bradstreet, comprehended at once the 
treacherous plans of the savages, declined to observe Bradstreet's treaty, and 
reported to General Gage that he should push ahead in the execution of his 
work. One of Bradstreet's messengers to Bouquet was killed by the Indians, 
between Presqu'Isle and Fort Pitt, and his head stuck upon a pole beside the 
path. General Gage cordially apjDroved of Bouquet's plans, and notwithstand- 
ing the utter failure of good results from .Bradstreet's operations. Bouquet con- 
quered the Indians everywhere on his route, and far away " in the forks of the 
Muskingum" dictated terms of peace, received a large number of persons who 
had been carried into captivit}^ from Pennsylvania and Virginia, and on his 
return was everywhere hailed as a deliverer by the people, and received the 
hearty thanks and congratulations of " the Representatives of the Freemen of 
the Province of Pennsylvania," and " the Honourable members of his Majesty's 
Council, and of the House of Burgesses for the Colony and Dominion of 
Virginia." 

The Indians everywhere sued for peace and brought in their prisoners and 
promised good conduct in future. Pennsylvania at first had but four miles of 
territory on Lake Erie, which was at the west end of the count}'^, and adjoining 
the State of Ohio. There was much trouble concerning that portion of Erie 
county known as the triangle, until finally the claims of the Six Nations, 
Massachusetts, and New York, became merged in the United States. In March, 
1792, Pennsylvania bought the celebrated triangle for about one hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, giving her near fifty miles of frontage on the lake, 
and more than two hundred thousand acres of additional land, which is now 
embraced in Erie county. 

In April, 1795, the legislature authorized the laying out of a town at Presqu'- 
Isle and at Le Boeuf (Erie and Waterford). The Governor appointed commis- 



EBIE COUNTY. TOl 

sioners to lay out sixteen hundred acres for town lots, and thirty-four hundred 
acres for out-lots at Erie, the town lots to contain about one-third of an acre, 
and the out-lots to contain five acres. In addition, sixty acres were reserved 
for the use of the United States near the entrance of the harbor, for forts, etc. 
Upon completion of the surve3^s, the Governor was authorized to offer at auction 
one-third of all the lots, conditioned upon the building upon the lots within two 
years a house with a stone or brick chimney. 

The Indians still being troublesome, troops were employed to protect the 
survej^ors. Miss Sanford, in her admirable History of Erie County, saj's : 
" Thomas Rees, Esq., for more than half a century a citizen of Erie count}^, 
made a deposition in 1806 as follows : Thomas Rees, of Harbor Creek township, 
in Erie count}', farmer, being sworn according to law, etc. I was appointed 
deputy survej'or of District No. 1, north and west of the rivers Ohio, Allegheny, 
and Connewango creek, now Erie county, in May, 1*192, and opened an office in 
Northumberland county, which was the adjoining. The reason of this was, all 
accounts from the country north and west of the rivers Ohio, Allegheny, and 
Connewango creek, represented it as dangerous to go into that country. In the 
latter part of said year I received three hundred and ninety warrants, the 
property of the Penn Population company, for land situated in the Triangle, 
and entered them the same jear in my book of entries. In 1793 I made an 
attempt to go ; went to the mouth of Buffalo creek to inquire of the Indians 
there whether they would permit me to go into my district to make surveys. 
They refused, and added that if I went into the country I would be killed. At 
the same time I received information from different quarters which prevented 
me from going that year. In 1794 I went into district No. 1, now Erie county, 
and made surveys on the three hundred and ninety warrants mentioned above in 
the Triangle, except one or two for which no lands could be found. Among the 
surveys made on the warrants above mentioned, was that on the warrant in the 
name of John McCullough. Before I had completed I was frequently alarmed 
by hearing of the Indians killing persons on the Allegheny river, in consequence 
of which, as soon as the surveys were completed, I removed from the country 
and went to Franklin, where I was informed that there were a number of Indians 
belonging to the Six Nations going to Le Boeuf to order the troops off that 
ground. I immediately returned to Le Boeuf. The Indians had left that place 
one day before I arrived there. I was told by Major Denny, then commanding 
at that place, that the Indians had brought General Chapin, the Indian agent, 
with them to Le Boeuf; that they were very much displeased, and told him not 
to build a garrison at Presqu'Isle. There were no improvements made, nor any 
person living on any tract of land within m}^ district during the year 1794. 

"In 1795 I went into the country and took a number of men with me. We 
kept in a body, as there appeared to be great danger, and continued so for that 
season. There was no work done of any consequence, nor was any person, to 
my knowledge, residing on any tract within my district. In the course of the 
summer the commissioners came on to la}^ out the town of Erie, with a company 
of men to guard them. There were two persons killed within one mile of 
Presqu'Isle, and others in different parts of the country. Such were the fears 
that though some did occasionally venture out to view the lands, many wou.d 



702 HISTOB Y OF P ENNS YL VANIA. 

not. We all laid under the protection of the troops. I sold, as agent of the 
Penn Population company, during that season, seventy-nine thousand seven 
hundied acres of land, of which seven thousand one hundred and fifty acres were 
a gratuity. The above quantity of land was applied for and sold to two hundred 
persons. That fall we left the country. 

"In the spring of 1796 a considerable number of people came out into the 
country, and numbers went to the farms that they had purchased from the 
Population company. The settlements during this year were very small." 

Captain Martin Strong, ofWaterford, said to William Nicholson, Esq., of 
Erie, " I came to Presqu'Isle the last of July, 1Y95. A few days previous to this, 
a company of United States troops had commenced felling the timber on Garrison 
hill, for the purpose of erecting a stockade garrison ; also a corps of engineei'S 
had arrived, headed by General Ellicot, escorted by a company of Pennsylvania 
militia commanded by Captain John Grubb, to lay out the town of Erie. We 
all were in some degree under martial law, the two Rutleges having been shot a 
few days before (as is reported) by the Indians near the site of the present rail- 
road depot. Thomas Rees, Esq., and Colonel Seth Reed and family (the only 
family in the Triangle) were living in tents and booths of bark, with plenty of 
good refreshment for all itinerants that chose to call, many of whom were drawn 
here from motives of curiosity and speculation. We were then in Allegheny 
county. In 1795 there were but four families residing in what is now Erie 
county. These were the names of Reed, Talmadge, Miles, and Baird. The 
fii'st mill built in the Triangle was at the mouth of Walnut creek ; there were 
two others built about the same time in what is now Erie county ; one by 
William Miles, on the north branch of French creek, now Union ; the other by 
William Culbertson, at the inlet of Conneauttea lake near Edinboro." 

The " two Rutleges " spoken of by Captain Strong were a father and son, 
settlers here, who came from Cumberland county. The father was shot dead. 
The son was badly tomahawked, and was taken to Fort Le Boeuf, Vvhere medical 
aid was afforded, but died seven days thereafter. Persons in captivity at this 
time in Detroit said that these murders were committed b}^ the Wyandotts and 
Pottawatamies, who reported at Detroit that they lay in ambush and watched 
the movement of the troops while building the fort at Presqu'Isle. 

July 25, 1796, the Ilarrisburg and Presqu'Isle company was formed "forth© 
settling, improving, and populating the country near and adjoining to Lake 
Eric." The company consisted of Thomas Forster, John Kcan, Alexander 
Berryhill, Samuel Laird, Richard Swan, John A. Hanna, Robert Harris, Richard 
D'Armond, Samuel Ainsworth, and William Kelso, and each one paid in to the 
company's treasury £200 in specie, save Thomas Forster, who subscribed for 
three shares of £200 each. The agents of the company attended tlie land sales 
at Carlisle upon the 3d and 4th of August, 1796, and purchased a large number 
of lots in Erie, Waterford, and Franklin. The prices ranged from $3 to $260 
per lot ; $3 was paid for lots on 8th street near Parade, and $260 for lot corner 
of 2d and German. Corners on Market square sold' for $152, $70, and $112. 
The price paid for out-lots averaged $50. Robert Harris was elected treasurer, 
and John Kean secretar^^ The purchases at Carlisle amounted to £2,583. 
Thomas Forster was appointed agent of the company, and repaired to Presqu'- 



EEIE COUNTY. 703 

Isle, with power to build mills upon Walnut creek, etc. Thomas Duncan, of 
Carlisle, was called upon for legal advice ; then it was deemed necessary " to 
have a law character engaged in Harrisburg to put the affairs of the company in 
a proper train," and William Wallace of Harrisburg was engaged. The exist- 
ence of this company and its operations so early in our county brought us 
that large and sterling emigration from the county of Dauphin and vicinity. 

In August, 1195, Augustus Porter, Judah Colt, and Joshua Fairbanks, of 
Lewiston, came from the foot of the lake, in a row boat of Captain William Lee, 
to Presqu'Isle, and found survej^ors laying out the village now called Erie, and 
a military company under the command of General Irvine, sent by the Governor 
of the State to protect the surveyors from the Indians. Colonel Seth Reed was 
there with his family, living in a bark house, having just arrived. They report 
having seen Thomas Rees at Erie, who was the agent of the Pennsylvania Popu- 
lation company. These facts we glean from " The Holland Purchase." 

In 1*791 the Mr. Rees before named entertained Louis Phillipe and party for 
some days at Erie. They had much admiration for the beauties of Presqu'Isle 
bay and the lake region. Mr. Rees sent a guide with the party to Canandaigua. 
They visited one of, the Robert Morris family of Philadelphia at Canandaigua, 
and went from thence to Elmira on foot, following the Indian trail for seventy 
miles. Mr. Tower, of that place, fitted up an ark and conveyed the party to 
Harrisburg. 

General Anthony' Wayne, having broken up and defeated the Indian tribes 
in the West, was sent by Government to conclude a treaty with them in 1196. 
This he accomplished, and embarked in a schooner at Detroit for his home in 
Chester county. He was taken ill with his old complaint, the gout, and landed 
at Erie in great physical distress. Dr. John C. Wallace, an army surgeon of 
much skill, was absent at Pittsburgh. An express was started for him in haste, 
but before the arrival of Dr. Wallace, General Wayne was dead. He died in the 
Block-house, December 15, 1196. "Bury me at the foot of the flag-staff, boys," 
he ordered, and his command was obeyed. A stone, marked with his initials, 
was placed over his remains, and a neat railing surrounded his grave. Thirteen 
years later his son came and carried his remains to the family home in Chester 
county. The body was found in a wonderful state of preservation. 

March 12, 1800, the tei-ritory, as it exists to-day, was set off as Erie county, 
and Erie named as the place for holding courts of justice, but it was not 
organized judicially until April, 1803, when Judge Jesse Moore held the first 
court near French and Third streets. 

The county contains 460,800 acres. A ridge running parallel with the lake, 
rising gradually from its banks (which are about fifty feet in height) and 
extending back for ten miles, makes a summit, which divides the water courses. 
The 4, 6, 12, 16, and 20 mile creeks, together with Mill creek. Walnut, Elk, and 
Crooked creeks, flow into Lake Erie, and French and Le Boeuf creeks flow 
southwardly to the Allegheny. North of the ridge the land is warm and 
gravelly, producing wheat, rye, corn, barley, etc., in great luxuriance. Apples 
are abundant and of excellent quality. All the other fruits of the climate abound, 
and grapes, particularly, are abundant and superior in quality and flavor. 

The original townships were sixteen in number, viz., North-east, Harbor 



704 SIS TOBY OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Creek, Mill Creek, Venango, Greenfield, Union, Broken Straw, Conneauttee, 
Waterford, Le Boeuf, Fairview, Springfield, Conneaut, M'Kean, Elk Creek, and 
Beaver Dam. The names of some were subsequently changed. Beaver Dam, 
Broken Straw, and Conneauttee are now unknown, and to the other names men- 
tioned are added Amity, Concord, Wayne, Girard, Washington, Greene, Frank- 
lin, and Summit. Mill Creek is divided into East and West Mill Creek. Settlers 
continued to arrive from New York and New England, but the greater number 
came over the mountains from the lower counties of Pennsylvania. 

The first court house was erected in 1807. This building was destroyed by 
fire in 1823, and with it were destroyed the valuable records and papers of the 
county, a sad loss for the people, and a sore annoyance to our local historians. 
Another building was at once erected similar to the old, and placed in the 
western part of the public square. In 1852 the corner-stone was laid for the 
present court house on West Sixth Street. 

THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE. 

In June, 1812, war was declared by the United States against Great Britain, 
and unusual anxiety was felt at Erie, being unprotected, lying within sight of 
Canada, and easy of access by the lake. In this county, as in other portions of 
the land, there was a strong party opposed to the war, and this opposition was 
manifested by indifference to the preparations made, and expressions of contempt 
for the character of the men sent here to build and organize a fleet for the defence 
of the lakes. Perry was but twenty-seven years old, was a stranger from Rhode 
Island, and arrived in Erie the evening of the 27th March, 1813, in a sleigh, 
having come up on the ice from Buff'alo. It was the good fortune of Perry to 
find a man in charge of the building of the fleet of wonderful energy and executive 
ability, a man thoroughly acquainted with the country and the whole chain of 
lakes. We allude, of course, to Captain Daniel Dobbins, who had come out to 
Erie from what is now known as Bradford county, in 1795. Captain Dobbins, by 
his determined spirit, had successfully overcome the opposition of Lieutenant 
Elliot, of the navy, to the building of the fleet at Erie, and having been appointed 
a sailing master in the nav}', and empowered to commence building the fleet, he 
engaged the master carpenter, cut the first stick of timber with his own hands, 
and with all the discouragement attendant upon the drawing of workmen, 
supplies, and material, from the seaboard and from Pittsburgh, and the trans- 
portation of the same through the wilderness of a new country with horses and 
oxen, he drove the work rapidly forward. 

The diff"erences existing among the people in regard to matters in dispute, 
concerning the battle on Lake Erie, in 1813, are many and apparently insur- 
mountable. In printed books we have the histories of Cooper, Mackenzie, Elliot, 
and others, and without adopting the theory of cither, we prefer to print the 
account furnished by a gentleman of Erie, who has had unexampled facilities for 
information, and writes without prejudice or favor. It is here inserted : 

At the time war was declared with Great Britain, in 1812, the Canadian 
frontier was in advance of us in commerce and agriculture. A goodly portion of 
our supplies of merchandise, particularly groceries, came to us from Montreal. 
In regard to agriculture, the Tory emigration from the United States during the 



II 



ERIE COUNTY. 705 

Revolution, had done good work in this line, assisted by emigration from the old 
country and the Canadian French. 

Then their military posts were well kept up, and having something of a navy 
in the way of several heavily armed vessels, classed by the British Government 
as a " Provincial Navy," and not regular. These vessels also transported passen- 
gers and merchandise. In another point of view, they were well prepared, viz. : 
" They were on the best of terms with the numerous tribes of Indians, not only 
in Canada, but many on this side of the line, as the British government pursued 
a course calculated to attach the Indians to their interests. Their treaties with 
their red brethren were always strictly kept, and no Indian agent was allowed to 
defraud them ; consequently, their supplies were of the best. For one hundred 
years they have had little or no trouble with the Indians, although the British 
possessions are full of them. There the trader was safe at his post in the wilder- 
ness, and the Roman Catholic priest on his mission through their midst. . . . 
On the American side of the line, say from the Black Rock, on the Niagara 
river, to Sault St. Mary's river, the outlet of Lake Superior, things were in a 
poor condition to go to war with our neighbor. ... To show how deficient 
we were in the way of postal communication, the first news of the declaration of 
war along the frontier west of Black Rock, N. Y., was through Canadian dis- 
patches to their several posts. When Mackinaw was taken, the first notice of 
the declaration of war was a heavy force of British and Indians landing upon the 
eastern and uninhabited portion of the island in the night, and capturing the 
post without the firing of a gun " 

In July, 1812, Captain Daniel Dobbins was at Mackinaw, in command of a 
merchant vessel named the Salina, belonging to himself and a merchant of Erie 
named Rufus S. Reed, who was also on board, and was taken at the surrender of 
that post. His vessel and one other of the captured were made cartels to convey 
the prisoners and non-combatants to Cleveland, Ohio. Upon their arrival at 
Detroit, they were taken possession of by General Hull, and again fell into the 
hands of the enemy on the surrender of that post. Captain Dobbins obtained a 
pass, through an old friend in the British army, and accompanied Colonel Lewis 
Cass, who was in charge of wounded prisoners, in boats to Cleveland. He worked 
his way to Erie, and on arrival there, was sent with dispatches to Washington, 
by General Mead, who was there in command of that post, and gave the first in- 
formation of the surrender of Mackinaw and Detroit, at the seat of government. 
A cabinet meeting was held, to whom he gave a full account of matters, including 
the situation of the frontier, and a most suitable point for a naval depot upon 
the upper lakes. He recommended Erie, which was adopted. He was then 
solicited to accept a sailing master's position in the nav}', which he accepted, and 
was at once ordered to Erie, with instructions to immediately commence the con- 
struction of gun boats, which work he speedily began in October following. To 
give some idea of the difficulties encountered in this early work, I will state that 
there were no ship carpenters to be had, although he managed to secure one at 
Black Rock, whom he appointed the master carpenter, the balance being a few 
house carpenters and laborers; other mechanics were equally scarce. The iron 
had to be brought from Pittsburgh, a distance of 150 miles, over the worst of 
roads, and all else of a like character. 
2 u 



706 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Three gunboats were nearly completed, and by orders from Commodore 
Chauncej', through Henry Eckford, who visited Erie on a tour of inspection dur- 
ing the winter, the keels laid for the two large vessels, when Commodore Perry 
arrived in March, 1813, preceded by Noah Brown, the master shipwright, by a 
few days. The task of transporting heavy cannon and other armament from 
Black Rock, including naval stores, on the ice, and over the worst of roads dur- 
ing the spring, and by way of boats as soon as the lake Avas clear of ice, was a 
work calling forth the best energies of Sailing-master Dobbins, who did the most 
of it. Gangs of carpenters, blacksmiths, riggers, and sail-makers, soon arrived 
from Philadelphia and New York, and the work went bravely on. In May the 
gunboats were launched, the Lawrence on or about the 25th of June, and the 
Niagara on the 4th of J uly. Such haste was manifested that the schooner Ariel was 




perry's flag ship " LAWRENCE," 

As she appeared when raised in Misery Bay, Erie Harbor, September 17, 1875. 

[From a Photograph by Viers & Dualap, Erie.] 

built and afloat inside of two weeks. The government had also purchased some 
merchant vessels at Black Rock, all of which Comraodoi'e Perry managed to get 
to Erie, despite the vigilance of the British fleet to intercept them. On the 3d of 
August, the squadron being read}^, moved down to the bar at the entrance of the 
bay. Then commenced the heavy work of getting the heavy vessels over into 
deep water, which was done with large scows, called camels, to lift them. By the 
evening of the 5th they were all over, and re-armed, the guns of the larger vessels 
having been removed to lighten them. The British fleet frequently showed them- 
selves in the olflng, which made the task more hazardous, fearing an attack, 
although prepared for such an emergency. 

Perry at once sailed for the Canada coast, to encounter them before they were 
joined by their new and large ship Detroit, then being fitted out at Maiden. Not 
finding them, they having sailed for the head of the lake, he returned to Erie, 
where he was joined by Lieutenant J. D. Elliot, with a draft of officers and men 
from Lake Ontario. On the 12th of August Perry sailed with the squadron for 



EBIE COUNTY. 707 

the head of the lake, in search of the enemy. On the 17th they anchored off 
Sandusky, and were visited by General Harrison and staff, with other officers and 
some Indian chiefs. On the 22d the schooner Ohio, Sailing-master Dobbins, was 
dispatched to Erie for additional armament and stores. On the 23d they sailed 
for Put-in-Bay, and subsequently reconnoitered Maiden to see the condition of 
the enemy, and his disposition to come out and try the result of the fight. While 
at Sandusky, Perry received a reinforcement of one hundred men from General 
Harrison, to serve as marines on board the vessels. Some were lake and river 
men, but most of them were Kentucky militia. 

Much sickness prevailed in the squadron at this time, rendering this reinforce- 
ment the more valuable. The Ohio, having returned to the squadron, was again 
dispatched to Erie on the 6th of September, the supply of meats having become 
unfit for use, and sickness prevailing in consequence. Perry now rendezvoused 
at Put-in-Bay, with look-out vessels watching the movement of the eneni}', until 
the morning of the 10th. 

The evening of the 9th September, 1812, was one of those beautiful autumnal 
nights peculiar to the lake region. The moon was at its full, the gentle land 
breeze was rippling the waters of the beautiful haven, and rustling the leaves of 
the surrounding forest. Occasionally was heard the hum of voices at the camp 
fires on shore, accompanied by the peep of the frogs in Squaw harbor, a small 
inlet on the west side of Put-in-Bay. Heaven appeared to smile upon those here 
gathered for the deadly strife of the succeeding day. The officers were saunter- 
ing around the quarter-deck, enjoying social converse, or canvassing the probable 
result of the coming fight, which they knew must be near at hand. In the circle 
on board the Lawrence, none was more jovial, none more ga}', than the gifted and 
gallant Brooks. Ever noted for his genial spirit, fine social qualities, as well as 
manly beauty, he was a favorite wherever he went, and yet alas, so soon to be 
sacrificed upon the altar of his countrj' ! 

At the other end of the ship, Jack was enjoying himself, seated upon a gun- 
carriage, hatch-combing, or upon the forecastle, cracking jokes, spinning yarns, 
or discussing the prospects of prize-money. Shortly the scene was changed, the 
announcement " eight bells," and the sharp note of the boatswain's call, " All 
hands stand by your hammocks," was followed by the shrill note of the fife and 
tattoo on shore. The " watch below " were soon quietly sleeping in their 
hammocks, dreaming probably of distant dear ones and quiet homes, or mayhap, 
the booming of cannon, slaughter, and carnage were fretting their slumbers. 

Alas 1 many now sleeping so quietly, ere the same hour of the subsequent 
night, would be resting with mangled bodies upon the bottom of Lake Erie, 
wrapped in the same hammocks they Avere now enjoying. As the sun rose on 
the beautiful morning of the 10th of September, " Sail, ho ! " was shouted by the 
look-out at the mast head of the Lawrence. " Where away ?" responded Lieu- 
tenant Forrest, the officer of the deck. " To the northward and westward, in 
the direction of Detroit river," replied the look-out. The news was immediately 
communicated to Perr}', and all were astir on board. Soon the enemy's vessels 
lifted one by one above the horizon until six were counted. Immediately the 
signal " under weigh to get," was flying from the mainmast head of the Lawrence, 
and in half an hour the whole squadron was beating out of the narrow passage. 



708 HISTOBT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

with the wind light at southwest. Rattl^snalce island, lying immediately in 
front, Perry was endeavoring to weather it, and keep the weather gage. Much 
time was taken up in this effort, and Perry, becoming impatient, had given the 
order to bear up and go to the leeward, as he " was determined to fight the 
enemy that day," when the wind shifted suddenly to the southward and east- 
ward, which enabled them to clear the island to windward, and secui*ed the wind 
of the enem}'. 

About this time, 10 a.m., the enemy seeing our squadron clearing the land, 
hove to, in line on the port tack, with their heads to the westward, the two 
squadrons being now about eight miles apart. The American squadron had 
been formed with the Niagara in the van, as it was expected the Queen Charlotte 
would lead the enemy. It was now discovered the enemy's line had been 
formed differently from what had been expected. Perry now ordered the 
Niagara to heave to until the Lawrence came up with her, when Perry held a 
conversation with Captain Brevoort, the acting marine officer of the Niagara, 
who was well acquainted with all the vessels of the enem}^, except the Detroit, 
and gave the names and force of each vessel. 

The line of the enemy had formed as follows, viz. : schooner Chippewa in the 
lead ; next barque Detroit, then brig Queen Charlotte, brig Hunter, schooner 
Lady Prevoet, and sloop Little Belt, in the order named. 

Perry now changed his line, which was the work of only a few moments, 
and arranged it as follows : Lawrence to lead in line with the Detroit, with the 
Scorpion and Ariel on her weather or port-bow — they being good sailors — to act 
as dispatch vessels, and to support any portion of the line, should it be required ; 
the Caledonia next, to meet the Hunter, the Niagara to meet the Queen Char- 
lotte ; the smaller vessels, viz., Somers, Porcupine, Tigress, and Trippe, in line 
as named, to engage as they came up, without naming their particular opponents. 
There was a three-knot breeze at this time, 10:30 a.m., and the line being formed, 
they all bore away for the enemy in gallant style. Perry now brought forth 
his " Battle Burgee " or fighting flag, previously named, and having mustered 
the crew aft, unfolded it, and mounting a gun slide, addressed them : 

" My brave lads, the inscription on this flag is the last words of the late 
gallant Captain Lawrence, after whom this vessel is named ; shall I hoist it?" 
" Aye, aye, sir," was the unanimous response, when away it sped to the main- 
royal mast-head of the Lawrence ; and when the roll was broken, and the folds 
given to the breeze, three hearty cheers went up for the flag, and three more for 
their gallant commander, the spirit of which was taken up by the crews of the 
different vessels, as the flag was descried, and one continuous cheer along the line 
was the response to the motto, " Don't give up the shij^." 

As the ordinary dinner hour would find them in the midst of deadly strife, 
Perry ordered the noon-day grog to be served, when the bread bags and kids were 
produced for a lunch. Perry now visited every portion of his vessel's deck, and 
examined each gun and fixture. For every man he had a pleasant and encourag- 
ing word, the Constitutions, the Newport bo3'S, and the hunting-shirted Ken- 
tuckians, each were kindly and encouraginglj^ greeted. 

For a time a death-like silence prevailed, and the men appeared to be deeply 
absorbed in thought. The lake was smooth, and the gentle breeze wafted the 



EBIE COUNTY. 709 

vessels along without apparent motion. This lasted for an hour and a half, as 
our squadron gradually approached the enemy, steering for the head of their line 
on a course forming an acute angle of fifteen degrees. All necessary arrange- 
ments had been made for the coming strife ; the decks had been sprinkled and 
sanded, to give a good foot-hold when blood began to flow ; and this season of 
stillness was occupied mostly in arranging and the interchanging of friendship's 
offerings in case of death, disposing of their effects among their friends, distant 
and present, and such like kindly offices for the survivors to execute. 

As our vessels moved along and neared the enemy, all eyes were upon them. 
The British vessels at this time presented a fine appearance. Their line was 
compact, hove to with their heads to the westward. They had all been newly 
painted, their sails were new, and their bright red ensigns were tending to the 
breeze — all looking splendidly in the bright September sun. Their appearance 
and movements showed that a seaman and master spirit held them in hand. 

At half-past eleven, a.m., the wind had become very light, though all our lead- 
ing vessels were all up in their stations, viz., within a half cable's length of each 
other, but the gunboats wei'e somewhat distant and scattered. The Trippe, the 
last of the line, was nearly two miles astern. At this moment the mellow sound 
of a bugle was heard from the Detroit, the signal for cheers along their line, and 
which was followed with "Rule Britannia " by their band. Directly a shot from 
one of the Detroit's long guns was thrown at the Lawrence, but fell short, the 
distance being about a mile and a half. Thus the long silence was ended. A few 
minutes later a second shot from the Detroit, which took effect upon the Law- 
rence, and then a fire was opened with all the long heavy guns in their squadron 
upon the Lawrence ; they being in compact order, were within range of that vessel 
and the two schooners. 

Perry now ordered Lieutenant Yarnall to hail the Scorpion and order her to 
commence fire with her heavy gun, which was instantly complied with, and was 
soon followed by a shot from the Ariel. Finding these shots took effect, the 
Lawrence opened with her chase-gun forward, which was followed up by a dis- 
charge from the Caledonia. The long guns of the enemy began to tell heavily 
upon the Lawrence, when Perry brought her by the wind, and tried a broadside 
with the carronades. It was at once discovered they fell short. 

At this moment Elliot ordered the Caledonia to bear up and make room for 
the Niagara to pass to the assistance of the Lawrence. Perry now bore up and 
ran down within half musket shot, when the Lawrence was brought by the wind 
on the port tack, with her main-topsail aback, taking her position abreast of the 
Hunter, and equal distance between the Detroit and the Queen Charlotte. The 
Caledonia having followed the Lawrence, was closely engaged with the Lady 
Prevost, with the Scorpion and the Ariel on the weather bow of the Lawrence, 
using their heavy guns to good advantage. 

The Niagara, however, instead of following the Lawrence into close action, 
kept her wind, with her main-topsail aback, using her two long twelves, being 
completely out of range with the carronades, her broadside battery ; conse- 
quently the battle for a time was mostly the Lawrence, Caledonia, Scorpion, and 
Ariel fighting the whole British squadron, assisted only by the two twelves of 
the Niagara, and the distant random shots from the headmost gunboats. 



710 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

At this juncture, the Queen Charlotte, finding her carronades would not 
reach the Niagara, ordered the Hunter to make room for her to pass and close 
with the Detroit, from which position she could use her short guns to advantage 
upon the Lawrence, which vessel was within range. In this situation the 
Lawrence sustained the fire of these three vessels, as also most of that from the 
others, for over two houi's, and until every gun was dismounted, two-thirds of 
her crew either killed or wounded, and so badly cut up aloft as to be unmanage- 
able. 

The gallant Perry, finding he could do nothing more with the Lawrence, 
ordered the only boat left alongside, and leaving Lieutenant Yarnall in com- 
mand to surrender her to the enemy if necessary, took his " Fighting Burgee " 
under his arm, and pulled for the Niagara, then passing her weather beam, to 
gain the head of the enemy's line. 

In the meantime the enemy, seeing they had rendered the Lawrence hors de 
combat, and in the act of striking her colors, filled away with their heads to the 
westward, cheering along their line, and feeling certain the day would be theirs, 
the while temporarily repairing damages, evidently with the design of getting 
their vessels on the other tack, and gaining the weather gage, or if not that, to 
wear and bring their starboard broadsides, which was comparatively fresh, to 
bear upon our vessels. 

Perry, on reaching the Niagara, was'met at the gangway by Elliot. He was 
somewhat despondent and out of humor at the gunboats not getting up in time. 
Elliot spoke encouragingly, and anticipating Perry's wish, offered to take the 
boat, pull astern, and bring the gunboats up into close action, which proposition 
was thankfully accepted by Perry, when Elliot started immediately on his 
mission. A breeze at this time, half-past two, springing up, both squadrons 
gradually drew ahead, the Lawrence dropping astern and out of the line. By 
apparent consent of both parties, for a few moments, there was a general cessa- 
tion of firing ; and as it would appear, both preparing for the desperate and final 
struggle. Under the freshening breeze the Niagara had obtained a commanding 
position abreast of the Detroit, the Queen Charlotte following immediately in 
the wake of the latter vessel. In the meantime the gunboats, by using every 
exertion, were getting up within good range with their heavy guns, using round 
shot, grape, and canister upon the enemy's two heavy vessels, having been 
ordered by Elliot to cease firing upon the smaller ones, and taking command of 
the Somers, the headmost one, himself. 

At forty-five minutes past two, the gunboats having got well up, the Cale- 
donia in a good position on the Niagara's lee quarter, and all ready for the final 
effort, Perr}^ showed the signal for "close action" from the Niagara ; then, under 
fore-and-aft mainsail, fore-and-main topsails, top-gallant sails, foresail, and jib, 
bore up for the enemy's line under the freshening breeze, reserving his fire until 
close aboard, wore round just before reaching the Detroit, which vessel bore up 
rapidly to prevent being raked. 

The enemj^, in the meantime, having discovered the intention of Perry to 
break through their line, the Queen Charlotte bore up to pass the Detroit to 
leeward, and meet the Niagara broadside on, the Detroit to bearup and follow. 
However, the Queen Charlotte had not taken room enough, and lay becalmed 



ERIE COUNTY. 711 

under the lee of the Detroit, which vessel in paying oft' fell foul of the Queen 
Charlotte. AVhile they were in this predicament, the Niagara came dashing 
down, pouring her starboard broadside into these two entangled vessels, within 
half pistol shot, and her port broadside into the Lady Prevost, which vessel had 
got to the head and leeward of their line, and the Chippewa ; then rounding to 
on the starboard tack under their lee, with her main-topsail to the mast, kept 
throwing her broadsides into them. 

In the meantime, the gunboats and Caledonia were raking them with their 
heavy guns. So fierce was this contest, and the destruction so great on board 
these two vessels particularly, that in fifteen minutes after the Niagara bore up, 
an officer appeared on the tafi"rail of the Queen Charlotte with a white handker- 
chief fastened to a boarding pike, and waved it as a symbol of submission. 
They had struck. The Detroit followed — the hail was passed from vessel to 
vessel, and the firing ceased. 

Two of their smaller vessels, the Little Belt and Chippewa, attempted to 
escape, but were promptly pursued and brought to by the Scorpion and Trippe. 

As soon as the smoke cleared away, the two squadrons were found to be 
intermingled to some extent. The Niagara lay close under the lee of the 
Detroit, Queen Charlotte, and Hunter; the Caledonia, Trippe, and Scorpion, 
near the Niagara — having followed that vessel through the enemy's line — with 
the Lady Prevost and Chippewa at a little distance to the westward and leeward, 
and the Somers, Porcupine, and Tigress abreast of the Hunter. The shattered 
and disabled Lawrence was some distance to the eastward, drifting like an 
abandoned hulk with the wind. 

At this juncture the gallant Perry wrote his laconic notes, so renowned in 
history, to General Harrison and Hon. William Jones, Secretary of the Navy, 
dated on board the Niagara, at four p.m., and dispatched a schooner with them 
to the mouth of Portage river, distant ten or twelve miles. 

And now was to be performed the proud but melancholy duty of taking 
possession of the captured vessels. On board the Detroit, Commodore Barclay 
was found to be severely wounded, and her First Lieutenant Garland, mortally, 
as also Purser Hoffmeister, severely. On board the Queen Charlotte, Captain 
Finnis, the commander, and Lieutenant Gordon of the marines, were killed, with 
First Lieutenant Stokes and Midshipman Foster, wounded. On board the Lady 
Prevost, Lieutenants Buchan and Roulette; and on the Hunter, Lieutenant 
Commandant Brignall and Master's Mate Gateshill were wounded. On the 
Chii)pewa, Master's Mate Campbell, commanding, was wounded. The Little 
Belt had little or no casualties. The Detroit and Queen Charlotte were much 
shattered in their hulls, as also badly cut up aloft, and the Lady Prevost 
had her rudder shot away. The list of killed and wounded on board of each 
vessel was never given to the public, onlj^ in sum total, viz. : forty-one killed 
and ninety-four wounded, as per Commodore Barclay's report to Sir James Yeo. 

In our own fleet, on board the Lawrence, twenty-two were killed and sixty- 
one wounded. John Brooks, lieutenant marines, Henry Laub, midshipman, 
Christian Mayhew, quartermaster, were among the killed ; and John J. Yarnall, 
first lieutenant, Dulaney Forrest, second lieutenant, William N. Tayler, 
sailing master, Samuel Hamilton, purser, Thomas Claxton and Augustus 



7 1 2 R18T0B Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Swartwout, midshipman, etc., etc., were among the wounded. On board the 
Niagara, two were killed, and twenty-five wounded. Among the latter were 
Lieutenant Edwards, Acting-master Webster, Midshipman Cummings. On the 
Caledonia three wounded. On the Somers two wounded. The Ariel had one 
killed, three wounded. The Trippe had one wounded, and on the Somers, Midship- 
man John Clark was killed, as also one landsman. 

The vessels were all anchored and made as secure as circumstances would 
permit ; the wounded of both squadrons cared for to the extent of the surgical 
force, and temporary repairs made upon such of the vessels as were necessary 
upon emergency. 

" The battle o'er, the victor^"- won," Perry returned to the Lawrence. In the 
words of Dr. Parsons, the surgeon of the Lawrence, " it was a time of conflict- 
ing emotions when the commander returned to the ship. The battle was won 

and he was safe Those of us who were spared approached him as 

he came over the ship's side, but the salutation was a silent one — not a word 
could find utterance." 

During the day Perry had worn a round jacket; he now resumed his undress 
uniform to receive the officers of the captured vessels, in tendering their swords. 
Lieutenant O'Keefe, of the Forty-first Regiment, was charged by Commodore 
Barclay with the delivery of his sword. It was said that the lieutenant was in 
full dress, and made a fine appeai'ance on coming aboard the Lawrence. The 
officers picked their way among the wreck and carnage of the deck, and on ap- 
proach, presented their swords to Perry, who, in a bland and low tone, requested 
them " to retain their side arms." Perry then inquired with deep concern in re- 
gard to the condition of Comodore Barclay and the wounded officers, and oflTered 
every assistance within his reach. In the course of the evening, Perry visited 
Barclay on board the Detroit, and tendered him every sympath}', promised to 
assist in procuring an early pax'ole, as Barclay was anxious to return to England 
as soon as possible on account of his health. 

It being deemed inadvisable to try and save the killed, more particularly 

those on boai'd the Lawrence, for burial on shore at nightfall, they were all 

lashed up in their hammocks, with a thirty-two pound shot for a companion, 

and committed to the waters alongside, the Episcopal burial service being read 

over by the chaplain, Thomas Breeze. 

"Thus they sank without a moan, 
Unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown." 

On board the British A^essels the dead had been disposed of, tney naving been 

thrown overboard as they fell and died. 

At 9 A.M. on the morning of the 11th, the combined squadrons having made 

temporary repairs, weighed anchor and stood into Put-in-Bay, where they were 

all anchored again. After safely mooring the vessels, preparations were made 

for the interment of the officers who had fallen in battle. The morning of the 

12th was clear and calm. All arrangements beino; complete, at 10 a.m., the 

colors of both nations being at half-mast, the bodies were lowered into boats, 

and then with measured stroke and funeral dirge, moved in line to the shore, the 

while minute-guns being fired from the shipping. On landing, a procession was 

formed in reversed order, the corpse of the youngest and lowest in rank first, 



ERIE COUNTY. 713 

and so on, alternately American and British, the body of Captain Finnis coming 
last. As soon as the several corpses were taken up by the bearers and moved 
on, the officers fell in line, two Americans and two British, and marched to the 
solemn music of the bands of both squadrons. On reaching the spot where the 
graves were prepared, they were lowered into the earth in the order in which 
they had been borne, and the beautiful and solemn burial service of the Episcopal 
church gone through with by the chaplains of the respective squadrons. 
" Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," the volleys of musketry followed, 
and all was over. 

The Ohio was at anchor in the roadstead at Erie, taking in additional arma- 
ment and stores on the day of the battle, and Sailing-master Dobbins distinctly 
heard the cannonading, wind light at south-west. On the 13th she returned to 
Sandusky, and found the squadron absent. Mr. Dobbins felt certain a battle had 
taken place, and of course was anxious to know the result, as also how to shape 
his future course. Soon a couple of boats were discovered in shore of him, and 
chase was made for them. He succeeded in cutting one off, which proved to be 
American, and from the men on board learned that there had been a battle, but 
no details other than that the Americans were supposed to be victorious, as all 
the vessels had been taken into Put-in-Bay. Mr. Dobbins immediately bore up 
for that place, where he found the squadron at anchor with their prizes. The 
arrival of the Ohio with fresh supplies was a godsend to the sick and wounded, 
which was followed by the arrival of a boat from Cleveland and another from 
Sandusky with vegetables, adding much to the comfort of the afflicted, as also 
the able-bodied. 

In noting the incidents of the battle, I will be as laconic as a statement of 
facts, fully corroborated by impartial testimony and the circumstances, will 
permit. 

Shortly after the victory a spirit of crimination and recrimination sprung up, 
which culminated in a most bitter feud between Perry and Elliot and their 
adherents, and which probably would have resulted in a duel between those 
gentlemen had not Pen-y been ordered to sea, in command of a special expedition 
to Venezuela, composed of the sloop-of- war John Adams and schooner Nonesuch. 
Perry died during the cruise of yellow fever. 

To begin. In the first place, the line with the Niagara in the van was 
changed for manifest reason, as before stated. Much stress has been placed on 
this by some of the friends of Elliot, without cause, as I believe, the vessels 
being a long distance from the enemy at the time. When the Lawrence was first 
brought by the wind to try the carronades, the shot of which were found to fall 
short, the Niagara was in her allotted position, and when the order was given 
" Engage as you come up, each vessel against her opponent," the Niagara did not 
follow the Lawrence when that vessel bore up to further close with the enemy, 
though Elliot had ordered the Caledonia out of her place to make room for the 
Niagara to close up with the Lawrence within the prescribed distance, " half- 
cable's length," but kept her wind, using the two long 12-pounders to advantage, 
having shifted the port gun over to the starboard side. I would ask, was this 
not breaking the lines ? 

The Lawrence was the commanding and leading ship, and it was the duty of 



714 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

the Niagara to follow her and engage the Queen Charlotte, her opponent. The 
excuse " that there was little or no wind " is not admissable. It' there was wind 
enough for the Lawrence to close, there was certainly enough for the Niagara to 
follow. The Caledonia, on the other hand, when ordered to bear up for the 
Niagara to pass, kept on down, in companj' with the Lawrence, and engaged at 
close quarters. The Scorpion and Ariel also bore up with the Lawrence, and 
kept their places on the weather-bow of that vessel. Circumstances show that 
the Niagara must have kept this long-shot position for nearly or quite two hours. 
The Lawrence was closely engaged for over two hours with her main-topsail 
aback, as were also the three heavy vessels of the enemy she was engaged with. 
The last hour she must have been so cut up aloft as to be unmanageable, conse- 
quently she must have remained in nearly the same position. When Perry left 
the Lawrence for the Niagara, the latter vessel was but just passing the Law- 
rence's beam to windward, the distance being variously estimated at from thirty 
yards to a quarter and a half mile ; the Niagara having but a short time before 
filled away in order to reach the head of the enemy's line, they having filled 
away and were standing to the westward on a wind. 

Elliot said, in consultation with Purser Magrath, that he suspected the 
contemplated manoeuvre of the enemy was " to stand to the westward for room 
enough to get their vessels on the starboard tack, thereby securing the weather 
gage," and therefore filled away so that he could keep company with them and 
prevent it. At the same time he concluded that the senior oflScer (Perry) was 
killed, as the Lawrence was silenced, and no signal was made from her. This, as 
to time. I will now show as to position. The Queen Charlotte retained her 
allotted position abreast of the Niagara for some time, and until Finnis found 
that vessel was not disposed to place herself within reach of his 24-pound 
carronades, and being unable to close with her, as she was to windward, ordered 
the Hunter to make room for the Queen Charlotte to pass up to the Detroit, 
and open his battery upon the Lawrence. 

The range of 24 and 32 pound carronades is the same, the only difference 
being the weight of metal thrown. Consequently, if the Queen Charlotte's shot 
would not reach the Niagara, those of the Niagara would not reach the Queen 
Charlotte. However, in the meantime, Elliot was using his long 12's briskly 
as he got out of shot and sent Purser Magrath, with a boat, down to the Law- 
rence for an additional suppl3\ 

Elliot might have excused himself for not immediately closing with the enemy, 
by claiming that Perry was impetuous in rushing into close action with only a 
portion of his force available. In fact, it was claimed by several skillful nautical 
warriors that "no commander ever went into battle in a worse shape, and came 
out of it better." It was the oi^inion of such that Perry should have held off at 
long-shot until his vessels were all up, and then in a compact line have borne up 
and engaged at close quarters — that he should, in some measure, have imitated 
his adversary, whose experience was with squadron as well as single ship engage- 
ments. As some backing to this opinion. Perry had twelve long guns on board 
the leading vessels, with which to battle with the enemy until the gunboats could 
get up. In the meantime the gunboats could be using their long 32, 24, and 18 
guns as they approached within range. But Perry, like all young warriors of the* 



ElilE COUNTY. 715 

right metal, became impatient when the shot of the enemy began to tell upon his 
ship. However such excuse does not exculpate Elliot from remaining aloof, and 
allowing the Lawrence to be cut to pieces by an overwhelming force without 
bearing down to her assistance. 

The gunboats lagging astern may be deemed by some as dilatory. It is well 
known to all nautical men, that fore-and-afters have not the advantage of square 
rigged vessels in light winds, as the latter have their heavy sails aloft, and, besides, 
have more light canvas. The Scorpion and Ariel were fast sailors, and were 
thus enabled to keep up with the larger vessels. For instance, the Trippc, which 
was the last vessel in the line, although quite a good sailor, could not keep her 
place in consequence of the lightness of the wind, but as soon as she got a breeze, 
passed several of the other vessels, and was the first of the boats to close with 
the enemy. 

The trip of Perry from the Lawrence to the Niagara, it appears to me, is not 
properly comprehended, or rather the act is eulogized instead of the motive. " If 
a victory is to be gained, I'll gain it," said Perry, when he left the shattered 
Lawrence. Such was his intention, and therein was the merit. The mere pass- 
ing from vessel to vessel was nothing but what had been frequently done where 
squadrons had been engaged, and which had been done that same day. Elliot 
took the same boat and crew, and twice traversed the entire length of the line, 
then stepping on board the Somers, which vessel he took command of in person. 

It was an error that Perry took his young brother with him on board the 
Niagara. The fact is, when the victorious commodore returned on board the 
Lawrence after the battle, search was made, and the youngster was found quietly 
sleeping in his hammock, being worn out with the excitement and fatigues of the 
day, as also having received a severe slap from a hammock which a shot had 
thrown against him. 

There is some discrepancy in the various accounts as to the sail the Niagara 
was under, and the additional canvas which Perr^^ ordered set after he got on 
board of her. I have the statements of one of the Niagara's main-top men — 
Benjamin Fleming. He says, " When Commodore Perry came on board, we 
were under fore-and-aft mainsail, fore and main topsails, and jib, the courses 
were hauled up and the top-gallant sails furled. When Perry came over the 
side, Elliot met him, and they shook hands. They then had some conversation, 
which I could not hear from the top. Captain Elliot then w^ent over the side 
into the same boat, and pulled astern in the direction of the gunboats. Some 
little time after he left, and when the gunboats had got pretty well up, as we 
were now getting a breeze. Commodore Perry set the signal ' close action,' and 
immediately gave the order, 'Loose top-gallant sails, board the fore-tack, haul 
in the weather-braces, put the helm up, and keep the brig off.' I helped to 
loose the main top-gnllant sail myself. We bore up graduallj^, at first, with the 
wind on our quarter. Just before we got abreast of the Detroit, to the best of 
my memory, we were before the wind — jibed the fore-and-aft mainsail and brailed 
it up at the same time, settled the top-gallant sails, hauled the foresail up, and 
fired our starboard broadside into the Detroit and Queen Charlotte as the}' lay 
foul of each other, and our larboard guns into the Lady Prevost and another 
■schooner, and then coming by the wind on the starboard tack, with our main 



•yie HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

top-sail to the mast, under the lee of the Detroit and Qiieen Charlotte, kept up a 
brisk fire until they struck." 

In regard to the British vessels, it is conceded by all that they were gallantly 
fought, though laboring under several disadvantages, the two most important 
of which were, the loss of the services of the first and second commanding 
officers. Commodore Barclay being severely, and Captain Finnis mortally 
wounded, as also the executive officers of both ships. Lieutenant Garland of the 
Detroit, mortally, and Lieutenant Stokes of the Queen Charlotte, severely 
wounded — both regulars — leaving the command of the Detroit to Lieutenant 
Ingles, and the Queen Charlotte under Lieutenant Irvine, a pi'ovincial ; and then 
the American squadron had the weather-gage. It was also stated by the officers 
of the Detroit that her gun-carriages were imperfect, and some were dismounted 
with the discharge. Their last evident manoeuvre was well conceived, and could 
they. have carried it out, the battle would have at least been prolonged. But 
the sudden, bold, and daring dash of Perry with the Niagara, frustrated and 
confused them. The manceuvre was — when they noticed by the movement of 
the Niagara, that Perry was determined to break through their line — the Queen 
Charlotte was to bear up, pass to the leeward of the Detroit, and meet the 
Niagara, broadside on, as she passed, the Detroit to bear up on the approach of 
the Niagara, and follow. Then as the Niagara and Queen Charlotte passed 
down before the wind, exchanging fires at pistol-shot range, the Detroit to haul 
up, shoot athwart the stern of the Niagara, and give her a raking fire from the 
starboard broadside ; then taking position on the quarter of the Niagara, keep 
up this raking fire, while the latter was engaged with the Queen Charlotte, a 
vessel of equal force — all three going off" before the wind, and separating from 
the smaller vessels of both squadrons. The Queen Charlotte did not bear up in 
time to keep from being becalmed by the sails of the Detroit, and that vessel 
bearing up in haste, to keep from being raked, fell athwart the bow of the Queen 
Charlotte, as the latter vessel lay becalmed under her lee. 

The day after the battle an incident occurred worth relating. Some of the 
British officers inquired, "What has become of the two Indians?" Search was 
made, and they were discovered snugly stowed away in the cable tier. Some 
questions were asked, and in reply they said, "No more come with one armed 
Captain (Barclay) in big canoe — shoot big gun too much." This sort of warfare 
did not suit them. They were evidently taken on board as sharp-shooters, to 
pick off" the officers, and were stationed in the main-top of the Detroit. When 
the bullets began to fiy aloft, they thought they were all aimed at them, and 
hastily retreated to the deck, where they found it no better, and then to the hold. 
I think they were sent to Maiden with some paroled British officers who had 
families there. 

As the Lawrence was so much injured that she would require extensive 
repairs to make her fit for service. Commodore Perry transferred his pennant to 
the Ariel, and made her the flag-ship for the time being. The Lawrence was 
repaired temporarily, converted into a hospital ship, and dispatched to Erie, 
under the command of Lieutenant Yarnall, with the badly wounded of both 
squadrons. The chief medical officers were Dr. Parsons, of the American, and 
Dr. Kennedy, of the British fleet. The Lawrence arrived at Erie on the 23d, 



EBIE COUNTY. 717 

having lost but two of the invalids on the passage. All the prisoners able to 
march were landed at Sandusky, and sent to Chillicothe, under the supervision 
of General Harrison. Commodore Barclay and other wounded British officers 
remained on board the Detroit and Queen Charlotte, which vessels were safely 
moored in Put-in-Bay for the time. It has been claimed by the Perry men that 
the conduct of Elliot in not hastening to the rescue of the Lawrence manifested 
cowardice. Now, it should be borne in mind that the previous and subsequent 
conduct of Elliot, both on Ontario and Erie, as also in volunteering to bring up 
the gun-boats, does not manifest cowardice. The writer was told by an admiral 
of our navy that " it was a mistake in regard to Elliot being a coward." I will 
give his language as near as may be. " I made a cruise with Elliot some years 
since, and think I know him like a book ; cowardice is the last sin that could 
be laid at the door of old Jesse. He was somewhat egotistical and austere, yet 
a good officer and a thorough seaman. He was no coward, I assure you." 

Commodore Perry stated in a letter to Captain Elliot, 19th September, at 
Put-in-Bay, in answer to a note from the latter of the previous day : . . . 
" I am indignant that any report should be in circulation prejudicial to your 
character, as respects the action of the 10th inst. It affords me pleasure that I 
have it in my power to assui'e you that the conduct of yourself, officers, and 
crew was such as to meet vay warmest approbation. I consider the circumstan- 
ces of your volunteering to bring the smaller vessels into close action as contri- 
buting largely to our victory. I shall ever believe it a premeditated plan of the 
enemy to disable our commanding vessel by bringing all their force to bear upon 
her ; and I am satisfied, had they not pursued this course, the engagement would 
not have lasted thirty minutes. I have no doubt if the Charlotte had not mad{ 
sail and engaged the Lawrence, the Niagara would have taken her in twenty 
minutes." 

This showed at least Commodore Perry's kindness of heart. "There was 
glory enough for all," said he, and particularly requested the officers to refrain 
from making remarks in any way prejudicial to the character and conduct of 
Captain Elliot. A joint letter of all the officers of the Niagara gives great 
credit to Captain Elliot for his meritorious conduct throughout the action. 
These letters are not without weight. They are given on the honor of brave 
and honorable men, and it is not for a moment to be supposed that they 
would shield cowardice and treachery on the part of their commander. 

After all, it is a mooted question. We know the Niagara did not bear up 
and engage the Queen Charlotte at close quarters, and by so doing keep the 
weight of her fire from the Lawrence. Again, when Elliot saw the Lawrence 
was silenced and no signal shown, he presumed the "commanding officer was 
killed," and filled away for the head of the British line, no doubt with the inten- 
tion of assuming command. 

Commodore Perry having received dispatches from the Navy department 
that he had been promoted, and giving him a leave of absence to visit his family, 
sailed with the schooner Ariel for Erie. General Harrison and General Gaines 
accompanied him. On their way they stopped at Put-in-Bay, where Commodore 
Barclay was, on board the Detroit. Finding him able to travel, he and his 
surgeon accompanied them. On their arrival at Erie, October 22d, the rejoicing 



718 RISTOB Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

of the citizens was unbounded, as this was the place from which Perry sailed, 
and now he returned a conquering hero. 

In regard to the force of men in each squadron, that of the British could 
be justly computed at five hundred, all fresh and in health, while that of the 
American could not be estimated at more than four hundred available men, as 
one hundred and sixteen were on the sick list the morning of the battle. Of 
these about one hundred in all had been obtained from the Pennsylvania militia 
at Erie. They were enlisted as landsmen or marines. Of this number was the 
unfortunate James Bird, of whom there has been so much said and sung. 
Although Bird had behaved gallantly during the battle, yet he commited crimes 
which were considered unpardonable by the government, and was executed at 
Erie, in October, 1814, although an effort was made by the officer in command, 
and the court that tried him, to get his sentence commuted. 

Jesse D. Elliot succeeded Perry as commanding officer of the naval station 
at Erie, and in succession was followed by Arthur Sinclair, Daniel S. Dexter, 
DaA'id Deacon, and George Budd. In 1825 it ceased to be a naval station. It 
has been for many years, and is still, the home of a revenue vessel. The present 
one is of iron, a steamer, and commanded by Captain Douglas Ottinger. About 
1842, a United States naval steamer of iron was built here, named the Michigan, 
and Erie has always been her home. 

During the summer of 1875 the hull of Perry's flag ship, the Lawrence, was 
raised from the bottom of Presqu'Isle bay, and numerous battle relics were 
found therein. 

Erie county was fully represented in the army and the navy during the war of 
the rebellion. April 21st, 1861, Captain John W. McLane issued a call for 
volunteers, and in four days twelve hundred men had hurried to camp at Erie. 
McLane was chosen colonel, and ordered to accept but ten companies of eighty 
men each. They reached Camp Wright, Pittsburgh, 29th April. They returned 
home at the time of the receipt of the news of the battle of Bull Run. Colonel 
McLane proceeded to organize another regiment, which was known as the 
Eighty-third. They were mustered out of the service about July 1st, 1865, at 
Harrisburg. The Erie count}' companies were C, D, E, I, K. 

The 111th regiment was organized at Erie in the fall of 1861, by M. Schlau- 
decker, who went with the regiment as colonel. It was mustered out, July 19th, 
1865. The 145th regiment was organized at Eric in September, 1861, Iliram L. 
Brown, of Erie, colonel, and were mustered out 31st May, 1865. Companies A, 
B, C, D, I, K were recruited in Erie county. A battery of artillery was put 
in the service from Erie county by the liberality of William L. Scott, Esq. 
The county also sent a company of cavalry, and many hundred men, who enlist- 
ed for the navy at the naval station in Erie. 

The census returns for 1870 showed a population of 59,655 in Erie count}^ 
The city of Erie had a population of 19,646 ; the city of Corry, 6,809. In 1874 
Erie city numbered 27,000. The Erie canal, from Erie to Beaver, was opened 
December, 1844. The first train of cars came into Erie, from the east, January, 
1852. Tlie same year the city was connected by rail with the west. In Novem- 
ber, 1853, the gauge of the road to the New York State line was changed to con- 
form with the road westward from Erie, and was the occasion of bitter 



ERIE COUNTY. Y19 

controversy among the people, which permeated all classes of society. The 
Philadelphia and Erie road was finished in 1864. The Atlantic and Great 
Western road passes through the city of Corry. 

The harbor of Erie has long been known as one of the best on the northern 
lakes, and government has repeatedly recognized the fact in the reports of its 
officers and in its liberal appropriations for its preservation and improvement. It 
has erected three light-houses at Erie, one on the main land, near the eastern end, 
one at the channel or entrance from the lake to Presqu'Isle bay, and the third on 
the north side of the peninsula. The harbor is about five miles in length, by one in 
breadth, the peninsula or island starting, so to speak, from the main land at the west 
end, and running out into the lake about a mile, and then running parallel with the 
main shore, in an easterly direction, four or five miles. The island is from one 
half to one mile in width, and is covered with timber, and belongs to and is pro- 
tected by government. When the French first came to Erie they found Indians 
fishing in Presqu'Isle bay, and from that time until the present it has been a 
noted fishing ground. Great quantities of Mackinaw trout, white fish, black bass, 
etc., etc., are sent every 3^ear from Erie to all parts of the adjacent country. The 
trade of the port is immense, and consists in part of coal, iron, lumber, petroleum, 
etc., etc. The Philadelphia and Erie, and the Pittsburgh and Erie railroads have 
branches extending to their extensive docks at the harbor; and here, in season, 
may be seen vast fleets of vessels discharging iron ore from Lake Superior for 
the Pennsylvania furnaces, and lumber from Canada and Michigan, and freight- 
ing back with anthracite and bituminous coal from Pennsylvania mines, to all the 
ports on the western waters. A magnificent line of iron propellers, owned by the 
Pennsylvania company, leave their docks regularly for all the principal ports on 
the western lakes, carrying many passengers, and vast amounts of machinery and 
mannfLictured articles, the products of the skill of the mechanics and manufac- 
turers of Erie. Within a few years the price of real estate has greatly advanced 
in Erie, owing to her extraordinar}' increase in manufactures, a simple enumera- 
tion of which our limited space precludes. The Pennsylvania compan}' own and 
operate two first-class grain elevators of great capacity. There is also a dry dock 
and ship-yard at the harbor. , 

The bay is a place of great resort in the summer season, and abounds in 
pleasure boats and 3'achts of sail and steam, and parties are every hour in the 
day passing and repassing from the island, from the groves of Massassauga 
Point, the wreck of Perry's ship, the Lawrence, and other points of interest. 
The buildings of the citj', both public and private, are stately and elegant, 
among which may be mentioned the custom-house of white marble ; the Reed 
House, which has thrice been destroyed by fire and as often re-bnilt ; Scott's 
block, which has no superior in anj^ western city ; the court house, the marine 
hospital, St. Paul's Episcopal and Central Presbyterian churches, which are of 
stone; the First Presbyterian church, the German Cathedral, the Opera house, 
etc., etc. The churches are some twenty-five in number. Erie has two fine 
parks in the centre of the city, known as Perry and Wayne. They are orna- 
mented with maple and elm trees of about thirty-five years' growth. A hand- 
some fountain stands in the centre of each park. In the west purk, and near 
State street, there was erected, in the fall of 1873, a monument to the memory of 



720 



HIS TOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



the brave soldiers and sailors of the county who died in defending the union of 
the States, The Erie Dispatch gives the following description of the same : 
"The monument in the west park, ei-ected by the voluntary contributions of the 
people of Erie county, in memory of our departed heroes, was completed on 
Saturday. It consists of a granite base, on the top of which stand bronze 
statues of a soldier and sailor united in defence of the flag. The soldier wears 
a regulation cap and overcoat, and with his right hand grasps the flag, while a 
rifle in the left trails along his side. The sailor wears the low cap, loose shirt, 
"and baggy trowsers of the navy; his left foot presses a coil of rope, and both of 

his hands rest on a cut- 
lass. Each figure is one 
and a half times the size 
of life, and they are quite 
fair representations of 
the two classes of our 
country's defenders in 
the late war. On the 
east and west side of 
the pedestal are inscrip- 
tions — the first stating 
the object of the monu- 
ment, and the other 
being an extract from 
Lincoln's speech at Get- 
tysburg. The monument 
cost about ten thousand 
dollars, and is the most 
show}'^ for its purpose in 
the western part of the 
State. For this tribute 
to our dead soldiers we 
are indebted to the perseverance and patriotism of Mrs. Isaac Moorhead, Miss 
Helen Ball, and Miss Sarah Reed. They have labored incessantly for a num- 
ber of years to raise the needed amount, and deserve to have their services kindly 
remembered." 

Erie is well supplied with educational facilities. The Erie Academy, early 
endowed by the State, and in which many of her most prominent citizens 
received their education, and numei'ous fine buildings used by the common 
schools of the city. 

The city is well lighted with gas, and supplied with water in inexhaustible 
quantities from the baj^, by the Erie water works. The Erie cemeterj^ has 
seventy acres of wooded ground, in the south part of the city, and is a beaudful 
and quiet resting place for the dead. It was incorporated in 1850. The Young 
Men's Christian Association have a reading-room, which is free, and a fine library. 
There is a home for the friendless, supported by contributions from the public, and 
occupying elegant buildings and grounds donated by Hon. M. B. Lowry ; and the 
Roman Catholics have an orphan asylum, a Sisters' school, and an academy. 




SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' MONUMENT, ERIE. 
[From a Photograph by Wilber & Bassett, Erie.] 



EBIE COUNTY. 721 

Many of the streets of the city, which are all at right angles, are well paved with 
Medina stone and Nicholson pavement. Street cars run from the lake to Federal 
Hill, a distance of two miles. The geographical location of Erie, its proximity to 
coal, iron, lumber, and petroleum — the extended railroad connections, unbounded 
water communication, and consequent cheapness of freights, tne thorough drain- 
age of the city, and above all, the healthfuluess of the region, all combine to 
make a future of great promise to this peculiarly favored city. Many of th* 
business establishments and dwellings are lighted and heated by the natural gas 
springs which are abundant in and about the city. They were discovered many 
years since in boring for oil, and although but little oil was found, yet an abund- 
ance of the more valuable gas was discovered in the bowels of the earth, to the 
great advantage of the adventurers. Many of our manufacturing establishments 
drive their engines, in whole or in part, with this comparatively inexpensive fuel. 
We turn a small wheel, and drive our machinery, heat and light our buildings, 
and cook our food, as the result. 

North East toWnship and borough are on the Lake Shore railroad. The 
township adjoins the lake and the New York line. The land is good and pecu- 
liarly adapted to the growth of the grape and small fruits, as are all the town- 
ships on the lake thore. The borough has a population of about two thousand 
eight hundred, and is growing more rapidly than any other borough of the county. 
The seminary is a large and handsome building of brick, and is in a flourishing 
condition. The place is well supplied with churches and banks. A fine ceme- 
terj"^ in wood land is situate at the western end of the village. There are exten- 
sive industrial establishments located here. The South Shore wine company 
have between one and two hundred acres in grapes, and man}' thousands of gal- 
lons of wine are annually made. 

GiRARD township and borough are also on the Lake Shore railroad. The 
township adjoins Springfield and Lake Erie. It was named for Stephen Girard, 
who had large landed possessions in its limits. The borough is finely situated. 
It has an academy, several churches, numerous very tasty grounds and residences. 
There is a monument of white marble in a prominent street of the village erected 
by Dan Rice to the memory of the Erie county volunteers in the civil war. Lock- 
port borougli is in this township, and is a place of considerable manufacturing 
business and trade. 

The City of Corry, in the south part of the county, and in Wayne township, 
was not incorporated until 18GG. It is at the junction of the Atlantic and Great 
Western, Philadelphia and Erie, Oil Creek and Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh 
railroads. There is no beauty of location, and the placeuiaturally grew because 
of railroad crossings and proximity to the oil wells. Fifteen years ago it was 
a ragged and tangled forest of hill and swamp. It was named for a farmer living 
in the locality. It has a population of about eight thousand. The oil works and 
refining facilities of Corr}^ are upon a grand scale, and embrace the manufacture 
on the premises of everything connected with the carrying, refining, barreling, and 
packing of oil. 

Union township and U-\ion City is at the junction of the Philadelphia and 
Erie, Atlantic and Great Western, and Union and Titusville railroads. Union 
City is a stirring and active borough. 
2 V 



722 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Wattsburg borough is in Venango township and on French creek. The 
water power is good, and the village contains several manufacturing establish- 
ments. Two miles from Wattsburg is the ruins of old Middlebrook Presbyte- 
rian church. It is of logs, was built in 1801, and the first church building 
erected in Erie count3% 

Waterford township and borough was formerly known as Fort Le 
Boeuf, and the condition of the place in early times has been spoken of in 
this article. Waterford is situated on the Philadelphia and Erie railroad, and 
immediately adjacent to Le Boeuf creek and a little lake of the same name. It 
is an old borough, was laid out in 1'795, and was settled by the hardy Scotch- 
Irish race from the Susquehanna valley. It has been rather noted for the early 
culture and courtesy of its people. Michael Hare died here in 1843. He was 
more than one hundred and fifteen years old, was in the French and Indian war, 
and with Braddock at his defeat. He had been scalped by the Indians in some 
fight in the West near the close of the century. Prior to 1820, Waterford was 
busy in the salt trade, which was wagoned from Erie and put in the Le Boeuf 
warehouses and thence taken down the river in broadhorns and batteaux. Erie 
count)'' did herself credit in honoring many of the citizens of Waterford with 
places of trust. Of judges we have had from Waterford two-of the name Vin- 
cent, Judge Smith, Judge Hutchins, and Judge Benson. The Kings have filled 
important county offices, and Judges John P. Vincent, Wilson Smith, and 
Samuel Hutchins, have represented us in the Legislature. The Waterford aca- 
demy was organized about 1820, and was endowed by the State. The existence 
of this institution explains in a measure the prominence of Waterford men in our 
city and county. General Strong Vincent, who fell gloriously at the head of his 
brigade at Gettysburg, was a native of Waterford. 

Washington township is east of Waterford, and adjoining Crawford county. 
The chief village is Edinboro, which has a State Normal school in flourishing 
CQndition. It was settled very early, and was known by the name given to the 
beautiful lake upon its borders " Conneauttee." 

M'Kean township is north of and adjoining Washington. Among the early 
settlers were the Sterretts from Cumberland and Fayette counties, and the 
Dunns from Ireland. 

Mill Creek township adjoins the city of Erie, and lies upon the lake shore, 
and is divided into East and West Mill Cx'eek. The Reeds, Russells, McNairs, 
Caugheys, McCrearj^s, Grubbs, Nicholsons, McClellands, Saltsmans, Browns, 
Riblets, Weiss', Millers, etc., were among the first settlers. Their names indi- 
cate their origin. It is a township rich in good farms and good men. Captain 
N. W. Russell, the able county historian, is a resident of Belle Valley, a 
pleasant village in this township. Future generations of our people will honor 
his memory, for the exertions made and unpaid labor he has expended in saving 
from destruction countless historical details of every town in the county. 

Harbor Creek joins Mill Creek on the east, and lies upon the lake shore. 
The Prindles, Elliots, Moorheads, Jacks, Aliens, Backus', Hintons, etc., were 
some of the early settlers. We have from Miss Sanford's history the record of 
the first Sabbath school in the county. It was established in a log school-house, 
at Moorheadville, in 1817, by Colonel James M. Moorhead and Rev. Mr. Morton 



EBIE COUNTY. 723 

Fairview township and borough joins Mill Creek on the west. It is one of 
the best townships of land in the county. Among the early settlers were the 
McCrearys, Moorheads, Caugheys, Arbuckles, Reeds, Sturgeons, Eatons, Swans, 
Yances, Ryans, Farges, Baers, etc. It was almost wholly settled from Dauphin 
and Lancaster counties. The first pastor to settle here was the Rev. Johnston 
Eaton, from Franklin county, and his was the first church. It belonged to the 
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, and was situate near the present village of Manches- 
ter, near the mouth of Walnut creek, and within sight of the waters of Lake 
Erie. It was built of hewn logs, about 1807, and was the mother church of all 
in this region. Fairview borough, Swanville, and Manchester are all with- 
in the township of Fairview. 

Springfield township was one of the original townships of the gounty — is 
celebrated for its first-class farms. It joins the Ohio line on the west, and Lake 
Erie on the north. The Lake Shore railroad passes through the township. The 
Millers, Rees', Hollidays, Eagleys, and Dunns were among the early settlers. 
East and West Springfield are its villages. It contains a moral, intelligent, 
and enterprising population, and is noted for its tasty and substantial homes and 
surroundings. 

CoNNEAUT township occupies the south-west corner of the county. The Pitts- 
burgli and Erie railroad passes through the eastern portion of the township. It 
was earl}' settled, many of its inhabitants coming from New York and the Eastern 
States. The borough of Albion is in this township. 

Elk Creek township joins Conneaut on the east. It was settled chiefly by 
eastern people. Wellsburg borough and Cranesnille are villages in this town- 
ship. The Cranes and tlie Coltons were among the early settlers. 

Greenfield township is south of North-East, and joins the New York line. 
It was settled in 1795, by Judah Colt. It attracted much attention early in the 
century, but has not kept pace with the lake townships in growth, not having 
the advantages of soil and situation. 

Amity township is in the south-east portion of the county, south of Venango, 
and is known as a good grazing township. 

Concord township is bounded by Warren and Crawford counties on the east 
and south. The Pittsburgh and Erie railroad passes through the township. 
William Miles and William Cook came into this township as first settlers. 

Franklin township is comparatively new, and was formed from portions of 
M'Kean, Elk Creek, and Washington about 1844. It is chiefly a dairy township. 

Greene and Summit townships were made from what was known as Beaver- 
dam township. The Browns and Phillips were early settlers. The Coovers 
came from the Susquehanna valley in an earh' day; the Grahams about 1802. 
The townships are extensively engaged in the manufacture of cheese. 

Le Bceuf township is south of and adjoining Waterford, and is the only one 
in the county retaining the name of the first occupants, the French. The Pitts- 
burgh and Erie railroad passes through it. The Kings and the Blacks were 
among the early settlers. It contains the best quarries of stone in the count3^ 

Wayne township joins Warren county and New York. It is well watered 
and adapted to the dairy business. The Smiths, Grays, and Kincaids were 
among its first settlers. 



t 



FAYETTE COUNTY. 

IWith acknowledgments to James Veech, Emsworth, Allegheny county. '\ 

AYETTE COUNTY was erected out of Westmoreland, by act of 
Assembly of September 26, 1783, as to the part south-west of the 
Youghiogheny, to which the part north-east of that river was added 
by act of February 11, 1T84. It was named in honor of the distin- 
guished Frenchman who had been so largely instrumental in securing our 
independence. When first began to be settled (116*7), and until March 9, 1111, 
it was within Cumberland county. From that date until March 28, 1113, it w. • 





VIKW OF THE BOROUGH OF BROWNSVILLE. 
[From a Photograph by £. E. Abrams & Co., BroirnsriUe.] 

part of Bedford county ; thence, until its separation as above, it was part of 
Westmoreland. The burning of Hannastown (the old count}^ seat of Westmore- 
land) by the Indians, July 13, 1182, led to the erection of Fayette. Into its 
territory the Indians, except in connection with the French in 1154 and 1155, 
seldom came for mischief. 

The settlement, in 1119 and 1180, of the boundary dispute with Virginia, 
occasioned the formation of Washington out of territory chiefly acquired from^ 
that State. Yii-ginia, as related heretofore, began in 1152 to assert a claim to 
all of south-west Pennsylvania, and actually maintained a divided sway over 
most of it from 1114 to 1180. In 1116 she erected out of what was before 
her West Augusta district, three counties, Monongalia, Yohogania, and Ohio. 

124 



FAYETTE COUNTY. 725 

Fayette was partly in each of the two first named, the line of division over its 
territory being Dunlap's road, of which hereafter. The county seat of Monon- 
galia was for a while on the " plantation " of Theophilus Phillips, near New 
Geneva. Woodbridgetown, by the name of Mifflintown, was laid out for its 
county seat. The county seat of Yohogania was on the west bank of the Monon- 
gahela, near the line of Washington and Allegheu}^, a little above Elizabeth. 

There was really no township division of Fayette territory while it was in 
Cumberland county. It, however, had two justices of the peace, appointed May 
23, 1'770 — Colonel William Crawford and Thomas Gist. The earliest land office 
titles within bear date April 3, 1769. Surveys began August 22, 1769. In the 
residue of that year, 1770, official surveys were made within its limits. In 1770, 
eighty ; in 1771, twelve; in 1772, fourteen; in 1773, eleven ; in 1774, seven ; in 
1775, two. Then none until 1782 and 1783, in each of which there were three. 
Then none until 1784, when there were twenty ; in 1785, two hundred and fifty- 
eight ; in 1786, one hundred and fifty, decreasing in rapid ratio until 1792, after 
which they somewhat increased. Many settlers took up their lands under 
Virginia, she selling them as low as ten shillings per one hundred acres, while 
the Penns sold at five pounds sterling. By the boundary compromise, Pennsyl- 
vania recognized these Virginia titles, if the oldest, being therein governed 
generally by certificates issued by a Virginia commission, which sat to 
adjust land titles in her three western counties, in 1779 and 1780, at Red- 
stone Old Fort (Brownsville), and Cox's fort, which was on Bufialo creek, in 
Donegal township, Washington county. 

While part of Bedford county, so much of Fayette territory as is north- 
west of a straight line from the mouth of Big Redstone to the mouth of Jacob's 
creek (on the Youghiogheny) was part of Rosstrevor township, which included all 
between the rivers below that line. All of the county south-east of that line was 
Tyrone and Spring Hill, except that part lying north-east of the Youghiogheny 
between Chestnut ridge and Laurel hill seems to have been included in Fairfield 
township. Between Tyrone and Spring Hill the line was from the mouth of 
Redstone up (fourteen and one-fifth miles) to where it was crossed by Burd's 
road (at Vance's mill), thence by that road to Gist's (Mt. Braddock), by what is 
still the line of North Union and Franklin and Dunbar. The other bounds of 
Tyrone were Jacob's creek, the line of Fairfield to the Youghiogheny, and along 
the foot of Laurel hill to Gist's. Spring Hill took in the mountain region south- 
east of the Youghiogheny, and reached indefinitely south and west, " as far as 
the Province extended," covering Greene and part of Washington. Upon 
becoming part of Westmoreland, in April, 1773,. Tyrone and Rosstrevor 
remained unaltered. Menallen was formed out of the o^uthern part of Spring 
Hill by a line due east from the mouth of Brown's run to the top of Laurel hill, 
and west " as far as the Province went." And in July, 1783. a few weeks before 
Fayette was erected, Wharton was formed out of all of Spring Hill east of the top 
of Laurel hill to the Youghiogheny river. 

At the first court for Fayette, December, 1783, the then county was divided 
into nine townships, viz. : Washington, Franklin, Menallen, Luzerne, German, 
Spring Hiil, Georges, Union, and Wharton. Their bounds are defined in the 
minutes of that court. The addition to the county, by the, act of 1784, confined 



726 HIS TO n Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Tyrone to all of the county north-east of the Youghiogheny, including the Fair- 
field part. In March, 1184, however, Bullskin was taken from Tyrone. In Decem- 
ber, lt9Y, Redstone was taken from Menallen, and Saltlick from Bullskin ; from 
which also Connellsville township was taken in October, 1822. In 1793, that 
part of Dunbar which is east of Laurel hill was taken from Wharton and added 
to Franklin; and in December, 1198, Dunbar was erected out of Franklin, 
including that part of old Wharton. In November, 1811, Brownsville township 
was taken from Bedstone. Henry Clay was taken from Wharton in January, 
1823 ; Perry from Tyrone, Franklin, and Washington, in March, 1839 ; Jefferson 
from Washington, in June, 1840 ; Nicholson from Spring Hill, Georges, and Ger- 
man, in June, 1845 ; Youghiogheny from Saltlick in December, 1841, but its 
limits changed in December, 1848, when Springfield was erected. Stewart was 
erected out of parts of Wharton, Henry Clay, and Youghiogheny, in November, 
1855, and what was left of Youghiogheny was annexed to Springfield, and like 
its Virginia county namesake, it became a " lost pleiad." Union was divided 
into North and South by the National road, by act of Assembly of March 11, 
1851. Minor alterations have been made in the lines of several of the townships 
since their original formation. 

The first general election ever held within the county limits was at Spark's 
Fort (near Burns' Ford on the Youghiogheny), July 8, 1116, for members of the 
convention to form the Constitution of 1116. Until 11 90, all general elections were 
held only at the court house in Uniontown. At the first election, November, 
1188, for eight members of Congress (general ticket), seventy-nine votes were 
polled. By act of March 3, 1190, the county was divided into four election dis- 
tricts, as follows: 1. Union, Franklin, and Wharton, to vote at courthouse, 
Uniontown ; 2. Spring Hill, German, and Georges, to vote at Nicholas Biffle's, in 
German ; 3. Luzerne, Menallen, and Washington, to vote at Fort Burd (Browns- 
ville) ; 4, Tyrone and Bullskin to vote at Samuel Hicks', in Bullskin. 

Not to notice the old Indian forts, of which there were many in Fayette ter- 
ritory, nor, here. Fort Burd or Fort Necessity, we enumerate as settler's forts, 
for refuge from apprehended Indian aggression, the following: Minter and 
Stevenson's fort, on John Minter's farm, late Ebenezer Moore's, near Pennsville, 
in Tyrone. Cassell's fort, on the old William Goe farm, just above mouth of 
Little Redstone. Gaddis' fort, on Thomas Gaddis' farm, nowBazil Brownfield's, 
in South Union. Pearse's fort, on the Jones land in North Union. Swearin- 
gen's fort, in Spring Hill, near Mount Moriah church. Lucas' fort, on the old 
Brown farm, now William Parshall, in Nicholson township, near frame meeting- 
house. McCoy's fort, in South Union, near W. H. Bailey. Ashcraft's fort, 
on Mrs. Evans Wilson's farm, in Georges township. Morris' fort, in Pres- 
ton county. West Virginia, just outside the line of Wharton township. Fayette 
county, as shown by a map, has in large extent prominent natural boundaries. 

There were many Indian paths which traversed Fayette county as well before 
as after the advent of the white man. The majority of these have become 
entirely effaced, and can be known only from references in early travel and ex- 
ploration. The great Catawba war-path, running north and south, entered the 
county from the south, at the State line, at the mouth of Grassy run, thence 
northward bj' Ashcraft's fort, along by the Diamond Spring, crossing Redstone 



FAYETTE COUNTY. 727 

creek at XJniontown, proceeding by Pearse's fort to Opossum run, down it to the 
Youghiogheny, crossing it where Braddock crossed (Stewart's crossing), thence 
it bore on through Westmoreland and Armstrong counties up the Allegheny to 
the headwaters of the Susquehanna into western New York, the domain of the 
Six Nations. Braddock's road, the most important of all the old roads to 
Fayette and the " early west " was originally an Indian trail from Old Town 
by the mouth of Mill's creek (Cumberland, Md.}, across the mountains to the 
head of the Ohio (Pittsburgh). This was the case also with Colonel Burd's 
rdld, which was in great part originally an Indian trail, from the Great Rock, 
on Laurel hill, where many old roads converged, to the mouth of Redstone. 

The first white settlement made in Fayette county was under the auspices of 
the Ohio Land company, to which reference has already been made. Soon after 
the treaty at Logstown, in 1752, Mr. Gist made a settlement and built a cabin 
on the tract of land since called Mount Braddock, and induced eleven families to 
settle around him on lands presumed to be within the company's grant. His 
dwelling stood a few paces from the elegant mansion of the late Colonel Meason, 
distinguished as an enterprising proprietor of iron works at an early day in 
Fayette county. The Ohio company appears to have erected a storehouse at the 
mouth of Redstone creek, and to have made a small establishment at the Forks 
of the Ohio, but the disturbed state of the frontier prevented them from bring- 
ing any large amount of goods beyond the Allegheny mountains. The French 
war interrupted their operations entirely ; and the company was afterwards, in 
1770-72, merged in a more extensive one, in which Thomas Walpole, Dr. Frank- 
lin, Governor Pownal, and others, were concerned. The Revolution breaking 
out about that time, put an end to both companies, and the title to their lands 
was never perfected. 

Of the subsequent events ti'anspiring in this locality, the journey of Washing- 
ton as messenger of the Virginia governor to the French commandants at Le 
Boeuf, the defeat of Jumonville, followed by the French victories, and subse- 
quently their overthrow, accounts are given elsewhere. Dunbar's camp, and the 
scene of Juraonville's defeat are near the Laurel hill, between the present National 
road and the gorge of the Youghiogheny, about five miles east of Uniontown. 

After the disastrous termination of General Braddock's expedition, Fayette 
county remained a desolate wildeimess unoccupied by civilized men until 1759, 
when Colonel James Burd was sent by Colonel Bouquet, then at Carlisle, to con- 
tinue the cutting of Braddock's road where incomplete, as far as the mouth of 
Redstone creek, the present site of Brownsville. The opening of Colonel Burd's 
road afforded facilities of communication for pioneers, and previous to the Revolu. 
tion, a considerable number were established throughout the county. Colonels 
Crawford, Paul, and Cresap, were among the more distinguished. 

The courts of Monongalia and Yohogania caused several roads to be laid out 
on Fayette territory. The records of those ordered by Monongalia are lost ; 
those by Yohogania are yet in being, but they have long since been abandoned 
or superseded by roads made under authority of Pennsylvania. 

The very first road petition acted upon by the court of Westmoreland, after 
its election, was in April, 1773, b}^ inhabitants of Spring Hill township, west of 
the Monongaheia. for a road from opposite the mouth of Fish-pot run (half-way 






7 28 HISTOB Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

between Ten Mile and Redstone), " to tlio forks of Dunlap's path and General 
Braddock's road on the top of Laurel Hill." A year afterwards, inhabitants of 
Tyrone, Menallen, and Spring Hill, asked for a road " from near Kedstone Old 
Fort to Henry Beeson's Mill, and thence to intersect Braddock's road near the 
forks of Dunlap's road, and said road on the top of Laurel Hill ; " giving as a 
reason that " we, who at present 4ive on the west side of the Monongahela, are 
obliged frequently to carry our corn twenty miles tq the mill of Henry Beeson, 
near Laurel H'U, and in all probability at some seasons of the year will ever have 
to do sol " This mill was a tub mill, between the court house, at Unionto#n, 
and the Don aer tan yard. Its " pit " is yet visible. Old Henry Beeson was a 
blacksmith, and made his customers dig his race, while he made or sharpened 
their plough irons, etc. It was the second mill in the county ; Philip' Shute's 
on Shute's run, being the first. 

From these ancient pack-horse highways we turn to a road of more modern 
and enduring structure, the National or Cumberland road. This once grand 
highway between the east and the west was constructed by the United States, in 
pursuance of a compact with Ohio upon its admission as a State into the Union, 
by which, in consideration that Ohio would not tax lands sold by the United 
States within it for five years after sale, they would apply two per cent, of the 
proceeds of those sales to making a road from the navigable waters emptying 
into the Atlantic, to the Ohio river opposite that State. Hence the National 
road through Zanesville, Columbus, etc. 

The road from Cumberland to Wheeling was undertaken under an act of 
Congress, passed March 29, 1806, the early execution of which was under the 
favorable control of President Jefi"erson until 1809, and of Albert Gallatin, secre- 
tary of the treasury, until 1815. It was projected and constructed on a much 
more grand and expensive scale than the compact required, or than the two-per- 
cent, fund justified. The importance of easy intercourse with the West, in which 
the nation had its great landed interests magnified by incipient secession proclivi 
ties in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Southern Ohio, so alarmingly developed by the 
Burr and Wilkinson " conspiracy " of 1806-7, conduced much, if not chiefly, to 
the magnitude in structure and expenditure upon this great bond of union. 

The commissioners appointed to select the route of the road were Eli Wil- 
liams and Thomas Moore of Maryland, and Joseph Kerr of Ohio. They, in 
1806, readily adopted the route, but not invariably, the precise location of Brad- 
dock's road to Gist's, and thence Burd's road to Brownsville. 

From Cumberland to Brownsville, or rather to Sandy Hollow, the route as to 
the principal points, and the location, subject to minor changes, was determined 
in 1807. This was the eastern division ; thence to Wheeling, the western, some 
of which was not settled until 1817. 

The road, when completed, was opened sixty-six feet — road bed from thirty 
to tliirty-four feet — paved twenty feet wide, eighteen inches deep in the middle 
to twelve inches at the edges. The lower stratum, or bed, was in parts of the 
road a pavement of stone closely set vertically, and in other parts of stone broken 
to go through a seven-inch ring ; all covered six inches with a stratum of stone 
broken Lo go through a three-inch ring. The maximum grade of the eastern 
division was five degrees ; of the western, four and a half. 



FAYETTE COUNTY. 729 

In 1832-35 the road was thoroughly repaired by the United States, and sur- 
rendered to the States through which it passed upon terms the most important 
of which provided for keeping it in repair by tolls. It is a monument of a past 
age ; but like all old monuments it is venerable. It carried thousands of popu- 
lation and millions of wealth into the west ; and more than any other material 
structure in the land, served to harmonize and strengthen, if not to save the 
Union. 

The borough of Union, popularly known as Uniontown, is the capital of the 
county. It is twelve miles distant from Brownsville. The town was laid out 
about the year 1*769, by Henry Beeson, a member of the Society of Friends, who 
emigrated from Berkeley county, Virginia, and settled upon the tract of land now 
occupied by the town, his cabin located at the spot nearVhich formerly stood the 
residence of Mr. Veech. As late as 1794 the place was called Beeson's town. 
The first court house and market house were erected in 1196. In February, 1805, 
the first newspaper was established, called the Genius of Liberty^ which, after the 
lapse of seventy-one years, is still published. Through a long series of years 
Uniontown appears to have been a prosperous inland village. Lying upon the 
great thoroughfare from the east to the west, called in the early day Braddock's 
road, and afterwards the National road, her mercantile interests prospered under 
the demands of the masses of emigi\ation passing through the borough, and the 
wants of the rich agricultural country around her limits. During the time of the 
great stage-coach lines from east to west, upon the National road, the name of 
the town became as a " household word " in the mouth of every traveler, and 
population gathered rapidly within her borders, and caused further increase in 
business and the development of some classes of manufactures. The diverting of 
travel from this route, by stage coach, caused by the various lines of railway, 
occasioned for several years a partial stagnation in the previously bustling place, 
during which, supported by the business derived from her populous and produc- 
tive back country, she held her own with greater success than could have been 
expected under the circumstances. The construction of the Fayette County 
railroad, however, re-linked the town to the busy, bustling world, and business 
has not only regained its olden vigor, but as the terminus of this railroad, the 
borough has become the shipping point of a large and extremely rich mineral and 
agricultural country, as well as a gathering point for travel. This railroad, 
thirteen miles in length, runs through a fine agricultural section of Fayette 
county, connecting with the Pittsburgh and Connellsville railroad at Connells- 
ville, and thence by the various connections of the latter road with all the eastern and 
western cities. It is one of the few railroads in the country whose construction 
has hampered no corporate body with bonds. It was built entirely for cash, at a 
cost of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, raised solely from individual 
subscription. Among the natural curiosities of the neighborhood is Delaney's 
cave, nine miles south-east of the town. The well-known Fayette springs are 
also near, being in Wharton township, eight miles from the borough. Madison 
College, originally established as an academ}^, in 1808, is located here. It became 
a college in 1825, and was incorporated as such in 1827. It took its name from 
President Madison, who gave it a liberal donation. 

Connellsville is situated on the right bank of the Youghiogheny, about 



730 HISTOB Y OF PUNNS YL VANIA. 

fifty miles above its junction witli the Monongahela at McKeesport. The town 
was laid out by Zachariah Connell, in 1790. Its incorporation as a borough was 
in 1806. The first settler in this locality was the unfortunate Colonel William 
Crawford, who was burnt by the Wyandotts, at Sandusky, in 1782. Colonel 
Crawford visited this locality in 1767, and fixed upon the plateau on the left side 
of the river, opposite the lower end of Connellsville, as a site for a settlement, to 
which he removed in 1768, erecting thereon a log cabin. He was one of the 
bravest men on the frontier, and saw much service, not only as a leader of the 
rangers, but as an officer in Forbes' expedition, and as a colonel in the army of 
the Revolution. In 1782 he accepted, much against his wishes, the command of 
the expedition against the Wj'andotts, the result of which we have already 
referred to. Connellsville is situated in the heart of a mineral district, abound- 
ing in the finest iron ores and bituminous coal, and her recent marvelous growth 
is due to this fact. As a manufacturing town Connellsville is an important 
adjunct to that great centre, Pittsburgh, with which it is connected by the 
Pittsburgh and Connellsville railroad. 

Brownsville, a thriving manufacturing town, is situated on the Monon- 
gahela, sixty-three miles, by the river route, above Pittsburgh, at the point 
where the great National road crosses the river. There are three boroughs 
located at this point, and although separately incorporated, they are one com- 
munity in interests. The corporate titles of these are Brownsville, Bridgeport, 
and West Brownsville. The two first lie upon the right bank of the river, in 
Fayette county, divided by a small creek, the latter on the left bank, in Wash- 
ington county. Brownsville first appears in history by the construction of Fort 
Burd, in October, 1759. This fort became more widel}'- known as " Redstone 
Old Fort," from its location ; and in the incidents of Western life and adventure^ 
the latter name is useii as designating Brownsville instead of its proper military 
title. Colonel Burd's fort continued long to be the favorite rendezvous for those 
hardy men who kept watch upon the movements of the Indians inhabiting the 
head-waters of the Ohio. The brave Colonel Michael Cresap made this fort his 
favorite rallying-place for the men under his direction, and at an early day 
secured a Virginia title to several hundred acres, embracing the fortifications, 
by " a tomahawk improvement." Not content with this claim to a location, in 
1770 he built a house of hewn logs, with a nailed shingle roof, which is believed 
to be the first shineled house west of the mountains erected in that section of 
the county. This title he retained for some years, and then disposed of it to 
two brothers by the name of Bi'own, who came from Maryland, one of whom,, 
Thomas, died in 1797, and was buried in the old grave-yard, with the inscription : 
" Here lies the body of Thomas Brown, who was once the owner of this town^ 
who departed this life March, 1797, aged 59 years." Brownsville was laid out 
in 1785. For many years, and really until the completion of the Pennsylvania 
canal, it was a point of much celebrity among emigrants to the Western and 
Southwestern States, where, wearied by their journeying by land, they could 
take water and float down to their destination, and a brisk business was carried 
on, especially in the construction of flat or keel boats. With the building of 
railroads this enterprise passed away. Brownsville had many natural advan- 
tages, and these, its agricultural and mineral resources, continued to increase its 



FAYETTE COtNTY. 



731 




prosperit3\ and it has grown to be one of the most importtint towns in Western 
Pennsylvania. It has many beautiful private residences, and its churches, pic- 
turesquely located, are creditable specimens of architecture. It contains varied 
industrial establishments which, with the large deposits of the finest quality of 
bituminous coal, add to its importance as a manufacturing town. 

New Haven is a thriving borough on the left bank of the Youghioghen}-, 
opposite Connellsville. It was laid out by Colonel Isaac Meason, in 1196. Its 
close proximity to the latter borough, and it sexcellent water-power privileges, 
have added greatl}^ to its prosperity. 

New Geneva is situated on the Monongahela. thirt^'-five miles above 
Brownsville. It is 
especially celebra- 
ted as being the 
residence of Al- 
bert Gallatin, and 
named from his 
native place, Gen- 
eva, in Switzer- 
land, Mr. Gallatin 
purchased his 
plantation in 1785, 
and built a log 
house, which sub- 
sequently gave 
place to a stone residence of albert gallatin. 

structure, yet ^ 'J^AX^^dAJ{J^ fillL , 

standing. New Geneva is noted as the location of the first glass house in 
Western Pennsylvania, which was put into operation by Mr. Gallatin, in con- 
junction with John Nicholson and two Messrs. Kramer, Germans. 

Bellevernon was laid out in 1813 by Noah Speer. It is on the Monon- 
gahela, forty miles above Pittsburgh. The land upon which the town is laid out 
is rich in minerals, partaking of the general characteristics of the surrounding 
country. The top of the hill, on which a portion of.the town is built, is two hun- 
dred and fifteen feet above the river, twenty-two feet below which lies a strata 
of glass sand. At the height of one hundred and thirty feet above the river is 
the base of a bituminous coal strata, between which and the base of the glass 
sand strata lies a fine strata of cannel coal, as also a strata of iron ore from ten 
to fourteen inches. At the height of one hundred and twelve feet there is a 
strata of sandstone, between which and the base of the bituminous coal strata 
lies a strata of limestone. These strata really undoilie the whole neighborhood, 
yet the ease with wdiich these are entered upon from the face of the hill at 
Bellevernon adds importance to the town for manufacturing purposes. It is a 
thriving flourishing place. 

Fayette City, fourteen miles below Brownsville, on the Monongahela, was 
settled in 1794. It was laid out by Colonel Edward Cook, and named Freeport, 
subsequently changed to Cookstown, and by act of incorporation Fayette City. 
It is an enterprising and flourishing town. 



Y32 



HISTOET OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Perryopolis is situated about three-quarters of a mile from the Youghio- 
gheny, and opposite Layton's station, on the Pittsburgh and Connellsville rail- 
road. The tract of land on which it was built was originally patented by 
General Washington, of whom it was purchased by Lewis Scares, who sold it to 
Thomas Hursey. The latter, in connection with Thomas E. Burns, laid out the 
town, and the first lot sold in the spring of 1814, The town contains several 
manufacturing establishments. 

There are a number of other prosperous towns and villages in Fayette, the 
principal of which are Masontown and McClellandtown, in German town- 
ship ; Falls City, on the Youghiogheny ; and Dawson, a station on the Pitts- 
burgh and Connellsville raiload. . 



(I 




OLD PINE STKEET CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 



FOREST COUNTY. 

BY SAMUEL D. IRWIN, TIONESTA. 

HE county of Forest, as first organized for judicial purposes, consisted 
of but four townships, viz., Jenks, Barnett, Millstone, and Tionesta, 
afterwards changed to Howe, and was formed from parts of Jefferson 
and Venango, April 11, 1848. Of this territory, Marion, a small 
village or hamlet, situated about the centre, was made the count}^ seat. It was 





VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF TIONESTA. 



called Blood's Settlement for many years, and was founded by Colonel Blood, 
who cleared up a large farm in the very heart of the wilderness. As to the 
village, there was more in the name than the place; a common frame two-story 
building was, after the judicial organization of the county, pressed into service 
as a court house. That portion of the county to this day is called " Old Forest," 
to distinguish it from tliat territory added by act of Assembly, approved October 
31, 1866, whicli consisted of the townships now known as Tionesta, Kingsley, 

733 



734 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Green, Hickory, and Harmony. This addition gave Forest count}' an area of 
four hundred and forty-five square miles, being just about double its former 
dimensions, and increasing its population more than fourfold. In November, 
1866, the commissioners named in the act, Jacob Ziegler, James A. Leech, and 
Cornelius Fulkerson, ran out the county lines, and made Tionesta the judicial 
seat of the county as reorganized, it being the centre of population, though not 
the geographical centre ; they also selected a site for the county buildings. A 
court house and jail were built within two years. 
p Forest county is traversed by many streams ; the hills along the borders of 
these streams are usually from five hundred to eight hundred feet high; the 
valleys are deep, and often the slopes of the side hills steep and precipitous. 
The Allegheny river enters the county near White Oak schute, and runs from 
thence nearly due south to Tionesta, where it receives Tionesta creek, it then 
takes nearly a west course until it leaves the county limits ; its average width in 
this section is about seven hundred feet. The principal tributaries of the Tion- 
esta are Salmon creek, the Branch, Lamentation, and Blue Jay. 

Large portions of the land of the county are worthless and unfit for cultiva- 
tion, others are adapted to the growth of timber, while the high eleyations are 
excellent for agriculture ; especially is this the case at Neillsburg, Dutch Hill, and 
that portion of Jenks near Marion. This is true also of the alluvial flats along 
the streams, which are generally of unsurpassed fertility. In the oil excitement 
of 1860, many of the best farms went into the hands of oil companies, that 
burned up the fences and made the country look as desolate as if an army had 
marched over it. Valuable farms were, for a while, exposed as commons, thistles 
and bria*rs showing evidence of neglect. Fertile fields, signs of thrift and 
industry, are rapidly annihilating these waste spots. Three-fourths of the 
country remains uncultivated and unsubdued. The hills, though steep and 
useless to the farmer, are clothed with the original forest trees. With regard to 
the mineral resources, little can be said, as naught has yet been done to develop 
them. Bituminous coal has been found in Howe, Jenks, and Kingsley townships. 
Cannel coal also exists. Burr stone, well calculated for mill-stones, is found in 
various parts of the county. Iron ore, in abundant quantities, can be shown in 
almost every township, yet to-day not a forge or furnace exists in the county. 
Beds of good iron ore exist along the hills of Coon creek, and also Little 
Hickory. As early as 1828 a bloomery or small furnace was located at Tionesta, 
but it was a primitive affair, and the metal had to be transported in canoes down 
the river. On the Wentworth place, near Tionesta, and also on the west side of 
the river, beds of potter's clay, of excellent quality, exist. Petroleum exists in 
the county. New oil fields having been discovered in M'Kean county, and there 
being oil in Warren and Venango, Forest county is in the centre of the oil 
basin. Successful, regular paying wells, in the neighborhood of Fagundas, 
in Harmony township, have been in operation since 1870. 

That Moravian apostle to the Indians, Rev. David Zeisberger, was without 
doubt the first white man that ever entered the wilds of Forest county. This was 
in the autumn of 1761. Goschgoschiink had then a history of two years, having 
been founded by Monseys from Machiwihilusing and Tioga, in 1765, and com- 
prising three sti'aggling villages. The middle one, at which Zeisberger arrived. 



6. 2 




735 



736 HISTOBT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

lay on the eastern bank of the Allegheny, near the mouth of the Tionesta. Two 
miles up the river was the upper village, and four miles down, the lower. The 
latter, located on what is now known as Holeman's Flats, went by the general 
name Goschgoschiink, the upper one Lawunakhannek. Barbai'ism had full sweep, 
and their general reputation among the various Indian tribes was bad. Zeisberger 
had been warned by the Senecas not to attempt his visit to Goschgoschiink, but 
as the mission had " resolved upon an exploratory journey, in order to ascertain 
whether anything could then be accomplished for the Saviour," accompanied 
by two Christian Indians as guides through the impenetrable forests, the devoted 
missionary reached his destination on the 16th of October, 1T67, where they were 
entertained by the friends of one of his Indian guides. After resting from the 
fatigues of his journey, religious services were appointed for the evening. The 
Indians flocked together and seated themselves on the ground to hear the great 
teacher from Machwihilusing. The wildest of the Indians were there — sorcerers 
and murderers, and some who had been engaged in a late massacre. It was a 
rough crowd even for Zeisberger to address by the light of the fire. The sub- 
stance of the sermon is set forth in his journal, and is a type of propriety. 
Attention is an Indian virtue, so they were good listeners. He told them in his 
bold style that " the Gospel was made for men, whether white or black or brown," 
and proclaimed with force eternal life. It is said no one knew better how to 
address Indians. He says himself of this scene : " Never yet did I see so clearly 
depicted in the faces of the Indians both the darkness of hell and the world- 
subduing power of the Gospel." The next day all the three villages met. Allemewi, 
a blind chief, was there, and Wangomen, an Indian preacher. Zeisberger preached 
most of the day, and in the evening all went to their homes. He soon saw 
that the innate wickedness of these Monseys had not been overdrawn ; Wan- 
gon^en was full of blasphemy, the 3'oung people were full of excesses, pow-wows, 
and sorceries, and Zeisberger writes, " I have never found such heathenism in any 
other parts of the Indian country. Here Satan has his stronghold — here he sits 
on his throne. Here he is worshipped by true savages, and carries on his work 
in the hearts of the children of darkness." The apostle soon saw he was in a den 
of paganism, and was in danger of being murdered, and after seven days he 
returned to Friedenshiitten. 

The Monseys the next year sent for Zeisberger to come back, and he was a 
missionary during the j'ears 1768-1769. He came back in the latter part of the 
spring, accompanied by Senseman, and on June 30th put up a log cabin at 
Goschgoschiink, twenty-six by sixteen feet. The place had changed. Many of 
the worst Indians had gone, yet still there were sorcerers who juggled and per- 
formed feats of magic. In 1769 the Senecas claimed the land on which the 
mission had been started, and wanted the Monsej's to leave. Soon a mj-sterious 
message came — a string of wampum, a stick painted red, and a bullet, accom- 
panied the message : " Cousins, you that live at Goschgoschiink on the 
Allegheny downward, and 3'ou Shawanese, I have risen from my seat and 
looked around the country. I see a man in a black coat. I warn you avoid the 
man in the black coat ; believe him not ; he will deceive you." A grand coun- 
cil was held. The Indians were divided. The second attempt was made on his 
life. Soon after there was an emigration. 



FOBEST COUNTY. 737 

From there Zeisberger went to Lawanukhannek (or Meeting of the Waters, 
Beaver and Hickory), Forest county, and was there during 1769. Over two 
thousand deer were killed, and some Indians converted. He says in his journal : 
" For ten months I have now lived between these two towns of godless and 
malicious savages, and mj' preservation is wonderful." And here is what he saj^s 
about oil in that same journal: "I have seen three kinds of oil springs, such as 
have an outlet, such as have none, and such as rise from the bottom of the creeks. 
From the first water and oil flow out together, in the second it gathers on the 
surface a finger's depth, and from the third it rises to the surface and flows 
with the current of the creek. The Indians prefer wells without an outlet. It is 
used, medicinall}', for tooth-ache, rheumatism, etc. Sometimes it is taken inter- 
nally. It is of a brown color, and burns well, and can be used in lamps." 

It was on the lYth April, 1770, that the missionary with the converts left 
Lawanukhannek in fifteen canoes. In three days they reached Fort Pitt, and 
subsequently on the Beaver river founded Friedenstadt, whither eventually 
many of the Monseys from Goschgoschiink followed. 

Eli Holeman, father of Hon. Alexander Holeman, was the first permanent 
settler in Forest county. He located on the site of the Indian Goschgoschiink, 
then called by Cornplanter " Cush-cush," now named Holeman's Flats. Shortly 
after Holeman settled, came Moses Hicks, a squatter, who left in a boat in 1805. 
The first pioneer on the east side of the river was John Range, a lieutenant in 
the army of the Revolution, who took up the tract on which Tionesta now 
stands. About 1816 he built on the land, although he had taken out a 
warrant as early as 1785. That place was then called Saqualinget, or " place of 
the council." William Middleton moved on to what is now known as Jamieson 
Flats, and built a large house near the Allegheny, about the 3'ear 1803. He 
afterwards sold to Quinton Jamieson, from Scotland, whose descendants still 
occupy it. Ebenezer Kingsley settled at an early day on Tionesta creek, at 
Newtown Mills. He was from Genesee count}'. New York, came down the 
Allegheu}' on a raft, but stopped by the winter, he located first about three 
miles above Tionesta, at what was called by the settlers. Old Town, the site of an 
Indian village. Kingsley was a man about six feet in height, well proportioned, 
possessing good judgment, j^et lacking education; was kind and hospitable to 
every stranger that came to his cabin. He was a hunter by instinct, training, 
and desire, a regular Pennsylvania " Leatherstocking." His adventures, if 
written, would read like Daniel Boone's, leaving out Indians, and would furnish 
the basis of a romance for the pen of a Cooper. Among the other prominent 
early settlers were : Rev. Hezekiah May, who died in 1843, at Tionesta ; he was 
widely known in this section of the State ; James Hilands and Mark Noble, a 
surveyor, who settled at the mouth of Tionesta creek ; Cyrus Blood, who was 
the first associate judge who lived at what was afterwards called Marion, the 
former county seat ; Poland Hunter, who settled on the west side of the river, 
opposite Tionesta, and who died in 1838, many of whose descendants now reside 
within the limits of the county ; Hicks Prather, who settled at the mouth of 
Hickory creek, on the site of the old Indian town of Lawunakhannek, who, 
like Kingsley, was a mighty hunter; Henry Gates, who came from Lancaster 
county, was the first settler on Tionesta creek ; he died in 1807, at the place he 
2 w 



738 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

fir^t located. Among those who came later was Herman Blume, one of the 
founders of the German settlement on " Dutch Hill," east of Tionesta, a native 
of Hesse Cassel, in Germany. Many of his countrymen followed. They bought 
up lands and formed a prosperous settlement. These German settlers are noted 
for their industr}^, thrift, and economy. 

Tionesta, the county seat, was organized as a borough, April, 1852, while it 
was within the limits of Yenango county. It more than doubled in population 
after it was made the county seat of Forest in 1866. It is a place of considerable 
trade. Hickorytown is an old settlement at the mouth of Hickory creek. 
Newtown mills is a small village commenced about thirty years ago. Ball- 
town, on Tionesta creek, is a small lumber village commenced about 1840. 
Nebraska, on the Tionesta, at the mouth of Coon creek, was formerly called 
Lacytown. It is a small village. Marionville, the old county seat, is a hamlet 
of five or six houses ; it is marked on most of the State maps, yet there never 
were teu families living in it, Neillsburgh, in the extreme north-west corner of 
the county is a thriving village. It is situated in the midst of a fine agricultural sec- 
tion, has two churches, an academy, etc. It was founded by W. T. Neill, about 
1830. Clarington, on the Clarion river, is a large village. 

ICCiONESTA township was in Allegheny township until June, 1825, and as Judge 
John A. Dale quaintly remarks, " was then supposed to embrace all the civilized 
world as far east as Balltown, in then Jefferson county, a distance of some twenty- 
five miles." Hickory was organized for township purposes in April, 1848, 
out of a part of Tionesta. Kingsley was organized in the fall of 1848, out of 
Tionesta. Harmony was formed out of that part of Hickory, in 1852, that lay 
on the west side of the river Allegheny. Green was organized out of parts of 
Tionesta and Hickor}^, February 28, 18Y2. Barnett was made a township 
January 8, 1854. Howe township was called Tionesta originallj'' in 1852, and 
the name was changed to Howe by the Court of Quarter Sessions in 1869. 
Jenks township was erected January, 1852. The last three were originally 
taken from Jefi"erson county. 





P^.-Sf 





FEANKLIN COUNTY. 

BY BENJAMIN M. NEAD, CHAMBERSBURQ. 

N the 27th of January, 1759, Lancaster county was divided by act of 
Assembly, and the southern division thereof erected into a new 
county, to which the name of " Cumberland " was given, with the 
town of Carlisle as the seat of justice. For a quarter of a century the 
county of Cumberland thus constituted, remained intact, when the wants of the 
steadily thriving " dwellers on Conococheague," the inhabitants of the south- 
western portion of Cumberland, led them to petition the General Assembly' of 
1784 that their territory might be named a new county, with concomitant privi- 
leges, setting forth in glowing terms the hardships they were compelled to 
endure in traveling the long distance from their homes to the seat of justice in 
Carlisle ; the trouble they had in collecting their debts ; and, the license given to 
" felons and misdoers " by the difficulties in the way of conveying them and their 
accusers to the seat of justice. In compliance therewith, the General Assembly, 
on the 9th of Sept., 1784, passed an act allowing certain the southern and 
western portions of Cumberland, marked by the following metes and bounds, to 
be erected into a new county, to be named " Franklin," in honor of Benjamin 
Franklin : "Beghming on York county line in the South mountain, at the inter- 
section of the line between Lurgan and Hopewell townships, in Cumberland 
county; thence by line of Lurgan township (leaving Shippensburg to the eastward 
of the same) to the line of Fannet township ; thence by the* line of the last men- 
tioned township, including the same to the line of Bedford county (now Fulton) ; 
thence by line of same count}^ to Maryland line ; thence by said line to line of 
York county (now Adams) ; thence by line of the same county along the South 
mountain to the place of beginning." 

In 1790, some doubt arising as to the correct boundary between Cumberland 
and Franklin counties, the Assembly, by an act dated the S^lth of March in that 
year, re-adjusted the lines by running a new one so as to leave the entire tract of 
land owned by Edward Shippen, and upon which Shippensburg stands, in Cum- 
berland county. On the 29th of March, 1798, a portion of the then county of 
Bedford, known as the " Little Cove," was detached from that county and 
annexed to Franklin, to be a part of Montgomer}^ township. The county thus 
erected has for its greatest length, from north to south, a distance of 38 miles ; 
from east to west, 34 miles, containing an area of 734 square miles, or 469,730 
acres, with a population, in 1790, of 15,655; and in 1870, of 45,365, being an 
increase of population in eighty years of nearly 30,000. 

By the terms of the act establishing the county of Franklin, James Maxwell, 
James McCalmont, Josiah Crawford, David Stoner, and John Johnston were 
appointed trustees on behalf of the county, and were directed to take assurance 

739 



740 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

of aud for two lots of ground in the town of Chambersburg, or Chamberstown, 
in the township of Guilford, within the said county of Franklin, for seats of a 
court house and of a county gaol or prison for said covmty. For the purpose of 
constructing these buildings the county commissioners were directed to levy a 
tax and raise a sum not exceeding one thousand two hundred pounds, said sum 
to be paid over to the trustees of the county, upon their giving sufficient security, 
and by them to be expended for the purpose named. 

The court house erected at this time was " a two-storied brick buildino-, 
surmounted by a tall conical cupola and a spire. In the belfry was suspended a 
small bell of Spanish make — an ancient storied bell. Long years before it 
reached the exalted position which it occupied on the court house, full many a 
time had it waked lazy monk and drowsy nun to their matin prayers, or attuned 
its silvery notes to the sound of tlieir vesper hj^mn as it rose on the quiet air, 
and died away in musical cadence through the shadowy valle3^s around some old 
convent. . . . The whole of the ground floor of this building was occupied 
by the court hall — a rather spacious room, paved with brick, well lighted, but 
poorly ventilated, heated by ten-plate stoves, so large that uncut cord wood 
was used as fuel. The judges' bench was at the north side of the room, flanked 
on the right by an elevated box, where the grand jury sat, and on the left by the 
traverse jury box. In front a railing enclosed a space which was reserved for 
the members of the bar. In the upper portion of the building were several 
rooms used as offices." 

B}^ the same act the establishment of courts of common pleas and quarter 
sessions was also regulated. They were to meet "the Tuesday preceding the 
Fayette county courts." The court of quarter sessions was to sit three days 
onlj'-, at each session, and no longer. All suits begun in Cumberland county 
were to be disposed of in that count^^, just as though no division had been made. 

The first court of Franklin county was held on the 15th of September, IY84, 
in the stone house erected on the north-west corner of the " Diamond," or public 
square, in the borough of Chambersburg, in 1710, by J. Jack — an old landmark 
up to the destruction of the town by confederate cavalry on the 30th of July, 
1864, when it was burned, and with it the bodies of two Confederate soldiers, who 
met their fate within its walls at the hands of the then owner. This court was 
held before Humphrey Fullerton, Thomas Johnston, and James Findley, Esqrs. 
Edward Crawford, Jr., commissioned September 10th, 1784, was prothonotary 
and clerk. The second court was held on the 2d of December, 1784, in the 
same building, above stairs, before William McDowell, Humphrey Fullerton, and 
James Findley, Esqs. Jeremiah Talbot, commissioned October 20th, 1784, was 
sheriff. The following named persons sat as a grand jury : James Poe, Henry 
Pawling, William Allison, William McDowell, Robert Wilkins, John McConnell, 
John McCarny, John Ray, John Jack, Jr., John Dickson, D. McClintock, Joseph 
Chambers, and Joseph Long. 

On the 11th of March, 1809, the counties of Cumberland, Bedford, Franklin, 
Huntingdon, and Adams, were erected into the southern district of the Supreme 
Court, and the term was held at Chambersburg during the first two weeks of 
October annually. The annual session was limited to two weeks, but power was 
granted to the court to hold adjourned sessions, if necessary. At the time of 



FBANKLIN COUNTY. 74I 

the organization of this district, William Tilghinan was chief justice of the 
Supreme Court, and Jasper Yeates and Hugh H. Brackenridge, associate justices. 
The first general election was held in Franklin county on the second Tuesday of 
October, 1784, when the independent freemen of the newly formed county of 
Franklin met in the town of Chambersburg and cast their votes for a councillor ; 
three representatives to serve in the ninth general Assembly of Pennsylvania, to 
meet in Philadelphia, on Monday, the 25th of October, 1784; a sheriff and a 
coroner. James McLean was chosen councillor ; James Johnston, Abraham 
Smith, and James McCalmont were selected representatives ; Jeremiah Talbot, 
sheriff; and John Rhea, coroner. The difficulties incident to having but one 
election district were remedied by an increase of districts as circumstances 
required. By act of Assembly of the 13th of September, 1785, the county was 
divided into two districts. The township of Fannett was one, and the remainder 
of the county the other. The votes of Fannett township were polled at the house 
of the " widow Elliott," and the rest of the county at the coui-t house in the 
borough of Chambersburg. On the 10th of September, 1787, four districts were 
formed ; the first district comprised the townships of Guilford, Franklin (?) ' 
Hamilton, Letterkenn}-, Lurgan, and Southampton, voting at the court house ; 
the second, the township of Fannett, voting at the house of the widow Elliott ; 
the third, the townships of Antrim and Washington, voting at the house of 
George Clark in Green Castle ; the fourth, the townships of Peters and Mont- 
gomer}^, voting at the house of James Ci'awford in Mercersburg. In 1807 the 
count}' of Franklin contained eight election districts, and was entitled to three 
members of the House of Representatives, and one senator. At present writing, 
1876, the county has twenty -eight voting districts, and has a representation of 
three members of the house, and in conjunction with Huntingdon count}', one 
State senator. 

The principal part of Franklin county lies in the Cumberland Yalley proper, 
between the South and Blue mountains. The western portion of the county is 
divided into three small but highly cultivated valleys by tl e Blue, the Dividing, 
and the Tuscarora mountains. Rogers gives the following description of these 
valleys ; Burns' valley is a small area lying between the "Round Top" and the 
Dividing mountain, enclosed to the north-east by the union of these and opening 
into Path valley to the south-west. It is separated from North Horse valley (in 
Perry county) by a knob of Round Top, which, ending south of Concord, the 
two valleys unite into one, and are called, from this point south-westward, 
" Path valley." 

Path valley, a pleasing valley, is bounded on the north-west by the Tuscarora 
mountains. Its north-east extremity for six or seven miles is bounded on the 
south-east by the Dividing mountain, which separates it from Amberson's valley. 
The Dividing mountain is synclinal, and ends five miles north-east of Fannetts- 
burg, where the two valleys unite under the name of Path valle}'. From the 
union of Amberson's valley with it, it is bounded on the south-east by a high 
straight mountain of the Levant sandstones, without name, which terminates 
near Loudon, in Jordon's Knob. This mountain and the Tuscarora mountain 
gradually converge, so that the south-west extremity of Path valle}' is narrow 
where it opens into the great Appalachian valley, about Loudon. The length of 



742 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Path valley is twenty-two miles. Between the Dividing mountain and the Tus- 
carora it is nearly three miles wide, and south-west of the end of the Dividing 
mountain it is wider. Toward the south-west it is much narrower, the distance 
between the mountain bases being about a mile and a half. The waters draining 
Path valley pass out in opposite directions to the Conococheague and Tuscarora 
creeks. 

The main portion of Amberson's valley lies between the Dividing mountain 
and a mountain called the Kittatinny, which is a prolongation of the south-east 
dipping strata of Bower's mountain. Two synclinal knobs of the Levant sand- 
stone stand forward into the north-eastern end of Amberson's valley, and three 
subordinate little valleys, like so many fingers from a hand, extend between and 
on either side of the knobs. They are without names. In a line with the more 
south-eastern of the two knobs, and four miles south-west of it, is a mountain 
summit called Clark's Knob. A narrow and unnamed vallej^ extends between 
Clark's Knob and Kittatinnj' or Bower's mountain. By the presence of Clark's 
Knob the south-west portion of Amberson's valley is much narrowed between that 
knob and the Dividing mountain. The width of Amberson's valley, between the 
Kittatinny and Dividing mountain, is a mile and a half, and between the latter 
and Clark's Knob and the mountains extending from this south-westward, it is 
only half a mile wide. It opens into Path valley by the ending of the Dividing 
mountain, being eight or nine miles in length. 

On the east side of the county, the South mountain extends for many miles. 
Portions of this range are nine hundred feet above the middle of the valley. It 
consists principally of hard, white sandstone. The mountain ranges in the north 
and north-west are composed of the gray and reddish sandstone. The valley 
between the mountains presents a diversified aspect. The greater part is lime- 
stone land. The soil here is unsurpassed in fertility, and highly cultivated farms, 
improved with neat and elegant buildings, are to be seen on every hand. 

Franklin county is well supplied with water. The streams are numerous but 
not large, fed by copious and never failing mountain runs, they afl'ord abundant 
motive power for the many mills and manufactories, the forges and furnaces 
which utilize the products and hidden wealth of tlie count3\ The Conodogwinit, 
rising by several branches in the north-east of the county, flows eastward 
through Cumberland. The Conococheague, Indian name Gu-ne-uk-is-schick, 
meaning " Indeed a long wa3^" the main branch of which rises in the South 
mountain, running a north-western course to Chambersburg, thence southward 
through Maryland, receiving several smaller tributaries, empties into the Potomac 
at Williamsport. The west branch of Conococheague rises near Path valley, 
flowing southward by Fannettsburg and Loudon, turning south-eastward, empties 
into the main branch two miles north of the State line. Antietam creek, con- 
sisting of two main branches, both rising in the south-east part of the county, 
passing through Maryland, empties into the Potomac. There are many smaller 
streams in the county, viz.. Falling Spring, Black creek. Brown's run. Rocky 
spring, Dickey's run, Campbell's run. Marsh run. 

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania boasts no more productive region within 
its borders than the Cumberland Valle}', and no section of this valley under the 
shadow of its sentry mountains is richer in agricultural, mineral, and manufac- 



FRANKLIN COUNTY. 743 

turing resources than the fertile fields, rugged hills, and busy towns of Franklin, 
The productions of an agricultural character are such as are common to the 
counties of the Cumberland Valley, viz., wheat, rye, corn, oats, etc. Very little 
wheat is exported, most of it being manufactured into flour, which finds a ready 
market m Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York. 

The mineral resources have been moderately well developed. Iron ore of 
good quality abounds in diflferent parts of the county, principally along the base 
of the South mountain, supplying not only the furnaces of Franklin, but many 
of those along the line of the Reading railroad, and at other points. In the 
western part of the county, Franklin, Carrick, and Richmond furnaces are in 
active operation. In the eastern part of the county, Mont Alto furnace, the 
property of George B. Wiestling, is situated on a branch of the Antietam 
creek, about eight miles from Chambersburg, near the foot of the outer sandstone 
ridge of the South mountain. This furnace is supplied from extensive excava- 
tions lying about a fourth of a mile north-east of it, on a declivity of the first 
sandstone ridge. The ore occurs, as in other similarly situated mines, in the 
loose soil of the mountain side in nests and irregular la3^ers, varying greatly in 
their dimensions, but the whole deposit seems to be of prodigious magnitude. The 
progress and development of the mineral interests of the county have been very 
marked during the past decade. Railroad branches now join Richmond and 
Mont Alto with the main line of the Cumberland Valley, and trains laden with 
ore and manufactured metal, daily wend their way to market. 

Franklin county, strictly speaking, is an agricultural and not a manufacturing 
county^, but in preparing her own products for market, manufactories have sprung 
up and rapidly increased, and their present prosperous condition gives fair 
promise for the future. Of flouring and grist mills the county contains one 
hundred ; saw mills, one hundred and twenty ; fulling mills, eight ; woolen 
factories, ten. Straw boards are manufactured at the mills of Heyser & Son, in 
Chambersburg, and a good quality of printing paper at the Hollywell mills, near 
that town. Since the completion of the Cumberland Valley railroad in 1834, 
and its branch roads later, the facilities for the transportation of the produce of 
the county to the most distant markets have been unsurpassed. This railroad 
spans the valle^^ from the Susquehanna to the Potomac, and forms the connecting 
link between the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio railroads. Its shops 
are situated in Chambersburg, and are among the most noticeable industi'ies of 
the town, affording labor to a large number of workmen. 

As late as 1148 there were "many Indians" within the limits of Franklin 
county, but these were " well disposed and very obliging, and not disinclined 
towards Christians when not made drunk by strong drink." So wrote Rev. 
Michael Schlatter, but it is doubtful if there were any save strolling bands of 
natives from the Ohio at the time of the organization of Cumberland county two 
years later. The first settlers of Franklin county were Scotch-Irish, many of 
whose descendants yet remain, but the larger proportion migrated west or 
south, giving way before the German element coming from the eastern counties 
of the State. Among the early pioneers of the former class are the names of 
Allison, Armstrong, Alexander, Brown, Baird, Campbell, Crawford, Culbertson, 
Caldwell, Chambers, Dunbar, Duncan, Douglas, Davies, Dickey, Findley, Graham, 



744 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Hamilton, Henderson, Irwin, Jack, Johnston, Kirkpatrick, Magaw, McKibben, 
McCoy, McDowell, McLanahan, McBride, Murray, Patterson, Pauling, I^ey- 
nolds. Reed, Semple, Stevens, Scott, and Stoner. These located here between the 
years 1*728 and lYiO. So steadily did this settlement increase, that at the period 
of the French and Indian war it is estimated that no less than three thousand 
people were located within the limits of the present Franklin county. It seemg 
to be a matter of dispute at what time the Chambers settled on the Conoco- 
cheague. It is not probable that Joseph and Benjamin Chambers located at the 
Falling Spring earlier than 1730. They had previously built at Fort Hunter, on 
the Susquehanna, but an accidental fire consuming their mill on the Fishing 
creek, they wandered westward, finally locating at the point named, erecting a 
log house, and eventually a saw and grist mill. It is stated that Benjamin 
Chambers had, when living east of the Susquehanna, been attracted to the spot 
by a description he received from a hunter, who had observed the fine waterfall 
in one of his excursions through the valley. From his acquaintance with the 
art and business of a millwright, and the use and value of water-power, his atten- 
tion was directed to advantageous situations for water- works. He maintained a 
friendly intercourse with the Indians in his vicinit}^ who were attached to him : 
with them he traded, and had so much of their confidence and respect that they 
did not injure him or offer to molest him. On one occasion, being engaged in 
haymaking in his meadow, he observed some Indians secretly stalking in the 
thickets around the meadow. Suspecting some mischievous design, he gave 
them a severe chase, in the night, with some dogs, across the creek and through 
the woods, to the great alarm of the Indians, who afterwards acknowledged they 
had gone to the meadow for the purpose of taking from Benjamin his watch, and 
carrying off a negro woman whom he owned, and who, they thought, would be 
useful to raise corn for them ; but they declared that they would not have hurt the 
colonel. He used his influence with his acquaintances to settle in his neighbor- 
hood, directing their attention to desirable and advantageous situations for farms. 
As the western Indians, after Braddock's defeat in 1755, became troublesome, 
and made incursions east of the mountains, killing and making prisoners of 
many of the white inhabitants. Colonel Chambers, for the security of his family 
and his neighbors, erected where the borough of Chambersburg now is, a large 
stone dwelling-house, surrounded by the water from Falling Spring. The 
dwelling-house, for greater security against the attempts of the Indians to fire it, 
was roofed with lead. The dwellings and the mills were surrounded by a stock- 
ade fort. This fort, with the aid of fire-arms, a blunderbuss and swivel, was 
so formidable to the Indian parties who passed the country, that it was but 
seldom assailed, and no one sheltered by it was killed or wounded ; although 
in the country around, at different times, those who ventured out on their farms 
were surprised and either slaughtered or carried off prisoners, with all the 
horrors and aggravations of savage warfare. From this time onward the Indian 
depredations were horrifjang, and the record of the three or four subsequent 
years is one of death and desolation. Benjamin Chambers, writing from Falling 
Spring, on Sabbath morning, November 2, 1755, to the inhabitants of the lower 
part of the county of Cumberland, says : " If you intend to go to the assistance 
of your neighbors, you need wait no longer for the certainty of the news. The 



FBANKLIN COUNTY. 745 

Great Cove is destroyed. James Campbell left his company last night, and 
went to the fort at Mr. Steel's meeting-house, and there saw some of the inhabi- 
tants of the Great Cove, who gave this account, that as they came over the hill 
they saw their houses in flames." 

A few days after Great Cove had been laid waste, and forty-seven persons of 
ninety-three settlers were killed or taken captive, the merciless Indians burnt 
the house of widow Cox, near McDowell's mill, in Cumberland (now Franklin) 
county, and carried off her two sons and another man. In Februarjr, 1756, two 
brothers, Richard and John Craig, were taken by nine Delaware Indians, from a 
plantation two miles from McDowell's mill. In Februar3^, 1756, a party of 
Indians made marauding incursions into Peters township. They were discovered 
on Sunday evening, by one Alexander, near the house of Thomas Barr. He was 
pursued by the savages, but escaped and alarmed the fort at McDowell's mill. 
Early on Monday morning, a party of fourteen men of Captain Croghan's com- 
pany, who were at the mill, and about twelve other young men, set off to watch 
the motion of the Indians. Near Barr's house they fell in with fifty, and sent 
back for a reinforcement from the fort. The young lads proceeded by a circuit 
to take the enemy in the rear, whilst the soldiers did attack them in front. But 
the impetuosity of the soldiers defeated their plan. Scarce had they got within 
gun-shot, they fired upon the Indians, who were standing around the fire, and 
killed several of them at the first discharge. The Indians returned fire — killed 
one of the soldiers, and compelled the rest to retreat. The party of young men, 
hearing the report of fire-arms, hastened up ; finding the Indians on the ground 
which the soldiers had occupied, fired upon the Indians with effect ; but conclud- 
ing the soldiers had fled, or were slain, they also retreated. One of their number, 
Barr's son, was wounded, would have fallen by the tomahawk of an Indian, had 
not the savage been killed by a shot from Armstrong, who saw him running upon 
the lad. Soon after sokfiers and young men being joined by a reinforcement 
from the mill, again sought the enemy, who, eluding the pursuit, crossed the 
creek near William Clark's, and attempted to surprise the fort ; but their design 
was discovered by two Dutch lads, coming from foddering their master's cattle. 
One of the lads was killed, but the other reached the fort, which was immediately 
surrounded by the Indians, who, from a thicket, fired many shots at the men in 
the garrison who appeared above the wall, and returned the fire as often as they 
obtained sight of the enemy. At this time, two men crossing to the mill, fell 
into the middle of the assailants, but made their escape to the fort, though fired 
at three times. The party at Barr's house now came up, and drove the Indians 
through the thicket. In their retreat they met five men from Mr. Hoop's, riding 
to the mill — they killed one of these and wounded another severely. The ser- 
geant at the fort having lost two of his men, declined to follow the enemy until 
his commander, Mr. Crawford, who was at Hoop's, should return, and the snow 
falling thick, the Indians had time to burn Mr. Barr's house, and in it consumed 
their dead. On the morning of the 2d of March, Mr. Crawford, with fifty 
men, went in quest of th'e enemy, but was unsuccessful in his search. In April 
following (1756), McCord's fort on the Conococheague, was burnt by the Indians, 
and twenty-seven persons were killed or captured. William Mitchell, an inhabi- 
tant of Conococheague, had collected a number of reapers to cut down his grain ; 



746 EI8T0BY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

having gone out to the field, the reapers all laid down their guns at the fence, 
and set in to reap. The Indians suffered them to reap on for some time, till they 
got out in the open field, they secured their guns, killed and captured every one. 
On Jul^' 26, nse, the Indians killed Joseph Martin, took captive John McCul- 
lough and James McCullough, in the Conococheague settlement. August 27, 
1756, there was a great slaughter, wherein the Indians killed thirty-nine persons, 
near the mouth of the Conococheague creek. Early in November following, 
some Indians were only a few miles from McDowell's mill, where they killed the 
following named soldiers: James McDonald, William McDonald, Bartholomew 
McCafferty, and Anthony McQuoid ; and carried off Captain James Corkem and 
William Cornwall. The following inhabitants were killed : John Culbertson, 
Samuel Perry, Hugh Kerrell, John Woods and mother-in-law, and Elizabeth 
Archer. Persons missing : Four children belonging to John Archer; Samuel 
Neily, a boy ; and James McQuoid, a child. 

The following are the names of persons killed and taken captive on the Con- 
cocheague, on the 23rd of April, 175*7 : John Martin and William Blair were 
killed, and Patrick McClelland wounded, who died of his. wounds, near Max- 
well's fort; Ma}^ 12, John Martin and Andrew Paul, both old men, were cap- 
tured ; .June 24, Alexander Miller was killed, and two of his daughters, from 
Conococheague; July 27, Mr. McKissen wounded, and his two sons captured, at 
the South mountain ; August 15, William Manson and his son killed near Cross's 
fort ; September 26, Robert Rush and John McCracken, with others, killed and 
taken captive near Chambersburg ; November 9, John Woods, his wife and 
mother-in-law, and John Archer's wife were killed, four children taken, and nine 
killed, near McDowell's fort; May 21, 1758, Joseph Gallady was killed, his wife 
and one child taken captive. In 1763, the upper part of Cumberland (Franklin 
county) was invaded by savages, who murdered, set fire to houses, barns, hay, 
and corn, and ever^'thing combustible. Most of the inhabitants fled, some to 
Shippensburg, some to Carlisle, some fled into York county with their families, 
and with their cattle. On the 26th of July, 1764, the Indians murdered a school 
master, named Brown, about three miles north of Green Castle, and killed ten 
small children, and scalped and left for dead a young lad, Archibald McCullough, 
who recovered, and lived for many years. Bard, in his " Narrative of Captivity," 
says, " It was remarkable that, with few exceptions, the scholars were much 
averse to going to school that morning. And the account given by McCullough 
is that two of the scholars informed Mr. Brown that on their way th.ej had seen 
Indians. The master paid no attention to what had been told him. He ordered 
them to their books. Soon afterwards two old Indians and a boy rushed up to 
the door. The master seeing them, prayed the Indians only to take his life, and 
spare the children; but unfeelingly, the two old Indians stood at the door, 
whilst the boy entered the house, and with a piece of wood in the foi'm of an 
Indian maul, killed the master and the scholars, after which all of them were 
scalped. On the 4th of August, 1843, several citizens repaired to the farm of 
Christian Kozer, about three miles north of Green Castle, in Antrim township, to 
the spot where Brown and his scholars were buried in one grave. Digging down 
to the depth of four feet, they found some human bones, buttons, and what 
appeared to be an iron tobacco box. 

/ 



FBANKLIN COUNTY. Y47 

The foregoing are but a few of the instances of savage cruelty which for a 
period of ten years reigned over this section of country — scenes at which we in 
the present days of peace and prosperity shudder to contemplate. At one period 
nearly the entire country was depopulated, the treacherous and blood-thirsty 
Indian satiating his vengeance in the lives of the settlers and in the destruction 
of their property. The successive expeditions of Bouquet, to which we have 
referred, finally brought quiet to this section, and with the emigration further 
west, the frontiers were extended beyond the Alleghenies. Settlers, therefore, 
filled in rapidly, and when the thunder-tones of the Revolution of 11*76 awoke a 
new nation to life, this portion of the then Cumberland county had many strong 
arms to strike for liberty. 

Captain Huston organized a company in West Conococheague, and when 
about marching to the front. Rev. Dr. King addressed the compan3\ An extract 
from his address shows the spirit of the man and of the citizen : " The case is 
plain; life must be hazarded, or all is gone. You must go and fight, or send your 
humble submission, and bow as a beast to its burden or as an ox to the slaugh- 
ter. The King of Great Britain has declared us rebels — a capital crime. Sub- 
mission, therefore, consents to the rope or the axe. Liberty is doubtless gone ; 
none could imagine that a tyrant king should be more favorable to conquered 
rebels than he was to loyal, humble, petitioning subjects. No ! no ! If ever a 
people lay in chains, we must, if our enemies carry their point against us, and 
oblige us to unconditional submission." Other companies were organized, and 
out of a population of about three thousand, within the present limits of Frank- 
lin county, at least five hundred troops were furnished to the army of Wash- 
ington. 

So, too, when the war of 1812-14 was declared, Franklin played an important 
part. Eight companies of soldiers in all were organized in the count}^ ; Cham- 
bersburg furnished four. Green Castle, Mercersburg, Path Yalley, and Waynes- 
boro, each one. One company. Captain Jeremiah Snider's, marched to the 
Canada frontier, and wintered at Buflalo, 1812-13. Capain Henry Reges' com- 
pany marched to Meadville in September, 1812. The companies of Captains 
Samuel D. Culbertson and John Findley marched to the relief of Baltimore in 
1814. 

We now come to a period in which Franklin county bore an important part, 
as being the theatre of the several invasions of Pennsylvania by the Confederate 
forces in the war for the Union. To each of these we shall make special 
reference. 

STUART'S RAID— 1862. 

Although lying almost within the confines of secession, Franklin county was, 
during the late war between the North and South, loyal to the Union. No 
braver soldiers breathed the air of battle on a Southern field than were her sons 
who went to swell the ranks of the Army of the Potomac and the Cumberland, 
many of them never to return to mark upon their own hearthstones the deso- 
lating touch of the hand of war. 

After the war was fully inaugurated, it became patent to every one that the 
Cumberland Yalley, and by its geographical situation, the county of /rankl.n. 



748 HI8T0B Y OF PENJS'S TL VANIA. 

would be the objective point in the event of an inroad of the Southern army into 
Pennsylvania. Easy of access from the Potomac, with her mountain fastnesses 
affording safe hiding-places, and her fertile fields fresh foraging ground for 
guerrilla cavalry, it was not long until a successful raid right into the heart of 
the county confirmed into a dreadful fact that which before was scarcely recog- 
nized as a possibility. Pen cannot portray the feelings of the people of Frank- 
lin county from that time until the close of the wai*. The inhabitants, especially 
of the rural districts, lived in almost constant dread of the approach of some 
raiding party. Business of all kinds was paralyzed. Military companies for 
home protection were formed on every hand, and the trying ordeals to which the 
people were subjected were met with a bravery and a cheerfulness of spirit which, 
to any one acquainted with the facts, gave the lie to certain unauthenticated 
statements in the press of sister States in the North, that the people of Franklin 
county were cowards and Southern sympathizers and unworthy of govern- 
mental support. 

The military situation of the border, in general, and the then unprotected con- 
dition of Franklin county favoring, the first Confederate raid into Pennsylvania 
was planned and successfully executed on the 10th of October, 1862, by Generals 
J. E. B. Stuart and Wade Hampton, with a following of about two thousand men. 
Crossing the Potomac river, this force, by hurried marches, peneti'ated into 
Pennsylvania, reaching the vicinity of Chambersburg, the county seat of Frank- 
lin county, on the 10th of October, near evening. With the fall of night came 
a shower of drizzling rain, in the midst of which the sound of a bugle was heard 
on " New England Hill," heralding the approach of a squad of officers under a 
flag of truce, who rode into the public square, or " Diamond," and demanded the 
surrender of the town in the name of the Confederate States of America. There 
being no representative of militar}' authority in the town to treat with the 
visitors, and withal no warrant for resistance, the civil authorities, represented 
by the burgess, formall.y delivered up the place into their custody, and in an 
incredibly short time the streets of the town were filled with their first, but by 
no means last, instalment of gray-coated soldiery ; the tramp of their horses, 
the rattling of their sabres and spurs, and the dull thud of their axes busied with 
the demolishment of store doors, and the felling of telegraph poles, made sorry 
music for the pent-up inhabitants, who had betaken themselves within doors 
when the presence of their Southern visitors became an established fact. Cham- 
bersburg could scarcel}'^ have been in a worse condition for a raid than it was at 
this time. / Entirely divested of any militai'y protection, with a large quantity 
of military stores within its confines, it lay at the mercy of the foe. 

The work of the raiders during the night was confined to the ransacking of 
stores, and the demolishing of the shops and office of the Cumberland Valley 
railroad and the office of the Western Union Telegraph company. The coup de 
grace of the expedition — the attack upon the militaiy stores — was reserved for 
the next morning. These stores, which were placed in the large brick, warehouse 
of Messrs. Wunderlich & Nead, near the northern end of the town, consisted of a 
large quantity of ammunition, spherical and conical shells, signal rockets and 
lights, and small arms of every description, which had a short time before been 
captured from the Confederate General, Longstreet ; and in addition about two 



FRANKLIN COUNTY. 749 

hundred stands of navy revolvers and cavalry sabres, entirely new, which had 
been stored there by the Federal government, to equip two companies of cavalry 
which were then being raised in the county. 

Daylight discovered to the raiders the whereabouts of the government stores. 
An entrance into the warehouse was easily effected. All moveable property, 
such as pistols, sabres, etc., was quickly transferred to the saddles of their horses, 
ready for transportation, when the work of destroying the remainder immediately 
began. New lumber was taken from a yard near b}^, cut in pieces, saturated 
with kerosene oil, and fired. The flame soon reached the powder, when 
explosion after explosion took place like a quick cannonading, alarming the 
country for miles around, and impressing the affrighted farmers with the belief 
that a battle was in progress in town. The warehouse was blown to atoms ; the 
adjoining buildings were fired, when the raiders took a hasty departure, cutting 
across the country in a south-easterly direction to the Potomac river and thence 
into Virginia, taking with them a large quantity of spoils, including some 
twelve hundred horses. The inhabitants of Chambersburg were left in a terri- 
fied condition, many of them seeking in their cellars safety from the flying shells, 
and others endangering their lives to save their property from burning. The 
fire, however, in the main, was restrained to the neighborhood of the warehouse 
and the depot buildings, lying contiguous, where the damage done did not fall 
far short of $150,000. 

LEE'S INVASION— 1863. , 

The summer of 'sixty-three brought a critical period in the existence of the 
Southern Confederacy. The star of secession was at its culmination. Lee's 
army was never in better spirits, and on the other hand the memory of the fateful 
field of Chancellorsville was still fresh in the minds of Hooker's men, whose ranks 
were daily being decimated by the departure of the short-term regiments. For- 
getful of the disasters of the Maryland campaign, the southern press and people 
clamored unceasingly for a coup de main that would transfer the seat of war to 
free soil, and thereon, whilst the starving legions of the south revelled in the 
plenty of the rich fields of Pennsylvania, conquer a peace. Wooed by this siren 
song, in the face of his better judgment, Lee planned his northern campaign, and 
by a military movement that has scarcely an equal, transferred his whole arm}^ 
across the border, only to meet his Waterloo at Gettysburg. At the inception 
of the movement, the surprised and baffled Hooker stood aghast, and the 
affrighted Halleck, in the midst of his cogitations over a change in the leader- 
ship of the army of the Potomac, stopped and trembled, while the smouldering 
excitement of the inhabitants of the southern border of Pennsylvania grew into 
a mighty panic, which shook the Capitol City of the Keystone State with fear, 
and rang the alarm bells of her metropolis until old Independence Hall re-echoed 
with their sound. 

Hasty prepai'ations for the defence of the invaded State were at once made 
by the National, assisted by the State authorities. A new department, named 
the " Department of the Susquehanna," was formed, and General D. N. Couch 
assumed command on the 12th of June, with headquarters at Chambersburg, 



150 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VAN'IA. 

Franklin county. A proclamation calling upon the citizens to turn out in 
defence of their State was issued by Governor Curtin, and troops were enrolled 
and equipped as rapidly as possible. Then in rapid succession, followed on the 
13th the fight at Winchester between the forces of General R. H. Milroy, the 
only barrier to Lee's approach, and the rebel General Ewell ; the retreat of 
Milroy ; the occupation in succession of Martinsburg and Hagerstown by the 
rebel General Rodes on the 14th, and the climax of the excitement in Chambers- 
burg on that memorable Sunday evening, when General Couch removed his 
headquai'ters to Carlisle. 

The following description of the occupation of Chambersburg by the Con- 
federate General Jenkins, the advance guard of Lee's armj^, is taken mainly from 
the Franklin Repository of June, 1863 : 

" On Monday morning, June 15th, the flood of rumors from the Potomac 
fully confirmed the advance of the rebels, and the citizens of Chambersburg and 
vicinity, feeling unable to resist the rebel columns, commenced to make prompt 
preparation for the movement of stealable property. Nearly every horse, good, 
bad, and indifferent, was started for the mountains as early on Monday as 
possible, and the negroes darkened the different roads northward for hours, 
loaded with household effects, sable babies, etc., and horses and wagons and 
cattle crowded every avenue to places of safety. About nine o'clock in the 
morning the advance of Milroy's retreating wagon-train dashed into town 
attended by a few cavalry and several affrighted wagon-masters, all of whom 
declared that tJie rebels wei"e in hot pursuit ; that a large portion of the train 
was captured, and that the enemy was about to enter Chambersburg. This start- 
ling information coming from men in uniform, who bad fought valiantly until the 
enemy had got nearly in sight, naturally gave a fresh impetus to the citizens, 
and the skedaddle commenced in magnificent earnestness and exquisite confusion. 

" On Monday morning the rebel General Jenkins, with about one thousand 
eight hundred mounted infantry, entered Green Castle, Franklin county, a town 
five miles north of the Maryland line, and ten miles south of Chambersburg, in 
the direct I'oute of the rebels. After a careful reconnoisance, this town being 
defenceless, was occupied and rapidly divested of everything moveable, contra- 
band and otherwise, which struck the fancy of the freebooting visitors. 

" Evidently under the impression that forces would be thrown in their way at 
an early hour, the rebels pushed forward for Chambersburg. About eleven 
o'clock on Monday night they arrived at the southern end of the town, and 
again the streets of Chambersburg resounded to the clatter of rebel cavalry, and 
a second time the town fell their easy prey. This visit continued three days, 
and was marked by a general plundering of the town and vicinage. Horses 
seemed to be considered contraband of war, and were taken without pretence of 
compensation ; but other articles were deemed legitimate subjects of commerce, 
even between enemies, and they were generally paid for after a fashion. True, 
the system of Jenkins would be considered a little informal in business circles, 
but it was his way, and the people agreed to it perhaps, to some extent, because 
of the novelty, but mainly because of the necessity of the thing. But Jenkins 
was liberal — eminently liberal. He did'nt stop to higgle about a few odd 
pennies in making a bargain. 



FBANKLIN COUNTY. Y51 

" Doubtless oui' merchants and druggists would have preferred greenbacks to 
Confederate scrip, that is never payable, and is worth just its weight in old paper ; 
but Jenkins had'nt greenbacks, and he had Confederate scrip, and such as he had 
he gave unto them. Thus he dealt largely in our place. To avoid the jealousies 
growing out of rivalry in business he patronized all the merchants, and bought 
pretty much everything he could conveniently use and carry. Some people, with 
the antiquated ideas of business, might call it stealing to take goods and pay for 
them in bogus money; but Jenkins called it business, and, for the time being, 
what Jenkins called business, was business. In this way he robbed all the 
stores, drug stores, etc., more or less, and supplied himself with many articles 
of great value to him. 

" Jenkins, like most doctors, did not seem to have relished his own prescrip- 
tions. Several horses had been captured by some of our boys, and notice was 
given by the Confederate commanding that they must be surrendered or the town 
would be destroyed. The city fathers, generally known as the town council, 
were appealed to, in order to avert the impending fate threatened us. One of 
the horses and some of the equipments were found and returned, but there was 
still a balance in favor of Jenkins. We do not know who audited the account, 
but it was finally adjusted, by the council appropriating the sum of nine hundred 
dollars to pay the claim. Doubtless Jenkins hoped for nine hundred dollars in 
'greenbacks,' but he had flooded the town with Confederate scrip, pronouncing 
it better than United States currency, and the council evidently believed him ; 
and desiring to be accommodating with a conqueror, decided to favor him by the 
payment of his bill in Confederate scrip. It was so done, and Jenkins got just 
nine hundred dollars worth of nothing for his trouble. He took it, however, 
without a murmur, and doubtless considered it a clever joke. 

" Sore was the disappointment of Jenkins at the general exodus of horses 
from this place. It limited his booty immensely. Fully five hundred had been 
taken from Chambersburg and vicinity to the mountains, and Jenkins' plunder 
was thus made just so much less. But he determined to make up for it by steal- 
ing all the arms in the town. He, tlierefore, issued an order requiring the 
citizens to bring him all the arms they had, public or private, within two hours, 
and search and terrible vengeance were threatened in case of disobedience. 
Many of our citizens complied with the order, and a committee of our people 
was appointed to take a list of the persons presenting arms. Of course very 
many did not comply, but enough did so to avoid a general search and probable 
sacking of the town. The arms were assorted — the indifferent destroyed and 
the good taken along, 

" The route of Jenkins was through the most densely populated and wealth- 
iest portion of the county. From this point, on the 18th of June, he fell back 
to Green Castle and south of it, thence he proceeded to Mercersburg, from where 
a detachment crossed the Cove moxmtain to McConnellsburg, and down the val- 
ley from there. The main bod}^, however, was divided into plundering parties, 
and scoured the whole southern portion of the county, spending several days in 
and about Green Castle and Waynesboro', and giving Welsh Run a pretty inti- 
mate visitation." 

On Tuesday, the 23rd of June, Chambersburg was again re-occupied by the 






752 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

rebels under General Rodes, and the national troops, under the command of 
General Joseph Knipe, fell back toward Harrisburg. The forces of General 
Rodes were the vanguard of Lee's whole army, which was coming to pay more 
than a passing visit to the soil of Pennsylvania. Says an eye witness (Rev. 
B. B. Bausman), in his graphic description of the passage of the army : " For 
six days and five nights the legions of the south kept pouring through Main 
street. Columns and divisions of soldiers provokingly long, and immense lines 
of guns of various calibre, and army trains that seemed almost endless, passed 
before us like a weird, dream-like panorama. None but those who have witnessed 
such a migration have a correct idea of the vastness of an army of seventy 
thousand or eighty thousand men, with all their means of living and munitions 
of war. It was literally an out-pouring of Southern life and power, of the flower 
as well as of the dregs of their population. Some divisions were composed of 
noble warriors, able-bodied, of a fine bearing and presence, hosts of them 
educated, refined gentlemen, serving in the private ranks. Others rough, rude, 
insulting men, such as the 'Louisiana Tigers,' and the Texaus, who howled and 
whooped through the streets like wild beasts. But for the rigid rule of Lee's 
army, these fellows would have made our streets run with blood. Everj^ day 
we expected the last to pass through, and still they came. 

" On Friday, the fourth day, he (Lee) came. Up to that time we knew not 
which way his army would turn — towards Gettysburg or Harrisburg. Hitherto 
they had turned both ways. He stopped in the Diamond, where the two roads 
fork. A single glance revealed him to be a man of mark, a leader of the host. 
Around him were gathered his generals, all on horseback, the two Hills, Long- 
street, and others. Young looking men they were aside of the veteran, none of 
those named more than thirt3'-five or forty years of age! They had preceded 
him a day or two. Approaching their leader, they gracefully saluted him by 
faintly raising their hats or caps. The form of greeting was free and familiar, 
hardly such as we might have expected due to their great chief. He had the 
poorest horse, the commonest and cheapest garments, the most unassuming, 
unmilitary exterior of the whole group. The poorest rider, too, he seemed to 
be. Rode as if very tired, as if riding of this slow plodding kind was a great 
burden to him. No wonder that an old man of his age should seem thus. His 
generals looked like earnest men, but perfectly at their ease, calm and collected, 
as if they were consulting about a proposed summer tour in the north. Their 
conversation was in a suppressed tone of voice. The horses seemed to feel the 
importance of the occasion, trying to stand very still and seemingly listening to 
every word that was said. It is a novel scene, which would furnish a fine 
subject for a painter. The central figure everybody scans with intense interest. 
Somehow, in spite of his unpleasant, his rebellious mission, I feel kindly towards 
the man, and cannot suppress a sense of admiration for his military genius. 
There he sits unarmed, and unsuspecting of personal peril. From many an open 
window a deadly ball might be sent through his heart. From this mixed crowd 
of southern and northern people, how easily a loyal enthusiast might lay the 
head of the Southern Confederacy low in death ! He seems not to think of such 
a possible event. The whole group apparently is unconscious of any presence 
but their own. 



FBANKLIN COUNTY. 753 

" With almost bated breath we watch for the close of their interview. Which 
way will he take his army ; which way turn his sleepy-looking sorrel horse ? 
Now his head is turned toward Harrisburg. At length the venerable rider and 
his generals salute ; they retire to their divisions; he gently pulls the rein, turns 
his horse to the right toward Gettysburg, followed by his staff. Part of Lee's 
army went around by Carlisle and York. He tarried a day or two near Cham- 
bersburg. The best regul9,ted armies are encumbered with plundering strag- 
glers. Such hung on to Lee's army and took all they could lay hands upon. 
Hats were snatched from dignified heads, and boots pulled from feet unused to 
walking home unbooted." 

Such was Lee's army on the way to Gettysburg, How different their return. 
Where they demanded before, they begged now. Franklin county saw but little 
of the army on its retreat, comparatively speaking. Chambersburg was left to 
the right for prudential reasons, and cutting across the south-eastern portion of 
the county, Lee made good his escape into Marj'land. 

McCATJSLAND'S FORAY AND BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG— 1864. 

The deliberate sacking and burning of Chambersburg by the forces of 
McCausland and Johnston, on the 30th of Jul}', 1864, is one of the darkest 
stains upon the pages of the record of the late rebellion. The cause assigned by 
the perpetrators of the act was that it was done in retaliation for property de- 
stroyed b}' Union troops in the valley of the Shenandoah. Yet it has been hinted 
that this was not the true cause of the act. That in the minds of certain Southern 
leaders there lurked an ill-suppressed hatred of the inhabitants of Chambersburg 
and vicinity, a feeling that did not extend to other towns in Pennsylvania, on 
account of an erroneous idea that Chambersburg and neighborhood had given 
tacit aid to John Brown, of Harper's Ferry notoriety, in his fanatical attempt at 
incitino; the slaves of the South to insurrection against their masters. It will be 
remembered that for a short time Brown had hovered around Chambersburg, 
and had used the mountains in the vicinity as a sort of base of operations for the 
collection of arms, etc., but without the knowledge of the inhabitants, as is evi- 
denced b}'- the fact, that as soon as it was discovered, by an unlooked-for accident 
to one of the packages, that the goods being shipped to "Brown & Co.," in the 
" Cove mountain," contained arms, prompt notice was given to tlie State autho- 
rities. 

At a council held by the rebel officers outside of Chambersburg on the 
night of the 29th of July, the proceedings of which were overheard by a Union 
scout, it transpired that the town of Chambersburg had been specifically and 
irrevocably marked out for destruction b}^ order of the rebel General Early, who 
was then miles away. The question under discussion by these officers was not 
whether the town should be destroyed — that was settled — but whether it should 
be burned that night or the following morning. A spark of humanity still 
glimmering in the breasts of his subordinate officers, caused a slight infringe- 
ment of Earl3''s peremptor}- order of destruction, and the town was sacked and 
burned by daylight, and the ill-fated inhabitants were spared the additional 
hoiTors of such an event shadowed by night. 
2 X 



754 



HISTOB T OF PUNNS YL VANIA . 



How terrible an event this was for the people of Chambersburg may be 
gathered from the following account, condensed mainly from the Franklin 
Repository : 

The defeat of Crook and Averill, near Winchester, when pursuing the 
retreating rebels, was the first intimation given the border of another invasion 
and even then little danger was apprehended, as Hunter's army was known to 
have been brought to Martinsburg and rested and reorganized, and the sixth and 
nineteenth corps were also known to be on the line of the Potomac. 

General Couch had no troops — not even an organized battalion on the 

border. He had organized six or seven regiments of one hundred days men but 
as fast as they were officered and armed they were forwarded to Washington, in 

obedience to orders from 
the authorities. He was 
left, therefore, with no 
force whatever to defend 
the border. 

On Thursday, the 28th 
of July, the rebels re- 
crossed the Potomac at 
three different points — Mc- 
Causland, Johnston, and 
Gilmor, with three thou- 
sand mounted men and two 
batteries — below Hancock, 
and moved towards Mer- 
eersburg. They reached 



■?^^^^^i<^C^^^Sr^_'~,^ „Xi. ^ Mercersburg at six p.m., 

Avhere they met Lieutenant 
McLean, a most gallant 
_young officer in the regu- 
lar service, with about 
twenty men. His entire 
command numbered forty- 
five, and he had to detach 
for scouting and picket duty more than one-half his force. So suddenly did they 




CHAMBERSBURG BEFORE THE FIRE — 1864. 

[From a Photograph by Bishop Bros., Chambersburg.] 



dash into Mercersburg, that they cut the telegraph wires before their movements 
could be telegrajohed, and it was not until ten o'clock that night that Lieutenant 
McLean got a courier through to General Couch, at Chambersburg, with the 
information. 

The rebel brigades of Yaughn and Jackson, numbering about three thousand 
men, crossed the Potomac about the same time, at or near Williamsport. Part 
of the command advanced on Hagerstown ; the main body moved on the road 
leading from Williamsport to Green Castle; another rebel column of infantry 
and ai'tillery crossed the Potomac simultaneously at Shepherdstown, and moved 
towards Leitersburg. 

General Averill, who commanded a force reduced to about two thousand six 
hundred, was at Hagerstown, and being threatened in front by Vaughn and Jack- 



FRANKLIN COUNTY. 755 

son, and on his right by McCausland and Johnston, who also threatened his 
rear, and on the left by the column which crossed at Shepherdstown, he therefore 
fell back to Green Castle. 

General Averill, it is understood, was under the orders of General Hunter, but 
was kept as fully advised by General Couch, as possible, of the enemy's move- 
ments on his right and on his rear. General Couch's entire force consisted of 
sixty infantry, forty-five cavalry, and a section of a battery of artillery — in all 
less than one hundred and fifty men. 

At three o'clock, a.m., on the morning of the 30th of July, Lieutenant 
McLean reported to General Couch that he had been driven into tow^n at the west- 
ern toll-gate, and urged the immediate movement of the train containing army 
stores, etc. As the stores were not yet all ready for shipment, Major Maneely, 
of General Couch's staff, took one gun with a squad of men, and planted it on the 
hill a short distance west of the Fair Ground. As it was yet dark, his force 
could not be reconnoitered by the enemy, and when he opened on the rebels, tiiey 
halted, until daylight showed that there was no adequate force to oppose them. 

By this gallant exploit, the rebels were delayed outside of town until the 
stores were all saved, and General Couch left the depot as the rebels entered the 
western part of the town. Lieutenant McLean and his command, and Major 
Maneely being well mounted, escaped before the rebels got into the main part of 
the town. Major Maneely killed one rebel and wounded five by the first fire of 
his gun. 

The rebels being interrupted in their entrance into the town until daylight, 
they employed their time in planting two batteries in commanding positions, and 
getting up their whole column fully three thousand strong. About six a.m., on 
Saturday, they opened with their batteries, and fired some half a dozen shots 
into the town, but they did no damage. Immediately thereafter, their skirmish- 
ers entered by almost every street and alley running out west and south-west, 
and finding the way clear, their cavalry, to the number of about four hundred and 
fifty, came in, under the immediate command of General McCausland. 

Soon after his occupation of the town. General McCausland gave notice that 
unless five hundred thousand dollars in greenbacks, or one hundred thousand 
dollars in gold, were paid in half an hour, the town would be burned. He was 
promptly told that Chambersburg could not, and would not pay any ransom. 
He had the court house bell rung to convene the citizens, hoping to frighten 
them into the pa3'ment of a large sum of money. No one attended. Infuriated 
at the determination of the people, the notorious Major Harry Gilmor rode up 
to a group of citizens : Thomas B. Kennedy, William McLellan, J. McDowell 
Sharpe, Dr. J. C. Richards, W. H. McDowell, W. S. Everett, E. G. Etter, and 
M. A. Foltz, and ordered them under arrest, telling them he would hold them 
for the payment of the money, and if not paid, he would take them to Richmond 
as hostages, and also burn every house in the town. While thus parleying with 
them to no purpose, his men commenced the work of firing. No one was taken 
as a hostage. 

The main part of the town was enveloped in flames in ten minutes. No time 
was given to remove women, children, the sick, or even the dead. They divided 
into squads, and fired every other house, and often every house, if there was any 



756 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



prospect for plunder. They would beat in the door, smash up furniture with an 
axe, throw fluid or oil upon it, and ply the match. They rifled drawers of 
bureaus, stole money, jewelry, watches, and any other valuables ; would often 
present pistols to the heads of inmates, and demand money or their lives. No 
one was spared. In a few hours three million dollars of property was sacrificed, 
three thousand human beings left homeless — many of them penniless — without 
so much as a pretence that the citizens of the doomed town, or any of them, 
had violated any accepted rules of civilized warfare. Such is the deliberate, vol- 
untary record made by General Early, a corps commander in the insurgent army. 
The scenes presented on that terrible occasion beggar description. Says the 
Rev. Joseph Clarke: " The aged,- the sick, the dying, and the dead were carried 

out from their burning 
homes; mothers, with 
babes in their arms and 
surrounded by their fright- 
ened little ones, fled 
through the streets jeered 
and taunted by the brutal 
soldiery ; indeed, their es- 
cape seemed almost a mir- 
acle, as the streets were in 
a blaze from one end to 
the other, and they were 
compelled to flee through 
a long road of fire. Had 
not the da}^ been perfectly 
calm many must have pe- 
rished in the flames. . . 
The moment of greatest 
alarm was not reached un- 
til some of the more hu- 
mane of the rebel officers 
warned the women to flee 
if they wished to escape violence." 

Says another, J. K. Shryock : " For miles around the frightened inhabitants 
fled they knew not whither, some continuing their flight until they dropped to 
the sround with exhaustion. Pocket books and watches were taken bv whole- 
sale, bundles, shawl;?, and valises were snatched out of women's and children's 
hands, to be thrown away. Cows and dogs and cats were burned to death, and 
the death cries of the poor dumb brutes sounded like the groans of human 
beings. It is a picture that may be misrepresented, but cannot be heightened." 

Chambersburg, the seat of justice of Franklin county, is fifty miles south- 
west of Harrisburg, and seventy-seven miles north-west of Baltimoi'e, and was 
founded in 1704 by Benjamin Chambers, whose name it bears. The intercourse 
with the western country being then very limited, and most of the trade and travel 
along the valley toward the south, he was induced to lay his lots in that direc- 
tion, and the town did not extend bej^ond the creek to the west. Some of the 




CHAMBERSBURG AFTER THE BURNING. 

[From a Photograph by Bishop Bros., Chambersburg. J 



FRANKLIN COUNTY. t51 

old trees of his orchard were standing until recently on the west of the 
creek. The increasing trade with the western country, after the Revolution, pro- 
duced an extension of the town on the west side of the creek, which was located 
by Captain Chambers, son of the Colonel, about n91. The first stone house 
erected in the town was at the north-west corner of the Diamond, built by J. Jack, 
about 1170. The first courts holden in the county were in this house, up stairs ; 
and, on one occasion, the ci'owd was so great as to strain the beams and fracture 
the walls, causing great confusion and alarm to the court and bar. 

During the French and Indian wars of 1755 and the Revolution, and the in- 
termediate wars, " Cliambers settlement" was a small frontier village, almost the 
outpost of civilization. A considerable trade was carried on with the most remote 
settlements on the Pittsburgh road by means of pack horses. The old town of 
Chambersburg grew rapidly in trade and population. Its destruction by rebel 
cavalry, on the 30th of July, 1864, has been previouly noted. 

The public buildings of Chambersburg are numerous, and present an attrac- 
tive appearance. The court house has been but recently rebuilt, and is the third 
structure of the kind which has been erected on the site it occupies. The offices 
all have either fire-proof vaults or safes for the protection of the public records. 
The court hall is a prettily finished and furnished room. The cupola of the 
buildino-, in which there is a handsome clock with illuminated dials, is sur- 
mounted by a statue of Benjamin Franklin, after whom the county is named. 
The Chambersburg Academy buildings are situated on an eminence commanding 
a view of the surrounding country, with the North, South, and Blue mountains 
in the distance. The first charter for this school was obtained from the State in 
1797, and the institution has been in existence ever since. It is now in a flour- 
ishing condition. 

Wilson Female College is situated a short distance north of Chambers- 
burg. It is one of the most promising institutions in the country. It was 
handsomely endowed by its founders and is rapidh' acquiring a reputation of 
which its friends may well be proud. Young ladies from all parts of the country 
are in attendance. The buildings are commodious, well ventilated, and com- 
fortable, while the ample grounds which surround it are laid out in artistic style. 
There are twelve cliurches in the town — Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, and 
Reformed, each two; Protestant Episcopal, United Brethren, Church of God, 
and Roman Catholic, each one. Besides a large woolen factory, which manufac- 
tures some of the finest goods in the country, Chambersburg boasts a straw 
board mill, a paper mill, a powder mill, an axe factory, numerous saw, planing, 
and grist mills, and quite a number of other industries. 

Mercersburg borough is situated in the south-western part of the county, 
near the Cove mountain, on an elevated site commanding a view of picturesque 
scenery. At this point, in the year 1729, James Black built a mill, which was 
the first foot-print of civilization, and the nucleus of the settlement there. In 
the j^ear 1780, William Smith became the owner of this mill, and in 1786, his son, 
William Smith, Jr., laid out a town, which at its inception was called." Smith's 
settlement," but subsequently Mercers-burgh, in honor of General Hugh Mercer, 
who was killed at the battle of Trenton. In early days Mercersburg was an 
important point for the trade carried on amongst the Indians and frontier settlers. 



768 ■ff^'S TOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Governor William Findlay, who filled the executive chair of Pennsylvania in 
1817, and who died in Harrisburg, November 12, 1846, was born in Mercers- 
burg, June 20, 1168. About three miles above Mercersburg is a wild gorge in 
the Cove mountain, and within the gorge an ancient road leads up through a 
narrow, secluded glen encircled on every side by high and rugged mountains. 
Here, at the foot of a toilsome ascent in the road, which the traders of the olden 
time designated as the " Stony Batter," are to be seen the remains of a decaj^ed 
orchard and the ruins of two log cabins. Many years ago a Scotch trader dwelt 
in one of these cabins, and had a store in the other, where he drove a small but 
profitable traflflc with the Indians and frontiermen, who came down the moun- 
tain, by exchanging with them powder, fire-arms, etc., for their " Old Mononga- 
hela," and the furs and skins of the ti'appers and Indians. Here, on the 23d of 
April, 1191, to this Scotch trader was born a son, and "Jamie," as he called 
him, was cradled amid the wild scenes of nature and the rude din of frontier 
life. The father, thriving in trade, moved into Mercersburg, and after a few 
years was enabled to send his son to Dickinson college, at Carlisle, where he 
graduated in 1809. "Jamie," of "Stony Batter," was James Buchanan, fif- 
teenth President of the United States. Mercersburg was incorporated into a 
borough in 1831, and up to their removal to Lancaster was the seat of Marshall 
college, and the Theological seminary of the German Reformed Church. 
Mercersburg college, a young but thriving institution, took the place of Mar- 
shall. During the late war, the rebels paid hostile visits to Mercersburg, in the 
forays of 1862, '63, and '64. 

Loudon village lies at the terminus of the Southern Pennsylvania railroad, 
and on the turnpike from Chambersburg to Pittsburgh, fourteen miles from the 
former place, at the base and in the shadow of the mountain. Near Loudon 
stood one of the line of forts erected during the French and Indian wars. This 
town played a somewhat important part in the events transpiring between the 
years 1755-1176. 

Green Castle is a flourishing borough on the line of the Cumberland Valley 
railroad, midway between Hagerstown and Chambersburg. It was laid out in 
1782, and was first settled , by the Irwins, McLanahans, Watsons, Crawfords, 
Nighs, Clarks, McCullohs, Davisons, Grubbs, Lawrences, McClellands. It is in 
the midst of a fertile and highly cultivated country, and it possesses excellent 
school advantages. Its public buildings consist of a town hall, large public 
school, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, and German Reformed churches. The 
inhabitants of this place and region round about were exposed to the incursions 
of marauding merciless parties of Indians from 1755 to 1765. Near Green 
Castle, at the farm of Archibald Fleming, in 1863, William Reels, the first Union 
soldier killed on Pennsylvania soil, fell in a skirmish with rebel cavalry. 

Waynesburg, incorporated into a borough with the name of Waynesboro', 
in 1818, was laid out about the year 1800, by Mr. Wallace, whose name it bore 
for some years. It lies near the base of the South mountain, on the turnpike 
leading by way of Green Castle and Mercersburg across the Cove mountain to 
McConnellsburg. It is a flourishing town in the midst of a region of country of 
great fertility. It boasts of manufactories of no mean character,- notably, the 
"Geyser Company," for the manufacture of agricultural implements. 



FRANKLIN COUNTY. 759 

Marion, a post- village, midway between Chambersburg and Green Castle, 
contains between twenty-five and thirty dwellings. The Cumberland Valley 
railroad passes within sight of the village. Near Marion is the point where the 
Southern Pennsylvania railroad joins the Cumberland Valley railroad, of which 
it is a branch. It passes through Mercersburg to Loudon, a distance of twenty- 
one miles, and was built principall}-^ for the transportation of the iron ore which 
abounds in the neighborhood of Loudon. 

Snow Hill or Schneeberq is on the Antietam creek, near the South 
mountain. Its situation is pleasant, with charming surroundings. It is princi- 
pally a German Seventh Day Baptist settlement. A branch of the original 
society of Ephrata was established many years ago at Snow Hill, under the 
eldership of Peter Lehman and Andreas Schneeberg. 

St. Thomas, a thriving post village, seven miles north-west of Chambersburg, 
was laid out b}^ the Campbells more than three-quarters of a century ago. 
When General Stuart, during the raid into Pennsylvania, mentioned elsewhere, 
passed through St. Thomas en route for Chambersburg, General Wade Hampton, 
one of his party, was fired upon by a zealous denizen of the place, and great 
difficulty was experienced in restraining the troops from destro^dng the town. 

Upper Strasburg is a post village on the old " Three mountain road," 
twelve miles in a direct line north-west of Chambersburg. It lies in a secluded 
spot at the base of the mountains, and in the olden time was a favorite resting 
place for teamsters hauling goods from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. 

Scotland, on the line of the Cumberland Valley railroad, five miles north- 
east of Chambersburg, is one of the oldest towns in the valley. The Conoco- 
cheague creek flows by it, and is spanned by a railroad bridge which was 
destroyed by rebels under General Jenkins, in June, 1863. The old wooden 
bridge has been replaced by a substantial iron one. 

Fayetteville, a post-village on the turnpike from Chambersburg to Gettys- 
burg, is seven miles from the former, and eighteen miles from the latter place. 
This town lay within the line of the rebel communications with Richmond during 
the invasion of July, 1863, and the enem3''s mails were carried through the 
place. On one occasion a mail was captured by some of the citizens. This act 
of temerity so incensed a force of rebel cavalry near the place as to cause them 
to arrest a number of innocent citizens, wlio experienced considerable difficult}' 
in regaining their liberty. 

Mont Alto is a post office, and the seat of Mont Alto furnace, at the termi- 
nus of the Mont Alto railroad, Avhich was built for the ti'ansportation of the 
ore mined and the iron manufactured at that place. The homes of the miners 
and furnace men make quite a village. Mont Alto park is a favoi'ite place of 
summer resort. It is seventeen miles from Chambersburg bj' rail. 

Other important towns are Funkstown, in Quincy township ; Upton, four 
and a half miles from Green Castle ; Bridgeport, three miles from Mercersburg ; 
Orrstown, laid out by John and William Orr, in 1834; Fannetsburg, Dry 
Run, and Concord, in Path valley ; Roxbury, lying at the opening of a precipi- 
tous mountain pass into Path and Amberson's valleys ; and Green Village, 
five miles east of Chambersburg. 



FULTON COUNTY. 




BY JAMES POTT, M'CONNELLSBURQ. 

ULTON COUNTY was erected out of that part of Bedford county 
lying east of Hay's hill, which, in the main, forms its western boun- 
dary ; being bounded on the north by Huntingdon county; on tlie 

east by the North and Tuscarora mountains, and on the south by 

the Maryland line, having an average length of about twenty-six miles, and 
breadth of seventeen miles, with an area of four hundred and twenty square 
miles. It was organized under act of April 19, 1850, which designated Andrew 

J. Fore, David 
._ , _ , Mann, Jr., and 

Patrick Donahoe 
as commissioners 
to fix the bounda- 
ries, etc. Popula- 
tion in 1870,9,360. 
The county re- 
ceived its name 
through the ca- 
price of Senator 
Packer, of Lj'co- 
ming county, who 
was unfriendly to- 
wards the new 
count}', though 
not absolutely 
hostile. In the pe- 
tition asking for 
the new county, 
the name " Liber- 
ty " was desig- 
nated. The success of the measure in the House of Representatives was largely 
due to the efforts and personal popularity of Hon. Samuel Robinson, then one of 
the representatives from Bedford county. In the Senate its passage depended 
on the action of Senator Packer. A citizen of the proposed county, a personal 
friend of Senators Packer and Frailey, both of whom were opposed to the bdl, 
waited on those gentlemen, requesting them to forego their objections. Mr. 
Frailey readily yielded. Mr. Packer was more tenacious, but finally agreed to 
support the bill, on condition he should be permitted to name the new county. 
This was accorded him, and when it came before the Senate, Messrs. Packer and 
Frailey moved to amend, by substituting "Fulton," wherever " Liberty" occurred. 

and its passage was secured. ^ 

760 




■^o'ozr;:,. 



^siJ^^Or^ 



FULTON COUNTY COURT HOUSE. 



FULTON COUNTY 



761 



The count}' is mountainous and liilly. The North, or Kittatinny, and Tus- 
carora mountains, rise like a huge barrier on its eastern boundary, while Ray's 
hill, scarcel}' of less magnitude, forms its western rampart. Between these and 
nearly parallel with them, range Big and Little Scrub ridges, Sideling liill 
Town hill, and a number of other mountains of lesser magnitude, but all rangino- 
in the same general northeasterly and southwesterly direction, prominent 
among which are Dickey's mountain, Tonoloway, and Stil well's ridges, Neo-ro 
mountain, Black-log mountain. Shade mountain, and Broad Top mountain. 
Sidney's Knob rears its head aloft in the northeasterly corner of the county 
formed by a junction of Scrub ridge and Cove mountain, while in the south- 
easterly quarter Lowry's Knob, being the northerly terminus of Dickey's 
mountain, but separated therefrom by a gorge, raises its sugar-loaf peak high 
above the adjacent valley. 

The county is well watered with numerous streams, fed in large part by 
splendid limestone springs. Prominent among the streams are Cove creek, 
Licking creek. Big and Little Tonoloway creeks, running southward, and 
emptying their waters into the Potomac ; Aughwick creek, Woodenbridge creek, 
and Sideling Hill creek, running northward, and emptying into the Juniata. 

The valleys formed by these mountains, and watered by these streams and 
their numerous tributaries are, in the main, fertile and romantic. The moun- 
tains and uplands, and much of the arable lands, are yet covered with luxuriant 
forests of timber of all the varieties indigenous to this State. 

The Chambersburg and Pittsburgh turnpike passes through the centre of the 
county, and going westward, crosses successively North mountain. Scrub 
ridge, Sideling hill, and Ray's hill, affording to the traveler ever-varying and 
delightful landscape views. The turnpike was built about 1814-15. 

The chief industry of the county, at present, is agriculture. All the cereals 
and fruits common to this latitude flourish well, and yield remuneratively under 
careful attention of the husbandman. Limestone soil of great natural fertility 
largely predominates in the Big Cove, Pigeon Cove, Brush Creek valley. Wells' 
valley, and the Aughwick valley, and the productiveness of these sections is 
evidenced in the splendid farm improvements. The red shale lands along the 
old State road, in Licking Creek valley, on Timber ridge, in Whips' Cove, and 
in Buck valley, are scarcely less productive, under careful tillage, than the richer 
limestone soils. 

The county being mountainous, there is naturally much rougli and broken 
land, considerable of which is thin and light, and yields but a poor return for 
the labor bestowed upon it. 

Next to agriculture, the principal industry is the manufacture of leather. 
There are a number of extensive tanning establishments in the count}- ; the two 
principal ones are located, respectivel}^, at Emmaville in the western part of the 
county, and the other in the eastern part of the county, eight miles soutli of 
M'Connellsburg, known as Big Cove tannery. These are establishments of 
large capacity, and rank among the first in the State. Besides these, there are a 
number of others doing a large business, prominent among which is the Saluvia 
tannery, near the centre of the county ; Wells' tannery, in Wells' valle}^, and 
one at Franklin Mills, in the southern part of the county, all of which are 



762 HISTOB T OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

scarcel}^ inferior to the first two mentioned, and all doing a large business, and 
using only oak for tanning. 

Three iron foundries and machine shops, for the manufacture of agricultural 
implements, are located two in McConnellsburg and the other in Fort Littleton, 
Grist mills, lumber mills, and woolen mills comprise, in the main, the remainder 
of the manufacturing industries of the county. 

The great element of the future wealth of this county lies in its vast store of 
minerals, as yet scarcely developed further than to demonstrate its existence. 
Iron ore, in many varieties and of great abundance and richness, is found in 
almost every mountain, hill, and valley, and bituminous coal in the north-western 
part of the county, where the Broad Top coal basin extends within the borders 
of the county to a considerable extent. Both iron ore and coal remain practically 
undeveloped by reason of the absence of railroads, but several railroad projects 
are now pointing in this direction, attracted by the rich mineral fields. 

Iron ores abound everywhere in great profusion — hematite, fossil, pij^e, spec- 
ular, and others — but the richest veins and deposits exist in the eastern portion, 
from the Maryland line to the northern end of the county, while in all parts are 
found rich deposits of the difierent varieties. The dense forests of timber which 
cover the mountains and dot the valleys can supply charcoal, and the bituminous 
coal fields in the northern part of the county the coke, for smelting the ores, in un- 
limited abundance. Dickey's mountain, in the south-eastern part of the county, 
is exceedingly rich in both hematite and fossil ores, while Lowry's Knob, at the 
northern terminus of Dickey's mountain, six miles south of McConnellsburg, is 
a mass of richest hematite ore, and the same is found in different parts of the 
contiguous valley and surrounding hills. 

In early times, beginning as far back as 1827, and coming down to 1847, there 
were iron works, known as "Hanover Iron Works," located in this vicinity, at a 
point nine miles southward of McConnellsburg, where exists the best water power 
in the count3'. These were considered extensive works in their day, consisting 
of two furnaces and two forges. The ore for the use of these works was the 
hematite, mined, mainly, out of Lowry's Knob, about one mile from the works. 
It was not until about 1841 that the fossil ore in Dickey's mountain, near the 
works, was discovered. But the iron business was then languishing, and no 
extensive mining was done in this field, though enough to demonstrate both its 
quantity and quality. The utter depression and destruction of the iron business 
was completed in 1846-7, at which time operations at these establishments were 
suspended, and the works finally abandoned — the result of the free trade tariff of 
1846, and not from want of either ore or fuel. 

For more than twenty years iron ore was mined from Lowry's Knob in immense 
quantities, and yet scarcely an impression has been made, so vast is the body in 
that locality. The ore used in the Hanover furnaces was, in greater part, obtained 
by surface mining, though the main body was pierced, b^'' shafting, to the depth 
of eighty feet in solid ore, with no indication of its limit being reached. In 1871, 
a practical miner and geologist made a scientific examination of the iron ore 
deposits and veins in this locality, and in his report of the hematite in Lowry's 
Knob, he says: "The lay, or deposit, extends for a distance of about six hun- 
dred yards ; the quality of the ore is very good, and would yield above fifty per 



i 



FULTON COUNTY. 763 

cent, in furnace. The old openings in the Lowry's Knob bank indicate the 
lay to be about fort3^ feet thick or wide, and there is no telling how deep it may 
go, without shafting. In the former workings it had been shafted to the depth 
of about eighty feet in solid ore, with no indications of 'bottom.' " 

Of the Dickey's mountain formation he says: "^It contains the Montour's 
Ridge or Danville ore measures ; one of these strata, called fossil ore, I consider 
one of the best and most reliable veins of ore, outside of the primitive formation, 
in Pennsylvania, and always of nearly uniform character. This ore, whenever 
used, even with inferior ores, makes the best of iron, it being free from sulphur 
and phosphorus, and generally yields from fifty to sixty per ceRt. metallic iron. 
The block ore is also found in these measures, as also other irregular seams. 
There is an abundance of good limestone, for smelting purposes, near b}'." 

In the vicinity of Fort Littleton and Burnt Cabins, in the northern end of 
the county, is an immense field of the richest quality of iron ore. Its proximity 
to the Broad Top coal fields will eventually make this a great centre of iron 
manufacturing when railroad facilities shall have opened it to market. The 
final survey of the People's Freight railway passes through the heart of this 
iron ore field. 

From the old Hanover iron works, the whole belt of country between the 
North mountain and Scrub ridge (including these mountain ranges), to the 
northern end of the county, is interspersed with valuable and extensive iron ore 
veins and deposits, awaiting only the hand of enterprise and public spirit to 
develop and utilize the crude material and reap a rich reward. Of many other 
parts of the county the same can be said. It is asserted, and with much show 
of truth, that no territory of equal extent, in this State, is so rich in iron ore 
and of so many varieties, as is Fulton count}'. 

That part of the Broad Top coal basin lying within the borders of this 
county remains undeveloped (except several openings, worked on a limited scale 
to supply local demand), for want of railroad outlet. But the iron track of the 
East Broad Top railroad is pointing thitherward, and in due time will reach 
and develop the coal and iron in that interesting region. Dr. H. S. Wishart 
owns and operates the principal coal mine for local traffic. Strong indications 
of coal exist in other parts of the county, southward of Broad Top, along Side- 
ling hill. Scrub ridge, and Dickey's mountain ; but no systematic eflTort has yet 
been made to demonstrate its existence or non-existence. 

Many years ago, antedating 1770, and before any roads were made through 
that section (other than, perhaps, " bridle paths," over which no bulky material 
could be conveyed), a mine was opened by some adventurous spirits, in a gap 
of Sideling hill, some eight or ten miles south of where the Chambersburg and 
Pittsburgh turnpike now crosses that mountain. The oldest inhabitant has no 
knowledge of the time when this was done, other than what he has heard told by 
his ancestors, and they knew only what they had received b}' tradition, which 
said that silver had been mined there. Some of the earliest surveys of lands in 
that locality refer to " an old mine," as a permanent and well established land- 
mark. The "mine," as found by the earliest settlers, consisted of a deep shaft, 
carefully cased with timber which was then in a decayed condition. Certain it 
is that somebody, long before the feet of white settlers trod that locality, found, 



Y64 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

or expected to find, something there that had value in less bulk than iron or coal, 
because there was then no use for these, so remote from the habitation of man 
and no facilities for transporting such bulk}^ materials. The story of gold and 
silver is traditional onl}^, but that a mine of many feet in depth and skillfully 
timbered existed there before that section was settled by whites, is a fact for 
which there is unquestionable evidence. 

The earliest settlement within the territory now comprising Fulton county 
is somewhat shrouded in uncertainty. Among the first settlements within what 
is now Franklin county, was that made about 1 730 by Benjamin Chambers, who 
rapidly gathered* around him a prosperous colony of Scotch-Irish on the Conoco- 
cheague. From thence radiated out toward the w^est some of the most daring and 
adventurous pioneers, who were not long in discovering the fertility, resources, 
and attractiveness of the Great Cove west of the North or Kittatinny mountain. 
When these venturesome and intrepid Scotch-Irish first set their stakes in this valley 
is not exactly known, but it was somewhere between 1730 and 1740. The oldest of- 
fice title to land in this valley is believed to be a Proprietary warrant dated 
November 6, 1749, granted to David Scott, but the laud was not surveyed until 
1760, though it was settled upon previously. The land west of the Kittatinny 
mountains was not purchased from the Indians till 1758, nine years after the issuing 
of the warrant to David Scott. 

These early settlers were subjected to forays by predatory bands of Indians, 
who, besides plunder, secured scalps and made captives from among them fre- 
quently. But there is no record of any complaint on the part of the Indians 
against the whites for trespassing on their lands until 1142, when the}' formally 
lodged complaint to the authorities against this invasion of theii' domain by the 
settlers in the Great Cove, on the Aughwick and on Licking creek. The Gover- 
nor of the Province, on this complaint, issued a proclamation warning these 
settlers off the lands of the Indians, but the proclamation was not heeded. At 
that time the territory was included in Lancaster county, if it was included under 
any authority at all. Cumberland county was organized in 1T50, and it was not 
until then that the Provincial authorities interposed legal force to eject the set- 
tlers. They found one Carlton, and a few other settlers on the Aughwick ; a 
number in the Great Cove, and some on Licking creek, "near the Potomac." 
The number of settlers found at these points at this time (1750) numbered sixty- 
two. These were expelled by the oflScers of the Provincial government, with the 
aid of the magistrates and sheriff of Cumberland county. They were ejected 
" with as much lenity as the execution of the law would allow, and their cabins 
were burnt." But the restless spirit of adventure impelled these ejected pioneers 
to return to their desolated homes, and with them came others, willing to risk 
the dangers of extreme frontier life. Again they were harrassed by the Indians 
and again ejected by the Provincial authorities, and again they returned, fol- 
lowed by others, their numbers steadil^^ increasing. 

After the defeat of Braddock by the French and Indians, in 1755, the weight 
of savage ferocity fell heavily on the sturdy frontiersmen, and the pluck of these 
pioneers was sorely tried, and in many instances they paid dearly for their 
temerity in pushing off into the wilderness to carve out homes for themselves 
and their posterity. A terror to the wild Indians of this region was " Half 



FULTON COUNTY. 



T65 



Indian," who, with a company of picked men, scoured the frontier, awed the 
Indians, and saved the lives of many of the settlers. It is recorded that in 1156, 
" Half Indian," with his company, left the Great Cove, and the Indians taking 
advantage of this, murdered many and carried others into captivit}'. This dis- 
quietude was, however, in a large measure, settled by the purchase from the 
Indians of the land west of the Kittatinny mountains, known as the " Purchase 
of 1758." 

In the spring of 1757, as we learn from a certificate of Governor Denny, "the 
savage Indians came and attacked " the house of William Linn, residing on 
Tonolloway creek, in Ayr township, "killed and scalped his eldest son, a man of 
twenty-three 3'ears of age, took another son away with them of seventeen years 
of age, and broke the skull of a third son 
of twelve years of age, and scalped him 
and left him for dead, of which he after- 
ward recovered. . . . That the enemy 
Indians repeating their attacks, the inhabi- 
tants living in those parts were obliged to 
desert their plantations, and leave their 
effects behind." 

The settlements on the Aughwick 
and in the Great Cove were composed 
mainly of Scotch-Irish, while those " on 
the Licking Creek hills, near the Poto- 
mac," came mostly under Maryland rights, 
were of different nationalities, and more 
cosmopolitan in their character. The 
Provincial boundary line had not then 
been extended by survey beyond the 
summit of the Kittatinny mountain, and 
much uncertainty existed as to how much 
of the Licking Creek hills and the Great 
Cove were within the jurisdiction of Penn- 
sylvania, and the difficulty was not settled until the survey of the line by Mason 
and Dixon in 1767. The first general bloody and murderous slaughter of 
defenceless settlers and their families on this uncertain jurisdiction was made \)j 
the Indians and their French allies in 1755. 

A private stockade was erected in early days on the farm now owned by 
James Kendall, Esq., and on the spot occupied by his dwelling, two miles south 
of McConnellsburg ; and another in the southern end of the count}', on the farm 
now owned bj'^ Major George Chesnvit, for a refuge from Indian ferocity; while 
Fort Littleton, in the northern end of the county, one of the chain of govern- 
ment forts from the east to Fort Pitt, served the same purpose in that locality. 
Neither record nor tradition cites any other posts for defence or security within 
the limits of this county. 

Among the very earliest who settled in this county were Scott, the Kendalls, 
and the Coyles, with a few others whose names have passed from the memory 
of the oldest living descendant of the early pioneers. The widow Margaret Ken- 




A. JfomI loForlLoiidiimt. 
BJIill- 

jy.liiimuk'i. 

£- 0/)kcr6 Quarters, 



PLAN OF FORT LYTTLETON — 1755. 



iy66 BISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

dall, with her sons John and Robert, were among the earliest, and she was the 
first white person who died a noiural death in the Great Cove, which occurred 
in 1750. Her posterity is numerous, and occupies a large portion of the best 
lands in the valley. Closely following these, came the Owens, Taggarts, Patter- 
sons, Sloans, McConnells, McCleans, Alexanders, McKinleys, Wilsons, Beattys, 
Brackenridges, Hunters, Rannells, Gibs, etc., all unmistakable Scotch-Irish 
names. From among these the names of Kendall, Scott, Taggart, Sloan, Patter- 
son, and Alexander still live in the valley in their posterity of the third, fourth, 
and fifth generations. 

The tract of land on which McConnellsburg is located was granted to 
William and Daniel McConnell, by warrant dated 1762, though there is record 
evidence that the land was settled some years earlier. The land granted to 
David Scott by Proprietary warrant in 1749 adjoins this McConnell tract, and 
adjoining the Scott tract is one warranted to James Galbraith in 1755. 

The settlement of the valleys of the Big and Little Tonoloway creeks, in the 
southern part of the county, was nearly or quite cotemporaneous with the 
earliest settlements elsewhere. Here, as on Licking creek, jurisdiction was 
uncertain, and claims were made and subsequent warrants for land obtained 
under both Pennsylvania and Mai-yland authority, and often covering the same 
ground, which, in later years, gave rise to vexatious and expensive litigation, 
involving titles to lands. Among the earliest settlers on Licking creek and the 
Tonoloways appear the names of Brown, Evans, Mills, Truax, Gillyland, 
McCrea, Linn, Stilwell, Leech, Mann, Slaughter, Critchfield, Yeates, Shelby, 
Gordon, Comb, Breathed, and Graves ; and on the Aughwick, Henry, Burd, 
Wilds, and Thompson figure among the early pioneers. 

The settlement of Wells' valley- and along the east base of Sideling hill, 
began only after Braddock's defeat and the purchase of 1758. The first settler 
in Wells' valley was a Mr. Wells, in 1760, as a hunter. In 1772 the first perma- 
nent settlement was made by Alexander Alexander, but he was driven out b}'^ the 
Indians several times, and returned finally only after the close of the Revolu- 
tionary war, and remained until his death, in 1815. Among the earlier settlers who 
followed Alexander into Wells' valley, were Hai'din, Wright, Stevens, Woodcock, 
Moore, Edwards, Wishart, and others. Doctor David Wishart was the first resi- 
dent physician in Wells' valley. He was a Scotchman from Edinburgh, first loca- 
ted at Hagerstown, Maryland, whence his practice extended to the Broad Top 
country, and when the settlement of Wells' valley had begun in earnest he 
removed and settled there. Among the first settlers along Sideling hill, and 
around the head waters of Tonoloway and some of the westerly tributaries of 
Licking creek, were Francis Ranney, the Mortons, the Crossans, and the Mel- 
lotts. Of the latter it can almost be said that their progeny is "as the sands of 
the sea shore." 

Little is known or recorded of the part taken by the settlers of this county in 
the Revolutionary war, other than that a number of them joined their brethren 
of the Cumberland Valley in that struggle. Of the veterans of the war of 1812, 
some still remain to tell the young soldiers of the present times of the days when 
they went soldiering and how it was done in those days. In the late war for the 
suppression of the rebellion, this county, though small in numbers, contributed 



FULTON COUNTY. ' 767 

more than its quota to the armies of the Union. The majority of the townships 
were poor in taxable property, and could not afford to pay local bounties, while 
the wealthy counties of the State could offer tempting inducements, and so 
attracted large numbers of the young men, leaving the quota demanded to be 
filled from what was left. By this process the county furnished not onl^;- its own 
quota to the Union armies, but contributed much material toward filling the 
quotas of some of the wealthy eastern counties, and in this way it is that 
this county contributed, in proportion to its population, more men to the 
service, for the suppression of the rebellion, than any other in the State, and was 
drained of its arms-bearing men more closely than any other community. 

McCoNNELLSBURG borough, the county seat, is pleasantly located in the heart 
of the Great Cove, and is surrounded by fertile and well cultivated farms. The 
town was laid out in lt86, by McConnell, and was incorporated into a borough, 
March 26, 1814. The court house is a commodious structure of brick, and sui-- 
passes similar buildings in many of the older and wealthier counties of the State. 
The Presbyterian, Reformed, Lutheran, and Methodists, have neat and com- 
modious church buildings. 

■Fort Littleton and Burnt Cabins are prosperous villages, situate on the old 
State road, and in the midst of a fertile iron and agricultural district. The 
former derives its name from one of the frontier forts, located near that place, 
and the latter obtained its name from the circumstances of the burning of the 
cabins of some of the early settlers, near that spot, by the Provincial authorities. 

New Grenada is a brisk village, situated in the gap of Sideling hill, near the 
coal fields, from which it drives a considerable trade. 

Harrisonville, Knobsville, Hustontown, Speersville, Dublin Mills, 
Water Fall Mills, Akersville, Gapsville, Emmaville, Needmore, War- 
FORDSBURG, Franklin Mills, Webster Mills, Big Cove Tannery, and Wells 
Tannery are all post villages of some pretensions, and centres of trade for the 
surrounding country. , 

The formation of Ayr township is nearly coeval with the date of the erection 
of Cumberland county (of which it was then a part), which occurred in 1750. 
But no record of the date of the formation of Ayr township can be found in the 
Cumberland county records. At the time of the formation of tins township it 
comprised all the territory from " Provincial line " (Maryland) northward to and 
embracing part of what is now Huntingdon county, and westward to, or even 
bej^ond. Sideling hill. After the erection of Bedford county, in 1771, it embraced 
all the territory of wliat is now Fulton county, and also that of (now) Warren 
township, Franklin county, which was part of Ayr township prior to the erection 
of that county, in 1784. At April court of Bedford county, in 1771, when the 
new county was divided into townships, it is recorded "Air townsliip as fixed 
by the Cumberland county court," but before this the Cumberland county court 
had formed Dublin township, out of the northern part of Ayr. Ayr township 
was most likely formed and organized in 1758, immediately after the purchase of 
that year of this territory from the Lidians. 

Bethel township, formed January 12, 1773, was the first township, now 
wholly within Fulton county, that was organized under Bedford county juris- 
diction. It embraced the Tonoloway settlements, and extended westward 



768 HI8T0BY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

along the Provincial line to the present line between Bedford and Fulton 
counties. 

The first record of Belfast township in the Quarter Sessions of Bedford 
county, is in the Docket No. 3, in 1795. It was then an organized township* 
Docket No. 2, which contains date of organization, could not be found, though 
diligent search was made. 

Brush Creek township was formed out of part of that East Providence which 
was separated from Bedford county in the erection of Fulton, but uo record of the 
date of its organization can be found. It was subsequently enlarged by the 
annexation of a part of Bethel township. 

Dublin township, erected out of a part of Ayr, was organized by the Cum- 
berland county court, but, like Ayr, search in the Cumberland county records 
reveals nothing as -to date, and, as in the case of Ayr, the Bedford county 
records of April 16, ITtl, say: "Dublin, as fixed by the Cumberland county 
court." Like the names of Ayr, Bethel, and Belfast, the name of this township 
indicates with unequivocal exactness that the Scotch-Irish element prepon- 
derated in the early settlements. 

Licking Creek township was formed September 21, 1837. 

Taylor was formed November, 1849. The name of this township is derived 
from the then President of the United States — General Zachary Taylor. 

Thompson was formed February 12, 1849, and named in honor of Judge 
Thompson. 

ToD formed March 20, 1849, and named in honor of Judge Tod. 

Union formed January 9, 1864, out of part of Bethel during the late war for 
the Union, and as the sentiment of the people — Republicans and Union Demo- 
crats being largely in the ascendant — was against disunion and secession, they 
expressed their feelings in the name of the new township. 

Wells township was organized September 1, 1849, under the name of "Augh- 
wick," while yet in Bed^rd county. Subsequently the name was changed to 
" Wells," but there is no record of the change, either in the Bedford or Fulton 
courts, nor is the motive of the change recorded. The valley composing the prin- 
cipal part of the township, and the principal stream running through it, are named 
" Wells," from the first white settler in there. 



GREENE COUNTY. 




[With acknowledgments to Alfred Creigh, LL.D., and W. J. Bayard.] 

REENE county was erected into a county on February 9, HOG, being 
taken entirely from the southern portion of Washington county, 
which at that time constituted five townships, viz., Franklin, 
Greene, Morgan, Cumberland, and Rich Hill. It was named after 
Greene, whose military abilities were appreciated by General 



Nathaniel 

Washington, and whose 
counsel and advice in all 
cases of doubt and difficul- 
ty were adopted. He was 
appointed a major-general 
on August 26, 1775, and 
was a prominent actor in 
the heart-thrilling scenes 
of the Revolution, but more 
particularly in the southern 
iepartment of the United 
States. David Gray, Ste- 
phen Gapin, Isaac Jenkin- 
son, William Meetkirk, 
and James Seals were ap- 
pointed the commissioners 
by the Legislature to or- 
ganize the county, attend 
to the la3nng out of its 
boundaries, and procure 
land within five miles of 
the centre of the county 
upon which should be 
erected the court house. 




other county 
The act also 



GREENE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, WAYNESBURG. 

[From a Photograph by S. G. Rogers, Waynesburg.] 



prison, and 

buildings. 

provided that until the court house was erected, the courts should be held at the 

house of Jacob Kline, Esq., on Muddy creek. 

Greene county -is the south-western county of the State of Pennsylvania, 
being bounded on the east by the Monongahela river (which has a front of 
twenty -five miles), north by Washington countj^, west and south by West 
Virginia. Its length east and west is thirty-two miles, and its breadth nineteen, 
having, therefore, an area of six hundred square miles. Its central latitude is 
39° 50' north, longitude 3° 15' west, from Washington City. The act of 
2y 7C9 



7T0 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

AssemWy of February 9, 1796, thus defines its boundaries : " Beginning at the 
mouth of Ten Mile creek, on the Monongahela river ; thence up Ten Mile creek 
to the junction of the North and South forks of the said creek ; thence up said 
North forlc to Colonel William Wallace's mill ; thence up a south-westerly 
direction to the nearest part of the dividing ridge between the North and South 
forks of the Ten Mile creek ; thence along the top of the said ridge to the ridge 
which divides the waters of Ten Mile and Wheeling creeks ; thence in a straight 
line to the head of Enslow's Branch of Wheeling creek ; thence down said branch 
to the western boundary of the State ; thence south along the said line to the 
river Monongahela ; and thence down the said river to the place of beginning." 
This boundary continued in existence until 1802, when the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania changed the lines between Washington and Greene counties as 
follows : " Beginning on the present line on the lidge that divides the waters of 
Ten Mile and Wheeling creeks near Jacob Bobbett'^ ; thence in a straight line to 
the head-waters of Hunter's fork of Wheeling creek ; and thence down the same 
to the mouth thereof, where it meets the present county line." The same act 
declares that so much of the county of Greene as lies west of the road called 
Ryerson's road, is hereby annexed to Findley township, and that part which lie9 
east of the said road is hereby annexed to Morris township. Governor M'Keail 
had authority to appoint commissioners to run and mark the aforesaid line, th« 
expense to be equally divided between Washington and Greene counties. 

The count}^ is well watered. The principal stream is the Monongahela river, 
which affords navigation the entire year, and is considered very safe. It 
rises in the western spurs of the Appalachian range of mountains, and receives 
many small streams before it reaches Pennsylvania, and flows along the eastern 
side of the county. Ten Mile creek rises in Rich Hill township, flows east 
through the whole county, several miles be3^ond Clarksville, and empties into the 
Monongahela. Dunkard's creek is a considerable stream, and flows along the 
south boundar}' of the State (sometimes deviating into Virginia), the whole 
length of tlie county, to the Monongahela. Whitelj- creek has a source of about 
fifteen miles, and flows into the Monongahela. The remaining streams are Muddy, 
RuflT's, Bates', Brown's, Bush, and Gray's Fork, etc., Wheeling and Fish creeks; 
the two latter in the western part of the county, and flowing into the Ohio river. 

The valleys of the foregoing streams are among the most delightful in the 
State, and where the forest has not yet been cut down, every variet}^ of timber, 
of the largest growth, stands to beautify the sceneiy. The intervening ridges, 
running east and west, are also overshadowed by luxuriant forest trees. The 
northern sides of the hills have a deep rich soil adapted to corn and grass, and 
the south, though generally less fertile, produces wheat and rjQ abundantly. 
Within the county are 389,120 acres of land, of which 230,594 are improved, and 
the balance unimproved. The improved land is divided into 2,310 farms, rang- 
ing in size from three to five hundred acres. . 

Greene county belongs to the great secondary formation of the State of 
Pennsylvania, and has a due proportion of the three minerals, coal, iron, and 
salt. Bituminous coal is found almost everywhere, in inexhaustible quantities, 
and in many instances along water courses within one, two, or three feet of the 
surface. Whitely creek has for its bed strata of coal in some places for mUes 



GEEENE COUNTY. 771 

which, during the summer months when the water is low, is taken for the supply of 
the surrounding country. The labor of digging and transporting it constitutes 
the entire cost. Thei'e are extensive beds of iron ore on Dunkard and Ten Mile 
creeks. Formerly a forge and furnace were in operation on Ten Mile creek, but 
they have been long idle. Salt licks are known on Dunkard creek, near the 
south-east corner of the county, but no salt works have been erected. 

Until recently Greene county had no railroad facilities, but the construction 
of the naiTow-gauge road from Washington to Waynesburg will open up to 
the citizens of the county a cheap mode of transportation, whereby they will be 
enabled to send their produce to market. The benefits which the borough of 
Waynesburg will receive will be incalculable, resulting in increase of population, 
erection of new buildings, and the impetus given to trade and the development 
of its industrial resources. 

Greene county was originally settled by adventurers from Maryland and Vir- 
ginia while 3^et in the possession of the Indians. As early as 1*[54, David Tygart 
had settled in the valley which still bears his name in north-western Virginia. 
Several other families and individuals came into the region in the course of five 
or six years afterwards. These early adventurers were men of iron nerves and 
stout hearts — a compound of the hunter, the warrior, and the husbandman ; they 
came prepared to endure all the hardships of life in the wilderness ; to encounter 
its risks, and defend their precarious homes against the wily natives of the forest. 
For some ten or fifteen 3''ears the possession of the country was hotl}^ contested, 
and alternately held and abandoned by the English on the one hand, and the 
French and Indians on the other. Families were frequently murdered, cabins 
burnt, and the settlements thus for a time broken up. Stockade forts were re- 
sorted to by the inhabitants for the protection of their families in time of inva- 
sion. One of these, called Garard's fort, was situated on Whltely creek, about 
seven miles west of Greensburg. Settlements were made at a very early date by 
the Rev. John Corbly and his family, and others, on Muddy creek. From a 
letter of the latter, under date of July 8, 1*785, he states : " On the second Sab- 
bath in May, in the year 1782, being my appointment at one of my meeting- 
houses, about a mile from my dwelling house, I set out with my dear wife and 
five children for public worship. Not suspecting any danger, I walked behind 
two hundred yards, with my Bible in my hand, meditating ; as I was thus em- 
ployed, all on a sudden, I ^as greatly alarmed with the frightful shrieks of my 
dear family befoi'e me. I immediately ran, with all the speed I could, vainly 
hunting a club as I ran, till I got within forty yards of them ; my poor wife see- 
ing me, cried to me to make my escape ; an Indian ran up to shoot me; I then 
fled, and by so doing outran him. My wife had a sucking child in her arms; 
this little infant they killed and scalped. They then struck my wife several 
times, but not getting her down, the Indian who aimed to shoot me, i-an to her, 
shot her through the body, and scalped her ; my little boy, an only son, about 
six years old, they sunk the hatchet into his brain, and thus dispatched him. A 
daughter, besides the infant, they also killed and scalped. My eldest daughter, 
who is yet alive, was hid in a tree, about twenty yards from the place where the 
rest were killed, and saw the whole proceedings. She, seeing the Indians all go 
off, as she thought, g t up, and deliberately crept out from the hollow trunk ; 
I 



I 



772 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

but one of them espying her, ran hastily up, linocked her down, and scalped her; 
also her only surviving sister, one on whose head they did not leave more than 
an inch round, either of flesh or skin, besides taking a piece of her skull. She 
and the before-mentioned one are still miraculously preserved, though, as you 
must think, I have had, and still have, a great deal of trouble and expense with 
them, besides anxiety about them, insomuch that I am, as to worldly cii'cum- 
stances, almost ruined. I am yet in hopes of seeing them cured ; they still, 
blessed be God, retain their senses, notwithstanding the painful operations they 
have already and must yet pass through." 

Many incidents of pioneer life occurred in this locality. The warrior, with 
his gun, hatchet, and knife, prepared alike to slay the deer and bear for food, and 
also to defend himself against and destroy his savage enemy, was not the only 
kind of man who sought these wilds. A very interesting and tragic instance was 
given of the contrary by the three brothers Eckarly. These men, t)unkards by 
profession, left the eastern and cultivated parts of Pennsylvania, and plunged 
into the depths of the western wilderness. Their first permanent camp was on a 
creek flowing into the Monongahela river, in the south-western part of Pennsyl- 
vania, to which stream they gave the name of Dunkard creek, which it still bears. 
These men of peace employed themselves in exploring the country in every di- 
rection, in which one vast, silent, and uncultivated waste spread around them. 
From Dunkard's creek these men removed to Dunkard's bottom, on Cheat river, 
which they made their permanent residence, and, with a savage war raging at no 
considerable distance, they spent some years unmolested, indeed, it is probable, 
unseen. 

In order to obtain some supplies of salt, ammunition, and clothing. Dr. Tho- 
mas Eckarly recrossed the mountains with some peltry. On his return from 
Winchester to rejoin his brothers, he stopped on the south branch of the Poto- 
mac, at Fort Pleasant, and roused the curiosity of the inhabitants by relating his 
adventures, removals, and present residence. His avowed pacific principles, as 
pacific religious principles have everywhere else done, exposed him to suspicion, 
and he was detained as a confederate of the Indians, and as a spy come to exa- 
mine the frontier and its defences. In vain did Dr. Eckarly assert his innocence 
of any connection with the Indians, and that, on the contrary'', neither he nor his 
brothers had ever seen an Indian since their residence west of the mountains. 
He could not obtain his liberty until, by his own suggestion, he was escorted by 
a guard of armed men, who were to reconduct him a prisoner to Fort Pleasant, 
in case of any confirmation of the charges against him. 

These arbitrar}?^ proceedings, though in themselves very unjust, it is probable, 
saved the life of Dr. Eckarly, and his innocence was made manifest in a most 
shocking manner. Appi'oaching the cabin where he had left and anxiousl}^ hoped 
to find his brothers, himself and his guai'd were presented with a heap of ashes. 
In the yard lay the mangled and putrid remains of the two brothers, and, as if to 
add to the horrors of the scene, beside the corpses lay the hoops on which their 
scalps had been dried. Dr. Eckarly and the now sympathizing men buried the 
remains, and not a prisoner, but a forlorn and desolate man, he returned to the 
South Branch. This was amongst the opening scenes of that lengthened tragedy 
which was acted through upwards of thirty years. 



QBEENE COUNTY. 7Y3 

The more permanent and peaceful settlement of the county was not made until 
after the close of the Revolution and when all fears of Indian depredations had 
passed. From that period onward Greene county began gradually to fill up 
with settlers from the eastern portion of the State, and also of a due proportion 
of the foreign immigration. Although not favorably located, and yet with abun- 
dant resources, Greene county has kept her place in the march of progress. The 
population in 1800, which was 8,605, increased to 25,787 in 1870, and since then 
has steadily augmented. 

Waynesburg, the county seat of Greene county, was laid out in 1796, on 
land purchased b}^ the commissioners from Thomas Slater. It was named after 
General Anthony Wayne, the hero of Stony Point. It was incorporated as a 
borough, January 20, 1816, and is situated nearly in the centre of the county, in 
a fertile valley, on the banks of Ten Mile creek, eleven miles from the Mononga- 
hela river, forty-six miles south of Pittsburgh. The public buildings consist of 
a fine brick court house, the dome surmounted by a full-length statue of General 
Greene, and contains the county offices. On the same lot the prison is erected. 
Within the borough limits is a Presbyterian church, a Cumberland Presbyterian 
church, a Baptist church, a Methodist Protestant church, a Methodist Elpiscopal 
church, a Roman Catholic church, and an African church, Waynesburg College, 
and a union school-house for the education of the children of the people. 
Waynesburg College was organized in 1851, to provide the means for a liberal 
education of both sexes, and received a charter from the Legislature, which 
empowered the college authorities to confer all the degrees usually conferred by 
colleges and universities. It has seven male and four female teachers, with three 
literary societies, halls, and libraries. The trustees are engaged in the erection 
of another college edifice, which, while it will be an ornament to the ancient 
borough, will add greatly to the comfort and convenience of professors and 
students. It presents a front of one hundred and fifty feet in length and eighty 
feet in breadth, built of brick, Jackson's fort is near the eastern limits of the 
borough, and was built by the early settlers as a protection against the incursions 
of the Indians, who at that time prowled about the settlement. 

Carmichaels borough is situated on Muddy creek, twelve miles east of 
Waynesburg, in a rich and beautiful valley. On March 20, 1810, Greene 
academy was incorporated, and two thousand dollars were given to it on condi- 
tion that not exceeding six poor children should be educated therein. The town 
was originally named New Lisbon, and is one of the oldest in the county. 

Greensboro' is a thriving town on the left bank of the Monongahela river 
at the head of the slackwater navigation of that strealn. It was laid out in 1791, 
by Elias Stone, from a tract of land called "Delight," patented by Stone and 
others in 1787. The original town plot consists of eightj'-six lots, of half an 
acre each, and is laid. out upon pleasant bottom lands and high banks, which 
extend to a second bench rising at a very gentle slope, back into the country, 
afl'ording an eligible site for a large town. It is the shipping point of a fine 
district of back country. Contiguous to the town are large deposits of fire-clay, 
superior to any west of the mountains. There are a number of industries which 
add largel}'' to its material wealth and prosperity. 

Rice's Landing, in Jefierson township, is a brisk village on the Monongahela. 



774 



HIS TOB T OF PENNS YL VANIA. 



It was settled the latter part of last century by a Mr. McLane, who kept for 
many years a hostelry at that point. It has considerable trade with the sur- 
rounding towns. Jefferson is a flourishing borough. It is the seat of a college 
in successful operation, under the patronage of the Baptists. Mount Morris, in 
Perry township, is located on Duukard creek, near the Virginia line. It is a 
tlirivino; village. 

The original townships, which were struck off from Washington to form 
Greene county, were Cumberland, Franklin, Greene, Morgan, and Rich Hill. 
These have had an existence since July 15, 1181, when the metes and boundaries 
of the townships of Washington were laid out. From them have since been 
formed, from time to time, as the wants of the people required, Aleppo, Centre, 
Dunkard, Gilmore, Jackson, Jefferson, Monongahela, Morris, Perry, Spring 
Hill, Washington, Wayne, and Whitely. 




MEMOKIAL HALIi, CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



HUNTINGDON COUNTY. 



BY J. SIMPSON AFRICA, HUNTINGDON. 

HE entire valley of the Juniata was included in the county of Cum- 
berland. From this county Bedford was formed in 1771. Hunting- 
don was erected from Bedford by an act of Assembly, passed on the 
20th day of September, 1787. By this act, Benjamin Elliott, Thomas 
Duncan Smith, Ludwig Sell, George Ashman, and William McElevy, were 
appointed trustees, who, or any thi'ee of whom, were directed to take assurances 





VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF HUNTINGDON. 
[From a Photograph by L. B. Kline, Huntingdon.] 

of ground in the town of Huntingdon for the site of a court house and jail. 
By an act passed on the 2d day of April, 1790, Andrew Henderson and Richard 
Smith were added to fill vacancies that occurred by the death of one and the 
removal from the county of another of the original trustees. 

The immense territory of the county, stretching from the line of Franklin 
county over the Allegheny to the West Branch of the Susquehanna, was cur- 
tailed by the erection of Centre county, February 13, 1800 ; Clearfield and Cam- 

775 



7T6 BISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

bria counties, March 26, 1804; Blair county, February 26, 1846, and by the 
annexation of a small corner to Mifflin county. 

This county lies wholly within the central mountainous region, consequently 
its surface is ver}^ much broken. On the south side of the Juniata there occur, 
in passing from the east toward the west, ranged in almost parallel lines, Tusca- 
rora, Shade, Black Log, Jack's, Sideling Hill, Terrace, and Tussey's mountains ; 
and on the north side. Jack's, Standing Stone, Broad, Bare Meadow, Greenlee, 
Tussey's, and Ganoe mountains. Intervening between these mountains are 
numerous ridges of less elevation, called : Pine, Sandy, Saddle Back, Blue, Owen's, 
Chestnut, Rocky, Clear, Allegrippus, Piney, Warrior's, Shaver's Creek, Bald- 
Eagle, and many others of minor importance. 

Broad Top mountain is situated at the southern line of the county, between 
Sideling Hill and Terrace mountains. Its broad summits tower above the adja- 
cent mountains. The existence of semi-bituminous coal in this mountain was 
known a hundred j'ears ago. Mines were opened for the supply of blacksmiths 
and others, and the products hauled in wagons to Huntingdon, Bedford, Cham- 
bersburg, and other towns, and carried from Pviddlesburg in arks to towns along 
the Juniata and Susquehanna. Two railroads, the Huntingdon and Broad Top, 
and the East Broad Top, are now employed in the transportation of the coal. 

The entire county is drained by the Juniata. . Its chief tributaries are : Ra3^s- 
town branch. Little Juniata river, and Tuscarora, Aughwick, Hare's, Mill, Stand- 
ing Stone, Vineyard, and Shaver's creeks. Other branches of these streams are 
called : Black Log, Shade, Little Aughwick, Sideling Hill, Three Springs, Trough, 
James, Shy Beaver, Sadler's, and Spruce creeks. These streams afford numerous 
and valuable water-powers,, many of which are utilized in driving manufactories 
of various kinds. Between the mountains are a corresponding number of val- 
leys of every variety of shape and soil. Some of these contain as fertile land 
as is found in the State. 

The rich soil of the river flats and the valleys attracted the settler, and long 
before the final expulsion of the hostile Indians flourishing settlements of indus- 
trious farmers dotted the territory of the county. Of the 575,360 acres of 
land estimated to be included within its boundaries, not more than one-third 
are under cultivation. By the census of 1870, the farms, wei'e -valued at 
9,445,678 dollars. 

About the close of the war of the Revolution the abundance and superior 
quality of the iron ores of the county began to attract attention, and a furnace 
was built on ground now within the limits of the borough of Orbisonia. It was 
named Bedford, after the county that then embraced its site. A good article 
of iron was manufactured, and the success of this enterprise induced the erection 
of Huntingdon, Barree, Union, Pennsylvania, and numerous other iron works. 
" Juniata iron " soon became famous throughout the country, and it con- 
tinues to be a popular brand. The melting of the forests before the 
woodman's axe, rendering charcoal expensive and scarce, the increase in the 
price of labor, and competition with foreign iron and with that at home more 
cheaply made from anthracite coal and coke, rendered many of these furnaces 
and forges unprofitable, and they have been permitted to decay. A few only are 
now being worked. Extensive and valuable iron mines are worked in many 



HUNTINGDON COUNTY. 177 

localities. From Woodcock valley large quantities of ore have been carried by 
rail to Danville, Johnstown, and other points. The abundance, variety, and 
value of the ores, the rich and convenient deposits of limestone, contiguity of the 
Broad Top, Allegheny, and Cumberland coal fields, and facilities for transporta- 
tion by rail and canal, combine to indicate that by the judicious employment of 
the necessary capital this count^^ can take a more advanced place in the future 
than it has ever done in the past in the manufacture of iron. The experience of 
the Kemble iron company's furnaces at Riddlesburg, on the Huntingdon and 
Broad Top railroad, and those of the Rockhill coal and iron company at Orbi- 
sonia, on the East Broad Top railroad, all run on Broad Top coke, has demon- 
strated its economy and value in the smelting of iron ores. 

Several quarries of " Meridian " sandstone are being worked in the vicinity 
of Mapleton. The sand rock is crushed and pulverized in mills or crushers 
erected for that purpose, and is transported in large quantities to the glass 
works of Pittsburgh and other cities. Mines that give promise of excellent 
ochre and umber are being opened in the vicinity of Mapleton. 

It is to be regretted that an accurate census of the manufacturing establish- 
ments has never been taken. There are in the county furnaces, forges, rolling 
mills, foundries, car, and industrial works, water and steam flouring and saw- 
mills, water and steam sand-crushers, tanneries, furniture, chair, carriage, broom, 
shoe, and woolen manufactories, planing mills and numerous other industrial 
establishments. 

The first highways were Indian paths which traversed the county in many 
directions. Along these the traders and pioneers found their way. They were 
only bridle paths, and did not admit the passage of a wheeled conveyance. After 
farms were opened and mills built, necessity prompted the opening of a wagon 
road along the Juniata. This was followed by the cutting of roads in other 
directions from "Standing Stone." The river was used for floating arks and 
keel-boats, laden with the products of the county, to various points as far south- 
eastward as Baltimore. A turnpike was constructed from Lewistown to Hunt- 
ingdon about 1817, and was extended by the Huntingdon, Cambria, and Indiana 
company to Blairsville, a distance of seventy-seven miles, soon thereafter. 

The Pennsylvania canal extended through the county from Shaver's Aque- 
duct below Mount Union to the line of Blair county above Water Street. This 
improvement was completed to the borough of Huntingdon in November, 1830. 
It is now abandoned above the Huntingdon dam. 

The line of the Pennsylvania railroad enters the county below Mount Union 
and following the Juniata and Little Juniata, finally leaves the county between 
Birmingham and Tyrone. On the 6th day of June, 1850, the road was completed 
to Huntingdon. The opening to Pittsburgh of this great highway of travel and 
traffic marked an important era in the history of the Commonwealth, and has 
materially increased and facilitated the development of the resources of the valley 
of the Juniata. 

In 1853 the construction of the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad was com- 
menced. The main line from Huntingdon to Hopewell, a distance of thirty-one 
miles, was opened for business in 1855. It has since been extended to Mount 
Dallas, where it connects with the Bedford and Bridgeport road, running to 1 



778 EISTOB Y OF PEWITS YL VAKIA. 

Maryland line, and connecting there with roads entering the Cumberland coal 
region. Over four million dollars were expended in the construction and equip- 
ment of the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad. The length of the main line 
is forty-five miles, and of the branches fourteen miles. During the last fiscal 
year it carried over three hundred and eighty thousand tons of bituminous coal 
and forty-six thousand tons of iron ore. 

The East Broad Top railroad (three feet gauge) extends from Mount Union 
to Robertsdale in the Broad Top region, a distance of thirty miles, and cost about 
one million dollars. It was opened in 1813, and during the last fiscal year car- 
ried sixty-three thousand tons of coal. 

The earliest permanent settlement effected within the limits of the county 
was at the Standing Stone (now Huntingdon). The compiler was informed 
some years ago by one of the old citizens that the Indians living at Standing 
Stone had cleared land and cultivated corn. In 1754, Hugh Crawford was in 
possession of the land, and continued to hold it until the first day of June, 1760, 
when he conveyed the tract, containing four hundred acres, to George Croghan, 
who, on the 10th day of December, 1764, obtained a warrant from the Proprie- 
taries, authorizing a survey and return thereof to the land office. 

In 1754 Peter Shaver commenced a settlement at the mouth of Shaver's 
creek. In 1760 or 1761, James Dickey commenced an improvement on the 
south-east side of Shaver's creek, near Fairfield. Other improvements were 
made along Shaver's creek, and on the upper branches of Standing Stone creek, 
as early as 1762. 

The bottom lands along the Juniata, the Raystown branch, and the Augh- 
wick creek, and the fertile lands of Tuscarora, Black Log, Germany, Kishico- 
quillas, Plank Cabin, Woodcock, Hart's Log, Canoe, Spruce Creek, and War- 
riors' Mark valleys, were dotted with improvements in 1761-2. 

In 1748 Conrad Weiser was sent on a mission from the Provincial govern- 
ment to the Indians at Ohio. His route was through this county, and in 
the journal of his trip, the Black Log sleeping-place, the Standing Stone, and 
other points are mentioned. John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg, in an 
account of the road from his ferry to Logstown on the Alleghen}-, taken in 1754, 
mentions localities on his route, now in this county, as follows : Cove Spring, 
Shadow of Death, Black Log, Three Springs, Sideling Hill gap, Aughwick, 
Jack Armstrong's narrows, Standing Stone, and Water Street. 

The Cove Spring is supposed to be what is now known as the Trough Spring 
in Tell township; the Shadow of Death was applied to the water gap in the 
Shade mountain, now called Shade Gap ; the Black Log was near Orbisonia ; the 
Three Springs are in the vicinity of the borough of that name ; Aughwick was 
on the site of Shirleysburg ; Jack Armstrong's narrows, now curtailed to Jack's 
narrows, designates the narrow passage cut by the Juniata through Jack's 
mountain above Mount Union ; and the Water Street to a gorge between the 
mountains, through which the waters of the Juniata pass, above the village 
bearing that name. 

The Standing Stone stood between Allegheny street and the Juniata, above 
Second street in the borough of Huntingdon, and was described by John Harris 
in 1754, as being fourteen feet high and about six inches square. It was erected 



HUNTINGDON COUNTY. 



779 



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by the Indians, a branch of the Six Nations, and was covlred by their hieroo-ly- 
phics. The natives, who seem to have regarded this stone with great veneration 
after the treaty of 1754, by which their title to the lands of the valley of the 
Juniata was relinquished to the Proprietary government, migrated, and as it is 
generally supposed, carried the stone with them. Another stone, erected soon 
after by the white settlers, was covered with the names of traders, residents, and 
colonial officials. It was broken by a carelessly thrown "long bullet." A part 
of it, bearing numerous interesting inscrif)tions, 
is in the possession of Mr. E. C. Summers. 

Although Dr. Smith, after laying out the town 
in 1767, changed the name to Huntingdon, 
the old appellation, " Standing Stone," continued 
for many years thereafter to be used by the 
residents of the vallej''. That name is still borne 
by the creek, valley, ridge, and mountain in the 
vicinity, and its Indian equivalent, " Oneida," 
has been applied to a township through which 
the creek flows. The seal of the borough has as 
its central figure a representation of the stone. 

Soon after the treaty of the 6th of July, 
1754, settlers commenced improvements in choice spots throughout the present 
county, and early in the next year a siumber of warrants were granted bv the 
land office, authorizing the survey and appropriation of tracts applied for. 
The Indian troubles following the defeat of Braddock prevented the making 
of any official surveys in pursuance of these warrants earlier than 1762. 

Three Proprietary manors, Shaver's Creek, Woodcock Valley, and Hart's 
Log, and a part of Sinking Valley are included in this county. 

The following list contains the names of early settlers in various localities in 
the county. The figures following the names respectivel}^ indicate the earliest 
3^ear in which those persons are known to have resided in the count3^ Many of 
them may have settled still earlier. Dublin and Tell loivnships — James Coyle, 
John Appleby, James Neely, James Morton, Samuel Morton, and John Stitt, 
1778; Samuel Finley ; George Hudson, 1786. Cromwell township. — James, 
Gavin, George, Robert, and Thomas Cluggage, 1766 ; Thomas Cromwell, 1785 

Shirley township James Carmichael, 1762; James, Robert, and Patrick Gal- 

braith, 1771; James Foley, 1772; Charles Boyle, 1773; William Morris, 1780; 
Bartholomew Davis, 1774. Clay township. — John and Abraham Wright, 1776; 
Henry Hubble, 1786; George Ashman, 1779; John Hooper, 1785. Springfield 

township John and Robert Ramsey, 1778; Hugh Madden. Trough Creek 

valley. — Peter Reilley, Law. Swope, 1779 ; Richard Chilcott, 1784 ; Samuel Lilly, 
1788; Thomas H. Lucket, Richard Howling, 1785; Thomas Cole, 1784; Peter 
Thompson, John Dean, 1784. Plank Cabin valley. — Eli McLain, 1784; George 
KnoblehoflT, 1785; Edward Dormit, 1784. Raystown branch.— John and George 
Weston, 1766; Samuel Thompson; Martin Kisling, 1791; William Corbin, 
William Shirley, George Buchanan; Sebastian Shoup, 1775. Broad Top moun- 
tain.— Anthony Cook, 1786; Walter Clark, 1775; Gideon Hyatt, 1787; John 
Bryan, llajoleion Jacob Hare and Gideon Miller, 1762. Brady township — 



780 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Peter Van Devander, 1^75 ; David Eaton, 1775 ; Joseph Pridmore, 1781 ; Caleb 
Armitage. Henderson township — John Fee, 1775; John Borland; Joseph 
Nearon, 1781 ; Daniel Evans, 1778 ; Benjamin Drake, 1785. Huntingdon. — Hugh 
Brad}^, 1766; Michael Cryder, 17*72; Benjamin Elliott, Adam Bardmess, Abra- 
ham Haines, 1776; David McMurtrie, 1777; John, Matthew, and Robert Simp- 
son, 1789; Alexander McConnell, 1786; Rev. John Johnston, 1790; Michael 
Africa, 1791 ; John Cadwallader, Andrew Henderson, Peter Swoope, Frederick 
Ashbaugh, Lndwick Sells. West toivnship. — Peter Shaver, 1754 ; Hugh Means, 
1773; George Jackson, 1772; Thomas Weston, 1772; Henry Neff, 1780; Alex- 
ander McCormick, 1776 ; Nicholas Grafius, 1778 ; Patrick Maguire, James Dear- 
ment, 1779; Samuel Anderson, James Dickey, 1760 or 1761. Jackson township 

— William McAlev}^, 1767 ; O'Burn. Barree township Gilbert Chaney, 

1786 ; George Green ; Richard Sinkey, David Watt, Matthew Miller, John For- 
rest, William Hirst, Chain Ricketts. Oneida township. — William Murray, 
Nathaniel Gorsuch, 1787. HarVs Log valley. — David and Charles Caldwell, 1767 ; 
John Mitchell, 1774; Peter Grafius, 1778; John Canan, John Spencer, 1779; 
Moses Donaldson, Jacob aAl Josiah Minor. Woodcock oalley. — Henry Lloyd, 
Joshua Lewis, George Reynolds, 1774 ; Nathaniel Garrard, 1776 ; James Gibson, 

1781; Solomon Sell, 1785; Elder; Hartsock. Mor'ris township 

John Bell, Edward Beatty, 1779. Franklin township. — Benjamin Webster, 
Absolem Gray, 1779 ; Alexander Ewing, 1786 ; Abraham Sells, 1785 ; James 
Hunter, 1784. Warrior's Mark township.— Ihom^^ Ricketts. 

The following list contains the names of the owners, location, and date of 
erection, as nearly as can be ascertained, of the early grist-mills of the count3^ 
Robert Cluggage's, Black Log creek, Cromwell township, before 1773 ; Bartholo- 
mew Davis', Shirley township, before 1774 ; Michael Cryder's, Juniata river. 
Walker township, about 1773 ; Abraham Sell's, Little Juniata, Franklin town- 
ship, about 1776 ; Sebastian Shoup's, Shoup's run, Hopewell township, 1787 ; 
Huntingdon, Juniata river, Huntingdon borough, about 1793 ; N. Garrard's, 
Yineyard creek. Walker township ; William McAlevy's, Standing Stone 
creek, Jackson township ; Joseph Pridmore's, Mill creek, Brady township ; 
McCormick's, Shaver's creek. West township ; Little's, Laurel run, Jackson 
township ; Minor's, Little Juniata, Porter township ; Crum's, Trough creek. 
Tod township. 

At least two of the companies sent from Bedford county for the defence of 
the colonies during the war for independence were composed of men who lived 
within the present limits of Huntingdon county. One of these, attached to the 
first battalion, was commanded by Captain William Mc Alevy, afterward known as 
Colonel and General McAlevy, and was in the service in January, 1777. After 
faithful service in the defence of American liberty, Captain McAlevy returned to 
his home in Standing Stone valley, where for many years he was an active and 
influential citizen, and until his death enjoyed the universal respect of his neigh- 
bors. His name is perpetuated in that of the village called McAlevy's Fort, 
located upon the tract of land where he resided. Thomas Holliday was ensign 
of his company. 

Thomas Cluggage, afterwards known as Major Cluggage, was appointed 
captain, Hugh Means first lieutenant, and Moses Donley second lieutenant, of a 



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782 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

compan}- of rangers organized in 1119, Tliis company among other duties waa 
engaged in defending the settlements on the Juniata. In October, 11*79, when 
Captain Cluggage occupied Fort Roberdeau, in Sinking valley, he reported that 
his company had been reviewed and passed muster with three officers and forty- 
three rank and file ; one of the latter " killed or taken." A compan}-, commanded 
bj' Captain Cluggage, was in the Continental service in New Jersey in 171 6-7, 
and formed a part of the battalion under Colonel John Piper. 

In ITSl, Dublin, Shirley, Barree, Hopewell, Frankstown, and Huntingdon 
townships, then embracing the whole of the counties of Huntingdon and Blair, 
composed one of the battalions of Bedford county. 

This region was too far removed from the Atlantic coast to be the scene of 
any conflicts with the British invaders, save detached parties sent out on maraud- 
ing expeditions, or for the purpose of encouraging the Indians and Tories. 
From these the inhabitants constantly suffered. People were murdered or car- 
ried into captivity, buildings burned, crops destroyed, cattle driven off, and all 
manner of injury perpetrated by roving bands of the enemy. Many of the fami- 
lies were removed to the eastern counties. Those that remained were compelled 
during the darkest hours of the conflict to seek protection within the walls of 
the forts. These were situated as follows : 

Standing Stone, east of Third and south of Washington street, in the 
borough of Huntingdon. It was built of stockades, and it included dwellings 
and magazines. A blacksmitli shop that stood at No. 205 Penn street, was con- 
structed of oak logs from the fort, probably a part of a magazine. 

In 1778 the inhabitants were much alarmed at a threatened assault by a band 
of Tories and Indians, variously estimated at from three hundred to one thou- 
sand in number. General Roberdeau wrote from Standing Stone, under date of 
April 23d, 1778, confirming the reports of the alarm of the inhabitants, and 
recommended that the militia be called out and sent forward to meet the enemy. 
In July, Colonel Brodhead's regiment, then on a march from the east to Pitts- 
burgh, was directed to stop here, and three hundred militia from Cumberland, 
and two hundred from York county, were ordered to join them. On the 8th of 
August, the council informed Dr. William Shippen, director-general, that there 
was a body of five hundred men at Standing Stone that would require a supply 
of medicine. 

Anderson's was near the mouth of Shaver's creek, and near the borough of 
Petersburg. 

McAlevy's, on Standing Stone creek, in Jackson township, seventeen miles 
north-east of Huntingdon. 

Hartsock's, in Woodcock valley, between McConnellstown and Marklesburg. 

Shirley was one of the cordon of Provincial defences erected during the 
French and Indian troubles that followed the defeat of General Braddock. It 
was built about 1755, on the bluff at the northern end of the borough of Shir- 
leysburg, on or near the site of the Indian town of Aughwick, often mentioned in 
colonial annals. In the autumn of 1756, the royal forces evacuated the fort, and 
it does not appear to have been afterward used for defensive purposes. 

On the 4th day of May, 1812, the " Huntingdon volunteers " tendered their 
services to President Madison, in the war with Great Britain, and on Monday, 



HUNTINGDON COUNTY. 783 

the Tth day of September following, under Robert Allison, captain, and Jacob 
Miller, first lieutenant, they marched to Niagara. On the 2d of October they 
arrived at Buffalo. Other companies from Huntingdon county were commanded 
by Captains Moses Canan, William Morris, and Isaac VanDevander. Dr. 
Alexander Dean, of the borough of Huntingdon, was chosen surgeon of the 
Second Pennsylvania regiment. 

When war with Mexico was declared, a number of patriotic citizens, probably 
equal in number to a full company, separately volunteered their services and 
were attached to different companies formed in neighboring counties. They, with- 
out exception, behaved gallantly ; and most of them, after having participated in 
many battles of the war, returned home at the close of the contest. 

The avidity shown by the sons of " old Huntingdon," in rallying to the 
support of their country in the rebellion of 1861, exhibited a patriotism not less 
commendable than that of the sires of '76. 

On the 13th or 14th of April, 1861, one or two days after the telegraph had 
flashed the intelligence throughout the Commonwealth that " war had com- 
menced," the Standing Stone Guards, of the borough of Huntingdon, tendered 
their services to Gfvernor Curtin. Official notification of their acceptance was 
received by the company on the 19th, and on the 20th, Saturda}^, numbering over 
ninety men, proceeded to Harrisburg, and after discharging all but sevent^^-seven, 
were mustered in as Company D of the 5th Regiment Pennsylvania volunteers. 
The company was officered as follows : Benjamin F. Miller, captain ; George F. 
McCabe, first lieutenant; James D. Campbell, second lieutenant. The field 
officers of the regiment were: R. P. McDowell, of Pittsburgh, colonel ; Benjamin 
C. Clirist, of Schuylkill count}^, lieutenant-colonel ; R. Bruce Petriken, of Hunt- 
ingdon, major. 

The count}' was represented in other Pennsylvania regiments as follows : 
34th Regiment, 5th reserves — mustered into service, June 21, 1861 ; mustered 
out June 11, 1864; George Dare, promoted from major to lieutenant-colonel, 
August 1, 1862; killed at Wilderness, May, 6, 1864; Frank Zentmyer, promoted 
from captain, Company I, to major, August 1, 1862 ; killed at Fredericksburg, 
December 13, 1862; James A. McPherran, promoted from captain, Compan}' F, 
to major, May Y, 1864, mustered out with regiment; Company G, commanded 
successively by Captains A. S. Harrison, John E. Wolfe, and Cliarles M. Hilde- 
brand, and Company I b}'' Captains Frank Zentmyer and James Porter. 41st 
Regiment, 12th reserves — mustered into service, August 10, 1861 ; mustered out 
June 11, 1864; Company I, commanded by Captain James C. Baker, who died 
July 7, 1862, and was succeeded by Captain C. W. Hazzard. 49th Regiment — 
John B. Miles, captain of Company C, mustered into service, August 5th, 1861 ; 
promoted to major, October 16, 1862 ; to lieutenant-colonel, April 23, 1864 ; killed 
at Spottsylvania, May 10, 1864; Company C, commanded successively by Captains 
Eckebarger, Hutchinson, and Smith, and Company D, commanded successively 
Dy Captains James D. Campbell, Quigley, and Russell ; were mustered out July 
15, 1865. 53d Regiment — Compau}' C, commanded successively by Captains 
John H. Wintrode and Henry J. Smith; mustered into service, October, IT, 1861 ; 
mustered out, June 30, 1865. 77th Regiment — Company C, mustered out, 
December 6, 1865. 92nd Regiment, ninth cavahy — Company M, commanded 



784 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

successively by Captains George W. Patterson, James Bell, Thomas S. McCahan, 
and D. A. Shelp ; mustered out, July 18, 1865. 110th Regiment — Isaac Rodgers, 
promoted from captain, Company B, to major, December 21, 1862 ; to lieutenant- 
colonel, December 5, 1863; wounded at Spottsylvania, and died May 28, 1864; 
Company B, commanded successivel}'- by Captains Seth Benner, Isaac Rodgers, 
and John M. Shelly ; and Company D, by Captains Samuel L. Huyett 
and John B. File; mustered out June 28, 1865. 125tli Regiment, John 
J, Lawrence, major — Company C, Captain William W. Wallace; Company F, 
Captain William H. Simpson ; Company H, Captain Henry H. Gregg ; Company 
I, Captain William H. Thomas. 149th Regiment, George W. Speer, major — 
Company I, commanded successively by Captains George W. Speer, promoted to 
major; Brice X. Blair, lost an arm at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863; Samuel Diffen- 
derfer, discharged May 4, 1864 ; David R. P. Neely, who was mustered out with 
the compan}^, June 24, 1865. 185th Regiment, 22d cavalry— Company A, com- 
manded by Captain John D. Fee, nine months' service; Company K, com- 
manded by Captain John H. Boring, three years' service. 192d Regiment, one 
year's service, William F. Johnston, major — Company B, commanded by Captain 
Thomas S. Johnston. 195th Regiment, one hundred days'* service — John A. 
Willoughl>y, quartermaster, Company F. 202d Regiment, one year's service — 
Company K, commanded by Captain A. Wilson Decker. 205th Regiment, one 
year's service — Company D, commanded b}^ Captain Thomas B. Reed. 3rd Regi- 
ment, militia of 1862 — William Dorris, Jr., colonel ; Company F, commanded by 
Captain George W. Garrettson. 12th Regiment, Henry S. Wharton, major — 
company D, commanded by Captain Edward A. Green; Company I, commanded 
by Captain George C. Bucher. 

Rev. George W. Eaton was born in Brady township, Jul}-^ 3, 1804, and died 
at Hamilton, New York, August 3, 18*72. He graduated at Union College in 
1829; was professor of ancient languages in Georgetown College, Kentucky, 
from 1831 to 1833. Became connected in 1833 with Hamilton Theological Insti- 
tute, incorporated in 1846 as Madison University, and was successively profes- 
sor of mathematics and natural philosophy, of civil and ecclesiastical history 
and of theology. Was president of the college from 1856 to 1868, and president 
of the theological seminary from 1861 to 1871. 

John Canan settled in Harts Log valley during the Revolutionary war. On 
the 3d February, 1781, he was commissioned as one of the justices of Bedford 
county. In 1787 he was one of the members of the Assembly for that county at 
the time of the separation of Huntingdon county. The same year he was 
appointed deputy surveyor for the county of Huntingdon, and held that office 
until 1809. 

Joseph Saxton, born in the borough of Huntingdon, March 22, 1799 ; died at 
Washington, D. C, October 26, 1873. He learned, in youth, the trade of watch- 
making. He was the inventor of numerous mechanical machines, « and was 
widely known and highly esteemed for his scientiflc acquirements. In 1843 he 
became a resident of Washington, and was employed in the Coast Survey 
office, where he designed and superintended the construction of the apparatus 
used in that department. He remained in the service of the government until 
his death. 



HUNTINGDON COUNTY. 785 

Rev. John Johnston, bora at or near the city of Belfast, Ireland, 1750 ; died 
at Huntingdon, December, 1823. In November, 1Y8Y, he was installed as pastor 
of the Hart's Log and Shaver's Creek Presbyterian congregations. In 1189 his 
pastoral relation to the Shaver's Creek congregation was dissolved, and in 1790 
he accepted a call from the Huntingdon congregation for one-half of his time. 

From this date until th* year of his death — a period of thirty-three years he 

continued as pastor of the two congregations. 

Hugh Brady, a brigadier-general in the United States army, was born at 
Huntingdon, in 1708. He entered the service in 1792 as lieutenant; served 
under Wayne in his campaign against the Western Indians, and in the war of 
1812 was distinguished for his gallantry and bravery. The township of Brady 
was named in honor of the general. 

Alexandria is situated on the north bank of the Juniata, seven miles north- 
west of Huntingdon. It is surrounded by the fertile and well cultivated lands 
of the valley of Hart's Log, a name derived from a log hollowed out and used 
by John Hart, an Indian trader, in feeding his pack-horses. It was laid out in 
1798, and incorporated as a borough April 11, 1827. It contains three churches 
and three public schools. 

Birmingham, on the north bank of the Little Juniata, on the opposite side 
from the Pensylvania railroad, seventeen and a half miles north-west of Hunting- 
don, laid out by John Cadwallader, of Huntingdon, and called after the cit}^ of 
the same name in England, was incorporated April 14, 1838. It is the site of 
Mountain seminary, and has Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and United 
Brethren churches. 

Broad Top City, near the summit of Broad Top mountain, and near the 
eastern terminus of the Shoup's Run branch of the Huntingdon and Broad Top 
railroad, 27.5 miles south-south-west of Huntingdon, was incorporated August 
19, 1868, and contains the Mountain house, a well-kept summer resort, a Baptist 
church, and an Odd Fellows hall. 

Cassville, in Trough Creek valley, 17.5 miles south of Huntingdon, was 
incorporated March 3, 1853, and has Lutheran, Methodist Episcopal, and Metho- 
dist Protestant churches, two potteries, and was, until recently, the site of the 
Cassville Soldiers' Orphan school. 

CoALMONT, on the Shoup's Run branch of the Huntingdon and Broad Top 
railroad, twenty-eight miles by rail south-south-west of Huntingdon, was incor- 
porated November 22, 1864. 

Huntingdon is situated on the north bank of the Juniata, at the mouth of 
Standing Stone creek, two hundred and two and a half miles west of Philadel- 
phia. The Pennsylvania railroad and canal pass through the borough, and it is 
the northern terminus of the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad. Although 
settled as earl}^ as 1754, and widely known to traders and the Provincial authori- 
ties as "Standing Stone," it was not regularly laid out as a town until 1767, 
when Rev. Dr. William Smith, the proprietor, at that time and for manj^ years 
thereafter provost of the University of Pennsjdvania, called the town " Hunt- 
ingdon," in honor of Selina, countess of Huntingdon, in England, a lad}^ of 
remarkable liberality and piety, who, at the solicitation of Dr. Smith, had made 
a handsome donation to the funds of the University. 
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786 



HUNTIJS'GDOJS' COUNTY. 787 

During the troublesome times folLowing the defeat of General Braddoek, in 
July, 1755, until the peace with Great Britain in 1783, this place and its vicinity 
was the scene of many important incidents. In 1787, io became the county seat, 
on the erection of Huntingdon county, and on the 29th daj' of March, 1796, it 
was incorporated as a borough. 

Before the completion of the canal this place commanded the principal trade 
of the county. This improvement compelled Huntingdon to share the business, 
of which it had almost a monopoly, with several smaller towns, and for many 
years there was no material increase of business or population ; but a marked 
improvement followed the completion of the Pennsylvania, and Huntingdon and 
Broad Top railroads, until it has become, with a single exception, the most 
flourishing and populous town in the valley of the Juniata. 

The error committed by Dr. Smith of making the streets too narrow and 
omitting alleys, has been avoided in the plans of lots since laid out. The public 
buildings are nearly all, and the residences erected within the last decade are 
generally, built of brick. The streets are lighted with gas, and the sidewalks in 
all of the built portions of the town paved with bi-ick. 

The view from the adjacent hills, taking in the town, the Juniata and 
Standing Stone creek with their bridges, the railroads, canal, cemetery, and the 
surrounding scenery, is grand. 

The cemetery, located on an eminence having an elevation of about one 
hundred and fifty feet above the river, the nucleus of which was a small plot of 
ground donated by the proprietor of the town, and enlarged from time to time, 
embraces an area of about twelve acres, is used as a place of sepulchre by all 
religious denominations save one, and as a place of resort during pleasant 
weather by the entire population. It is owned and controlled by the borough 
authorities. 

The borough contains the court house, jail, eleven churches, an academy, 
incorporated March 19, 1816, three public school buildings, accommodating 
fourteen schools with eight hundred and ninety-six scholars. The industrial 
establishments are numerous and varied. The population, according to the 
census of 1870, was 3,034 ; it is now (1876) estimated to be 4,100. The local 
government consists, besides the usual borough officers, of three bui'gesses and 
nine councilmen, pne-third of whom are chosen annually for a term of three 
years. These officers constitute the town council, and meet statedly on the first 
Friday of each month, the senior burgess acting as chief burgess and presiding 
at the meetings. 

This town occupies a pretty location. It contains numerous public and 
private buildings, having the appearance of elegance and comfort, is well and 
economically governed, has about a fair admixture of the conservative and "young 
America" elements ; few, if any, towns in the interior of the State excel it in 
wealth, or in the intelligence, hospitality, and social qualities of its people ; and 
with the great natural advantages it possesses, should become, by a judicious 
combination of the capital, enterprise, and energy of its citizens, one of the most 
populous and flourishing boroughs of central Pennsylvania. 

Mapleton, situated on the Juniata river and Pennsylvania railroad, eight 
and one-half miles south-east of Huntingdon, was incorporated August 18, 1866^ 



788 SISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

The ground upon which the principal part of tliis borough stands was owned and 
occupied by Jacob Hare, a notorious Tory of the Revolution. This, with all his 
other real estate, was confiscated and sold. 

Marklesburg, on the Bedford road, in Woodcoclv valley, and near the 
station of the same name on the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad, twelve 
miles south-west of Huntingdon, was incorporated November 19, 1813. 

Mount Union, on the Pennsylvania canal and railroad, eleven and one-half 
miles south-east of Huntingdon, was incorporated April 19, 1861. It is the 
second town in the county in population, and has a Methodist, Presbyterian, and 
United Brethren churches. Odd Fellows hall, etc. 

Orbisonia, on the Black Log creek and East Broad Top I'ailroad, was 
incorporated November 23, 1855. The borough limits include the site of old 
Bedford furnace. Winchester and Rock Hill furnaces were located on the creek, 
a short distance east of the borough, and the two coke furnaces of the Rock Hill 
coal and iron company, now producing thirty-five tons of pig metal per day, are 
on the southern side of the creek. The population of the town has greatl}' 
increased since the construction of the railroad. 

Petersburg, on the Pennsylvania railroad, at the junction of Shaver's creek 
with the Juniata river, six and one-half miles north of Huntingdon, was incorpo- 
rated April 7, 1830. It contains a Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian 
churches, Juniata forge, a fiouriug mill, etc. Stages run to Williamsburg and 
McAlevy's Fort. 

Shade Gap, in Dublin township, thirty miles south-east of Huntingdon, was 
incorporated April 20, 1871. There is in the borough a Methodist and near its 
limits a Presbyterian church. 

Saltillo, on the East Broad Top railroad, twentj'-three miles south of 
Huntingdon, was incorporated November 10, 1875. 

Shirleysburg, on the East Broad Top railroad, twenty miles south-east of 
Huntingdon, was incorporated Api'il 3, 1837. This borough is located upon the 
site of the Indian " Aughwick old town," and the Provincial Fort Shirley. From 
the latter it derived its name. It contains Baptist, Methodist, and Presbj^te- 
rian churches. 

Three Springs, on the East Broad Top railroad, twenty-five miles south of 
Huntingdon, was incorporated November 10th, 1869 ; has Baptist, Methodist 
Episcopal, and United Brethren churches. 

Beside these boroughs the following villages may be named : Barnet, on 
Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad, in Carbon township, at the Barnet mines ; 
Coffee Run, on the same railroad, in Lincoln township ; Dudley, on same rail- 
road, in Carbon township; Eagle Foundry, in Tod township; Ennisville, in 
Jackson ; Franklin ville, in Franklin ; Fairfield, in West ; Grafton, on Hunt- 
ingdon and Broad Top railroad, in Penn ; Graysville, in Franklin; Manor 
Hill, in Barree ; Mill Creek, on Pennsjdvania railroad in Brad}^ ; McAlevy's 
Fort, in Jackson ; McConnellstown, in Walker ; Nossville, in Tell ; Newburg, 
in Tod ; Robertsdale, on East Broad Top railroad, in Carbon ; Shaffersville, 
in Morris ; Saulsbubg, in Barree ; Spruce Creek, on Penns^dvania railroad, in 
Franklin and Morris ; Water Street, in Morris ; and Warrior's Mark, in the 
township of the same name. 



i 



HUNTINGDON COUNTY. 



789 



Townships — At the time of the erection of Huntingdon county in 1187, the 
territory within its present limits was included in six townships, to wit : Barree, 
Dublin, Hopewell, Shirley, Frankstown, and Huntingdon. Frankstown, much 
reduced in area, is now one of the townships of Blair county, and in the division 
of Huntingdon, in 1814, one end was called Porter and the other Henderson. 
There are now twenty-five townships in the county. Twenty-one were formed 
since the erection of Huntingdon county, as follow : Franklin, March, 1789, 
from Tyrone; Springfield, December, 1790, from Shirley; Union, June, 1791, 
from Hopewell; Morris, August, 1794, from Tyrone; West, April, 1796, from 
Barree ; Warrior's Mark, January, 1798, from Franklin; Tell, April, 1810, from 
Dublin ; Porter, iS'ovember, 1814, from Huntingdon ; Henderson, November, 1814, 
from Huntingdon; Walker, April, 1827, from Porter; Cromwell, January, 1836, 
from Shirley and Springfield; Tod, April 11, 1838, from Union; Cass, January 
21, 1843, from Union ; Jackson, January 15, 1845, from Barree ; Clay, April 15, 
1845, from Springfield; Brady, April 25, 1846, from Henderson; Penn, Novem- 
ber 21, 1846, from Hopewell ; Oneida, August 20, 1856, from West ; Juniata, 
November 19, 1856, from Walker; Carbon, April 23, 1858, from Tod; Lincoln, 
August 18, 1866, from Hopewell. 










INDIANA COUNTY 




[With acknowledgments to A. W. Taylor, Indiana, and J. M, Eobinson, Saltsburg.'] 

NDIANA county was created by act of Assembly of 1803 out of parts 
of Westmoreland and Lycoming counties. That part south of the 
purchase line was taken from Westmoreland county, and that north 
of the purchase line from Lycoming count^^, consisting then of 
two townships, Armstrong and Wheatfield. The county derived its name from 
its first denizens. Indiana county was by the same act annexed to Westmore- 
land county for judicial purposes, and the courts of Westmoreland were to levy 

and collect the taxes. By 
the act of 1806 it was de- 
clared a pai't of the Tenth 
judicial district, then com- 
posed of the counties of 
Somerset, Cambria, In- 
^^ ~W"^^ _^^^^ diana, Armstrong, and 

Westmoi'eland. The area 
of the county is seven hun- 
dred and seventy-five 
square miles. 

Indiana county is 
bounded on the north by 
Jefferson count}' ; on the 
east by Clearfield and 
Cambria : on the south bv 
Westmoreland, and on the 
west b}' Armstrong. It 
lies between 40° 23' and 
40° 56' north latitude; 
and 1° 49' and 2° 14' west 
longitude, from Washing- 
ton Cit}'. 

The Conemaugh river 
(called Kiskiminetas from its junction witli Loyalhanna creek) flows along 
the entire southern boundary' of the county from east to west. The West 
Branch of the Susquehanna river touchi s the county on the north-east. Some 
of the spurs of the Allegheny mountains run into the county on the north- 
east. Laurel hill is on the east. Chestnut ridge enters on the south, and runs 
in a northerly direction, about half the length of the county. The dividing ridge, 
or water-shed, in the north-eastern part of the county, divides the waters of the 

790 




INDIANA COUNTY COUKT HOUSE, INDIANA. 

[From a Photograph by B. B. Tiffany.] 



INDIANA COUNTY. 79I 

Susquehanna that flow into the Chesapeake bay from the streams emptj-ing into 
the Conemaugh and Alleghen^^ rivers flowing southward into the Gulf of Mexico. 
The lowest part of this water-shed is one thousand three hundred feet above tide. 
The countj^ is well watered b}- numerous small streams and creeks — the largest 
of them Black Lick, Yellow creek, Two Lick and Black Legs, emptying into the 
Conemaugh ; Crooked creek, Plum creek, Little Mahoning, and Canoe into the 
Allegheny ; Cushion and Cush-Cush into the Susquehanna. Those streams flow- 
ing into the Conemaugh have a fall of from twenty to thirty feet to the mile ; 
those flowing into the Allegheny from ten to fifteen feet to the mile, and those 
into the Susquehanna, from thirty -five to forty feet to the mile. Inundations are 
very rare. 

Owing to the rolling character of the surface there is but very little marsh 
land. It is cut into small valleys and hills by the numerous small streams. The 
principal eminences are called "round tops," which rise from three to five hun- 
dred feet above the general surface of the county. Doty's Round Top, on the 
line of Grant and Canoe townships, is the highest point in the county. Oakes 
Point, highest peak of Chestnut ridge, is one thousand two hundred feet above 
the Conemaugh river at its base. 

In about one quarter of the county (the eastern part) the timber is princi- 
pally white pine, spruce, and hemlock. The balance of the county is covered 
with white oak, black oak, chestnut oak, red oak, poplar, chestnut, hickory, 
sugar maple, walnut, cherry, locust, cucumber, etc. The principal minerals are 
bituminous coal, salt, iron ore, and limestone. The soil in the eastern part of 
the county is loam and sand, as far as the pine timber extends. In the balance 
of the county the soil is loam and slate, with clayej^ admixture in spots. The 
subsoil is clay and slate. The subjacent rock in the low lands is a peculiar hard 
blue micaceous sandstone. In the higher table lauds it is variegated blue 
and red. 

In the Conemaugh valley there are several salt wells, from which are manu 
factured an excellent quality of salt. About the year 1812 or 1813 an old lady 
named Deemer discovered an oozing of salt water at low-water mark on the 
Indiana side of the Conemaugh river, about two miles above the present site of 
Saltsburg, Prompted by curiosity, she gathered some of the water to use for 
cooking purposes, and with a portion of it made mush, which she found to be 
quite palatable. This discovery very shortly led to the development of one of 
the most important business interests in the county. About the year 1813 Wil- 
liam Johnston, an enterprising young man from Franklin county, commenced 
boring a well at the spot where Mrs. Deemer made the discovery, and at the 
depth of two hundred and eighty-seven feet found an abundance of salt water. 
The boring was done by tramp or treadle, the poles being connected with open 
moi'tice and ton.gue, fastened with little bolts. The salt was manufactured by 
boiling the water in large kettles, or graimes, using wood for fuel. Until with 
the opening of additional wells, some fifty or sixt}'^ acres of wood land had been 
consumed for this purpose. Originally the pumping was done by blind horses, 
and the salt sold at five dollars per bushel retail, but as the wells multiplied the 
price came down to four dollars. With the increase of the trade, came new 
machinery and appliances in the manufacture of the salt. The unwieldy kettles 



792 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

were dispensed with, and large pans of half-inch iron, some twenty feet long, ten 
to eleven feet wide, and eight inches deep, were used instead ; coal was used as 
fuel, and the blind horses were put aside, and the steam engine introduced for 
both boring and pumping. The place was called the Great Conemaugh salt 
works, from the name of the river upon which they were located, and a post 
office with that name was established there. 

The following is an enumeration of the Salt wells now or formerly in opera- 
tion in that region : Alonzo Livermore, one mile above Saltsburg (a dry well 
churning up) ; next Sugar Camp well ; Andy Stewart well (salt in limited quan- 
tity) ; Dick Lamarr well (good producing well, but gas in it) ; next Lamarr 
well (the water pumped through logs under the river by two men on each side 
to Samuel Reed's well and works ; after some time works erected there) ; next 
Dick Lamon and S. Reed's well and works (a good producing well) ; the John- 
ston & Reed well in the river (this was the first well, two hundred and eighty- 
seven feet, and is now near one-third across the river) ; the Levi Hillery (one of 
the oldest wells), works still in blast — the well about eight hundred feet; the 
Barker & McConnell well, some fifteen rods from the river (a new well, but not a 
success) ; Joe Black & Christian Latshaw well (an old and good producing 
well) ; James R. Porter well (an old and rich producing well, the best No. 1 
salt on the river for curing meat) ; J. R. Porter well, on a hill side some twenty 
rods from the river, and cut off from the canal by the West Pennsylvania rail- 
road buildings ; the furnaces and chimneys of the works are up, but further 
operations are delayed in consequence of a law-suit with the railroad company ; 
the John McKowan well (a good well in its time) ; the S. Waddle well, not old, 
but only a well ; next, forty rods distant, the Edward Carlton, now Samuel Waddle, 
well and works ; next, the McFarland well and works, which twenty years ago 
produced much salt. For the three last mentioned wells, three small engines 
pump the water into one set of pans, which, when in blast, produce a large 
amount of salt. Four miles on the Westmoreland side of the river, are the 
James McLanahan & Andy Boggs well (an old well, producing a great deal of 
salt down to about 1858, when it was abandoned) ; next, the Samuel Reed well, 
(fed in part by hand pump) ; the M. Johnston & A. Stewart ; next, the Nathan 
M. D. Sterritt & David Mitchell wells (both good ; the latter not abandoned 
until about 1855) ; the Deep Hollow, Pete Hammer well (forty rods from the 
river, rather new, and not paying, was abandoned) ; the Walter Skelton well 
made a great quantity of salt while in blast ; the Winnings and Morrison works 
are of recent dsite, and produce a small amount of good salt. Of the twenty-four 
wells, and say twenty-one set of works, we have mentioned above, only three are 
now in blast, viz. : the Hillery, owned by Harry White, and leased to Johnston, 
Boyle & Son ; the Waddle group, owned and run by Samuel Waddle ; and the 
Wlneing?, owned by Wineings. We should state here that the wells enumerated 
are named after their original owners ; and that the twenty-one set of works 
attached to the wells, had at least two, and some of them five, proprietors. The 
most of these were excellent men, but with the exception of Samuel and William 
Waddle, who ran the Porter works for many years, not one who survive, or their 
families, live in affluent circumstances. The seven wells along the river on the 
Westmoreland side were all put down prior to 1820 and 1822; and from that 



INDIANA COUNTY. 793 

date till 1830, the group of hills on both sides of the river was like a great bee- 
hive ; yet the expenses of production in many instances exceeded the income 
The coal and machinery had to be hauled from Pittsburgh by wagon, or brought 
by the river in keel-bqats — both expensive means of transportation. 

The western division of the Pennsylvania canal once passed through the 
Conemaugh valley, but the completion of the Pennsylvania railroad to Pitts- 
burgh, in 1852, rendered it useless, and it has gone to decay. The Western 
Pennsylvania railroad was completed in 1864. The Indiana branch, connecting 
with the Pennsylvania, was built in 1856, through the exertions of some of its 
prominent citizens. 

The lirst attempt at making a settlement within the limits of Indiana 
county was made in the year 1769, in the forks of the Conemaugh and Black 
Lick. The country had been explored as early as 1766-7, and the explorers 
were particularly pleased with the country. It was clear of timber or brush, and 
clothed in high grass — a sort of prairie. In the spring of 1772, Fergus, Samuel, 
and Joseph Moorhead, and James Kelly, commenced improvements near the town 
of Indiana. Moses Chambers was another early settler. Having served several 
years on board a British man-of-war, he was qualified for a life of danger and 
hardship. Moses continued to work on his improvement till he was told one 
morning that the last johnnycake was at the fire. What was to be done? 
There was no possibility of a supply short of the Conococheague. He caught 
his horse and made ready. He broke the johnnycake in two pieces, and giving 
one-half to his wife, the partner of his perils and fortunes, he put up the other 
half in the lappet of his coat with thorns, and turned his horse's head to the 
east. There were no inns on the road in those days, nor a habitation west of the 
mountains, save, perhaps, a hut or two at Fort Ligonier. The Kittanning path 
was used to Ligonier, and from thence the road made by General Forbes' army. 
Where good pastures could be had for his horse, Moses tarried and baited. To 
him day was as night, and night as the day. He slept only while his horse was 
feeding ; nor did he give rest to his body nor ease to his mind until he returned 
with his sack stored with corn. Moses Chambers was not the only one who had 
to encounter the fatigue and trouble of procuring supplies from Franklin count}'. 
All had to do so, such was the condition of this country, and such the pros- 
pect of settlers after the peace of 1763. A scarcity of provisions was one of the 
constant dangers of the first settlers, and, to make their case worse, there were 
no mills, even after they began to raise grain. The first year some Indian 
corn was planted. It grew, and in the form of " rolasting ears " was gladly 
gathered for food. I can almost see the hardy dame, with her home-made 
apron of "lye color and white" pinned round her waist, stepping cautiously 
between the rows of corn, selecting the finest, that is to say, the best, ears for 
dinner, ay, and for breakfast and supper too. About the year 1773, William 
Bracken built a mill on Black Lick, which was a great convenience to the settlers. 
They marked out a path, by which they traveled to Bracken's mill. Around and 
near him gathered John Stewart, Joseph McCartney, John Evans, Thomas Barr, 
and John Hustin. About the year 1774, Samuel Moorhead commenced building a 
mill on Stony run, but before it was completed the settlers were driven ofi" by 
the Indians. They fled to what was then called the Sewickley settlement. This 



794 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

was during the Dunmore war. However, they returned in the fall to their im- 
provements, and Moorhead completed his mill. 

Along and near Crooked creek located Andrew Sharp (killed by the Indians 
in 1794), Benjamin Walker, Israel Thomas, James McCreight, Jacob Anthony, 
David Peelor, and John Patison. Among the early settlers along the Cone- 
maugh river. Black Lick creek, and its tributaries, and in the southern part of the 
county, were Charles Campbell, Samuel Dixon, John McCrea, John Harrold, 
Philip Altman, Patrick McGee, Arche}^ Coleman, George Repine, Malachia Sut- 
ton, William Loughry, Jonathan Doty, Jacob Bricker, James Ewing, James 
Ferguson, Peter Fair, James McComb, Samuel McCartney, John Neal, Alexan- 
der Rhea, William Robertson, Daniel Repine, John Shields, Robert Liggot, 
David Reed, William Graham, Ephraim Wallace, George Mabon, the Hices, 
Hugh St. Clair. James McDonald, and William Clark. 

The northern part of the county, in the early days called " the Mahoning 
country," was settled at a more recent date. Among the early settlers were the 
Bradys, the Thompsons, William Work, Hugh Cannon, John Leasure, William 
McCall, John Park, William McCrery, the Pierces, Robert Hamilton, Joshua 
Lewis, and John Jamison. In addition to those named, among the early set- 
tl(;rs, in the central portion of the county, were Andrew Allison, Thomas Allison, 
Gawin Adams, George Trimble, Alexander Taylor, John Lytic, Daniel Elgin, 
Conrad Rice, Thomas Wilkins, Daniel McKisson, James Mitchell, Andrew 
Dixon, John Agey, Blaney Adair, Thomas McCrea, Thomas Burns, William 
Lowry, John Wilson, Robert Pilson, John Thompson, Patrick Lydick, James 
Simpson, Christopher Stuchal, and William Smith. 

Little is known or recorded concerning the adventures of the settlers during 
the war of the Revolution, and the subsequent campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair, 
and Wayne. It is probable their residence here was precarious and unsettled. 
Every settler was a soldier, and preferred, indeed, occasionally the use of the 
rifle to that of the axe or the plough. John Thompson was one of the very few 
who remained here. He erected a block-house six miles north-east of Indiana 
borough, where he resided throughout all the troubles of the frontier. After 
Wayne's treatj^ in 1795, the settlers again returned to their homes, and resumed 
the occupations of peace. 

The early settlers of Indiana county came from the eastern counties of the 
State, in great part from the Cumberland valley. They were mostly of Scotch- 
Irish descent ; in faith, Presbyterians. They came with their Bibles, their 
Confession of Faith, tli'&ir catechisms, and their rifles. They were a brave, 
determined, self-denying race, b}^ no means deficient in education and love of 
learning. It is a notable fact that in spelling, penmanship, and accuracy of style 
and manner, the early records of the townships and county will compare favor- 
ably with those of more recent date. As early as 1790, Rev. John Jamison, a 
minister of the Associate Reformed Presbj^terian (or Seceder) church, settled on 
a farm on Altman's run. He was a Scotchman by birth and education, and was 
the first minister of the gospel who settled in this county, coming here from 
Cumberland county. He had an organized congregation near his residence, and 
another at Crete, now in Centre township, and much of his time, for a number 
of years, he preached from settlement to settlement, in the cabins, or barns, or 



INDIANA COUNTY. 795 

in tents in the woods — a sort of missionary. Tlie first Presbyterian minister 
settled in tlie county was Rev. Joseph Henderson, who was installed pastor of 
the congregations of Bethel and Ebenezer in ItOS, and had charge of these 
congregations for many years. The first Presbyterian minister located' in the 
town of Indiana was Rev. James Galbraith, from 1809 to 1816, when he removed 
to Huntingdon county. Rev. John Reed succeeded him. In 1818 he was placed 
over the congregations of Indiana and Gilgal, and for a number of years he also 
taught the classics in the Indiana Academy. Among the early settlers were a 
number of Lutheran families, %'ho, from the first, managed to have occasional 
preaching. Rev. M. Steck, of Greensburg, commencing in 1798, for several 
years rode through the wilderness, once in three months, to preach to his 
brethren in Indiana county. Then followed Rev. J. G. Lambright, Rev. Schultz, 
Rev. Reighart, and others. Rev. N. G. Sharretts was the pastor at Indiana and 
Blairsville from 1827 till his death, on the last day of 1836. The first Catholic 
church in the county was located at Cameron's Bottom, in 1821, under the 
charge of Rev. T. McGir. The first Baptist church was organized in 1824, in a 
settlement in Green township, mostly of Welsh origin. At a very early day 
there were a number of Methodist families here. Half a century ago, when 
Robert Nixon was the only Methodist in the town of Indiana, and M'hen that 
good old Methodist minister, Rev. James Wakefield, occasionally came over 
from Wheatfield township to preach in the old court-house, with his white hat, 
plainly cut garments, and plain earnest manner of preaching, he was something 
of a curiosity, and attracted the attention of old and 3'^oung, never failing to 
draw a full house. 

Indiana, the county seat, comprising the separate boroughs of Indiana and 
West Indiana, is near the geographical centre of the county. It was laid out in 
1805, by Charles Campbell, Randall Laughlin, and John Wilson, trustees 
appointed for the purpose. The " fork" of Two Lick and Yellow ci'eeks, near the 
present site of Homer City, was a competitor for the honor of being the county 
seat. This site was not without its advantages, among which were its abundance 
of water, its water power, and the near proximity of coal. But George Clymer, 
of Philadelphia, with the view of enhancing the value of his adjacent lands, 
ofi'ered the present site of two hundred and fifty acres as a gift. This, with the 
beauty of the situation and its central position, turned the scale in its favor. 
The main street, running east and west, was named " Philadelphia street," in 
honor of the residence of George Clymer. He was further honored by naming 
the principal street running north and south " Clymer." Originally the public 
grounds, where the court house stands, extended from Philadelphia street to 
Water street, and from Clymer street to Sutton alley, nearl}^ three acres. The 
square upon which the Lutheran, Presbyterian, and United Presb^^terian churches 
stand, originall}^ extended from Clymer street to Vine street, and from Church 
street to the then southern limit of the town, embracing about two acres and a half. 
Unfortunately, many years ago, building lots were sold off these public squares, 
to save the county a pittance of taxes ; and thus was the beauty of the town 
marred and the comfort of the inhabitants impaired. This was worse than a 
crime — it was an unpardonable blunder. The proceeds of the sale of the town 
lots were applied to the erection of the county buildings, and thus the old court 



796 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

house (a most creditable building in its day) and the old jail were built without 
taxation and without cost to the people. The court house was built in 1808-9. 
The present court house, a substantial and beautiful structure, was completed 
in 1811. 

As early as 1814, the people of the county manifested their interest in the 
cause of education, by taking steps to erect an academy. The building was 
erected of stone, at the southern edge of the town of Indiana, and was completed 
in 1816. In 1818, it was opened for pupils under the direction of Rev. John 
Reed. Recently the State Normal school has bfen completed, and is now in 
successful operation. It is the largest building of the kind in the State, and 
unequaled in the comfort and convenience of its appointments. Indiana was 
incorporated as a borough March 11, 1816. The town of Indiana, with its beau- 
tiful and healthful location, its wide streets and side-walks, its churches, superior 
schools, excellent markets, railroad, and telegraph, is a home that should satisfy 
the most fastidious. 

Blairsville, the principal town of the county, is situated on the Conemaugh, 
seventy miles from Pittsburgh by river and fifty-seven by railroad. It was laid 
out in 1819. James Campbell was the original owner, but in the latter part of 
the year 1818 sold a portion of the land to Andrew Brown, when they at once 
proceeded to lay out a town, which they named in honor of John Blair, of Blair's 
Gap. It began to fill up rapidly, and upon the completion of the western divi- 
sion of the Pennsylvania canal, in 1828, to this point, it came to be an important 
depot, and the town was full of bustle and prosperity. It had previously (March 
25, 1825) received corporate honors. It has retained its supremacy as the lead- 
ing town, by the thrift and enterprise of its citizens. It being the terminus of 
the West Pennsylvania railroad, the offices and shops of that corporation are 
located here, giving employment to a large number of men. It contains several 
handsome churches, two flourishing schools, and a number of industrial estab- 
lishments. 

Saltsburg is on the right bank of the Conemaugh, near the site of an old 

Indian town. It derives its name from the many salt works there located, to 
which reference has been made. While in the full tide of the salt business in 
1817, Andrew Boggs laid .out the town. It was incorporated a borough April 
16, 1838. Notwithstanding the abandoning of the State canal, which added 
greatly to its prosperity, the town is in a flourishing condition. 

Armagh is an old village, settled by several Scotch-Irish families about the 
close of the last century. It is located in the centre of a fine farming country. 
Was incorporated as a borough April 9, 1834. 

Among other prominent towns in the county are Smicksburg, Shelocta, 
Marion, Mechanicsburg, and Homer City, the latter place once a competitor 
for the county seat. 

Formation of Townships Armstrong was formed soon after the organiza- 
tion of Westmoreland county. It was settled shortly after the close of the 
Revolution. . . . Banks was formed from Canoe, in 1869. . . . Black 
Lick from Armstrong in March, 180*7. . . . Brush Valley from Wheat- 
field in 1835. . . . BuRRELL from Black Lick in 1854. . . . Buffing- 
ton from Pine in 1868. . . . Canoe from a part of Montgomery in 1868. 



INDIANA COUNTY. 197 

. . Cherry Hill from Green and Pine in 1855. . . . Centre from 
Armstrong in 1807. . . . Conemaugh from Armstrong in March, 1807. . . 
East Mahoning, West Mahoning, North Mahoning, and South Mahoning 
were formed b}^ tlie division of Mahoning township in 1846. . . . Grant 

from Montgomery in 1868. . . . Green from Wheatland in 1834 

Montgomery from Green in 1835. . . . Pine from Wheatfield in 1850. 
. . . Rayne from Washington and Green in 1847. . . . Washington 
from Armstrong in 1823. . . . Wheatfield, one of the original townships 
at the formation of the county. West Wheatfield was formed from it in 
1861. . . . White, formed three miles around the borough of Indiana, in 
1848. . . . Young from Black Lick and Conemaugh in 1834. 



JEFFERSON COUNTY. 



1 


i 


1 



BY a. AMENT BLOSE, HAMILTON. 

EFFERSON COUNTY was organized from a part of Lycoming 
county, by an act erecting parts of Lycoming, Huntingdon, and 
Somerset counties into separate county districts, approved March 
26, 1804, by Thomas M'Kean, then Governor of the State. By 
the 13th seciron~bTtbe same act it was placed under the jurisdiction of the courts 

of Westmoreland county. An act 
passed in 1806 authorized the 
commissioners of Westmoreland 
county to act for Jefferson county. 
In the session of 1806 it was 
annexed to Indiana county for 
judicial purposes. 

On the 1st of April, 1843, a 
portion of the territory was taken 
from the northeastern part of the 
county to form a part of Elk 
county ; and on the 11th of April, 
1848, all that part of the county 
north of Clarion river was formed 
into Forest county. 

Jefferson county is bounded on 
the north by Forest and Elk coun- 
ties ; on the east by Elk and Clear- 
field ; on the south by Indiana ; and 
on the west by Armstrong and 
Clarion. The original length of 
the county is said to have been 
46 miles; breadth, 26 ; and its area, 
1,203 square miles. The present length of the county is 33 miles ; width, 
in narrowest part, 21 miles, in the broadest part, 25 miles; area, 412,800 acres 
— 645 square miles. 

No mountains lift their lofty heads within the limits of Jefierson county ; 
but hills — many of them steep and rugged — line the water courses of every 
stream. In many places the larger streams flow through deep and narrow 
valleys, bordered by high and precipitous hills, the combination of which 
furnishes many of the elements of the beautiful in natural scenery. The 
land on the elevations is level, or, usually gently undulating. There are 
some fine pieces of valle^'- land along a few of the large streams. The greater 
portion of the county is well watered. Big Mahoning creek flows in a 

798 




JEFFERSON COUNTY COURT-HOUSE. 

(From a Photograph by E. Clark Hall.) 



JEFFERSON COUNTY. 799 

slightly southwesterly direction, through almost the entire width of the extreme 
southern portion of the county. Little Sandy creek flows in a westerly direction 
through the west middle portion of the southern half of the county. Sandy 
Lick creek flows in a northwesterly direction through the central part. 
Mill creek, rising in the northeastern part, takes a southwesterly direction, 
and empties into Sandy Lick near its confluence with North Fork. North 
Fork, from the extreme northern part of the countj^, flows in a southwesterly 
course to join the Sandy Lick a few miles northwest of the central part. 
By their union Red Bank creek is formed, which pursues a southwestern 
course, leaving the limits of the county about 8-^ miles from the southwestern 
corner. Little Toby creek flows in a northwesterly direction through the 
northeastern corner of the county ; and Clarion river forms a great portion 
of the northwestern boundarj'. Many smaller streams flow through difierent 
parts of the county. All those named are highways on which the lumber of the 
county is carried to market. 

Farming and stock raising is followed in nearly every settled locality in the 
county. The soil in many places is very fertile, and yields rich crops of wheat, 
rye, buckwheat, oats, corn, potatoes, and hv^y. In other parts, the soil is sterile 
and unproductive. The land in the pine and hemlock lumber districts is 
usually very hard to clear, but when cleared, and the pine stumps removed 
by their powerful stump-machines, it makes fine farming land, and is very 
productive. Along the streams are some bottom lands that contain excel- 
lent soil for corn raising and grazing purposes. Bituminous coal underlies 
nearly every hill in the county. The veins range from two to twelve feet in 
thickness. A vein eleven feet in thickness is said to have been found in the 
vicinity of Troy, at a depth of about one hundred and twenty feet below the 
surface. The veins in the western and northwestern part of the county have a 
tliickness of from two to four feet. The veins in the vicinity of Punxsutawney 
are from six to eight feet thick. Those in the neighborhood of Reynoldsville 
are from six to twelve feet in thickness, and cover an area of about twenty miles 
long by five wide. The veins around Reynoldsville and Punxsutawney are 
easil}' accessible by opening a drift in the side of a hill. The coal is obtained in 
this way, at the pi'esent time, all over the county. Sandstone, suitable for 
building and other purposes, is abundant. A good quality of limestone is 
found in many localities. Salt water can be reached at a depth of five or six 
hundred feet below the surface. Iron ore has been discovered ; but whether or 
not it is of such a quality and in such quantities as will pay for working it, has 
not yet been tested. 

Many large saw mills have been built on the numerous streams for manu- 
facturing boards and other sawed lumber ; and planing mills for the preparation 
of lumber for building and other purposes. The lumber trade is carried on 
extensively during the winter season in the northern, eastern, southeastern, and 
central parts of the county. Foundries, chair factories, and shops for the 
manufacture of other kinds of furniture, have been erected in various localities 
throughout the county. A few woollen factories, also, have been built, and 
are in successful operation. 



800 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

For many years after its establishment this county was little more than a 
hunting ground for whites and Indians. Large bodies of land in the best loca- 
tions were held for years by rich proprietors at a distance, who would neither 
improve their lands nor sell them at a fair price to those who would. For 
several years the lumber business was the chief occupation of the citizens, but 
re-actions in commercial affairs at different times have caused them to devote 
attention to farming. 

The speculations in the State of Maine gave to the lumber trade an impulse 
that had its influence upon this State. The Yankees, with their proverbial 
shrewdness, had discovered that vast bodies of pine-lands were lying around the 
sources of the Allegheny river, not appreciated at their full value by the pioneers 
who lived on them. They had learned to estimate it by the tree. " The Penn- 
sylvanians still reclioned it by the acre." Between the j^ears 1830 and 1837 
individuals and comi^anies from New Euglaud and New York purchased large 
tracts of land on the head-waters of Red Bank creek and Clarion river, from 
the Holland Land company and other owners of extensive sections. They pro 
ceeded to build saw-mills, and to conduct the lumber trade in the most approved 
manner. This caused quite a fermentation among the lumbermen and land- 
holders of the county. " More land changed owners ; new water-privileges 
were improved ; capital was introduced from abroad ; and during the spring 
floods every creek and river resounded with the preparation of rafts and the 
lively shouts of the lumbermen." This new impetus to emigration increased the 
population threefold in ten j^ears. The land in the count}' has mostl}-^ passed 
from the hands of the large land-owners, and is held by farmers who till it and 
those engaged in the lumber interests. Large tracts have been bought up for the 
coal and other minerals from farmers and owners in the vicinity of the coal 
region about Reynoldsville, by P. W. Jenks, Esq., and others, between 1865 and 
1875. 

The Low Grade division of the Alleghenj^ Valley railroad was completed in 
1874. It passes through the county along Red Bank and Sandy Lick creeks, and 
connects the Allegheny Yalley railroad, at the mouth of Red Bank, with the 
Philadelphia and Erie railroad at Driftwood. Along the line of the railroad 
the county is rapidly filling with settlers. 

The first white settler in Jefferson county was Joseph Barnett. He served 
during the Revolution under General Potter, on the West Branch, and was in the 
State service against the Wyoming boys. It is stated in a sketch of the county, 
found in an old book, that Andrew Barnett, Jr., Esq., said Joseph Barnett set- 
tled at the mouth of Pine creek, in Lycoming county, after the close of the war ; 
and perhaps was one of the Fair-play boys, and that he lost his propert}' by the 
operation of the common law, which superseded the jurisdiction of fair pla3\ 
However this ma}' be, Joel Spyker, who is still living, and has paid a great deal 
of attention to the history of the count}', and was well acquainted with Joseph 
Barnett, relates that Mr. Barnett told him that he brought his family here from 
Linglestown, Dauphin county, in 1797, penetrating the wilderness of the upper 
Susquehanna by the Chinklacamoose path, and passing between the sources of 
the Susquehanna and the Alleghen}', he arrived on the waters of Red Bank, 
then called Sandy Lick, where he had bought lands of Timoth}' Pickering & Co. 



JEFFERSON COUNTY. 801 

Barnett pitched his tent on Sandy Lick creek, and called the place Port Bamett. 
It is on the Susquehanna and Waterford turnpike, at the mouth of Mill creek. 
Here he built a saw mill. His brother Andrew and his brother-in-law, Samuel 
Scott, accompanied him on this occasion. Nine Seneca Indians of Cornplanter's 
tribe assisted him to raise the mill. They worked very well until they got a 
good dinner ; after dinner they did nothing, it being the custom of the Indians 
not to work when their stomachs were full. He soon learned this and treated 
them accordingly. Leaving his brothers to look after the mill, he returned to 
his family, for the purpose of bringing them out. But Scott soon followed him 
with the melancholy news of the death of his brother, who had been buried by 
Scott and the friendly Indians. He was discouraged for a time by this news, 
but in 1199 he moved his family out, again accompanied by Mr. Scott, and a 
young man by the name of Graham, if the information is authentic, was brought 
with them, some of whose descendants are still in the county. " They sawed 
lumber and rafted it down to Pittsburgh, where it brought twenty-five dollars a 
thousand in those days." 

The adventures and hardships attending frontier life were felt by the 
early settlers. Mr. Barnett once carried sixty pounds of flour on his back 
from Pittsburgh, a distance of nearly one hundred miles ; and many times 
had to canoe from Pittsburgh, flour, salt, and other necessaries for his 
family. The nearest grist mill was on Black Lick creek, in Indiana county. 
Mr. .Barnett knew nothing of the wilderness south of him, and was obliged to 
give an Indian four dollars to pilot him to Westmoreland. The nearest house on 
the path eastward was Paul Clover's (grandfather of General Clover), thirty- 
three miles distant, on the Susquehanna, where Curwensville now stands; west- 
ward. Fort Yenango was distant forty-five miles. These points were the only 
resting places for the travelers through that unbroken wilderness. The 
Senecas of Cornplanter's tribe were friendly and peaceable neighbors, and often 
extended their excursions to these waters, where they encamped, two or three in 
a squad, to hunt deer and bears. They took the hams and skins, piled up in 
the form of a ha}' stack, on rafts constructed of dry poles, to Pittsburgh, and 
traded them for trinkets, blankets, calicoes, weapons, and such things as suited 
their use or pleased their fancy. They were always friendly, sober, and rather 
fond of making money. During the war of 1812, the settlers were apprehensive 
that an unfavorable turn of the war on the lakes might bring an irruption of 
savages upon the frontiers through the Seneca nation. A Muncy Indian, called 
Old Captain Hunt, had his camp for several years on Red Bank, probably within 
the present limits of the south-western part of Brookville. He obtained his 
living by hunting, the results of which he enjoyed in drinking whiskey, of which 
he was excessively fond. One year he killed seventy-eight bears. He expended 
nearly all the price of the skins, which was probablj' about three dollars each, 
for his favorite beverage. 

Samuel Scott remained in the county till 1810, when, having gathered 
together b\' hunting and lumbering about two thousand dollars, he went down to 
the Miami river, and bought a section of land. 

About the year 1802 or 1803, John, William, and Jacob Vastbinder, a 

famil}'- from New Jersey, came and settled on Mill creek, three miles north-east 

3 a , . 



802 HISTOB Y OF PENN8 YL VAJSTIA. 

of Barnett. John Matson, Si'., came in 1805 or 1806. The Lucases, also, came 
into the county among the first settlers, Joseph Barnett's descendants have all 
left the county. 

John Bell settled in the southern part of the county, one mile north of the 
present site of Perrysville, about 1809 or 1810. He came here from Indiana 
county, to where he had moved about two years previously from Sewickley settle- 
ment. When he came into the county it was an unbroken wilderness for miles 
around him. Panthers, bears, and wolves roamed the woods undisturbed ; deer 
traveled about in droves, and flocks of wild turkeys were numerous. Archie 
Haddan came into the county about 1811 or 1812, and settled a mile south-east 
of Bell. About 1814 or 1815 Hugh McKee settled half a mile east of Perrysville. 
In 1818 John Postlethwait, Si*., came from Westmoreland county with his 
family, and settled a mile and a half north-west of Perrysville. Near the same 
time a family bj' the name of Young settled about two miles west of Perrysville. 
Soon after 1816 people began to settle in the vicinity of where Punxsutawney 
stands. Abram Weaver is said to have been one of the first to settle there. 
About ISn or 1818 Rev. David Barclay, Dr. John W, Jenks, and Nathaniel 
Tindle, families from New Jersey, settled in Punxsutawney. Charles C. Gaskill 
and Isaac P. Carmalt came some time later. Hon. James Winslow and others 
were among the first settlers in the neighborhood. Jesse Armstrong and Jacob 
Hoover settled near where Clayville now is, some time near 1822 or 1823. Adam 
Long came with them, but he removed to a place near Punxsutawney in 1824. 
James McClelland and Michael Lantz came into the present limits of Porter 
« township, in the south-western corner of the county, previous to the year 1820. 
A Mr. Baker settled across the creek, east of Whitesville, about 1822; John 
McHenry, James Bell, and others moved into the Round Bottom, near Whites- 
ville, somewhere near the year 1822. 

In the year 1822 David Postlethwait purchased a right of settlement to land 
■ from Benjamin McBride and William Stewart, who had settled in the Round 
Bottom, west of Whitesville, about a year before, and cleared a few acres. 
About 1820 or 1821 Lawrence Nolf settled on Pine run, about two miles south 
of Ringgold. He made no improvement ; and about 1828 sold out to John Mil- 
ler, who opened up a farm. In 1822. David Postlethwait and his brother John 
settled on Pine run, about two miles south-east of where Ringgold now stands. 
It was then Perry township. The same year Samuel Newcom settled about a 
mile up the run from Postlethwait. About 1818 or 1819 David, John, and 
Henry Milliron settled on Little Sandy ; and near the same time Henry Nolf 
settled on Little Sandy, where Longville now stands, and ei'ected a saw-mill. 

James Stewart settled in the county, three miles north west of Perrysville, 
about 1821. Alexander Osborn, John Mcintosh, John McGhee, Henry Keys 
and his brother, Matthew and William McDonald, Andrew Smith, William 
Cooper, William McCullough, and John Wilson were some of the first settlers 
in the north-eastern part of the dounty, in what is now Washington township. 
The one first named settled in 1824. John Wilson, without any means but his 
work, built a grist mill. He borrowed a " pair of country mill-stones " from 
Alexander Osborn, extemporized a blacksmith shop to make the irons, exchanged 
work with John McGhee, who was a millwright, received some assistance from 



JEFFERSON COUNTY. 



803 



the neighbors, and got it into successful operation. Bears were plenty, and 
several stories are related of persons chasing bears off their hogs with axes and 
clubs. Nanc}' McGhee, wife of John McGhee, and their hired man, had an 
adventure of this kind once, wlien Mr. McGhee was away from home. Mrs. 
Ann Smith, one of the early settlers, left Ireland at the age of ten, never went 
to school in America, was married at the nge of i-ixteen, yet in her old age she 
taught school. When her husband was discouraged in the backwoods, she was 
so anxious to build up a home for her children in the country that she offered 
him one years' work if he would remain. For twelve months she went out to 
the fields to work as regularly as he did. About 1816, Lewis Long and his son 
William shot five wolves without changing their position. The first shot killed 




VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OF PUN XSUTAWNE V. 



the leader, and they called the rest back by imitating their howling. Jackson 
Long, a son of William, shot a panther in its den, about 1850. The Indians, 
probably, never made this part of ihe county much of a resort. The Seneca 
Indians, from their reservation in Warren county, sometimes came to hunt 
and make sugar. The early settlers could see where tliey had made sugar. 
They had troughs that would hold aliout two c^uarts, in which to catch the 
sap. This they collected into a large trough, and dipped hot stones into 
it to boil it down. This sirup, no doubt, had a singed taste, and could not 
have been very clean; but they relished it. In the year 1831, George Blose 
moved his family from Westmoreland county, and settled half a mile east of 
Perry sville. He subsequently moved into the present limits of the village. In 
the ftdl of 1834, his son, George Blose, Jr., came into the county and settled 
near his father; but in the spring of 1836 he moved two miles west of Perrys- 
ville, and settled permanently. At that time the wolves were so numerous and 



804 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

80 bold that they would come within a few rods of tlie house at night and howl. 
That was about all they did, except to scare the children and kill one or two 
sheep. Soon after this a number of German families settled a mile or two north 
of Blose. J. McAnulty, a Mr. Bai'i', William B. Slack, A, Slack, William Love, 
and J. Ardry were among the first settlers near where Corsica now is. 

Frederick Kahle settled three miles west of Sigel, in 1833 ; Jacob Beer, David 
Silvis, George Wolford, Thomas Callen, George Catz, James McNeal, and others 
came into the same vicinity later. It was some place along Mill creek, a stream 
three or four miles from Sigel, that a Mr. Long and two of Kahle's boys, John 
and Jacob, caught eight young wolves in a den. John, the older, on going in 
the ninth time, as he done before, armed with a torch, a stick four or five feet 
long with a hook in it to fasten it into the wolves, and a- rope tied to his foot to 
pull him out, caught the old one. They thought she was out. He pulled the 
rope and they drew him out ; but he was unable to take her with him. When he 
told Long, he tried to hire him, for ten dollars, to go in again, but he would not. 
Long then tried to hire his brother, and he would not go in. Then Long whet 
his knife, fixed his gun and started in, but came back before getting out of sight. 
At about the fourth trial he came out, and said he had seen the wolf; they did 
not shoot her, however. 

John Fuller settled near Reynoldsville about 1822, Andrew McCreight about 
1831, Tilton and William Reynolds about 1832, Thomas Reynolds about 1835. 
William Best and Jacob Smith were among the first settlers in Paradise settle- 
ment. Joshua Vandevort settled near Mayville, in Warsaw township, about 
1825 ; Byron Gibbs and others, in 1834 ; Elihu Clark and Isaac Temple, in 1835 ; 
James Moorhead settled in the vicinity of Richardsville, in 1835, and John 
Humphrey about the same time; William Richards came in 1831, and built a 
saw mill, grist mill, and woolen factory ; James and Alonzo Brockway came 
into the county and settled on Little Tobey creek, within the limits of the 
present town of Brockwayville ; Dr. A. M. Clark built a grist mill and saw mill 
at the same place in 1828 or 1830; Jacob Sliaffer, Joel Clark, and a Mr. Wash- 
burn settled about two miles above Brockwayville, in 1825. 

At one time Pine Creek township was the only one in the county. It was 
established by act of Assembly in 1806, and named in honor of so many pine 
trees in its boundaries, and water enough to float them. Perry, the second 
township, was organized from Pine Creek in 1818, and named after Oliver Hazard 
Perry. Young, the third township, was organized from Perry in 1826. Rose, 
the fourth township within the present limits of the count}^, was taken from 
Pine Creek in 182*7. Barnett was formed from Rose in 1833, and named after 
Joseph Barnett, the first white settler in the county. Snyder was erected from 
Pine Creek in 1835, and named after Governor Simon Snyder. Eldred was orga- 
nized in 1836 from Rose and Barnett, and named after Nathaniel B. Eldred, 
president judge of the district. Washington was formed from Pine Creek in 
1836, and named after General Washington. Porter was taken from Perry in 
1840, and named after David R. Porter, who was then governor. Clover was 
formed from Rose in 1841, and named after Levi G. Clover, who was then pro- 
thonotary. Gaskill was organized from Young in 1842, and named in honor of 
Charles G. Gaskill. Warsaw was taken from Pine Creek in 1843, and named by 



JEFFERSON COUNTY. 805 

the people after a city of Poland. Winslow was formed from Washington, Pine 
Creek, and Gaskill, in 1846, and named after Hon. James Winslow, an associate 
judge. Heath was taken fi'om Barnett in 184'7, and named after Elijah Heath, 
once an associate judge. Ringgold was organized from Porter in 1848, and 
named in honor of Major Ringgold, who was killed on the eighth of Ma}', 1846, 
at Palo Alto. Union was organized in 1848 from Rose and Eldred, and named 
from a Union of the citizens to form the township. Beaver was formed from 
Clover and Ringgold in 1850, and named after a run that flows through it. Polk 
was organized from Warsaw and Snyder in 1851, and named after James K. 
Polk, Oliver was formed from Perry in 1851, and named after Oliver H. Perry. 
Knox was taken from Pine Creek in 1853, and named after Hon. John C. Knox, 
the president judge. Bell was organized from Young in 1857, and named in 
honor of James H. Bell, an old resident, and once an associate judge. McCal- 
mont was formed from Young in 1857, and named after John S. McCalmont. 
Henderson was organized from Gaskill in 1857, and named after Hon. Joseph 
Henderson, an associate judge. Three townships, Ridgway, Jenks, and Tion- 
esta, and parts of Barnett, Heath, and Snyder, were taken from the count}'. 

Brookville, the county seat, is situated on the line of the Allegheny Valley 
railroad — Low Grade division — forty miles from the mouth of Red Bank, the 
western terminus, and sixty-six miles from Driftwood, the eastern terminus. By 
an act passed, and approved by Governor J. Andrew Shulze, in April, 1829, the 
Legislature appointed John Mitchell, of Centre county, Robert Orr, Jr., of Arm- 
strong, and Alexander McCalmont, of Venango, commissioners, to meet on the 
first Monday in September, 1829, at the house of Joseph Barnett, to fix a proper 
site for the county seat of Jefferson. The inducement to locate on the ground 
where it now stands was on account of its being on the Susquehanna and Water- 
ford turnpike, and at the confluence of Sandy Lick and North Fork creeks. 
Lots were sold in June, 1830, and building was began. It was organized as a 
borough in 1843, The population in 1870 was 1,942. 

PuNXSUTAWNEY is the oldest town in the county. It had a store long before 
there was one in Brookville. Rev. David Barclay laid out the town in 1818 or 
1819. It was organized as a borough in 1851. The population in 1870 was 553. 
Punxsutawney is situated on Big Mahoning creek, eighteen iriles south-east of 
Brookville. 

Corsica is on the Waterford and Susquehanna turnpike, seven miles north- 
west of Brookville. The Clean road from Kittanning to Clean passes through the 
place. The town was laid out in August, 1847, by John J. Y. Thompson and J. 
McAnulty. It was organized as a borough in 1859. The population in 1870 was 
872. i\ t present it is about 500. On the 2d of June, 1873, nearly the entire 
town was consumed by fire. All the business places and hotels in the town were 
destroyed. The estimated loss was $125,000. It was not more than two or three 
hours in burning. The place has three public schools and an academy. 

Clayville became a borough in 1864. The town was laid out by William 
and James Gillespie. Population in 1870 was 189. It is one mile west of 
Punxsutawney. • 



JUNIATA COUNTY. 

BY A. L. GUSS, 

UNIATA COUNTY was formed by an act of March 2, 1831, to take 
effect ou the 1st of Sei^tember followiDg, and to embrace the portion of 
Mifflin County south-east of the intervening mountain-ranges. The name 
is taken from the river which bisects the county, and is derived from the 
original people who lived in this region and were obliterated by the Iroquois prior to 





JUNIATA COUNTY COURT-HOUSE AND SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. 
[Prom a Photograph by Joseph Hess, Miffliutown.] 

the advent of the white man. The root of the word means " a stone." They were 
the people of some kind of a stone, and the term " Standing Stone," long applied to 

806 



JUNIATA COUNTY. 807 

the locality of Huntingdon, may be regarded as a translation of Ouojutta-Haga, or 
the Juniata people, a name found on maps as early as 1659. 

There was a large mound of bones two miles above Academia, and near by the re- 
mains of an Indian fort, concerning which there has been much speculation, and 
absurd accounts are numerous. The writer regards the fort as the seat of a town of 
the ancient Juniata people, and the barrow as the ordinary deposit of their collected 
bones. A large part of the Tuscaroras being driven out of Carolina in 1713, resided 
in this region until their final adoption into the Iroquois Confederacy ten years later ; 
and in fact some of them had a village in the valley, to which they gave their name, 
until after its purchase in 1754. 

The first settlers were mostly Scotch-Irish. Germans came into the east end also 
soon after the purchase of 1754. All who came prior to this date were of course 
intruders on the unpurchased lands of the Indians. None seemed to have been 
found, here in 1750, when the Provincial authorities drove out the trespassers and 
burnt their cabins, of which " Burnt Cabins " is a memorial to this day. The set- 
tlers were repeatedly driven out and many of them killed or captured by the Indians. 
This was notably the case in 1756 and in 1763, but our accounts of these raids are not 
very complete. Kobert Hogg, Samuel Bigham, James Gray and John Gray are given 
as the first settlers. They came as early as 1749, cleared some land in Spruce Hill 
and Tuscarora townships, and built a fort known as Bigham's Fort. They were 
joined, prior to 1754, by George Woods, Francis Innis and others. When the land- 
office opened, February 3, 1755, settlers came over the Tuscarora in increased num- 
bers. Quite a number of land-warrants are dated at this period. They show how 
vigilant the settlers were m preventing others from "jumping their claims." But the 
war soon caused a suspension in issuing land-warrants. Braddock's defeat, July 9, 
1755, emboldened the savages and alarmed the settlers. During the relentless war 
that followed the whole Juniata region was overrun by bands of marauding sav- 
ages. In October an Indian trader and two other men were killed by Indians in 
Tuscarora Valley, and their houses and goods burned. On the 27th of January the 
Indians came upon thg settlers " within three short miles of this fort (Mexico) down 
the river," and killed Adam Nicholson, wife and son, and took a daughter and two 
sons prisoners; killed William Willock and wife, and carried off his five children, 
and James Armstrong's wife and two children. Betty Armstrong, having escaped, 
came wading across the river to Fort Augusta, June 26, 1757, her husband being 
then a soldier in that fort. April 12, 1759, at Canojohary, the Iroquois delivered 
Elizabeth Armstrong, a girl about four years old, taken by seven Delawares and a 
squaw. February 20, 1756, Capt. Patterson was out with a scouting-party, and re- 
ports the woods between Juniata and Shamokin full of Indians seeking for plunder 
and scalps, and found houses burning and grain destroyed. March 29, 1756, the 
Indians took Hugh Mitcheltree, while foddering his cattle in the morning, within 
sight of Patterson's fort, and from an opposite hill fired six guns, a bullet from one 
of which struck the guard-house. Mitcheltree called to the garrison that the Indians 
were but six in nujnber, and desired to be rescued, but no one ventured, and he was 
carried ofl". The same party, passing Pomfret Castle, fired upon it. 

Nothing was done for the border settlers here except that on April 7, 1756, a 
quarter of a cask of powder and seventy-five pounds of lead were sent Samuel Big- 
ham, in Tuscarora, for the fort. On June 12, 1756, John Gray and Francis Innis, 



808 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

having been to Carlisle for salt, were returning over the Tuscarora Mountains, 
when Gray's horse scared, threw him off and ran away. While he was catching his 
horse and gathering his pack and plow-irons, Innis anxiously pressed homeward to 
the fort, where he, his wife and three children, George Woods, Mrs. John Gray and 
her little daughter Jane and others were carried off by the Beaver king of the Tur- 
key tribe of the Delawares. The Pennsylvania Gazette says of the capture of Big- 
ham's fort, that " George Woods, Nathaniel Bigham, Robert Taylor, his wife and 
child, and John M'Donnel, were missing. Some of these, it was supposed, were burnt, 
as a number of bones were found, Susan Giles was found dead and scalped. Alex- 
ander McAlister and wife, James Adams, Jane Cochran and two children were 
missed. McAlister's house had been burned, and a number of cattle and horses had 
been driven off." Loudon, in his Narratives, published in 1808, says that the man- 
ner of the taking of the fort he could not tell, for he never heard of any one that 
ever returned, and yet he quotes Woods' account of the tortures inflicted on the poor 
captives. The same book says, " The same party who took Granville at Lewistown 
next attacked Bigham's Fort in Tuscarora. This they also burned, killing and cap- 
turing all that were in it. About the same time they killed Robert Cochran on his 
farm, and bore off his wife and son." If this be so, the fort was not burned at the 
time Innis was taken. In the face of all the above, there were still "a number of 
settlers in three valleys beyond the mountains " north of Carlisle. In an effort to 
cover reapers in Tuscarora and Sherman valleys. Fort Granville was weakened, and 
almost without ammunition, being inhumanely neglected by the authorities, was taken 
and burnt August 1, 1756. After this "many murders _were committed, and the 
affrighted inhabitants deserted their homes." During September, Col. Armstrong 
made his expedition against Kittanning, in which a number of the Juniata refugees 
participated, and Andrew Douglass was wounded. 

Francis Innis and wife " were bartered away for French goods, etc.," and returned 
home by way of Canada. While running the gauntlet Mrs. Innis was severely 
wounded by a splint run into her breast. The Indians threatened to burn Mr. Innis 
for refusing to work on Sunday. While in Montreal theii; son James was born. 
On their return Mrs. Innis walked to Philadelphia to have a settler removed from 
their laud, and got the warrant for their laud, June 3, 1762. In December, after 
their capture, while on their way to Canada, their youngest child being sick from the 
exposure, was put under the ice by the Indians. Early in 1763, before the second 
war, the parents petitioned the governor to exercise his " wonted care in inquiring 
for their other two children." These they recovered among those delivered to Col. 
Boquet late in 1764. The old homestead, a little east of McCoysville, is still in pos- 
session of the descendants by his son James, who was a Revolutionary soldier. All 
those taken at Bigham's Fort were marched to Kittanning, and then to Fort Du 
Quesne, where they were parcelled out and adopted by the Indians after their usual 
custom. Woods was a remarkable man. He purchased his owu rausom. He had 
fallen to the lot of an old Indian called John Hutson, with whom he pretended to be 
neither ornamental nor useful ; and having no relatives to pay his redem2:)tion. Hut- 
son liberated him on condition of the yearly payment of ten pounds of tobacco, 
which was regularly called for and paid until the massacre of the Bedford scout, 
when Woods' sou recognized Hutson's son among the murderers; after which old 
Hutson never called for the ransom annuity. Woods was a surveyor, and followed 



JUNIATA COUNTY. 809 

that business iu Juuiata, Bedford and Allegheny counties. He assisted iu laying out 
Pittsburg, and one of its principal streets is named after him. One of his daughters 
was married to James Ross, once a candidate for governor. 

John Gray joined Col. Armstrong's expedition against Kittanning, hoping to re- 
capture or gain some intelligence of his family ; but failing in this, he became broken 
in health and spirit, returned to Bucks county, and made his will and died. By the 
terms of the will he gave his sister, Mary Gray, one-half of his plantation iu Tusca- 
rora Valley on condition that she pay his nephew, John Gray, five pounds and make 
no demand for thirteen pounds of borrowed money. The other half he willed to his 
wife and daughter. In case either of them should not return it was to go to the one 
that did return , and in case neither returned it was to go to his sister, Jane McDonal. 
Mrs. Hannah Gray, after a year's captivity, aided by some traders, niade her escape 
and reached home in safety. Her child, Jane, remained with other Indians, to her 
unknown. In 1765 a number of captive children, surrendered to Col. Boquet in 
Ohio, were taken to Philadelphia for identification, and it was charged that Mrs. 
Gray was induced to take an unclaimed child of the same age, after failing to find 
her own, in order to get possession of the whole property. The provisions of the will, 
however, did not require this. The story, as commonly given, is therefore not correct. 
The child taken grew to womanhood. The estate descending to her, she married a 
Mr. Gillespie, who disposed of it to a Mr. McKee, a Seceder clergyman. In the 
meantime the children of James, brother of John Gray, became heirs of the sister 
Jane, called in question the idenity of the retui-ned caiDtive, and brought suit for the 
land, now greatly enhanced in value. The half of the land given Mary Gray also 
came into law, as she had receipted to the administrators of Hannah Gray for the 
thirteen pounds, and was thus regarded as not accepting under the will. This phase 
of the case is set forth by the Supreme Court in 10 Sergeant & Rawle, p. 182. The 
lands were in law at Carlisle, Lewistown and Mifflintown from 1789 to 1834, assuming 
many complicated, phases. It is commonly stated that the case was finally decided 
against the identity of the child, but on the authority of H. T. McAlister, Esq., one 
of the twelve on final trial, it must be stated that the case was solely determined on 
the ground of twenty-one years' peaceable possession, and that every man on that 
jury believed the child claimed by Mrs. Gray was really her own daughter. 

Capt. James Patterson settled at Mexico some say as early as 1751. He came 
from Lancaster county, and was probably the son of the Indian trader of the same 
name. He has been represented as holding the Penn family in supreme contempt, 
and refusing to purchase his lands from the Proprietaries. That all this story is 
groundless is shown by his warrant dated next day after the land-ofiice opened, and 
the fact that he had the first tract patented iu the county. He and Major Burd were 
ordered to erect Pomfret Castle at Richfield. He was a captain in the Indian wars, 
1755-64, and his company helped erect Fort Augusta. He was a bold, fearless, 
energetic man, and endowed with great strategic cunning. Some say he had a wood- 
en cannon with which he, and in his absence his wife, used to create fear in the cow- 
ardly red-skins. Others relate that he kept a well-riddled target against a tree at a 
great distance from his house. When Indians came about he would blaze away, but 
stop when they came near. They would examine the target, survey the distance, 
shrug their shoulders and conclude that he was what they termed him, " Big Shot." 
He had a log house pierced with loopholes, spoken of in the Provincial Records as 



810 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Patterson's Fort. He was the most illustrious of our pioneers. His son William was 
also an officer in the Indian wars, and settled opposite Mexico, where he had a block- 
house twelve feet square, eight logs high, covered with slate to guard against fire. In 
1767 he marched twenty men, at his own expense, from his home to Middle Creek, 
and arrested Stump and Ironcutter for the murder of the White Mingo and ten other 
Indians, and lodged them in Caj-lisle jail, for which service the "young captain " was 
made a justice of the peace. 

During the calm prior to the Pontiac War, quite a number of settlers came within 
the limits of the present county, besides those above named, among whom were Wil- 
liam Arbuckle, James Armstrong, William Anderson, John Beale, Robert Camp- 
bell, William Cunningham, John Collins, James and William Christy, William 
Graham, John Eardy, Charles Hunter, Robert Houston, James Irwin, Charles Ken- 
ny, John McClelland, George McConnell, Robert Moore, Jacob Pyatt, Hugh Quig- 
lej', Alexander Robison, William Rennison, Ralph Sterrett, John, William and James 
Scott, James, John and John (Hunter) Williams, John Wilson in Lack Township, 
and Alexander Armstrong, William Curran, James Crampton, Andrew Douglass, 
James Gallaher, William Henderson, George Hays, Hugh McAlister, William Mc- 
Alevy, Hugh McCormick, Samuel Mitchell, Robert Nelson, John Reed, William 
Redmond, John Sturgeon, William Stewart and William White, in Milford township. 
Enterprising settlers were dotting the county with their improvements. The first 
assessment was made in 1763. Some depredations at Bedford on June 13th caused 
the alarmed settlers to flee to Carlisle ; but not being followed up, it was attributed 
to personal spite and to hatred of the forts and roads, and not a sign of war, so that 
the settlers returned to cut their harvests. 

On Sunday morning, July 10, 1763, "Shamokin Daniel, with eighteen Indians," 
having come " to view the roads and see what troops were marching up, and finding 
none, proceeded to Juniata to kill and scalp." At the house of William White, ad- 
joining Patterson's at Mexico, up the river, there were four men and a boy. White, 
on going to the door to see what the noise meant, was shot dead. Seeing the Indians 
trying to set fire to the house, the rest tried to get out at the door, but the first one 
that stepped out was shot down. After which, attempting to escape by a window, an- 
other was shot through the head and the lad John Riddle wounded in the arm. The 
remaining man, William Riddle, broke through the roof, frightened the Indian guard, 
and escaped. The house, with the dead bodies, was burned. The lad, who had escaped 
by the window and hid in a rye-field, was discovered and captured. A man named 
McMahen, unsuspectingly coming there, was shot in the shoulder, but escaped. The 
lad John Riddle was recovered some years after near Lake Erie, having become so 
infatuated with Indian life that his father had great difficulty in getting him home. 

The same party of Indians passed from White's, a mile and a half across the river, 
to the house of Robert Campbell at the mouth of Licking Creek. Six men were in 
the house, and they were at dinner. Three Indians rushed in at the door and fired 
on them, wounding some and tomahawking one of the men. George Dodds sprang 
into the back room, took down a rifle and shot aiu Indian through the body just as 
he was in the act of presenting his piece at Dodds. The Indian let his gun drop 
and staggered out, and was carried off" by three others. There being an opening in 
the loft, Dodds and two others sprang up there and broke through the roof by the 
chimney. They saw Stephen Jeffries running slowly, being wounded in the breast, 



JUNIATA COUNTY. 811 

and followed by au ludiau, by whom he was killed. The first oue that emerged 
from the loft was fired at and drew back ; the second was shot dead ; and of the six, 
Dodds only escaped, and carried the news to Sherman's Valley. The Indians then 
passed up the valley to now Nourse's farm, near Spruce Hill, where they killed Wil- 
liam Anderson in the dusk of the evening. The old man was seated at the table 
Avith the open Bible in his hand, supposed to be about worship, when he was shot. 
His son and an adopted daughter were tomahawked and scalped. His daughter 
Mary was the mother of William Patton, a Eevolutionary soldier. William and 
James Christy and William Graham, liviug above Anderson's, hearing the firing of 
guns, were alarmed and fled, reaching Sherman's Valley at midnight. The reports 
spread terror among the settlers. In order' to save John Collius's and James Scott's 
families, who lived farther up the valley, twelve men went over on Monday morning 
at Bigham's Path. When they came to Collins's they found the Indians had been 
there, broken a wheel, emptied a bed, taken flour and made water-gruel. Thirteen 
bark spoons were counted. They tracked them down to Scott's, where they had killed 
some fowls. Passing down to Graham's, they found the house burned down to the 
joists. Here they seemed to have been joined by another band, making now about 
twenty-five. They had killed four hogs and had eaten at leisure, fearing no moles- 
tation. The Indians having crossed the mountain, the white men also went over by 
the Run Gap; both paths met at Nicholson's, where the Indians lay in wait and killed 
five and wounded one of the party of twelve. About half of these men were settlers 
in Juniata. Their leader, Robert Robinson, wrote a brief narrative of these events 
(see page 1010). 

Ralph Sterrett, an Indian trader, had rebuilt Bigham's Fort about 1760. He 
owned land in Lack township, on " Hickory Lake." His sou William, born in the 
fort, was the first white male child born in the county. It is related that he once 
gave a weary Indian bread, meat, rum and tobacco, a circumstance which had passed 
from his mind until, in 1763, the Indian came one night in advance of the scalping- 
party and warned him of his danger. The white people fled, but the Indians burned 
the fort. John McClelland, who lived where Patterson is now located, William Cun- 
ningham, at the Partner place on Licking Creek, and others not found on that fatal 
Sunday, escaped in safety. The east end contained few settlers at that day. Lost 
Creek Valley is said to have been penetrated by Indian traders about 1742, and a 
subsequent eflfort to find the stream proved unsuccessful, and hence the name. Others 
say it arose from the first settlers being unable to find their improvements on its banks 
when they returned to harvest their crops. 

By the time of the Revolutionary War there had been many additional families 
settled in the county, among whom we may name in Lack, William Brice, David 
Beale, John Crawford, George Gooshorn, Amos Hoopes, John Harvey, Christopher 
Irwin, William Kirk, John Mclntyre, William Neely, Thomas Patton, John Stuart, 
Esq., David Wallace, William Walker ; in Milfbrd, Thomas Beale, Esq., William 
Bell, Esq., Matthew Borland, George Crain, James Chambers, Aaron Cotter, John 
Dillon, John Elliott, John Harris, Clement Horrell, John and William Henderson, 
John Hamilton, Epenetus Hart, William Irwin, Thomas Jeftries, Benjamin Kepner, 
Samuel Lyon, Esq., Theophilus McDonald, James McLaughlin, William McCor- 
mick, Joseph McCoy, James Radman, Philip Strouse, George Stewart, Robert Tay- 
lor, Thomas Turbett, Samuel Wharton, Thomas Wilson ; in Fermanagh, James 



812 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Banks, Aquilla Burchfield, James Bonner, Widow Bryson, Church Cox, Esq., Joseph 
Cookson, James Clendenuin, James Dickey, James Gibson, John Hamilton, John 
Harris, Esq., Nathaniel Hart, John Kiplar, Christian Lintuer, Abraham Lukens, 
William McCay, Robei't McTeer, James Maclin, David Martin, James Mitcheltree, 
James Purdy, William Riddle, Thomas Rankin, William Rea, William and Hugh 
Sharon, Jacob Sellers, James Taylor, Esq., John Tinnis, John and Robert Thomp- 
son, Thomas Wiley and John Wood. 

When the British closed the port of Boston subscriptions were taken among these 
frontier mountains for the suffei'ing brethren ; and among those from this region who 
were in Capt. Hendricks' company in front of Boston, and were sent with Arnold's 
unfortunate expedition against Quebec, were Lieut. John McClelland, son of the 
pioneer at Patterson, John Hardy, Benjamin Lyon and others. The gallant and 
noble lieutenant perished in the wilderness. (See Judge Henry's narrative.) Hardy 
was a brother of Hugh, often erroneously called the first settler on Licking Creek. 
He took the oath of allegiance to the Crown at Quebec, and in after years fled to 
Canada. Lyon died in after years at Shirleysburg. The next soldiers were two 
companies of eighty men each, besides officers, commanded by Capt. Purdy and 
Capt. Gibson. They served two months early in 1776. Afterwards the troops 
marched agreeably to their drafts, except a company raised by Maj. Hugh McAlister 
and John Hamilton at a meeting held at Sharon's, and sent for the relief of Wash- 
ington at Trenton. Col. Thomas Turbett during the war distinguished liimself 
especially in marching against the Indians. In the war of 1812 a company of 
100 men, rank and file, was raised under Capt. Matthew Rodgers, but about half 
his men belonged above the Narrows. During the rebellion six or eight companies 
were raised in the county. 

A forge was erected on Licking Creek in 1791 by Hon. Thomas Beale and Wil- 
liam Sterrett, Esq. In 1796 it was assessed to Edward Cahill, and 1000 acres of 
land to the Freedom Forge Company. During this year the property, including 
" a forge and two hammers," was sold at sherifi''s sale to Thomas Cromwell of 
Huntingdon county. The buildings were subsequently destroyed by fire. The pig- 
metal was brought from Cornwall and from Centre Furnace, Centre county, being 
hauled over the Seven Mountains to Lewistown, and thence flatted down. A paper- 
mill was erected on Licking Creek, seven miles west of Mifflintown, in 1817, by 
James Norton and William Selheimer, who were succeeded by William Kirk and 
Absalom Selheimer. It was run until 1831. Writing-paper, printing-paper and 
brown wrappings were made. 

Mifflintown, the county-seat, was laid out in 1791 by John Harris, and named 
in honor of Gen. Mifflin, then governor of the State. It was incorporated March 6^ 
1833 ; limits extended April 29, 1868. The struggle for the new county was long 
and strenuously opposed. The lower end being the seceding portion, it received the 
new name. Thus Mifflintown is not in Mifflin county, much to the confusion of 
strangers. It is connected with Patterson by a toll bridge, where the depot is sched- 
uled Mifflin. . The town improved slowly until after it became the county-seat, for 
which honor it had a lively rival in a town called Mifflinburg, laid out by James 
Taylor, Esq., a mile farther down the river, and which once had a number of houses, 
all of which have disappeared except one. The court-house was built in 1874-75, 
and is a fine, large brick structure. In the courtyard is a monument erected in 



JUNIATA COUNTY. 813 

1870, eighteen feet high, crowLied with a spread eagle and bearing tliis inscription : 
" In Memor}' of the Soldiers from Juniata County, who died in the War of the Great 
Eebellion, in defence of the Union of their Fathers." The town has suffered twice 
terribly from fires — first on January 1, 1871, and again August 23, 1873. 

Patterson Avas laid out in 1849 by Mr. Fallon of Philadelphia, and named in 
honor of William H. Patterson, former owner of the ground It was incorporated 
March 17, 1853. The portion along the railroad was filled up, having formerly been 
a vast pond. Its prosperity has been checked by the removal of the railroad-shops. 
Port Royal, formerly long known as Perrysville, was laid out by Henry Groce 
in 1815, and incorporated March 17, 1843. It is at the mouth of Tuscarora Creek, 
across which there is a cluster of houses, formerly called Tammany. Thompsons- 
town was laid out by William Thompson in 1790, incorporated February 7, 1868, 
and is at the moutji of Delaware Run. Mexico was laid out by Tobias Kreider, 
Sr., in 1804, at the mouth of Capt. James Patterson's "DO Run," so called from 
the resemblance of its course to those letters. As early as 1767 Patterson is taxed 
•with a grist and saw-mill here. McAlisterville was once changed to Calhouns- 
ville by admirers of the South Carolina statesman, but it soon returned to the higher 
honor of its founder, Maj. Hugh McAlistei'. The Academy, in charge of Col. Geo. 
F. McFarland before the war, has been changed to a Soldiers' Orphans' School. 
Richfield, East Salem, Vanwert, Oakland Mills east of the river, and Walnut (Johns- 
town), Academia, ]\IcCoysville, Waterford, Waterloo, and Peru Mills west of the 
river, are small villages. 

Organization of Townships. — The first townships organized by the Cumberland 
county Court on the new purchase were Ayr, Fannett, Tyrone and Lack, October 
session, 1754. Fermanagh is named as early as 1762. Greenwood (all between 
Juniata and Susquehanna), in the spring of 1767 ; and at July sessions the bound- 
aries of Fermanagh, Peuns, Greenwood and Derry were fixed. Lack was divided 
November 7, 1768, forming Milford. Thus the territory stood until the formation 
of Mifilin county in 1789, when a small portion of Greenwood fell into the new 
county and became " Upper " Greenwood. In 1792 this was enlarged by annexing 
part of Fermanagh, the line passing through McAlisterville and Thomj)sonstown. 
While in Mifilin county, Turbett was formed from Milford, November 22, 1815; 
Walker from Fermanagh, April 17, 1822 ; Tuscarora fi-om Lack, Aug. 17, 1825. 
Since the formation of Juniata county there have been formed Fayette from 
Greenwood and Fermanagh, December 4, 1834; Delaware from Walker and 
Greenwood, February 3, 1836; Beale from Milford, February 8, 1843; Susque- 
hanna and Monroe from Greenwood, July 28, 1858; Spruce Hill from Turbett, 
September 10, 1858. Black Log Valley, part of Lack, is a separate election district. 
Fermanagh was i^med after a county in Ireland ; Lack is a corruption of lake 
or lick ; Greenwood probably named after Joseph Greenwood ; Milford from the ford 
at the middle mill on Licking Creek; Turbett from Col. Thomas Turbett; Walker 
from Hon. David Walker ; Beale from Hon. John Beale ; Black Log from an In- 
dian trader's " sleeping place " in the gap near Orbisouia. The " Fort Granville 
Road " was a path from Carlisle by way of Jenny's Gap, Licking Creek Valley and 
the Granville Gap. The first laid-out road in the county was confirmed in May, 
1768, on " a petition of inhabitants of Kishecoquelas, Jack's Creek, Lost Creek, Juni- 
ata, Tuscarora, etc., for a road from Sherman's Valley to Kishecoquelas Valley." 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 



BY SAMUEL EVANS, COLUMBIA. 




IIB rapiii increase of the settlements on the frontiers of the Province 
b}' the immense immigration into Pennsylvania made it necessary to 
have a county taken off the back parts of Chester county, and a num- 
ber of petitions praying to have the division made having been sent 
to the Governor, they were presented to council on the 6th of February, 1Y29. 
On the 20th day of February, 1729, the Governor issued an order to run the line 
between Chester and the proposed new county. The following persons 
were named in said order as viewers to run said division line, and make report to 
the council — they were assisted by John Taylor, the surveyor of Chester 
county — to wit: Henry Hayes, Samuel Nutt, Samuel Hollingsworth, Philip Tay- 
lor, Elisha Gatshal, and James 
James, all of whom resided 
within the present limits of 
Chester county, and John 
Wright, Tobias Hendricks,. 
Samuel Blunston, Andrew 
Cornish, Thomas Edwards, 
and John Musgrave, all of 
whom resided within the lim- 
its of the new county. The 
last six persons occupied very 
prominent and honorable 
positions in the new county 
for many years. They were 
evidently selected on account 
of their intelligence and worth. 
On the 2d day of May, 1729, 
the order was returned to 
council, and on the lUth day 
of Ma}', 1729, the Assembly and council established the new county, which com- 
prised " all the Province lying northward of Octorari creek, a^d westward of a 
line of marked trees, running from the north branch of the said Octorari creek, 
north-easterly to the river Schuylkill." The county has since been reduced to 
its present limits by the erection into separate counties of York, Cumberland, 
Berks, Northumberland, Dauphin, and Lebanon. It owes its name to John 
Wright, who was a native of Lancashire, in England. 

The first justices appointed for the county were John Wright, Tobias Hen- 
dricks, Samuel Blunston, Andrew Cornish, Thomas Edwards, Caleb Peirce, 
Thomas Reid, and Samuel Jones, Esquires. A majority of them held commis- 

814 




THE OLD COURT HOUSE AT LANCASTER. 

[Torn down in 1853.— From an Old Print.] 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 815 

sions of the peace for Chester county, and resided at the time within the limits 
of Lancaster county before the division. 

The present boundaries of Lancaster county are, north by the counties of 
Dauphin, Lebanon, and Berks ; east by Chester ; south by Cecil county, Mary- 
land ; and south-west by the Susquehanna river. Its length is thirty-three miles, 
and breadth twenty-eight ; area, nine hundred and twenty-eight miles. 

The general surface of the county, with the exception of a few hills named 
below, is that of a gently undulating plain. The South mountain, generally 
known as the Conewago hills, forms the northern boundary ; to that succeeds a 
broad belt of red-shale and sandstone. South of this, and occupying the central 
townships, is a wide tract of the finest limestone lands in the State. Chicques 
hills and Welsh mountain are protruded through the limestone. A broken sand- 
stone range, composed of Mine ridge, Martic hills, and Turkey hill, crosses south 
of the limestone. There is no finer agricultural land in the world than Pequea 
valley. The limestone land in Donegal, Hempfield, and Manor is equally 
fertile. There is no county in the State po-sessing such an amount and variety 
of the sources of natural wealth, and none where these resources have been more 
industriously developed. 

For many years the noble Susquehanna was the channel upon whose bosom 
immense quantities of produce, flour, grain, whiskey, and lumber found their 
way from northern and central Penns^dvania to Baltimore and other cities. The 
river is improved on both sides by canals, on the east side to Columbia, and 
from thence on the west side to the mouth of the river. Li 1828 the Conestosfa 
was made navigable, by a series of slack-water pools, with dams and locks, 
extending from Reigart's landing, in Lancaster city, eighteen miles, to Safe 
Haibor, at the mouth of the creek. Since the wonderful improvement in rail- 
roads, the navigation was suffered to run down some years ago ; and the dams 
are alone used as a power to drive various mills and factories. The first canal 
packet boat built in the State was a small craft called the " Red Rover," erected 
at Lancaster in 1828. On the 1 0th day of May, 1833, it was taken up the river 
to Columbia, and run as a packet between that place and Middletown by Thomas 
King, of Columbia. 

The Conestoga, Pequea, Conowingo, Octoraro, Chicques, and Conewago 
creeks, together with their various branches, afford splendid water power, which 
has been utilized. Before the era of railroads this county had long been prover- 
bial for excellent turnpikes and stone bridges. One of the earliest, if not the 
first, turnpike of any considerable length in America was the one constructed 
between Philadelphia and Lancaster, in 1792-4, at an expense of $465,000. In 
a few 3'ears thereafter a turnpike was built between Lancaster and Harrisburg, 
and to " Anderson's Ferry " (Marietta), Columbia, and to Morgantown. There 
was also one running from Chester county, through Ephrata, in the north-east- 
ern part of the county, and one from Newport, Delaware, to one mile west of Gap. 
Within a recent period turnpikes have been made diverging from Lancaster 
citjf to Millersville, Litiz, Manheim, Ephrata, HorseShoe, Willow Street, and Dan- 
ville. Similar roads have also been built, diverging from Columbia to Chestnut 
Hill ore bank, Washington borough, and Marietta, and from Marietta to Mount 
Joy and Maytown. There are also many excellent common roads. 



816 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

At the close of the Revolution, Pennsylvania took measures to make her 
principal rivers navigable, and to ascertain the feasibility of the measure, a 
convention was called to meet at Lancaster, and a committee, selected from the 
counties bordering along the Susquehanna river, was appointed to examine the 
rapids at Conewago, and report, etc. Afterwards the Legislature appropriated 
several tliousand dollars towards their improvement, as well as the Delaware and 
Schuylkill. After the era of turnpikes, artificial communications by water was 
urged, and the State was not slow to adopt the system. 

After the canals came the era of railroads, the first having been constructed 
between Columbia and Philadelphia in 1832-4. In 1857 the State trans- 
ferred her public improvements to the Pennsylvania railroad company. 
Their road traverses the entire breadth of the county, from east to west, 
passing through the principal towns in the county. The Reading and Columbia 
railroad traverses the county from the south-west to the north-eastern part. 
There is a branch road running from the "junction " on the above road to Lan- 
caster, passing through Petersburg. A new road has been built running from 
Lancaster to Quarryville, and a narrow gauge road from Oxford to Peach 
Bottom, as also a railroad extending from Wayuesburg, Chester county, to New 
Holland, have been recently completed. There are several other branch roads 
which are in contemplation to build, or are now in course of erection. In a few 
years they will permeate every section of the county, and afford every one the 
means of transportation for themselves or their produce to market. It is now 
the largest grain and tobacco producing county in the State, and only excelled 
in those productions of the soil by three or four counties in the United States. 

Before the count}^ was organized, iron and copper ores had been discovered. 
It is supposed that Kurtz was the first to establish iron works, as early as 1726, 
within the limits of the county. It is said that his iron works were situated 
on the Octoraro, and it is possible that they were thrown upon the Maryland side 
of the division line when it became permanently established. Peter Grubb fol- 
lowed him in 1727, at the Cornwall ore banks. He was the son of Henry Grubb, 
who emigrated from Wales at an early day. As was the case with other promi- 
nent iron masters in the county who came from Wales, were workers in iron 
in that country. Peter Grubb died in 1745. His sons, Curtis and Peter, 
inherited his estate. In 1783, they had Cornwall furnace, Hopewell forge, and 
Union forge, on the Swatai\a, at the foot of the Blue mountains. Peter and 
Curtis Grubb were both colonels in the Revolutionary array. Their furnaces sup- 
plied the Continental army with salt-pans and cannon. Curtis was also a member 
of Assembly for 1775, 1777, 1778, 1782. The descendants of Peter and Curtis 
own their estate, and have added largely to it, and are now some of the most 
extensive iron manufacturers in -the State. Benezet & Co., of Philadelphia, 
carried on the Elizabeth iron works, under the management of Baron Henry 
William Steigel, before the Revolutionary war. In the year 1753, Lynford 
Lardner, an Englishman, and church warden X)f Bangor Episcopal church 
(Churchtown), erected an iron forge upon the Conestoga creek, known as 
Windsor forge, which afterwai'ds came into the possession of Mr. Branson, of 
Philadelphia, who sold it to David Jenkins, from whom it descended to his son 
Robert and grandson David. In 1850, the property passed out of the hands of 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 817 

the family. Pool forge, which was about a mile further down the creelv, was 
built in 1793, by James Old, who also built one in the adjoining township, 
west of Caernarvon. He became a wealthy and successful iron master. He was 
a member of the Legislature in 1791, 1792, and 1793. He came over from Wales 
and worked as a puddler in Windsor forge. Cyrus Jacobs married a daughter 
of James Old, and came into possession of Mr. Old's furnace propert}-, and built 
others. He was even more successful than his predecessor, and became very 
wealth}'. A portion of the property still remains in possession of his descen- 
dants. Robert Coleman emigrated from Ireland, and found employment with 
Peter Grubb, the proprietor of Hopewell forge. It was but a very short time 
before Mr. Grubb discovered his capacity for business. He was gradually pro- 
moted from one subordinate position to another. From manager of Elizabeth 
furnace he became part owner, and finally owner of the entire property. In fact, 
by his energy and perseverance, he became the most successful iron master in 
Lancaster county. He married the daughter of Robert Old. His descendants 

retain much of his property, and are reputed the richest iron-masters in the 
countrj'. 

Large deposits of iron ore were discovered in the south-eastern section of 
the county at an early day, and as a consequence a number of iron worlds were 
erected. Probably the first furnace erected in that section was in Martic town- 
ship, which stood within five hundred yards of the road leading from Lancaster 
to Port Deposit. Martic forge was built by Robert Coleman and Edward 
Brj^nn ; Pine Grove forge on Octoraro creek, in Little Britain township, was built 
by Jonathan Webb, in 1800, and in a few years thereafter he erected a rolling mill 
and flouring mill. He died in 1824, after which it was carried on by his heirs, 
who sold the works to William and Enos Pennock. These works were on the 
Octoraro, about one mile below the junction of the east and west branches of that 
stream White Rock forge was about four miles above, on the west branch, and 
owned for some years by Spraul, Alexander, and Irwin. Black Rock furnace 
and forge, four miles further up the same branch, was owned and worked by J. 
Caldwell, and built by Judge Clarke. Sadsbury forge, on the east branch, was 
also owned b}' Mr. Spraul. Mount Eden furnace, about the head-waters of the 
west branch aforesaid, was established by John Withers ; Michael, John, and 
George Withers erected Conowingo furnace ; Conowingo rolling mill was built 
by Neff and Kendrick; Conowingo furnace passed from Withers to Good and 
Jenkins, and from them, in 1828, to James Hopkins and Samuel Orrick, then to 
James M. Hopkins and Charles Brooks; the works were owned and conducted 
for many years and are now owned by James M. Hopkins. These furnaces and 
forges have gone to decay, and are fast becoming relics of the past — many of them 
are numbered with the things that were. Whilst these charcoal works have gone 
down, others of more importance in various sections of the county have 
sprung up since the introduction of anthracite coal in the manufacture of iron. 
Immense beds of iron ore have been developed and worked, the Chestnut Hill 
iron ore bank, near Columbia, having furnished sevei'al million dollars worth of 
ore alone. 

The copper mines near the Gap were discovered b}^ a German named Tersey, 
prior to 1733. They were worked with varying success until the water over- 
3 B 



818 



HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 



flowed the mines. After the introduction of machinery, driven by steam, they 
were again opened and worked. At the present time there are six thousand 
tons of nickel ore talsen out annually ; two hundred men are employed. Eleven 
shafts have been sunk, ranging from one hundred and ten feet deep to two 
hundred and forty feet deep, connected by tunnels. Four immense engines are 
employed at the smelting works, and to keep the mines from overflowing with 
water. The works are owned by Joseph Wharton, Jr., of Philadelphia, and 
conducted by Captain Charles Doble. This is said to be the most productive 
nickel mine in the world. 

An extensive lead mine is being worked near Petersburg, in East Herapfield 
township. Yaluable slate quarries are worked at Peach Bottom. In Little 
Britain there are large beds of magnesite, which is extensively manufactured into 
sulphate of magnesia, from which one million eight hundred thousand pounds 

of Epsom salts are manufactured annually. Chrome 
is found in large quantities in Fulton township. 
Gi'anite is quarried very extensively near Falmouth, 
Conoy township. Red and gray sandstone are found 
north of Ephrata, which are used for building pur- 
poses. Persons have traced the gold vein from North 
Carolina, through Virginia, and to Drumore town- 
ship, in this county ; but small quantities of the 
precious metal haA'^e been found, and the search for 
it has been abandoned. 

As early as 1608, there seems to have been three 
tribes of Indians who had a settlement along the 
east bank of the Susquehanna river, within the lim- 
its of the county as it was first organized. The 
largest and most powerful of these tribes were the 
Susquehannocks. Recent discoveries have thrown 
much light upon the location of these Indian towns. 
During the present year, Prof. S. S. Haldeman made 
a very valuable discovery in a cave near his house, 
of several hundred pieces of pottery, arrow-heads, 
stone hatchets, etc., which he has arranged and classified. In the fall of 
1873, Jacob Staman, of Washington borough, found in a single grave 
near his dwelling, Indian relics, consisting of an iron helmet, a skull, the 
principal bones of the legs and arms, a large iron axe, iron hoe, an iron 
instrument that might have been used for a sword, and a large clay pot, 
broken into a number of pieces ; and more recently, cannon balls about two and 
one-fourth inches in diameter, some of iron, others of stone, have been found 
upon Mr. Wittmer's farm. These are interesting discoveries, and have some 
historical value. It is known that the Susquehannocks had settlements for 
several hundred years upon the banks of our principal river, two days' journey 
above the first falls in that river, and that their town was fortified by stockades 
to protect it from sudden attacks of the Iroquois, to which especial reference 
has been made in the General History, and also of the result of the terrible 
battle which took place between the Five Nations and the Susquehannocks. Miss 




INDIAN KELICS FOUND NEAR 
WASHINGTON. 
[From a Photograph by L. M.Williams.] 



LANCASTER COUNTY. • 819 

Barber, in her valuable journal, locates the battle at " Patton's hill " just below 
the clam at Columbia. As to that point she is probably mistaken. Messrs. 
Staman's and Wittmer's farms are upon a knoll, around the base of which winds 
a stream of never-failing water. Upon the top of these knolls large quantities of 
mussel shells have been ploughed up, and upon the north front great numbers 
of stone and iron hatchets have also been unearthed. The relics above men- 
tioned evidently belonged to an Indian warrior who was probably killed in this 
battle. In the bed of the run, at the east base, there is a flat stone about three 
feet in diameter, with deep, smooth grooves, like the letters IIY. The single 
grooves are two feet long, the others about one foot. This may have been a 
sign to designate the western boundary which divided the hunting-grounds ■ 
between the Susquehannocks and a tribe located at Paxtang creek. The figure 
Y may represent Chicques creek, east and west branch, and the grooves to the 
left of it, Conoy and Conewaga creeks, or the one at Shock's mill and Conoy. 
Mr. Bender, who left Mount Joy in 1839, and took up his residence in Wisconsin, 
writes, that when at the head of Rock river, an old Indian prophet, hearing that 
he was from the land of Penn, sent for him. He styled himself the XY Prophet 
in succession. He said his ancestors and predecessors in office lived upon the 
Susquehanna river, at the mouth of Arrauqas, which, according to his map, is 
Swatara creek. From that point, one day's journey down the river in a canoe, 
was another tribe. From his chart he described the principal creeks flowing into 
the Susquehanna river from the east. Chicques creek he described accurately, 
and stated that a battle had been fought in the angle of the east and north forks 
of that stream, in which seven hundred warriors were engaged. 

There wei-e several other tribes of Indians, who settled in the county after 
the arrival of William Penn, who offered an asylum alike to the red man of the 
forest as well as to the white man from civilized Europe. A remnant of the 
Shawanese, from the Potomac, settled along the Pequea creek. At this time all 
of the French Indian traders were under suspicion on account of their Catho- 
licism, there being a pending war in Europe between the Protestants and 
Catholics. This suspicion was not well grounded, for every one of the French 
Indian traders within the Province proved to be loj^al to Governor Penn and .the 
English. Claiborne, who had a trading post at the mouth of the river, bartered 
with the Indians along the river previous to 1631. Before that time the Cana- 
dian French traders found their way among these tribes. After the arrival of 
Penn, Peter Bezalion, who finally located among the Paxtang Indians ; Martin 
Chartiere, whom Governor Penn gave a tract of land, extending from the mouth 
of Conestoga creek, along the Susquehanna river, to the run at the foot of 
Turkey Hill ; Joseph Jessop and James Letort, who first lived upon the Cones- 
toga, near the Indian town, in 1686 ; from thence he went to Donegal, and 
from thence to the Springs, west of the river (now Carlisle). They all became 
valuable citizens, and were of great assistance to Penn in his intercourse and 
dealings with the Indians. 

Edmund Cartlidge and his brother John, while trading with a tribe upon the 
Potomac, killed a drunken Indian who made an attack upon them. This was 
the cause of the first trouble between the Proprietaries 'and the Indians. They 
were both thrown into prison in Philadelphia, but after a full investigation they 



820 HISTOET OF PEN'NSYLVANIA. 

were liberated. Edmund was commissioned as a justice of the peace for Chester 
county, before this county was laid off, and he took up his residence upon the 
banks of the Conestoga, near tlie Indian town, where he resided for many. 3'ears. 
Several councils held with the Indians were held at his house. Although he 
seems to have been in disfavor on account of the above affair for some time, he 
regained the full confidence of the whites and Indians. 

Another affair took place at the trading house of John Burt, at Snaketown, 
on the 11th da}' of September, 1727, between the Indians and whites, which 
caused more trouble, and is the first recorded murder of a white man by 
the Indians in the Province after the first arrival of Penn, It seems that 
Thomas Wright and several others were drinking at Burt's, and while the former 
was singing and dancing Avith the Indians, Burt filled his hands Avith his own 
dung and threw it among the party, and otherwise abused the Indians whom he 
made drunk. This caused a disturbance, and Wright fled to a hen-house and 
endeavored to secrete himself, but the Indians pursued and killed him. Burt 
made his escape, and is next heard of at the forks of the Ohio. This affair was 
also settled without much difficulty. 

From the year It 10 to the organization of the county, there was a large 
inflow of Scotch-Irish Presbj'terians, and Germans from the Palatinate. The 
former settled along Chicques creek, and the latter at Tulpehocken and Pequea. 
The Germans generally selected one of their principal men, who made all 
necessary arrangements with William Penn or his agents before thc}^ left the old 
country', for their settlement in Pennsylvania, and as soon as they arrived in 
Philadelphia were naturalized, and received patents for their land. The Scotch- 
Irish were a different race, and had other views and aims. They were out- 
spoken and independent, and could not brook the leadership of any one person. 
Having accepted Penn's invitation to settle in his Province, they came in great"" 
numbers, and pushed out beyond the Germans to the extreme frontier of civiliza- 
tion. They generally selected the highest ground, which at that time was 
covered with lighter timber than the bottoms, and was more easily, cleared. 
They gradually worked from Chicques creek to the Swatara and Paxtang creeks. 
The land upon which they settled was not placed in the market for sale or settle- 
ment by Penn. They refused to pay any quit-rents to the Proprietaries, who 
declined to issue any patents for their land. Many of them lived in Donegal 
fifteen years before they received a title for their land. They were a law unto 
themselves, and often proceeded in a summar}"- way to enforce the squatter law. 

The following extract taken from the minutes of the Council, held February 
2, lt2t, gives a very good idea of the manner in which disputes among neighbors 
were settled : " Upon a Representation to this Board, that in remote Parts of 
this Province, where Lands have not been regularly Surveyed or granted, divers 
Persons not only Enter & Settle the Proprietors' Lands without any Grant or 
Permission, but sometimes have proceeded to Acts of Violence in forcibly 
ousting of others, a remarkable Instance of which has lately happened in or near 
the Township of Donnegal, on Sasquehannah, where one John Scott being with 
his Wife and Children in peaceable Possession of a House, which he had built, 
were not only ousted by Force but their house was pull'd down before their 
Ej^es, to the very great Breach of the Peace & Terror of the King's peacablo 



LANCASTER COUNTY. ^21 

Subjects ; To which Proceedings, unless a timely Stop be putt, & an effectual 
Discouragement given, the Country and the Publick Peace thereof may very 
deeply suffer thereby." 

Notwithstanding the turbulent spirit manifested among the Scotch-Irish 
who were beyond the reach of the law, a large majority of them united them- 
selves together for mutual protection and improvement, and built churches. 

On the 18th day of February, 1780, John Wright, Caleb Pierce, Thomas 
Edwards, and James Mitchell, were appointed by the Governor, and empowered 
to select and purchase a convenient piece of land, whereon to build a court house 
and prison. They selected the present site. Previous thereto a temporary court 
was held at Postlewhait's, in Conestoga, which lay along the route of travel 
between New Castle and the Indian town destroyed in 1763, and the principal 
settlements further west. Robert Barber was appointed sheriff when the county 
was erected. He owned a fine tract of land upon the Susquehanna, within the 
present limits of Columbia, and had a hope that the permanent county seat might 
be located upon his land, or in the vicinity, and erected a log prison near his 
dwelling. If he really had a design of securing so valuable a prize, he was com- 
pletely thwarted. There was unquestionably much discussion, and efforts 
made by various land-holders to secure the county seat, which would insure to 
the successful competitor a fortune. The history of every new county records 
a conflict between individuals and rival communities, as to the location of the 
county seat. In the light of the present day, with the limits of the county as 
they now exist, no more central or available place could be selected to accom- 
modate all her citizens than the one chosen in 1730, thus vindicating the judo-- 
ment of those men who, in after life, filled a prominent position in the history of 
the county. 

The first political conflict between the Quakers (who belonged to the rulino- 
class) and the Scotch-Irish took place in 1732. Andrew Galbraith, who 
resided on Chicques creek, offered himself for the suffrages of the people for a 
seat in the Legislature. The contest between him and John Wright, the fore- 
most Quaker in the county, was so close that it was only decided in Mr. Gal- 
braith's favor by the Assembly throwing out a few votes cast for Mr. Wright, 
which were informal. This seems to have ended the political rivahy between 
the Scotch-Irish and Quakers for many years. The former rendered prompt 
and valuable aid to the latter during " Cresap's war." 

The next important period in the history of the county was the conflict 
between the Marylanders and Pennsylvanians, in 1732-7, to get control of the 
land west of the Susquehanna river, north of the 40th degree of latitude. 

Conestoga township was originally organized about 1712. Prior to 1719, it 
was divided into East and West Conestoga. David Ferree was the first con- 
stable of East Conestoga, and James Hendricks of West Conestoga. The west- 
ern boundaries of the latter were not defined until 1722, when Donegal was 
erected, and Chicques creek made its eastern boundary. Pequea to.wnship seems 
to have been to the north-east of Conestoga, with not very well defined bounda- 
ries, and was probably erected about the year 1720. John Wright and Samuel 
Blunston, in a joint letter to the Governor, October 30, 1732, from Herapfield, 
gives the following (among other matters, to be noticed in another connection). 



822 HIS TOE Y OF P ENNS YL VANIA. 

'*In the year 1729, when the Governor was pleased to Issue an order to divide 
this part of the Province from Chester County, and for Erecting the Same into 
a Distinct County, and Appointed Magistrates and Officers for the Conserva- 
tion of the Peace, the more Easy Administration of Justice, and better Securing 
the Sober and Quiet Inhabitants in these remote parts of the Province from 
the thefts and Abuses Comited by Idle and Dissolute persons, who resorted 
hither to Keep out of the hands of Justice ;" which experience has continued in 
more modern times, in the settlement of new sections of the country. The dis- 
pute between these rival governments waxed warm, and culminated in war and 
bloodshed, and was not settled finally until 1163. 

Lord Baltimore selected a pliant and bold adventui-er for his agent, named 
Thomas Cresap, aged twenty-six years, a carpenter by occupation, and in religious 
faith a Catholic, to go to Conejohela valley and settle, where he established a 
ferry, March 16, 1730. 

Tobias Hendricks, who was a magistrate in the Manor for several years 
before Cresap's arrival, states in an affidavit made before Wright and Blunston, 
December 29, 1732, " That before the year 1729 he had been in the Commis- 
sion of the Peace for the County of Chester for several Years, and During 
that time, Edward Parnel, Paul Williams, and some others. Fixed on the 
lands now possessed by Thomas Cressop," John Low, and their associates, 
" and that Parnel, et al, were removed from thence by order of the Grovernor 
of Pennsylvania, at the request of the Conestoga Indians." 

In a joint statement made by Wright and Blunston, to the Governor, October 
30, 1732, they give some historical data of interest. They say, " About two years 
Since, Thomas Cressop, and some other people of Loose Morals and Turbulent 
Spirits, Came and disturbed the Indians, our friends and Allies, who were 
peaceably Settled on those Lands from whence the said Parnel and others had 
been removed. Burnt their Cabbins, and destroyed their Goods, And with much 
threatening and Ill-usage, drove them away ; and by pretending to be under the 
Maryland government (as they were got far from their Laws, Sought to Evade 
ours). Thus they proceeded to play booty. Disturbing the Peace of the Govern- 
ment, Carrying people out of the Province by Violence, Taking away the Guns 
from our friends, the Indians, Tying and making them Prisoners, without any 
offence given ; And threatening all who should Oppose them ; And by Underhand 
and Unfair practices, Endeavoring to Alienate the minds of the Inhabitants of 
this Province, and Draw them (from Obedience) to their party. Their Insolence 
Increasing, they Killed the horses of Such of our people whose trade with the 
Indians made it Necessary to Keep them on that Side of the river, for Carrying 
their Goods and Skins ; assaulted those who were sent to Look after them." 

Cresap's house was a convenient refuge for runaway servants and debtors, 
Samuel Chance, a runaway debtor of Edward Cartlidge, an Indian trader, who 
lived in the Manor, took up his abode with him, and assisted Cresap to row the 
ferry-boat over to the Blue Rock. A son of Cartlidge laid a plan to capture 
Chance, by decoying him to the east side of the river, where a gun was fired off 
(the usual signal for Cresap to come to the east side for passengers), on the last 
day of October, 1730. Cresap and Chance got into their boat and rowed over 
to the Blue Rock, where they found Edward Beddock, Rice Morgan, and a negro 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 823 

servant of Mr. Cartliclge. After being taken into tlie boat, and rowed out into 
tlie stream a few j^ards, Beddock and Morgan threw Cresap into tlie river, and 
took Chance to shore with them. Cresap made his escape to an island near by, 
where he remained until after dark, when he was discovered by an Indian and 
rescued. Cresap made complaint to the Maryland authorities, and a sharp 
correspondence between the Governors of the two Provinces about the matter 
was the result. It must not be forgotten that a large number of settlers lived 
on the west side of the river, south and north of Conejohela valley, previous 
to Cresap's arrival, and afterwards. Lord Baltimore forced the settlement of 
Marylanders as fast as possible, and in a short time the adherents to Baltimore's 
cause were quite numerous, and many of the German settlers went over to his 
side. Cresap was commissioned as a justice of the peace for Maryland in 1732. 

James Patterson, an Indian trader who settled in the Manor upon the farm 
now owned by Jacob B. Shuman, in Itlt, also owned some land in Conejohela 
valley, upon which he let his pack-horses range, and which were used to carry 
furs, etc., from the Indians along the Potomac. Cresap and Lowe shot eight of 
these horses. Procuring a warrant from Wright and Blunston for the arrest 
of Lowe, James Patterson placed it in the hands of Charles Jones, constable of 
Hempfield, who proceeded to the house of the Lowes in the night of November 
26, 1Y32, accompanied by James Patterson, James Patterson, Jr., Alex. McCay, 
John Capper, John Hart, John Patton, James Patton, John Trotter, William 
McManname, and John Bayley, and arrested two of the Lowes, and, after consi- 
derable resistance, took them across the river on the ice and before Wright and 
Blunston, who bound them over for their good behaviour. This affair caused 
an angry and acrimonious correspondence between the Governors of Pennsyl- 
vania and Maryland. In the fall of 1133, Cresap came up to Wright's ferry and 
commenced to build boats and erect a house. Wright and Blunston had placed 
a number of men in the ferry house, who sallied out and took Cresap's men 
prisoners. On the 29th day of Januarj', 1734, John Emerson, a lawyer, who 
lived in Lancaster, and was appointed ranger and keeper of Conestoga manor, 
and owned a ferry at Blue Rock, Knowles Daunt, and five others, went down to 
Cresap's house to arrest him. Cresap shot Daunt (Emerson's servant) in the 
leg, from the effects of which he died. Cresap made frequent raids into 
Kreitz valley with bands of armed men, dispossessing the German settlers of 
their property. He carried Joshua Minshal, a prominent Quaker, who resided 
two miles west of Wright's ferry, to Annapolis jail. 

In July, 1735, when John Wright was superintending the reaping of his 
grain upon his plantation, on the west side of the river, Cresap came with twent}^ 
persons, men, women, and lads, armed with guns, swords, pistols, and blunder- 
busses, and drum-beating, towards the said field. Mr. Wright approached Cresap 
and wanted to know what all this military display meant, and was told that the}"- 
came to fight the Pennsylvanians. He drew his sword, and cocked his pistol at 
Mr. Wright's breast, but who, by his courage and knowledge of the law, 
completely cowed Cresap, who had brought wagons with him to carry off his 
grain, but which were now used to haul it to the east side of the river by the 
ver}^ persons he brought with him in martial arraj'. Survej^ors were sent up 
from Maryland, with an armed escort of thirty men, but were forced to ret.urn 



824 HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

by the men eiBployed by Wright and Blunston, who made a fort of the ferry 
house on the west side of the river. 

Cresap returned to Maryland and had a conference with Governor Ogle, who 
called out the militia of Harford and Baltimore counties, to muster under the 
command of Colonels Hall and Rigby. Suspecting that this movemeiit meant 
mischief to Pennsylvanians, John Wright engaged Benjamin Chambers (who 
married a daughter of James Patterson aforesaid) to go to this muster and 
ascertain, if possible, the designs of the Marylanders. Mr. Chambers gives a 
minute detail of his trip in Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. IV., page 535. He was 
taken prisoner as a suspected spy, but made his escape to Wright's ferry, 
and made a full report. From thence he went to Donegal at a house raising, 
and collected a number of Scotch-Irish (who would as soon fight as eat), and 
went to Wright's ferry, where they repelled two or three hundred armed men 
under Colonel Hall. 

Cresap built a fort (at the mouth of the creek, where Leber's mill stands), 
from which emanated bands of armed men, who raided through Kreitz's valley, 
destroying houses, maltreating the women, and taking the men prisoners to 
Maryland. Joshua Minshal and John Wright, Jr., were the only two men left 
in that valley. Cresap had forty tracts of la;id surveyed, which was owned and 
occupied by the Germans. The state of affairs had become so critical, and 
Wright and Blunston having exhausted all the means within their power to 
quell the disturbance, the Council finally concluded to have Cresap arrested for 
the murder of Knowles Daunt. On the 23d day of November, 1736, a warrant 
was placed in the hands of Samuel Smith, sheriff, who resided in Donegal. He 
called upon John Kcllcy, Benjamin Sterratt, Arthur Buchannan, Samuel Scott, 
David Priest, John Sterratt, John Galbraith, James, John, and Alexander Mitchell, 
James Allison, and nineteen others, to assist him. On the night of November 24, 
1136, they surrounded Cresap's house, in which he had a number of armed men, 
who fired upon Sheriff Smith and party, and finally killed Laughlin Malone, one 
of their own pai'ty. John Capper, of the sheriff's party, was shot in the shoulder. 
Finding that Cresap would not surrender, Smith's men set his house on fire, 
which caused Cresap to get out of it. He was overpowered, and carried in 
triumph to Philadelphia and placed in prison. Colonel Hall and Captain 
Higgenbotham came to Cresap's fort with thi-ee hundred armed men, and at 
difierent times marched into Kreitz's valley in martial array. 

In January, 1137, a company made an attack on Cresap's fort and were 
repulsed, losing eight men. The Governor of Maryland offered £100 reward for 
the arrest of John Wright, Samuel Bhmston, Samuel Smith (sheriff), and John 
Ross. Rewards were also offered for Michael Tanner, Joshua Minshal, and 
Charles Jones (constable). The last three persons were arrested and taken 
prisoners to Annapolis jail. 

Captains Higgenbotham and Hall brought as many as three hundred armed 
men into the valley to attack the Pennsylvanians. The Marylanders were finally 
driven back to their State, and all efforts to colonize that part of Pennsylvania 
with Marylanders was abandoned in 1738. In 1736 Governor Ogle gave Cresap 
a deed for the "Isle. of Promise," opposite Washington borough, for which he 
was to pay at the city of Saint Mary's, at the two most usual feasts in the year, 



LANCABTEB COUNTY. 



825 



to wit : the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Yirgin Mary and Saint 
Michael the Archangel, by even and equal portions of the rent of four 
shillings sterling, in silver or gold, annually. 

The nest important historic period in the history of Lancaster county was 
the colonial war between England and France, in 1754-55-56. Before actual 
hostilities broke out between those countries, the French commanders in the 
forts along the great lakes were busy with the Indians to induce them to take 
sides with the French against the English. Celeron, the commander at the fort 
at Detroit, offered a reward of one thousand pounds for the arrest of Colonel 
George Croghan and James Lowrey, an Indian trader of Donegal, because of 
their great influence with the Ohio Indians. On the 2Gth day of January, 1753. 
when Alexander McGinty, 
Jabez Evans, Jacob Evans, 
David Hendricks, William 
Powell, Thomas Hyde, and 
James Lowrey, all Indian 
traders, and all from Lan- 
caster county, were return- 
ing from trading with the 
Cuttawas, a tribe of Indians 
in Carolina, and when on 
south bank of " Cantucky " 
river, twenty-five miles from 
Blue Lick town, were at- 
tacked by the Coghnawagos, 
a French tribe of Indians 
who lived upon the St. 
Lawrence river in New 
York. James Lowrey made 
his escape and returned to 
Donegal. The others were 
taken prisoners to Canada and sold. Jacob Evans and Thomas Hyde were taken 
prisoners to France. They all endured great suffering, but finally returned to 
their homes. In July, 1754, when Washington with his little array were moving 
forward to take possession of the forks of the Ohio, Lancaster county men were 
again the first to suflTer. English John, a Mingo chief, when moving east to 
intercept and harass Washington, made an attack upon Lowrey 's traders at 
Gist's. They took Andrew McBriar, Nehemiah Stevens, John Kennedy, and 
Elizabeth Williams prisoners. They all lived in Donegal. The Indians killed 
four others. Kennedy was shot in the leg. The rest were taken to Canada. 
The English fur traders, who mostly lived in Donegal, were the first to sufter 
from the fury of the savages. England declared war against France, and both 
of those countries sent European armies over to America, where they soon met 
in conflict upon the battle-field. The French had greatly the advantage, because 
most of the savages adhered to them. Braddock came with an army, and met 
with a terrible defeat near the Ohio, July 9, 1755. James Ewing, James Burd, 
and a number of others from this county were with Braddock's army. This 




.jc.fiy 



FBANKIilN AND MARSHAL COLLEGE, LANCASTER. 
[From a Protograph by Wm. L. Gill.] 



826 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

caused a panic among the back settlements, as they were exposed to the fury of 
the savages, who commenced murdering them indiscriminately. The Irish and 
Scotch-Irish sprang to their arms to protect themselves. Their undaunted 
coui'age checked the progress of the soulless savages. A chain of stockades and 
forts were built from the Delaware river at Easton to Bedford. The torch and 
tomahawk of the Indians were not idle ; they murdered in cold blood several 
hundred of the frontier settlers. 

In 1758, another army, under the command of General Forbes and Colonel 
Bouquet, marched to the Ohio and chastised the Indians, and in 1763, during the 
Pontiac war. Colonel Bouquet again defeated the Indians at Bushy run, a few 
miles east of Braddock's battle-field. Colonel Alexander Lowrey of Donegal was 
Colonel Bouquet's guide during his march and at the battle of Bushy run, as he 
was also for General Forbes' array in 1758. In the same year the Hurons made 
an attack upon the camp of twenty-two Indian traders, four miles east of Fort 
Raj's. They destroyed goods of the value of more than eighty thousand pounds, 
and killed several persons. William Trent, Joseph Simons, Alexander Lowrey, 
and perhaps two or three other of these traders were from Lancaster county. 
During these campaigns Lancaster county furnished several battalions. Burd, 
Shipi)en, Jamison, Ewing, and several others commanded companies from the 
county. 

The county enjoyed but a brief period of quiet. During that time a continu- 
ous influx of emigration poured into the country, and the settlements west of the 
Susquehanna were extended beyond the mountains. Everything indicated 
unusual prosperity and lasting peace. Furnaces and forges, and manufactures of 
domestic goods increased rapidly. This prosperity aroused the cupidity of the 
mother country, whose debt was enormously increased by the recent wars, and 
she sought to impose unjust duties upon glass, paper, printers' colors, and tea 
imported into the colonies. Tea was a luxury — the impost duty upon it was so 
large that it was only in the power of the wealthy to purchase it. The people in 
Boston were the first to resist this wrong, and in 1773, when a cargo of tea 
arrived at that port, they boarded the vessel and threw the tea overboard. 
When the news was carried back to England, the King sent General Gage with a 
number of troops to Boston, to " dragoon the Bostonians into compliance." 
They associated themselves together and refused to comply with the unjust 
demands of the King. Committees of correspondence were appointed, and Penn- 
sylvania was one of the first to oflfer aid to the brave men of Boston ; and in 
response to a call from Philadelphia, a meeting was held in Lancaster borough, 
on the 15th day of June, 1774, where resolutions were passed concurring with 
the patriotic citizens of Philadelphia, who sustained the action of the Bostonians. 
At this meeting Edward Shippen, George Ross, Jasper Yeates, Mathias 
Slough, James Webb, William Atlee, William Henry, Esquires ; and Messrs- 
Ludwig Lauman, William Bausman, and Charles Hall, were appointed on a 
committee to correspond with a committee in Philadelphia. With the united 
efforts of all the committees throughout the colonies, they failed to procure from 
the King or parliament a redress of their grievances. On September 4, 1774, a 
Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia, which passed resolutions 
approving the course of the people of Massachusetts. At a meeting held in 



LANCASTER COUNTY 



827 



Lancaster borough, on the 9th day of July, 1774, at which George Ross presided, 
the following persons were chosen a committee to meet and consult with the 
committees of the other counties of this Province, at Philadelphia, on the 15th 
instant, to wit: George Ross, James Webb, Matthias Slough, Joseph Ferree, 
Emanuel Carpenter, and William Atlee, Esquires ; Alexander Lowery and 
Moses Erwin. 

The deputies from every county in the Province met in Philadelphia, July 
15, 1774, and passed numerous i-esolutions condemning tlie King and Parliament 
for their unjust treatment of the Bostonians, and proposed to stand b^'^ and aid 
the latter. Open and decided hostilities eventuated in bloodshed at Lexington, 
April 19, 1775, followed by the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17th. To meet the 
emergency, meetings were held everywhere, and the patriotic citizens associated 
themselves together and formed 
military companies. Lancaster 
county was one of the first to 
respond to these patriotic calls. 
The inhabitants of Lancaster 
and adjacent counties met at 
Lancaster borough, July 4, 1776. 
The meeting consisted of the 
officers and privates of fifty- 
three battalions of the associa- 
tions of the colony of Pennsyl- 
vania, to choose two brigadier- 
generals to command the bat- 
talions and forces of Pennsyl- 
vania. Colonel George Ross 
was president of the meeting, 
and Colonel David Clymer, 
secretary. Colonel Daniel Ro- 
berdeau of Philadelphia was 
chosen first brigadier-general, 
and James Ewing of York 
county, second brigadier-gene- 
ral. These brigadier-generals 

drafted from the associators of each county a certain number to meet in confer- 
ence. They met June 18, and adjourned to June 25, 1776. The delegates to this 
conference from Lancaster were William Atlee, Esq., Ludwig Lauman, Colonel 
Bertram Galbraith, Colonel Alexander Lowrey, Captain Andrew Graaf, William 
Brown, John Smiley, Major James Cunningham, and Major David Jenkins. 

At the time this meeting was held in Lancaster, the convention met in Phila- 
phia, and passed a declaration of independence. After this the magistrates in 
the county who held appointments under the royal authority declined to serve 
longer. The business of the courts was suspended for some time. Although 
there was a hearty and prompt response to the patriotic call for troops among a 
majority of the citizens, yet there was a large element among the Quakers and 
Germans who were opposed to bearing arms, and some Episcopalians who 




LANCASTER COUNTY COURT HOUSE, T.ANCASTER. 



828 



EISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 



adhered to the English cause, who gave Lieutenant Galbraith a great deal of 
trouble. They refused to enlist in the militia or pay taxes. On the 25th day 
of October, 1177, an order was passed by the council reciting these facts, and 
appointing Curtis Grubb, Esq., William Ross, and Simon Snyder, sub-lieuten- 
ants of the county to enforce the militia law. Large numbers enlisted in the 
Continental army, and participated in all of the principal battles. Three 
battalions of Lancaster county militia participated in the battle of Brandywine, 
and some of them at that of Germantown. 

Large barracks were erected in Lancaster borough to secure the Hessian 
prisoners taken at Trenton ; other prisoners were also confined there. The 
prisoners at one time numbered over twelve hundred. Ephrata and Lancaster 
took charge of our own wounded. 

Congress repaired to Lancaster from Philadelphia in September, 1777, and 

on the 11th of the same month re- 
moved to York, where it remained 
until June 27, 1778. 

In the war of 1812, and the late 
rebellion, Lancaster county furnished 
its full quota of men, and some of 
the most distinguished officers in 
both wars. Much of the history of 
the county is so closely identified 
with that of the towns and townships, 
mention will be made of such facts as 
our limited space will justify. Des- 
cription of a number of towns will be 
found under a notice of the adjoining 
townships. 

Lancaster City was laid out by 
Governor Hamilton as a town in 1730. 
In 1734 the seat of justice was re- 
moved from Postlethwaite's to Lan- 
caster. In 1742 it was incorporated 
as a borough. In 1734 the first 
Lutheran church was built; in 1736, 
a German Reformed ; in 1744, St. 
James Episcopal church organized ; and two years following the Roman Catho- 
lics built a log church. 

In Provincial times, during the Revolutionary period and since, Lancaster has 
been and is one of the most important places in the Union. It is situated in the 
heart of the finest agricultural region in the country, and there is not another 
county which can boast of as many wealthy and well-to-do farmers. They all 
pay tribute in some measure to the county seat. The numerous turnpikes and 
roads and railroads are convenient channels over which the vast produce of the 
country is laid in her lap. Her large and elegant stores attract hundreds of the 
wives and daughters of our farmers daily to their counters. There are ten bank- 
ing houses where tlie business men can be accommodated. The hotels are 




LANCASTER CITY HIGH SCHOOL. 

[From a Photograph by Wm. L. Gill.] 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 



829 



numerous and well kept. It is not an unusual circumstance on special occasions 
to see from five to ten thousand country people in the city. It has four public 
libraries, with an annual circulation of fifteen thousand volumes. It has six 
cemeteries ; six cotton mills, employing over two thousand operatives ; a 
watch factor}', employing fifty hands ; six machine shops for the manufacture 
of railroad and stationary' engines, boilers, castings, bolts, agricultural imi)le- 
raents, etc. It has several scientific associations, the most prominent of which is 
the Linngean Society of Natural History, in the establishment of which Professor 
S. S. Ratlivon was mainly instrumental. One of the most attractive objects to the 
visitor is the beautiful monument erected in Centre Square to the memor}- of 
the brave heroes who fell in 
defence of their country in 
the late rebellion. The 
monument was dedicated 
on the 4th day of July, 
1874. The space occupied 
by the whole structure is 
thirty-five feet each wa}-, 
the base occup3'ing seven 
teen feet in height, and the 
central shaft forty-three 
feet — a correct representa- 
tion of which is given. 
The names of the leading 
battles inscribed thereon 
are " Antietam," " Gett^-s- 
burg," "Vicksburg," "Mal- 
vern Hill," " Wilderness," 
"Chaplin Hills," "Peters- 
burg," " Chickamauga." 
The cost of the structure 
was about twenty-three 
thousand dollars. Great 
credit is due to the monu- 
mental association who 
carried to successful completion under many difficulties this grand structure. 

In 1872 a board of trade was organized, which is now composed of more 
than one hundred of the business men of the place, which is destined to advance 
the interests of the city and count}'. 

The newspapers are man}', several of which are conducted with great ability, 
and have a marked effect in moulding a healthy public sentiment. The bar is 
justly celebrated as one of the ablest in the 'State. In times joast it was the 
home of some of the greatest lawj'ers and statesmen in the country. Such men 
as Chew, Smith, Ross, Shippen, Atlee, Yeates, Porter, Montgomery, Hubley, 
Ellmaker, Rogers, Slaj'maker, Buchanan, Hopkins, Champnej's, Parke, Franklin, 
Reigart, Hays, Frazer, Fordney, Burrowes, Green, Bryan, Jenkins, Mathiot, 
Stevens, Kline, Dickey, North, Hood, Reynolds, Nauman, Livingston, Patterson, 




LANCASTER COUNTY SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, LANCASTER. 

Prom a Photograph by Wm. L. Gill, Lancaster. 



830 



HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



are selected from a large number of the great legal lights whose talents have 
shone with splendor. 

The Lancaster city water works are very extensive. Water is pumped from 
the Conestoga, a short distance above the poor-house. They were first erected 
in 1836. There are two basins at the eastern end of Orange and King streets, 
with a capacity of seven million gallons. A movement has lately been 
made to increase the supply of water, which will probably fail on account 
of the large expenditure required for the purpose. A few years ago a large 
" home " was erected in the south-eastern section of the city for the instruction 

of orphan children. There 
are several hundred in the 
institution. There are no 
institutions of any kind 
within the county which 
present a higher claim to 
the sympathies of the be- 
nevolent and charitable. In 
fact it is almost sustained 
by the daily contributions 
of the citizens of Lancaster 
city and the farmers of the 
county, who furnish provi- 
sions when called upon. 

Columbia, the leading 
and representative Quakers, 
who figured so prominently 
in the early histoiy of the 
county, settled within the 
present limits of Columbia. 
In the spring of 1726, Rob- 
ert Barber, a Quaker of 
Chester, came to the banks 
of the Susquehanna river, 
and selected one thousand 
acres of land. Returning to 
Chester for his family, he was joined by John Wright and Samuel Blunston and 
their families, all of whom traveled to the Susquehanna in the summer or fall of 
1726. Blunston selected five hundred acres adjoining the hill, on the north side 
of the town ; John Wright took two hundred and fifty acres adjoining on the 
south ; and Robert Barber two hundred and fifty acres between Wright's and the 
hill, south of the town. Barber's was considered the choicest tract, on account 
of the fine timber with which it was covered and a stream of water flowing 
through it. / 

Mr. Barber came from England when a lad, and was bound to his uncle 
Robert Barber, a cordwainer, who died in 1708, leaving a farm upon "Crum 
Creek," adjoining Chester, to his nephew Robert, who married Hannah Tid- 
marsh of Philadelphia. He was elected coroner for Chester county in 1721, and 




MONUMENT OF THADDEUS STEVENS, LANCASTER. 

[From a Photograph by Wm. L. Gill ] 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 



831 



was one of the county assessors in 1725. He was probably thirty-six years of age 
at this time. When the county was organized he was appointed sheriff, and he 
erected a log jail within a lew yards of his dwelling. He was disappointed in 
not having the permanent seat of the county located upon his farm. [Sir Jame?. 
Annesley was confined in this prison. His history was a romantic one, but for 
want of space we are compelled to omit a more lengthy notice of him.] He 
was county commissioner in 1T40. He occupied several positions of trust, and 
rendered valuable aid to the Proprietaries in their controversy with the Mary- 
landers. He died in 1749, leaving a widow, who survived him many years, and 
nine children. 

Samuel Blunston was the son of John Blunston, a Quaker preacher, who 
came over to Ame- 
rica with William 
Penn and settled 
upon Darby creek. 
He was a member 
of council for many 
years, also speaker 
of Assembly. He 
was regarded as a 
person of great abili- 
ty and probity. He 
died in 1723, leaving 
a widow, Samuel, 
and daughters, 
Sarah Fern and 
Catliarine Rhoads, 
surviving him . 
Samuel Blunston 
was probably born 
at Darby. He re- 
ceived the best edu- 
cation the schools of 
that day afforded. 
He was a practical 
land surveyor. Pie 
married the widow 

of Samuel Bilton, who kept a ferry over the Schuylkill river. It was 
afterwards known as " Blunston's Ferry." He was the wealthiest o ' the 
three, and was one of the first justices appointed in the count}-^, and was 
also the first register of wills, a position he held until within a year of his 
death. He was appointed by Thomas Penn, in 1736, while on a visit to his 
house (in Columbia), to survey and issue tickets to the settlers on the west 
side of the river, who procured their patents of the proper officer when they 
werri presented. He had been agent for the Penns several years before that. 
He was remarkably energetic, and showed great wisdom in circumventing 
the Tiachinations of Cresap and other Marylanders. He employed men and 




VIEW OP TOWN HALL AND LOCUST STREET, COLUMBIA. 
[From a Photograph by L. M. 'Williams, Columbia.] 



832 HISTOR Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

armed tliem. The Governor of Mcaryland offered one hundred pounds reward 
for his arrest. A plot was arranged to waylay him while he was returning from 
the funeral of Mrs. James Anderson in Donegal in 1136. He got Avind of 
the matter and took anotlier route home. He was consulted invariably when 
any repairs or alterations were made to the prison or court house. He was fre- 
quently appointed to confer with difi'erent Indian tribes, and surveyed a reserva- 
tion for them in Cumberland county. He built the little stone mill ("corn mill ") 
upon Shawnee run, afterwards owned by James Wright. His correspondence 
with the Governor, James Logan, and council, display talent equal to or superior 
to that of any of his contemporaries. He died in September, 1746, leaving no 
children. His estate was lai'ge. A portion of the dwelling of Samuel B. Heise 
was his residence, where he also had his office. The property is now owned by 
the Heises and Mifflins, collateral heirs. 

John Wright was a noted man in his time. He was a native of Lancashire, 
England, born in 1667; came to America in 1714, and settled at Chester. He 
was soon after elected a member of the Assembly, and in 1720 appointed a 
justice of the peace for Chester county. Removing to the Susquehanna, con- 
tinuing to represent the county in the Assembly, he ardently advocated the 
erection of a new count}' out of the western part of the former, and he had the 
honor of naming it after his native county in England. With one exception, he 
was annually returned to the Assembly, and continued to be selected until 
physical disability prevented him from taking his seat. He was one of the 
trustees of the general loan office in 1733-4. The governor of Maryland 
offered a reward of £100 for his arrest. He died in 1751, aged eighty-four 
years. He left five children surviving him, Susannah, Patience, Elizabeth, John, 
and James. The descendants now living in Columbia come from James. 
Susannah Wright, John's daughter, was a remarkable personage. She was 
educated in England, and was the subject of much attention by the cultured 
men and women of her time. Samuel Blunston left her a life estate in six hun- 
dred and fifty acres of land, most of which is now within the limits of Columbia. 
She was born in 1700, and died a.d., 1785. She corresponded with James 
Logan and other dignitaries. Her advice and counsel were frequentl}"^ sought 
by them in relation to disputed questions about land titles and other matters. 
She wrote poetry, painted landscapes, gave advice and administered medicine 
to the sick ; was frequently called upon to act as arbiter to settle disputes 
between neighbors. She drew up legal papers, some of which are still in 
existence. She spun silk and sent large quantities to England to be woven into 
dresses, samples of which are now in the Philadelphia Historical society. This 
attracted so much attention in Europe that it was a subject of correspondence 
between Benjamin Franklin, while in England, and herself. 

James Wright was also a prominent personage. He was for many years a 
member of Assembly, and was actually elected when he was too feeble from age 
to attend the sessions. He was one of the Loan Commissioners, and was selected 
by the Proprietaries to furnish the Indians within the county with supplies, etc. 
The grain was ground at the little stone mill upon Shawnee run. From the same 
mill he also furnished flour for Braddock's army, in 1755, which was carried in 
kegs upon pack-horses to Raj'stown. During the panic among the settlers 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 



833 



caused by that defeat, the women and children were sent to Philadelphia, and 
James Wright fortified his house on Second street, where the able bodied men 
took refuge. 

During the campaign of General Forbes in 1758 against the Indians, several 
hundred troops were raised in the eastern and south-eastern section of Lancaster 
count}^, and from the Scotch-Irish settlements in the south-western part of 
Chester county. They assembled at Lancaster, but refused to go any farther 
until they were furnished with supplies, etc. James Wright, son of John, 
agreed to keep the troops clear as far as Harris' i'erry^ and they moved forward. 
He died about the year 1774. In 1787, his son Samuel Wright laid out 
Columbia, and the lots were sold by lotter3\ It is the second town in popula- 
tion, and the first in importance in the manufacture of iron and as a railroad 
centre, it being the ter- 
minus of several rail- 
roads and two canals. 
The town is beautifully 
located upon the left 
bank of the Susque- 
hanna river, twenty- 
nine miles below Har- 
risburg and ten miles 
west of Lancaster city. 
One-half of the place 
occupies the slope of 
a hill which rises gen- 
tly from the river. The 
magnificent river in 
front, dotted with is- 
lands and rocks, and a 
bridge spanning it, 
more than a mile long, 
with diversified hills 

presented to the view upon every side, is a scene which every lover of nature 
cannot help but be enraptured with. The town spread rapidl}', and a number of 
the first business men in the State located in it. Before canals and railroads 
were built, Columbia was, as it is now, one of the most important inland towns west 
of Philadelphia. The collapse in business which followed the wild speculations 
of 1815, somewhat checked the rapid progress of the place for fifteen years, when 
a new impetus was given to the trade of the town by the completion of the 
Pennsylvania canal and the railroad to Philadelphia. An immense traffic was 
also carried on upon the shores of the river. Over fifty million feet of lumber 
were piled upon the shore annually, and great quantities of produce were 
received in keel-boats and arks, and re-shipped for eastern markets. 

Although Columbia was first settled by Quakers, who were the ruling class in 

its early history, it can boast of some of the best blood of the revolutionary 

period. Thomas Boude was commissioned second lieutenant, January 5, 1776, 

in Captain James Taylor's company of Colonel Anthony Wayne's battalion. He 

3 G 




WRIGHT'S FERRY MANSION, COLUMBIA. 
[From a Photograph by L. M. Williams.] 






834 ^IS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VAN! A. 

was on detached duty on recruiting service for Colonel Wayne's battalion during 
a portion of the year 1116. He was with Wayne, at Paoli, in 1111, where his 
brother Samuel was killed. He led one of the three volunteer squads of twenty, 
of the forlorn hope, which made an attack at midnight upon the fort at Stony 
Point, upon the Hudson, The fort was taken at the point of the bayonet, and 
Lieutenant Boude was the second man to enter the fort through a sally port. 
This was July 16th, 1119. For gallant conduct upon this occasion he was 
promoted to a captaincy in the First Pennsylvajiia Regiment. There was no 
braver or more accomplished officer in the army. In 1184 he married Betsy 
Wright, sister of the founder of Columbia. She lived but a year thereafter. 
Several years subsequently he married a daughter of Colonel Samuel Atlee. He 
was a member of the Legislature for the years 1194-5-6, and a member of 
Congress in 1801. He was an honored and valued citizen. He died about the 
year 1819. The late Stephen Smith was purchased by him from the Cochrans, 
of Paxton, when he was six years old. Dr. John Houston served as surgeon for 
seven years during the Revolution, and was in a number of battles. He was 
appointed a justice of the peace by Governor Thomas Mifflin after the Revolution, 
which position he held until his death, in 1806. Francis Ottoman Ziegler, a 
native of France, came over with Baron de Steuben, as aid-de-camp, with the 
rank of lieutenant-colonel. He served with great gallantry throughout the 
Revolutionary war, after which he settled in York, thence to Lancaster, thence 
to Columbia, where he died in 1800. 

The Friends had the first place of worship. In 1809 or 1810, the Presby- 
terians erected a meeting-house at the corner of Fourth and Locust streets, the 
first pastor being Rev. Stephen Boyer. They were quickly followed by the Ger- 
man Reformed, Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran, English and German Episcopal, 
and United Brethren, in succession. The colored people also have two places 
of public worship. In 1819, 1820, and 1821, several hundred emancipated slaves 
from Virginia settled in the place. Their locality, commonly known as " Tow 
Hill," was a great resort for fugitive slaves, and was the scene of many a 
conflict between them and their masters. 

February 25, 1814, the borough was incorporated, having a population of 
1,500. The same year the bridge across the river was built, at a cost of 
$231,111, and a bank established with the surplus capital, the present " Co- 
lumbia National Bank " having grown out of it. The bridge was swept away 
with an ice flood in February, 1832. It was re-erected, and destroyed by fire, 
June 80, 1863, to keep the rebel army from crossing the river into Lancaster 
county. Samuel Wright generously donated the river front, when he laid out 
the town, for the use of the inhabitants of the place. The property has become 
"s aluable, and a large fund has been accumulated, from which has been erected a 
fine large school building, near Locust and Fifth streets. A beautiful park of 
several acres surrounds the premises. In 1814, it was leased to the School 
Board for twenty years, for a high school. There are four furnaces and two 
large rolling mills within the limits of the borough, and a large number of 
other industries. 

In 1181, Columbia came within one vote of being selected as the permanent 
seat of the National Government. The measure was only finally defeated in 



LANCASTEli COUNTY. 



835 




THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS HOUSES 
At Eplirata. 



Congress by delay and a combination between the Southern members and a few 
from New England. Mr. Wright set apart several acres of ground between 
Second and Third streets, and upon Cherry street, for the capitol buildings of 
the State, in 1812, with the expectation that the State capital would be located 
at Columbia. 

Epiirata is an irregular enclosed village, lying in a triangle formed by the 
turnpike, the upper, or old Reading road, and the Cocalico creek, and belongs 
entirely to the Seventh Day Baptist Society. It contains a monastery and 
several other buildings for the accommodation of the society, to which is 
attached and belonging to the same about one hundred and forty acres of land, 
and a grist mill and saw mill. The post office which bears this name is a half- 
mile from the original village. Ephrata, in former times, was known better 
among the German population by the name 
of Klosler (Cloister), or Dunkerstown — a 
nick-name, from the word Dunker or 
Tunker, corruptions of Taueffei\ Baptist. 
The Society of Ephrata, however, are a 
distinct sect from the denomination that 
now bears the name of Dimkens^ with 
whom they have always been confounded. 
In the year 1708, Alexander Mack, of 
Schriesheim, Germany, with seven others, 
formed a society of First Day German 
Baptists. Meeting with persecution, they 
emigrated to America in 171!^, and located at Germantown, Skippach, Olcy, 
Conestoga, and elsewhere. Soon after a church was established at Mill Creek, 
Lancaster county. Of this community was Conrad Beissel, who, with a number 
of adherents, left it in 1725, settling near each other in solitary cottages. 

In the year 1732, the solitary life was changed into a conventicle one, and a 
monastic society was established as soon as the first buildings erected for that 
purpose were finished. Ma}', 1733. The habit of the Capuchins, or White 
Friars, was adopted by both the brethren and sisters, which consisted of a shirt, 
trowsers, and vest, with a long white gown and cowl, of woolen web in winter, 
and linen in summer. That of the sisters differed only in the substitution of 
petticoats for trowsers, and some little peculiarity in the shape of the cowl. 
Monastic names were given to all who entered the cloister. Onesimus (Israel 
Eckerlin) was constituted Prior^ who was succeeded by Jaebez (Peter Miller) ; 
and the title of Father — spiritual father — was bestowed by the society upon 
Beissel, whose monastic name was Friedsam ; to which the brethren afterwards 
added Gotti'echt — implying, together, Peaceable^ God-right. In the year 1740 
there were thirty-six single brethren in the cloister, and thirty-five sisters ; and 
at one time the society, including the members living in the neighborhood, 
numbered nearly three hundred. The first buildings of the society of any 
consequence were Kedar and Zion — a meeting-house and convent — which were 
erected on the hill called Mount Zion. They afterwards built larger accommo- 
dations, in the meadow below, comprising a sisters' house called Saron, to 
which is attached a large chapel, and " Saal," for the purpose of holding the 






836 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

agapas, or love feasts ; a brother's house, called Bethaiiia, with which is 
connected the large meeting-room, with galleries, in which the whole society 
assembled for public worship in the da3's of their prosperity, and which are still 
standing, surrounded by smaller buildings, which were occupied as printing 
office, bake-house, school-house, almonry, and others for different purposes, on 
one of which, a one-story house, the town clock is erected. 

The buildings are singular, and of very ancient architecture — all the outside 
walls being covered with shingles. The two houses for the brethren and sisters 
are very large, being three and four stories high ; each has a chapel for their 
night meetings, and the main buildings are divided into small apartments (each 
containing between fifty and sixty), so that six dormitories, which are barely 
large enough to contain a cot (in early days a bench and billet of wood for the 
head), a closet, and an hour-glass surround a common room, in which each 
sub-division pursued their respective avocations. On entering these silent cells 
and traversing the long narrow passages, visitors can scarcely divest themselves 
of the feeling of walking the tortuous windings of some old castle, and breathing 
in the hidden recesses of I'omance. The ceilings have an elevation of but seven 
feet ; the passages leading to the cells, or " Kammern^^' as they are styled, and 
through the different parts of both convents, are barely wide enough to admit 
one person, for when meeting a second, one has always to retreat ; the doors of 
the Kammern are but five feet high, and twenty inches wide, and the window, 
for each has but one, is only eighteen by twenty-four inches ; the largest windows 
affording light to the meeting rooms are but thirty by thirtj^-four inches. The 
walls of all the rooms, including the meeting room, the chapels, the saals, and 
€ven the kammern or dormitories, are hung and nearly covered with large 
sheets of elegant penmanship, or ink-paintings — many of which are texts from 
the Scriptures — done in a very handsome manner, in ornamented gothic letters, 
called in the German Fractur-schriften. 

Many of the brethren being men* of education, the}^ established, at a very 
early period, a school, which soon gained for itself an honorable reputation, 
many young men from Philadelphia and Baltimore being sent h^re to be 
educated. A Sabbath-school was instituted about 1789. The building in which 
this school was held was used during the Revolution as a hospital. A few days 
after the battle of Brandywine had been fought, September 11, Hit, says 
Rupp, four or five hundred of the wounded soldiers were taken to Ephrata, and 
placed in the hospital. Doctors Yerkel, Scott, and Harrison, were the attending 
surgeons and ph3'sicians. The wounds and camp fever baflled their skill ; one 
hundred and fifty of the soldiers died here ; the}' were principally from the Eastern 
States and Pennsylvania, and a few British who had deserted and joined the 
American army. The first of those who died were buried with the honors of war ; 
with a funeral sermon, preached by one of their own number api^ointed for that pur- 
pose. This pi'actice was continued for some time, till they began to drop off too 
rapidly to allow time for the performance of the ceremony, when everything of 
the kind was dispensed with. The place where they rest is enclosed ; and for 
many years a board with this inscription: '■^ Hier Ruhen die Qeheine vieler 
Soldalen,^^ was placed over the gate of the enclosure. The board with the 
inscription is no more 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 837 

At an early period a printing office was established at Ephrata, one of tlie 
first German presses in the State, which enabled them to distribute tracts and 
hymns, and afterwards to print several large works, in which the views of the 
founders are fully explained. Many of these books have been lost and destroyed. 
In the Revolutionary war, just before the battle of Germantown, three wagon 
loads of books, m sheets, were seized and taken away for cartridges. They came 
to the paper mill to get paper, and not finding any there, they pressed the books 
in sheets. When Congress left Philadelphia, and for safety met at Lancaster 
and York, the Continental money was printed at Ephrata. 

LiTiz is a beautiful Moravian village, eight miles north of Lancaster. In 

1757, it was laid out by the Rev. Nathaniel Seidel and Mr. John Reuter, 
who were sent from Bethlehem for that purpose, and the name of Litiz was 
given to it in memory of a village in Bohemia, from which the forefathers of 
the United Brethren had emigrated. It is not saying too much, if we state, that 
it is probably the neatest and cleanest village in Lancaster county. Its location 
is nearly east and west, extending in that direction about three-fourths of a mile. 
There is not only pavement before all the houses through the whole village, but the 
different paths leading to the church, schools, etc., are well paved with bricks or 
limestone slabs. The square, around which are located the educational institu- 
tions, the church and parsonage, is, perhaps, not surpassed in beauty by any other 
spot in the county ; such is its splendor in the summer season, that it frequently 
occurs that travelers stop in their journey to give it a closer examination than a 
mere transient notice. It is enclosed with a white fence, and tastefully laid out 
in gravel walks. Around it is an avenue of locust and cedar trees, and the interior 
is adorned with linden, cedar, and balm of Gilead trees, and a very great variety 
of shrubbery. The present church was consecrated on the 13th August, 1787. In 
1857 the church, after having stood seventy years, underwent a thorough repair, 
and man}^ alterations were made, so that its internal and external appearance 
became more modern. It is sixty-six feet in length, and fifty feet in depth, built of 
limestone, and has a very fine appearance. The mason work in its front is generally 
considered a master-piece of workmanship. It is ornamented with a neat spire, 
and has a town clock. It has two galleries, and is provided with an excellent 
organ. Originally there was no pulpit in the church, but merely a table, covered 
with black cloth, at which the minister officiated. In 1837 various alterations 
were undertaken, and among others, also that of placing a pulpit in the place of 
the table. In 1759, the brothers' house at Litiz was erected — which, however, is 
not used for its original intent at present. It is built of limestone, is three stories 
high, sixty feet in length, and thirty-seven feet in depth. In the year 1817 it 
was found proper to discontinue the brothers' house at Litiz, and after that 
period it was for a time occupied by several families, and at present is used for 
school purposes. During the Revolutionary war it was for a short period used 
as a hospital for invalid soldiers, a number of whom died there, and were bur.ed a 
short distance eastwardly from the village. The sisters' house was erected in 

1758. It is likewise built of limestone, three stories high, ninety feet in length, 
and thirty-seven in depth. The internal arrangement is similar to that of the 
brothers' house. At this time it is not occupied for its original purpose, but it is 
used in connection with Linden Hall for school purposes. 



838 



ni STORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



The Litiz Spiing, whicli is visited by so many persons, is situated on tlie 
land of tlie Moravian society, about one-half mile westwardly from the village, 
and is probably one of the largest springs in Pennsylvania. There are two 
fountains from which all the water, which forms a considerable stream, is 
discharged, and has water sufficient for some of the largest merchant mills in the 
county. From *its head to the Conestoga, into which the stream " Carter's 
creek " empties, it is six miles, and in that distance there are seven mills. The 
water is the pure limestone, and vevy fresh. In former times, it formed a large 
pond, around which Indians resided, of which the number of Indian arrow-heads, 

hatchets, and stones used 
for throwing in their slings, 
give ample proof. About 
the year 1780. some of the 
inhabitants of Litiz beffan 
to improA'c it by enclosing 
it with a circular wall and 
filling up part of the pond, 
and in later j-ears the re- 
maining part w^as filled up, 
and where was formerly a 
considerable body of water, 
there is at this time a 
beautiful park of trees. 
Various improvements 
were undertaken from time 
to time ; but at no period 
was it found in such an 
improved state as at this 
time. Around it are a 
number of seats, and on 
the hill, from under which 
it has its source, are hand- 
somely laid out gardens, 
arbors, and ornamental 
shrubbery. From the 
spring to the village is an 
avenue of linden and maple trees, winding along the stream, the path of which 
is partly covered with gravel, and partly with tan, which renders access to it 
easy in wet as well as in dry weather. 

The population of Litiz is about six undred. Formerly there was an extensive 
chip hat and bonnet manufactor}^ carried on by Mr. Matthias Tschiidy, which gave 
employment to many. He was the only jjcrson in the United States that under- 
stood the art of manufacturing them, and supplied nearly all the cities and 
country with his hats. The palm leaf and straw hats coming into fashion, they 
were preferi'ed, and consequently the factory was discontinued. Organs were 
also built in Litiz in former times, which, for tone and excellent workmanship, 
are very celebrated. A number of the best organs in Philadelphia, Baltimore, 




SPRING AND WALK AT LITIZ. 

[From a Photograph by Wm. L. Gill.] 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 



839 



and Lancaster are specimens thereof; and among others, the large and beautiful 
organ in the Lutheran church at Lancaster. In former times, the augurs which 
were sent from Enghind had no screw, serving as a point, as we have them in our 
day. The invention of this screw was first made at Litiz, by John H. Ranch, 
Sr., during the last century ; the pattern was then sent to England by Judge 
Henry, after which the screw point was generalh^ introduced. 

Safe Harbor is an important place at the mouth of the Conestoga. 
There that stream is connected with the Tide Water canal on the opposite bank 
of the river, but the dam has been suffered to go down. Splendid rolling mills 
and furnaces, unfortunately not worked at present, are located here. Most of 
the iron used on the Pennsjdvania railroad when first constructed was manufac- 
tured at this place. The scenery is very fine and picturesquely grand. A short 
distance below Safe Harbor are several rocks w^ith Indian picture-writing, a 
fac simile of which is herewith given. 
From a report made by Professor Thomas 
C. Porter to the Linnoean Societ}^ of 
Lancaster county we learn that in Sep- 
tember 1863, the existence of figures 
chiseled out by the red men of our stone 
period on certain rocks in the Susque- 
hanna became known to that society, who 
soon thereafter obtained casts of the 
figures in plaster. Drawings of these 
casts were made by Jacob Stauffer, the 
distinguished naturalist. The upper 
ones belong to the larger rock, and those 
under to the smaller one. 

The Susquehanna river below the dam 
at Safe Harbor is filled with a multitude 
of rocks and rocky islets, various in size and extent, between which, the fall being 
considerable, the water rushes, forming a series of rapids and eddies, navigable 
only by channels. Among these rocks are the two in question. The larger one 
lies a full half-mile below the dam, in a line nearly due south from the mouth 
of the Conestoga, while the smaller one is situated about 250 yards further 
up, in the same line, at a distance of some 400 or 500 yards from the eastern 
shore. Each rock is composed of several masses overlying each other at an 
angle of 45° down stream, the lines of division running east or west, the 
southern crest being the highest. They consist of gneiss, which is rather 
friable within, but hard on the outside. The larger rock measures through the 
centre, from north to south, 82 feet, and from east to west 40 feet. It slopes 
gradually upward from north to south; the lowest part being 9 feet, and 
the highest 16 feet above low-water mark. This rock is said to be the high- 
est in the river near Safe Harbor, and from its flat summit the prospect is exten- 
sive and beautiful. The lower rock measures, from east to west, on the north 
side, 20 feet ; on the south side, 29 feet 8 inches ; from north to south, on the 
east side, 12 feet 9 inches ; on the west side, 8 feet 6 inches. The hei rlit of the 
west side, above low- water mark, is 6 feet; of the east side, 12 feet. 9 inches. 




INSCRIPTIONS ON RorisS AT SAFE HARBOR. 
[From a Pbotograi<U by Wiu. L. Gill.] 



840 iilS TOE \ ^ OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

The two rocks contain in all upwards of 80 distinct figures, and a number more 
almost obliterated. They are much scattered, and seem to have been formed 
without regard to order, so that it is not possible for an unskilled observer 
to say that they bear any necessary relation to each other. They are probably 
symbolical, but it is left to those who are versed in American antiquities to 
decipher their meaning. Some points, however, are clear. They were made by 
the aborigines, and made at a large cost of time and labor, with rude stone 
implements, because no sharp lines or cuts betray the use of iron or steel. This, 
in connection with their number and variety, proves that they were not the 
offspring of idle fancy or the work of idle hours, but the product of design 
toward some end of high importance in the eyes of the sculptors. 

Donegal Church, one of the most interesting Scotch-Irish Presbyterian 
settlements in the county, was planted upon the banks of the " Shecassalungo " 
creek, as early as 1114. The settlement grew very rapidly. Among them, there 
were a number of Scotch-Irish of a turbulent and independent nature, which 
leavened the whole. Many of them became restless, and changed their resi- 
dence, moving further into the wilderness, and pushing back the frontiers, like 
a resistless wave, beating against the red man of the forest, and forcing him to 
retreat or be overwhelmed. Thus from this parent settlement in Donegal many 
others were established, all having the same characteristics. It was a most for- 
tunate circumstance for the welfare and independence of the country that these 
men fostered independence among themselves, and would brook no oppression 
from any quarter. When Great Britain first sought to impose unjust burthens 
upon the people of Massachusetts Bay, and they resisted and called upon their 
countrymen for help, a ready echo was sent back from these Scotch-Irish settle- 
ments. They burnished their arms and were the first to strike for liberty when 
the time came. Our country owes them a debt of everlasting gratitude. 

Although worship was had at various private houses for ten years, I am not 
able to learn that any building was erected as a place for public worship before 
1122. On or about that year a log church was erected a few yards east of the 
present structure. The pulpit was supplied by New Castle Presbytery, the 
Rev. David Evans being the first, in the 3^ears 1721-24. The Kev. Adam Boyd, 
of Octoraro church, was the supply in 1724-25. In September, 1726, the Eev. 
James Anderson, of New Castle, was called to preach, at Donegal, and was on 
trial until August, 1727, when he was installed. He died at Donegal, July 16, 
1740. During his pastorate the present stone meeting-house was erected. It 
was built with loose stone gathered up in the woods thereabout. A ground plan, 
as drawn by Bertram Galbraith on the 25th day of December, 1766, is in the 
possession of the writer. The church is about seventy-five feet long, by forty- 
five in width. There were no doors at the end. The windows were narrow, and 
the aisles were of earth. There were no pews for many years after its erection. 
Benches of the homeliest construction .were used. 

At the close of the Revolution the church was remodeled by Mr. Paden. The 
windows were widened, a door-way placed at each end ; a new pulpit, with sound- 
ing board over it, with space paneled off in front for the clerk, was built with 
walnut boards cut from a tree on John Bayley's farm, now owned by John 
Graybill ; new pew backs of walnut and yellow pine, paneled, which were as 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 841 

high as the head of an ordinary person, with corner boards curved out to fit the 
bade. Sloping shelves along the three rows of pews in front of the pulpit were 
used for hymn-books. The aisles and pews were paved with brick. The church 
was crowded on Sunday, and on Communion Sabbath service was held in the 
morning and afternoon, the congregation returning to the woods between sermons 
to take a lunch. The Rev. Joseph Tate followed Mr. Anderson. He died Octo- 
ber 10, Uli, aged sixty-three. In the year 1732, the Presbytery of New Castle 
was divided, and the Presbytery of Donegal formed from the western portion of 
its territory. The Presbytery of " Carlisle " and " Old Redstone," and perhaps 
another, were taken from Old Donegal. For some reason, fifty years ago, the 
name of Donegal Presbytery was changed to New Castle, but again resumed in 
a few years. Recently the name has been again changed to " Westminister," to 
the everlasting disgrace of a few ministers who are not capable of appreciating 
the grand historical renown which is indissolubly connected between that church 
and her patriotic sons of Revolutionary memory. In 1775, after a sermon by that 
good man Colin McFarquhar, who but a short time before came from Scotland, 
and whose family were there and did not arrive in America for ten years there- 
after, urged a conciliary course between the colonists and Great Britain. After 
the congregation adjourned, they met under the large oak tree which stands in 
front of the north-eastern end of the church. The men joined hands and vowed 
allegiance to the cause of the colonies, and pledged their faith to each othei-, 
that they would give their Jives and fortunes to establish libert3^ Then and 
there measures were immediately taken to form an association to defend their 
rights. They loved their pastor, and the reader can easily imagine the moral 
courage required to act so promptly and decisively against the wishes of their 
preacher. Mr. McFarquhar preached in Donegal for more than thirty years. He 
outgrew his early predilections in favor of the mother country, and became a 
great favorite. He died in Hagerstown in 1821. He was followed by Rev. 
William Karr, who preached in Donegal for fourteen years, and died September 
22, 1822. Rev. Orson Douglass, followed by T. M. Boggs, each of whom preached 
fourteen years. Ten years ago the church was again remodeled by plastering 
the outside walls, closing the west and south doors, putting in a board floor, and, 
in fact, made the whole structure conform to modern ideas of a church building. 
No person who had not seen the building for forty years would recognize it. II 
is fortunate that the old Scotch-Irish have entirely disappeared from the neigh- 
borhood, or there might be another rebellion in Donegal. 

Bart township was taken from Sadsbury township, in 1744. It was settled 
mostly by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians as early as 1717. Copper and ii*on ore 
mines of great value exist in this township. The villages are Georgetown and 
Bartville. 

The surface of Brecknock township is very hilly, and until a recent period 
but little progress was made in agriculture. The soil is red gravel. The town- 
ship is well supplied with water. The only village in the township is Bowmans- 

VILLE. ' 

Caernarvon township is one of the original townships. The Conestoga 
creek flows through it from east to west. The Downingtown and Harrisburg 
turnpike crosses the southern angle, and the Morgantown turnpike centrally 



842 



HIS TOBY OF FENNS YL VANIA . 



from east to west. Churchtown is beautifully situated upon a ridge along this 
turnpike. A view is had from the town of the Conestoga valley and surrounding 
country. It is nearly in the centre of the township. The surface of the town- 
ship is generally hill}^, the soil is -red shale, and land in the valleys very rich, 
and under a good state of cultivation. A railroad is now being built through 
the southern corner. The settlement was made several years before the organi- 
zation of the county. In the list of taxables for 1,725 will be found the names of 
James Llo^'d, Gabriel Davis, Philip David, George Hudson, David Jenkins, 
Edward Davies, and John Davis, all of whom settled in the township, along the 
Conestoga. In ITBO twenty-four families, all Welsh, came from Radnor town- 




STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, AT MILLERSVILLE. 
[From a Photograph by Vttn. L. Gill.] 

ship, Chester county, and settled at Churchtown. They erected a log church the 
same year, and gave it the name of " Bangor Episcopal Church." Since that 
time the third church has been erected upon or near the same spot as the 
original one. Large beds of iron ore were discovered, and the first forge was 
erected in 1753, as stated elsewhere. For one hundred years thereafter the iron 
business was controlled in that township by the Olds, Jenkins, and Jacobs, all 
of whom became very wealth}^ and owned all of the best land in the township. 
A number of slaves were owned by these ironmasters, and several of them were 
imported directly from Africa. Of the latter "Quasha," and" Cooba," his wife, 
became great favorites, and could be seen every Sunday following their master 
to church in a " gisr." These Welsh settlers were nearly all members of the 
Episcopal Church. Robert Jenkins married Catherine M., daughter of Rev. 
John Carraichael, a celebrated Presbyterian divine. When Mr. Jenkins first 



LANCASTEB COUNTY. 843 

came to the valley he erected and lived in iv block-house as a protection against 
the Indians, many of whom roamed about the neighborhood hunting and fishino- 
for many years after these Welsh settled there. Churchtown was a villao-e 
before the Revolution. 

East Cocalico joins Berks county and the townships of Brecknock, Earl, 
Ephrata, and West Cocalico. It has five grist mills. The Cocalico creeks 
crosses the township in a south-easterly direction. The most important towns 
are Adamstown, Reamstown, and Swartzville. Adamstown was laid out and 
settled at the close of the Revolutionary war. The road from Lancaster to 
Reading passes through the place. There are several extensive manufactories of 
woolen hats, which give employment to a large number of men. " The People's 
railroad," when built, will pass through the place. Reamstown was laid out 
upon the road leading from Lancaster to Reading about 1785. 

West Cocalico joins the latter township. The Reading and Columbia rail- 
road passes through its south-east section, and the Cocalico creek and its tribu- 
taries traverse the township. Its villages are Cocalico, Reinholdsville, Schoeneck, 
Stevens, and Reinhold's Station. The neighborhood of Reinholdsville was 
settled between 1135 and 17iO by Germans, among whom Hans Beelman, Hans 
Zimmerman, and Peter Schumacher, were large landholders. 

CoLBRAiN was settled by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. The main branch of 
the Octoraro creek bounds it on the east, and the west branch of the same 
stream on the west. Its surface is rolling, and soil, gravel and clay. Clonmell, 
Colerain, Kirkwood, Octoraro, and Union are thriving villages. 

CoNESTOGA lies on the Susquehanna. The Conestoga creek flows along the 
west boundary, and the Pequea creek along the east. On both there are several 
mills. 

CoNOY is the westernmost township in the county. Its most important place' 
is Bainbridge, situated at the mouth of Conoy creek, on the site, it is supposed, 
of the ancient Dekawoagah, a Conoy or Ganawese settlement. John Harris, the 
founder of Harrisburg, settled first in this neighborhood. John Haldeman, an 
early pioneer, built one of the first mills in the county at Locust Grove, near 
Bainbridge. Bainbridge was the home of Bartram Galbraith, and the town 
was laid out by his son Samuel Galbraith. 

Clay township was taken from Elizabeth township in 1853. It joins Lebanon 
county and the townships of West Cocalico, Ephrata, and Elizabeth. It is 
largely settled by Germans, who are industrious and have well cultivated farms. 
Durlach and Newtown are small hamlets. Indian run flows for about a mile, 
and suddenly disappears and re-appears, after running beneath the ground for a 
mile, and then takes the name of Trout run. Great quantities of wliite and red 
sandstone are found upon the top of the ground, from which door and window 
sills are made. There are six grist mills on Middle creek, which tra,verses the 
township in a southerly direction. 

Marietta is situated on the left bank of the Susquehanna river, three miles 
above Columbia. The place was originally known as " Anderson's ferry," it 
having been established but a few years later than Wright's ferry, in 1733. Tlie 
ground occupied by the borough was owned, from the ferry house at the upper 
station to Elbow Lane, by James Anderson, and from Elbow Lane to a line 



844 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

running parallel thereto, near the public school-house, on the Lancaster turnpike, 
by David Cook. Jacob Grosh and others laid out the town below Cook's, above 
Anderson's laud and the " green lane," which formed the boundary. Frances 
Evans sold one hundred and sixty acres of land to James Mehaffey, John Paden, 
and James Duffy, at the commencement of the war of 1812.. They laid out a 
town, which is well built up, and is really a part of Marietta, but it was nick- 
named " Irish Town," which it retains at the present time. On account of taxes, 
and perhaps for some private reasons, it never was included in or incorporated 
with Marietta borough, but belongs to East Donegal township. The part laid 
out by Anderson, in 1805, was called "New Haven," and that laid out by David 
Cook, in 1806, was named "Waterford." The charter for the turnpike from 
Lancaster made " Waterford " the terminus. Neither Anderson or Cook could 
agree upon a common plan for their towns, and their differences led to much incon- 
venience on the part of the public. In 1812 the two places were incorporated in 
one charter, and Marietta, a compound name, made up from the Christian name 
of Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Cook. During the war of 1812 Marietta grew very 
rapidly, and was the scene of the wildest speculation for the first five years of its 
history, which ended in disaster, the extent of which but seldom, if it ever, 
occured in the history of the State. The place did not recover from the shock 
until the completion of the Pennsylvania canal, and the location of the railroad 
in 1851. It has been gradually improving, and, at the present time, is one of the 
most important business places in the rural districts. Its population is nearly 
four thousand. From the energy and business tact of many of its leading 
citizens, it is destined to be an important city at no distant day. During the 
war of 1812, and the more recent ones. Marietta furnished her full quota of 
soldiers, many of whom rose to distinction by reason of their valor. 

Maytown is situated two miles north-west of Marietta, in the heart of a fine 
agricultural district. It was laid out by John Doner, in 1*755, and was one of 
the first and most important places west of Lancaster borough. The back 
settlers came many miles to purchase tea and coffee at a store keplk by James 
Eagan, those luxuries not being for sale at any other place west of Lancaster. 
He was also the first person west of Lancaster to keep ironmongery for sale. 
During the Revolution Maytown was a livel}'' place, and furnished a number of 
soldiers for that and the subsequent wars. It does not, however, occupy the 
important position it did one hundred years ago. 

Falmouth is at the mouth of Conewago creek, which is here crossed by a 
canal aqueduct. The famous Conewago falls are in the neighborhood. The 
descent of the river, within a distance of little more than a mile, is probabl}^ not 
less than seventy feet ; forming rapids, whirlpools, snags, and every conceivable 
obstruction to the passage of a raft. The passage of this water}"- ordeal is a 
terror to the universal rafting community. Their frail platforms, creeping like 
snakes over the rocks, plunge, creep, and bend in every direction ; the high 
waves rolling and splashing frightfully, renders the adventure at once exciting, 
novel, and perilous. Many old river-men make a livelihood by piloting rafts 
through these terrible falls. At an early day, says Professor Haldeman, the 
Conewago falls limited the boat navigation of the Susquehanna, so that the keel- 
boats unloaded at Falmouth, whence their cargoes (chiefly of grain) were 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 84b 

transferred to wagons and distributed. This caused the construction of a turn- 
pike road from Falmouth to Elizabethtown, which was superseded by Hopkins' 
canal, a disastrous speculation, which was a continual drain on the resources of 
Mr. Hopkins, a distinguished lawyer. The turnijike being thus rendered 
useless, grass grew upon it, and sometimes the stalk of a pumpkin would 
wander over it from an adjoining field, which caused it to be named " The Pump- 
kin-vine Turnpike." After being a constant expense to Mr. Hopkins, his canal 
was in turn superseded by the Pennsylvania canal, when he might have 
recovered a part of his losses by selling out to the State, but he asked too high 
a price, and the State canal was located independently. 

The workmen on the canal, during its construction, about two miles east of 
Bainbridge, came upon one end of an old Indian burial ground. A great many 
articles of use and ornament were discovered ; there were crocks, hatchets, 
tomahawks, arrow heads, bullets, buck shot, thimbles, beads, pipes, etc. 

Donegal township was settled several years before its organization in 1722, 
by a number of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who deserve more than a passing 
notice. Man}' of them occupied a prominent position in colonial times, and the 
records of the Revolutionary'^ war and that of 1812 fully establish their claim to 
the purest patriotism and love of country. Whatever is said to their credit 
equally applies to the Scotch-Irish who settled in the south-eastern section of the 
county and the back settlements beyond Donegal. 

Of those who first settled in the township, and were there at the time of the 
organization of the county, and were brought into public notice, the Galbraiths 
deserve the first attention. James (probabl}' the father), John, James, Jr., and 
Andrew Galbraith, came over to America with William Penn, from Queenstown. 
The family of Galbraiths are of the remotest antiquity. Its name is derived 
from the Celtic, and it originally belongs to the Lenox of Scotland. It was in 
the parish of Baldernoch chiefs of the name had their residence. The Gal- 
braiths of the Isle of Ghiga descended from those of Baldernoch, having fled 
there with Lord James Stewart, youngest son of Murdoch, Duke of Albany, from 
the Lenox, after burning Dumbarton, in the reign of James the First of 
Scotland. They continued to hold that island until after a.d. 1500. The 
following lines, from the Scotch, show the estimation in which the name was 

held : 

'< Galbraiths from the Red Tower, 
Noblest of Scottish surnames." 

There is now a small island in Scotland called " Inch (Island) Galbraith." 
Upon it is the ruin of a stone tower, one of the strongholds built by the clan when 
war was the rule. 

A circumstance occurred a few years ago, while one of the Galbraith fam- 
ily was traveling in Scotland, which clearly establishes the origin of the family 
of that name in America. Hearing that a family of that name resided where 
he stopped for a few days, Mr. G. called upon them and showed them a coat of 
arms of the family in America. He was greatly surprised when they produced 
a precise counterpart of it. Three bears' heads muzzled, on a shield surmounted 
by a knight's helmet and crest, with the motto, "Ab obice saevior" (stronger 
from opposition), seems never to have been forgotten by the Galbraiths. When 



846 HISTOB Y OF PEN'J!^S YL VANIA. 

the county was organized, Andrew Galbi'aith was appointed the first coroner. 
The first jury drawn he was a member of, as well as his brother John, ivnd 
several others from Donegal. In 1730 Andrew was appointed one of the justices 
of the peace and of the common pleas court, which position he held with honor 
until 1745, when we lose sight of him entirely. He also was elected a member 
of Assembly in 1732, after an animated contest, in which his wife conducted tLe 
election in person, she having mounted her mare " Nelly " and rode among the 
Scotch-Irish, who followed her to Lancaster, at the polls, where she addressed 
them most eff'ectually. He was afterwards re-elected without opposition for 
several terms in succession. He resided upon Little Chicques creek, a short 
distance below the point where the Mount Joy and Marietta turnpike crosses 
Donegal run. 

John Galbraith was elected sheriff" in 1731. He resided at the crossing above 
Andrew Galbraith, where he built a grist mill. He owned large tracts of land, 
along the river and at his residence. He died in 1754. Janet, his widow, and 
James Galbraith, of Lancaster, his executors, sold the mill property in 1757 to 
John Bayley. 

James Galbraith, first spoken of, removed to Swatara creek, and had pro- 
bably been dead for some years before this. James Galbraith, Jr., was elected 
sheriff" in 1742 and '43. He married Elizabeth, the only daughter of the Rev. 
William Bertram, who lived upon the Swatara, and removed there in 1757. 
From thence he removed to Pennsborough township, in Cumberland county, in 
1760. He was a justice in Lancaster county for many years, and took an active 
part to protect the settlers in Derry, Paxton, etc. from the savage fury of the 
Indians during the French war of 1755. During the Revolution he was ap- 
pointed lieutenant for Cumberland county. Being too advanced in years to do 
active duty, he was consulted by others in matters pertaining to his county. 
The Galbraiths of Cumberland county all come from James Galbraith, Jr. 
Every one of his sons became prominent in the Revolutionary war on the side of 
the patriots. Bertram Galbraith, first lieutenant in Lancaster county, was his 
son, and did noble service in the cause of his country. 

Robert Buchannan, another of these early settlers in Donegal, was elected 
sheriff for the years 1732-'3-'4, and 1738-'9-'40. He rendered valuable aid to 
the Penns in the conflict with the Marylanders. His brother Arthur was nearly 
killed by them. He was also in the Revolutionary army. He emoved to 
Cumberland county from Donegal. 

Samuel Smith, another of the first settlers, was sheriflT in 1735-'7. He 
resided upon the farm adjoining John Galbraith, on little Chicques. It was he, 
assisted by the Sterrats and twenty-four others of his neighbors, who went down 
and stormed Cresap's fort, and took him a prisoner to Philadelphia. 

John Sterrat was elected sheriff" in 1744. His son James was elected to the 
same office, in 1745-'6-'7 and '8. John resided further up Chicques creek on 
the east side, and James on the farm north of John Galbraith's. The family 
have always occupied a prominent position in public aff"airs. Their descendants 
are numerous in Tuscarora and Kishicoquillas valleys. Judge Sterrat of Pitts- 
burgh comes of this stock. 

George Stewart, Esq., who resided upon the banks of the river three miles 



I 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 841 

above Wright's feiTy, was a prominent man. He was a justice, and resided 
there fifteen years before the coiintj^ was organized. It was he who died in 1132 
after being elected a member of the Legislature, and for which vacancy John 
Wright was elected after being ousted by Andrew Galbraith. The Allisons, 
Fultons, and several other prominent persons intermarried into his famil}'. 
Ephraim Moore settled about a mile north-west from Donegal spring. His son 
Zachariah was an officer in the Revolutionary war, and was at the battles of 
Brandywine and Germantown. 

James Mitchell was a land surveyor and a justice of the peace. He lived in 
the township before 1722. John French (of Delaware), Francis Worley (of 
Manor), and James Mitchel, surveyed Springets-bury Manor, containing seventy- 
five thousand five hundred acres, in 1722. July 12, 1722, he and James Letort 
held a council with the chiefs of the Conestogoes, Shawanese, Conoys, and 
Nanticoke Indians at Conoytown, in Donegal. He was elected sheriff of the 
county in 1741 ; member of Assembly in 1727, and in' 1744-'5 and 1746. 
He was one of the trustees of Donegal church ; Penns issued a patent to them 
in 1740. John and Thomas Mitchell were active men. Gordon Howard lived 
on Chicques creek near Sheriff Smith. He was a prominent Indian trader ; was 
county commissioner in 1737. He was intermarried with James Patterson's 
(the Indian trader in Hempfield) family. The family removed from Donegal 
before the Revolution. The Hays, Kerrs, Hendricks, Dunlaps, Chambers, 
Cunninghams, Works, Clingmans, Wilkins, all come from this early stock 
in Donegal. There is a possible President among the descendants of the 
above. 

Andrew Work was sheriff in 1749-'50; Thomas Smith, sheriff in 1752-'3-'4; 
John Hay, sheriff in 1762-'3; William Kelly in 1777-'8; Joseph Work in 
1779-'80-'81 ; Thomas Edwards in 1782-'3-'4; John Miller in 1785-'6-'7. 
It is likely two or three others filled that office from Donegal before the 
Revolution. The Quakers seem to have conceded the post of sheriff to the 
Scotch-Irish and Irish of Donegal, who, by virtue of their office, had to perform 
disagreeable and dangerous duties. 

The Irish and Scotch-Irish of Donegal were the first to follow the old French 
Indian traders in the traffic with the red man of the forest. Edmund Cartlidsfe 
(of Manor), Jonas Davenpoit, and Henry Baly, of Donegal, were the first to 
cross the Allegheny mountains and trade with the Indians along the Ohio and 
its branches. This was in 1727. 

At the first court held at John Postlewhaite's, James Patterson, Hemphill 
(now Manor), Edmund Cartlidge, and Peter Chartier (of Manor), and John Law- 
rence, Jonas Davenport, Oliver Wallis, Patrick Boyd, Lazarus Lowrey, William 
Dunlap, William Beswick, John Wilkins, Thomas Perrin, and John Harris, all 
of Donegal, were licensed by the court to trade with the Indians. Eight of them 
were licensed " to sell liquor by the small." The Wilkins lived on Chicques 
creek. John Harris settled at an early date at the mouth of Paxtang creek. 
Lazarus Lowrey lived upon the farm now owned by Mr. Cameron, between 
Donegal church and iSIarietta. Dennis Sullivan lived next to L. Lowrey ; Simon 
Girtee, Paxtang; David Hendricks, Manor; Johu Galbraith, Donegal; Francis 
Waters, Donegal ; Peter Corbie, Donegal ; Thomas Mitchell, Donegal ; James 



848 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Denny, Donegal ; James, John, Daniel, and Alexander, sons of Lazarus Lowrey, 
all of Donegal ; Hugh Crawford, Donegal ; George Croghan and John 
Frazier lived further up the river, and Joseph Simons of Lancaster borough, 
and William Trent, all of whom were well known throughout the 
Province. Many of them became wealthy. John Burt, John Kelly, and several 
others from Donegal, traded with the Indians often without taking out 
an annual license. They made the Indians drunk, and when in that state abused 
and took advantage of them, which caused no little trouble to the Governor and 
council. Of these traders Harris, Letort, Croghan, Hendricks, Davenport, 
Crawford, Simons, Trent, and the Lowreys were the most famous. In 1150 a 
drunken Indian set fire to a keg of powder, at the forks of the Ohio, which 
exploded and killed John Lowrey. A curious incident grew out of the affair. A 
French Indian trader was arrested and placed in irons at a fort between Detroit 
and the Pict's country. He made his escape to the Picts, who took him for a 
spy and were going to kill him. After consultation they gave him over to 
Lowrey's hands, who brought him a prisoner to Donegal, to be held as a hostage 
by James Lowrey until the Indian that killed his brother John was given up 
by the French. So writes William Trent to the secretary, from Lancaster, 
August 18, nSO. 

Lazarus Lowrey married twice. His last wife was the widow of Thomas 
Edwards (who was a member of Assembly in 1729-'32, n35-'36, and 1739). He 
died in Philadelphia, in 1155. James Lowrey removed from Donegal before the 
Revolution, as did also Daniel his brother. Alexander Lowrey remained. He 
purchased his father's and brothers' land in Donegal, and at the close of the 
Revolution was one of the largest landholders in the State. He was one of the 
twenty-two ti'aders attacked by the Indians at Bloody run in 1163, and came 
very near losing his life there. He was guide to General Forbes' expedition in 
1158, and to Colonel Bouquet's expedition in 1163, and was at the bloody 
battle of Bushy Run. He was one of the first and most active of the patriots 
in 1114 ; same year was "bn committee of correspondence and to confer with 
those of other counties, in Philadelphia ; member of Assembly in 1115 and 1116; 
elected colonel of 3d battalion of Lancaster county militia in 1116 ; was senior 
officer and commanded the Lancaster county militia at battle of Brandywine, 
September 11, 1111 ; a member of Assembly in 1118 and 1119 ; also a member 
of the Senate. In 1184, at the important treaty with the Indians at Fort 
Mcintosh, the government appointed him messenger to go to the diiferent 
Indian tribes and gather them to the fort. He was also chosen by the govern- 
ment to bring in the Indians to Fort Detroit at a treaty. In a few weeks after 
leaving the fort, he returned to it at the head of several hundred Indians. 
These feats are somewhat remarkable when we come to consider that he was 
over sixty j'^ears of age. Governor Mifflin appointed him a justice of the peace 
for Donegal, Mount Jo}^, and Rapho townships. He retired to his farm at 
Marietta. He was honored and respected by ever}^ one. He died in Januarj^, 
1805. 

Bertram Galbraith (son of James G., Jr.) resided at Conoy creek (Bain- 
bridge). He was appointed lieutenant for the county, and performed the most 
trying and difficult duties during the gloomy period of the Revolutionaiy war. 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 849 

John Bayley lived upon the farm now owned by John Graybill, in Donegal, and 
■was a member of the Council. James Bayley, Esq., was his brother, and lived on 
Donegal run, at the crossing of the Mount Joy and Marietta pike. He was 
wagon-master for the county during the Revolution. The constable was Walter 
Bell, of Maytown, who was at the battle of Brandywine. James Cunningham 
lived near Mount Joy ; was lieutenant-colonel in Colonel Lowrey's battalion ; 
was member of the Legislature for several terms, also surveyor-general of the 
State for the eastern section ; was a large landholder. He died in Lancaster. 
John, David, and Robert Jameson, who lived near Elizabethtown, were officers 
in the Revolution, and were at the battle of Brandywine. Tliey were large 
landholders. One of them left six pounds to Donegal church annually, so long 
as they should have a " pasture." Jacob, John, and James Cook were officers 
in the Revolution. In fact, every officer and soldier in Colonel Lowrey's .Sd 
battalion were from Donegal and Rapho and Mount Joy townships. 

There are not half a dozen descendants of these patriotic forefathers who 
now reside in Donegal. They are scattered through the west and south-west, 
and have planted colonies everywhere. Old Donegal church must not be for- 
gotten. She was the centre around which these Presbyterians were wont to 
congregate. Upon one occasion, in the early stages of the Revolution, after the 
close of religious service, they met under the shade of a giant oak which stood a 
few 3^ards from the north-east end of the church, around which they joined 
hands and pledged their faith to each other, and to stand by the patriotic cause 
until the shackles of the despot were riven asunder. 

Chicques, abridged from Chicquesalunga, the name of the creek which 
receives a short distance north of this place the Little Chicquesalunga, and 
forms the south-east boundary of the township, is a romantic spot with a magni- 
ficent river view, and is the residence of Professor S. S. Haldeman, the distin- 
guished naturalist and philologist. 

West Donegal joins Dauphin county and the townships of East Donegal 
and Conoy. The village of Newville, commonly called Eutstown, is near the 
north-western extremity of the township. 

Drumore is on the Octoraro creek, which forms its noxth-east boundary, 
while Muddy creek forms part of the north-west line, Conowingo creek 
crosses it, and upon this stream there is a forge, and Fishing and Fairfield 
creeks flow from it into the Susquehanna river. 

Earl, including East Earl, contains 31,311 acres. It comprises the villages 
of New Holland, Yogansville, Laurel Hill, Hinkletown, and Amsterdam. The 
Welsh mountain protrudes into the south-eastern extremity of the township. It 
is traversed by the Conestoga creek at the northern boundary in a westerly 
direction, and by Mill creek in the same direction near the southern boundary. 

East and West Earl townships are traversed by the Conestoga creek. The 
prominent villages of the former are Fairville and Toledo ; of the latter, 
Brownstown, Earlville, and Fairmount, 

Eden township adjoins Strasburg, At Quarryville is the terminus of the 
Lancaster and Quarryville railroad. This has given the town a wonderful start, 
and within the yeax numbers of dwellings have been erected, and gives great 
promise of future success. 

8 D 



850 HISTO E Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Elizabeth township was formerly included in Warwick township. Robert 
Old, to whom reference has been made, named this township in honor of Queen 
Elizabeth. Its surface is hilly ; the soil, limestone, gravel, and red shale at the 
northern boundary. Hammer creek traverses the township in a south-easterly 
direction, and derives its name from the forge hammers erected on it at an early 
date. This township is divided from Clay by Middle creek, so called from its 
course, which is midway between the Cocalico and Hammer creeks. Hopewell 
and Speedwell forges and Elizabeth furnace are located in this township. 

Ephrata township is traversed by Trout creek, which, entering the township 
it the north boundary, flows into Cocalico creek. A small section of its eastern 
extremity is watered by Muddy creek, on which is located the village of Hinkle- 
toAvn. The central portion of the township is hilly, Ephrata ridge being a 
prominent point where, at an altitude of twelve hundred and fifty feet above 
tide-water, from an observatory over sixty feet high, a very extensive and 
beautiful view may be enjoyed. The observatory forms part of the Ephrata 
Mountain springs, a celebrated and much frequented watering-place, established 
about 1848. The water, sandstone and slate, is very pure and soft, and varies in 
temperature from 49° to 52° Fahrenheit. 

Fulton township, named in honor of Robert Fulton, who was born within 
its limits. The Conowingo creek crosses the township. 

Hempfield township occupied a very prominent position in colonial times, 
and furnished many historical personages, several of whom have been mentioned 
under the head of Columbia. Thomas Ewing (the father of General James 
Ewing) lived in the valley adjoining the Shellabargers, two miles east of 
Columbia. He was a member of Assembly from 1739 to 1142. Professor 
S. S. Haldeman, whose fame is world-wide as one of the most accomplished 
scientific and linguistic scholars upon the continent, resides at Chicques Rock. 
He is an enthusiast, and follows with ardor his specialties, and is constantly 
making new discoveries and giving the world the benefit of them. It will richly 
repay any person to visit his hospitable mansion, and inspect his vast collection 
of beads, stone implements, etc. Hugh Paden lived upon Chicques creek, and 
was a captain in the Revolutionary army. 

West Hempfield is a rich agricultural district, and can boast of some of the 
finest farms in the county. The farmers are wealthy and industrious. The 
township was divided in August, 1818. It contains an area of 13,700 acres ; its 
greatest length is eight miles, greatest breadth, five miles. 

Hempfield Manor, belonging to Governor John Penn, was laid out upon 
Chestnut Hill. Chestnut Hill is very thickly settled, which presents to the eye 
of the beholder the appearance of a continuous town from the Columbia and 
Marietta turnpike to Mountville on the Lancaster turnpike. Within this semi- 
circle are embraced the villages of Kinderhook, Ironville, and Heistandville, the 
latter of which was laid out by John Heistand, in 1804. 

Mountville is the principal 'village in the township. It is beautifully 
located upon a ridge four miles east of Columbia. The Lancaster turnpike runs 
through its length. The town is growing rapidly ; several large tobacco ware- 
houses have been built along the railroad at the station. It is a very desirable 
location for retired wealthy farmers, many of whom are moving into it and 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 



851 



erecting comfortable dwellings. There are three furnaces, several mills, school 
houses, and churches in the township. 

In looking over General Ewing's papers, I find a deed from John Gardner, 
who owned six hundred acres of land on the south side of " Shecassalunofo 
creek," for which he received a warrant as early as 1716. John Ross, whose 
name appears frequently among the Scotch-Irish, who resisted Cresap, deeded 
two hundred acres of the same tract of land to Thomas Ewing (father of 
General Ewing), March 1, 1137. The name of the creek referred to above has 
suffered many mutations, but I believe the above ought to be adhered to. 

The principal villages in East Hempfield are Petersburg and Hempfield, 
commonly called Roiirerstown, after its founder. Both places were laid out 
during the speculative times of the war of 1812. 

Landisville is also a thriving place. The Methodist Episcopal church 
cam p-m e e t i n g 
grounds lie in the 
close vicinity. 

East Lamp- 
eter is traversed 
centrally by the 
Pennsylvania rail- 
road, with a sta- 
tion at Bird-in 
hand. This name 
is said to have 
originated in the 



sign 



of an inn, 




'~^}vi7P-lJ^^0^ 



THE MEW LANCASTER. COUNTY HOSPITAL. 
I From a Photograph by Wm. L. Gill.] 



displa3'ing a man 
with a bird in his 
hand, and point- 
ing to two other 
birds on a tree, 
and pictorially il- 
lustrating the proverb "that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." 

Lancaster township is the smallest township in the county. 

Manheim township joins Lancaster city and township. The Little Cone- 
stoga flows in a southerly course along the western, and the Conestoga in a 
south-western direction along the eastern boundaries of the township. The 
Pennsylvania railroad crosses the southernmost extremity, and after passing 
through Lancaster city, traverses the south-western part of the township, form- 
ing a bifurcation at Dillerville. 

Manheim borough was laid out about 1760 or 1761, by Wilhelm Heinrich 
Steigel, an eccentric German, who for many years had managed the Elizabeth 
iron works. He bought two hundred acres of land from Messrs. Stedman, of 
Philadelphia, built a large brick house, which the simplicity of the times 
described as a great castle, remaining to this day, with Dutch tiles in the fire- 
places, and a coarse kind of German canvas tapestry hanging on the walls. It 
was built of imported brick, and contained a pulpit in the salon. Steigel was, in 



852 HISTOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

turn, ironmaster, glass manufacturer, a preacher, and teacher, and died in the 
latter capacity verj^ poor, a special act for his relief having been passed 
December 24, 1774. Manheim is improving very rapidly. Its business is 
extending, and it is destined at no distant day to be a city. 

Manor township contains the borough of Washington, on the Susquehanna 
river, the village of Millersville, where is located the State Normal school, and 
the most interesting historical locality in the county, the famous Indian town of 
Conestoga, about seven miles distant from Lancaster city. Not a vestige of its 
Indian character remains, but the early annals of the county assign to it a 
prominence altogether unique. It is better known in history as Indian Town, 
because of the treaties held there and the extermination of the Indians, which 
is given in full in the General Histor}'. Its history dates but a few years back 
of the arrival of William Penn, in 1682. The largest and oldest settlement of 
Indians was upon the farm of Jacob Staman, extending along down the river 
beyond the farm of Jacob Wittmer, in Washington borough. In 1608, their 
town numbered over two thousand souls. For more than one hundred years, 
implements of various kinds belonging to the stone age have been ploughed up 
upon the site of this town. Many of these relics have been preserved, others 
given away to friends in distant parts of the country, and great quantities have 
been thrown away as objects of no interest. In the spring of 1876, while 
making some investigation as to the location of the town, b\'^ the writer, he 
awakened an interest in the matter, in consequence of which the boys have been 
hunting upon Mr. Wittmer's farm for Indian relics, and have been rewarded for 
their curiosity by finding more than one thousand beads of various kinds, some 
of which are similar to those used by the Phoenicians many centuries ago. They 
also found a number of stone implements and heads of animals carved in stone. 
A rich field is opened up to the archaeologist. Our space will not permit a more 
extended notice of these valuable discoveries. 

Martic township is well watered by the Pequea creek along its northern 
boundary. Muddy creek on the south-east, and the Tucquan creek crossing it 
centrally. This township is very hilly, with fine river scenery, especially near 
McCall's ferry. 

Mount Joy township lies between the Conewago creek and the Little 
Chicquesalunga. From December, 1777, to May, 1778, General Anthony 
Wayne, with over two thousand troops, were encamped about one mile north- 
east of the borough of Mount Joy. One-third of the army were entirely desti- 
tute of shoes, stockings, shirts, or blankets. In consequence, their sufferings 
were terrible. Mount Joy borough was laid out by Jacob Rohrer, in 1812, and 
the lots disposed of by lottery. The adjoining village of Richland, not part of 
the boi'ough, was laid out a year or two later by several persons. Mount Joy is 
a thriving place, containing several churches, a female seminar}'', and a boys' 
school. The latter has been converted into a successful soldiers' orphan school, 
under the superintendency of Professor Jesse Kennedy. 

Paradise township is on the south side of Pequea creek. Kinzer's, Leaman 
Place, and Paradise are the prominent towns. The latter was originally settled 
by Mr. Abraham Wittmer, who built a mill there. When in 1804, it was made a 
post-town, and needed a name, Mr. Wittmer remarked that* to him it was a 



LANCASTER COUNTY. 853 

paradise, and thus it obtained its pleasant name. It contains se-'eral churches, 
and, at present, a soldiers' orplian school. 

Penn township lies on the east side of the Big Chicquesalnnga. The 
Reading and Columbia railroad crosses the southern section of the township. 

Fequea and Providence are adjoining townships. The Conestoga flows 
along the northern, and the Pequea along the southern border of the former, 
while the Big Beaver flows along the north-eastern boundary of the latter, 
uniting with the Pequea, which forms its north-west boundary. New Provi- 
dence and Smithville are prominent villages. 

Rapho township borders on Lebanon county. The Little Chicquesalunga creek 
flows along its western boundary in a southerly direction, and joins the Big Chic- 
quesalunga, which runs along the eastern and southern boundaries of the town- 
ship, near Musselman's mill at its south-vvestei'n extremity. Mastersonville, 
Mount Hope, Old Line, and Sporting Hill, are thriving villages. 

Sadsbury township borders on Chester county. The Octoraro creek rises 
near and flows along the eastern boundry, and gives motion to three forges within 
the township, and one immediately below its southern line. Mine ridge runs 
along the northern boundary, at the foot of which, on the Wilmington and Lan- 
caster turnpike road, is a post-ofHce called the *' Gap." 

Salisbury township, adjoining the foregoing, is centrally distant east from 
Lancaster about sixteen miles. It is drained by the Pequea creek, upon the 
branches of which ai"e several mills and one forge. The Welsh mountain runs 
along the north, and Mine ridge upon its south boundary. 

Strasburg township is on the Pequea. It contains the borough of Stras- 
BURG. It is an old German settlement. A Mr. Sample, ancester of an old Lan- 
caster county family, was the first and only English settler at the time of the 
Revolution. The place was formerly known as Bettelhausen, Beggarstown. The 
logs for the first house were hauled by a Mr. Hofi"man. The first house in Stras- 
burg was erected in 1733. The ancient road from Lancaster to Philadelphia ran 
through this place, and from it was called the Strasburg road. The old King's 
highway ran through Strasburg to the mouth of the Conestoga. It contains 
several churches, and a branch railroad connects with the Pennsylvania Central 
railroad at Leaman Place. The town was laid out before the Revolution. 

Warwick township received its name from Richard Carter, one of the first 

settlers, and first constable appointed in 1739. On the farm of Simon Hostetter, 

part of the old Carter tract, is a lake two hundred feet in circumference, of great 

depth, which at one time was erroneously supposed to be bottomless. Rocks 

come up to the water's edge on one side, and if large stones are rolled over the 

rocks into the water, they may be heard for several seconds to bound from rock 

to rock in their descent. Its more prominent towns are Litiz, Rothsville, and 

Brunnersville. 

Washington borough was formed by the consolidation of Washington and 

Charleston, both places having been laid out between 1800 and 1810. Before 

the completion of the public improvements it was a place of great importance, 

and immense stores of grain and whiskey were sent down the river from the rich 

country back of it. The Columbia and Port Deposit railroad passes through the 

place. It is the site of an Indian town many hundred years old. 



/ 



LAWRENCE COUNTY. 




BY D. X. JUNKIN, D.D., NEW CASTLE. 

AWRENCE county was erected out of portions of Beaver and 
Mercer, bj^ an act of Assembl}', approved tlie 20tli day of March, 
1849, the organization to take place September 1st of the same year. 
William Evans, of Indiana county, William F. Packer, of Lycoming, 
and William Potter, of Mifflin, were appointed commissioners to run and mark 

the boundary lines. 
Mr. Packer did not 
attend, and his place 
was supplied by 
James Potter, of 
Centre aounty. 
Henry Pearson, 
Esq., of New Castle, 
was the surveyor 
who performed the 
work of running the 
boundaries. The 
county is bounded 
north and south by 
the counties from 
which it was taken, 
Mercer and Beaver, 
cast by Butler, and 
west by the Ohio 
line. New Castle 
was selected as the 
county seat, but 
without prescription 
to the borough lim- 
its, for the site for 
the court liouse was 
selected upon a hill 
east of the borough, 
and outside of its 
boundaries. It is 
now, since New Cas- 
tle has been incor- 




LAWRENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, NEW CASTLE. 
[From a Photograph by A. W. Phipps, New Castle.] 



porated into a cit}'^, in the first ward of the city. 

'J'he county was named after Perr3''s flagship in the battle of Lake Erie, 
which was named in honor of Cai)tain James Lawrence, U. S. N., Avhose 

854 



LAWRENCE COUNTY. 855 

brilliant naval cai-ecr was terminated b}^ his obstinate defence of the frigate 
Chesapealve against the British ship Shannon, in which conflict Lawrence was 
mortally wonnded, and heroically uttered, as they carried him below, the 
memorable words, "Don't give up the ship!" 

When the Commonwealth constructed her lines of canals and railroad from 
Philadelphia to Lake Erie, the Beaver division connected Pittsburgh with New 
Castle, by river navigation to the mouth of Beaver, and by canal and slack- 
water navigation up that river to New Castle, and thence, ultimately, by a 
similar improvement to Lake Erie, near to the city of the same name. This 
great improvement passed through the heart of Lawrence county, and con- 
tributed largely to the development of her resources. And although the canal 
is now disused, having given wa}-- to railroad transportation, it was of immense 
benefit to this county. Previous to the construction of the public works, com- 
paratively little of the staple products of the country could reach a remunerative 
market. Some flour and grain were sent to New Orleans ; whiskey could some- 
times bear expensive transportation ; hides and peltry were exported to some 
extent ; but the chief dependence of these counties for purchasing dry goods, 
groceries, and other articles of necessity or of luxury, were cattle and horses, 
which could transport themselves. Many "droves" of these were annually 
taken to eastern markets. At first the merchants were generally the purchasers 
of cattle and horses, exchanging their goods and other commodities for them, 
then driving them east, selling them and bringing back merchandise in retui-n. 
This process rarely brought money to the country, and it was consequently very 
scarce; and for a long time, if you inquired the price of a commodity in a store 
you would be told " so much in cash" and "so much in trade" — the latter being 
a heavy percentage higher than the former. The writer remembers when 
freightage per wagon was ten dollars per hundi'ed-weight from Philadelphia to 
any point in Lawrence county'. Now it is less than a dollar. 

Lawrence county was originally covered with dense forests of oak, chestnut, 
hickory, poplar, pine, and other trees. To "clear" the ground readj^ for the plow 
was a herculean task. To get rid of the timber, it was "deadened" b3f girdling 
the sap wood — cut up, rolled into "log-heaps" and burned. Sometimes pot-ash 
was made out of the ashes ; but oftener it was wasted or plowed under. The 
early settlers seemed to look upon forest trees as u sort of enemies that ought 
to be extirpated. Hence their slaughter of the forest was inconsiderate and 
blame-worthy. The present inhabitants deplore this destruction of the timber. 

So long as the wood for fuel was abundant, little effort was made to discover 
other material for that purpose. But, in the progress of years, ricli deposits of 
bituminous coal were discovered and developed, and now it is the chief fuel used 
in the county, and vast quantities are used in furnaces and large quantities 
exported. 

Iron ore, rich and abundant, also exists, and beds of limestone inexhaustible, 
and the county has become a large manufacturer of iron. On Slippery Rock, at 
Wampum, on the Beaver, and at New Castle, smelting furnaces have been long 
in blast ; and in the latter place rolling mills, nail and nut factories, and other 
forms of manufacturing iron in'^bars, rails, and sheets, have been introduced. 

Like most of the counties west of the Allegheny river and north of tlie Ohio, 



85 G HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

it was settled chiefly by tlie Scotch-Irish, or the descendants of that race, who 
migrated from the okler counties of Western Pennsylvania, the eastern counties, 
and some directly from Ireland itself. Cumberland, Franklin, Westmoreland, 
Fayette, and Washington furnished the greater number ; but some came from 
other counties, and a few from the States of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, 
A considerable German element also was early introduced, and constituted a 
valuable portion of the population, whilst a few of English and Dutch ancestry 
came from New Jersey. 

The territory of this county, at the time of the battle of Miami Rapids, and 
of Wayne's treaty with the north-western Indians, was occupied by remnants of 
the Delaware Indians, with some admixture of Senecas, and it may be a few 
sporadic families of the Shawanese and other tribes. The Delawares, as the 
white popidation rolled around them, left the country lying between the 
Susquehanna and Delaware rivers, came further west and occupied the lands 
along the Allegheny river, and between that river and the lakes on the north, 
and the Muskingum on the west. The names, Neshannock, Mahoning, and the 
like, applied to streams in this county, identify the tribes giving these names to 
them with the Delawares, who applied the same and similar names to Neshanick 
in New Jersey, and Mahoning in- eastern Pennsylvania. After the ratification 
of Wayne's treaty, and the extinguishment of the Indian claim to the region 
between the Ohio and the lakes, the white inhabitants began to settle on the 
north side of the Ohio, and to occupy the lands now composing Lawrence county. 
But long before this, a measure of civilization and the Christian religion had 
been introduced within the bounds of this county, by the godly and indefatigable 
labors of the Unitns Fratrum, usually called Moravian Brethren. David 
Zeisberger and Gottlob Senseman were the first white meil who dwelt within the 
boundaries of Lawrence county. The story of their migration from what is now 
Bradford county, first to a site on the Allegheny river, in Forest county, and 
thence to the banks of the Beaver, within the present bounds of Lawrence 
county, is one of thrilling interest, and is briefly alluded to in the sketch of 
Forest county. While these devoted men were toiling in that wild and unpro- 
mising field, they were visited by Glikkikan, a captain and principal counsellor 
of Packanke, a chief whose tribe was settled within the bounds of Lawrence 
county. Glikkikan was renowned as a warrior, and celebrated amongst the 
natives as a man of peculiar eloquence. He made a journey to Lawunakhannek 
for the purpose of refuting the docti'ines of Christianity. On his way up he 
disputed successfully with the French Jesuits at Yenango (Franklin), and was 
very confident that he could put the Moravian missionaries to confusion. This 
distinguished chief and orator was escorted, with great pomp, by Wagomen and 
the heathen Indians, to the Christian village. Zeisberger was absent, but 
Anthony, a native convert and assistant, received them courteously, and made 
so impressive a speech, setting forth the Christian doctrine of a godhead, of 
creation, of the fall, of revelation, of the incarnation and death and resurrection 
of Christ, and of salvation through him, as astonished the visitors. And 
Zeisberger, coming in at the time, confirmed his words, and such was the effect 
upon Glikkikan, that, instead of delivering the elaborate speech which he had 
prepared against Christianity, he replied, " I have nothing to say ; I believe 



LA WHENCE COVNTY. . 357 

your words." And when he returned to the heathen town, instead of *)oasting 
of a victory over the missionaries, he advised his fellow savages to go and hear 
the gospel. Shortly after this event there was a famine along the Allegheny, 
and Zeisberger and Senseman had to go to Fort Pitt for supplies, and were 
instrumental in preventing an Indian war, by convincing the authorities there 
that certain devastations and murders had been committed, not by the Indians 
on the Allegheny, but by a roving band of Senecas on their way South. 

Soon after their return, Glikkikan made them another visit, and informed 
them that he had determined to embrace Christianity, and invited them, in the 
name of his chief Packanke, to come and settle on a tract of land on the Beaver 
near Kaskaskilnk, which he offered for the exclusive use of the mission. The 
result was that Zeisberger, Senseman, and their Christian Indians accepted the 
offer of the chief Packanke, and removed to the valley of the Beaver. On the 
17th day of April, 1770, they left Oil creek in fifteen canoes, after a friendly 
parting with their former persecutors, Wangomen and his people. In three days 
they reached Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh), formerly the French Fort Duquesne. 
Proceeding down the Ohio to the mouth of the Beaver, they ascended that river, 
carrying their canoes around its rapids, and arrived at the locality on which 
they had determined to fix their settlement. It was two miles below the conflu- 
ence of the Shenango and the Mahoning, which form the Beaver river, and about 
five miles below the present city of New Castle. They first settled and began 
to build on the east bank of the Beaver, where the hamlet of Moravia now 
stands ; but not long after, deeming that site unhealthy, they selected another 
on the ridge west of the river, where they built their town and church. The 
site is close by, but a little north by west of the Moravia station on the Beave r 
Yalle}'- railroad. As the immigrants passed up the Beaver, they found an 
Indian village, which stood near to or upon the site of the present town of New- 
port. It was inhabited by a community of women, all single, and pledged never 
to marr3^ About a mile above this point was their first encampment, whei-e 
they built bark huts — the first site above mentioned. Thus encamped, they scut 
an embassy to Packanke, whose capital stood near or upon the site of the pre- 
sent New Castle,* at the junction of the Neshannock creek with the Shenango. 
This town was called New Kaskaskiink. Old Kaskaslciink, the former capital, 
was near the junction of the Shenango and Mahoning, where two railroads now 
meet. Abraham, a native convert, and Zeisberger were at the head of the 
deputation, and were received by the venerable chief at his own house. They 
thanked him for his grant of land and his kind tender of a home, and in re- 
sponse, he bade them welcome to his country, and pledged them protection. 

They soon began to build more substantial houses, to clear land and to plant, 
and by the close of autumn were prepared for the rigors of winter. The Indians 
from distant localities soon began to visit the town ; to which Zeisberger had 
given the Indian name of Languntouteniink — {Friedensstadt — in English, City of 
Peace). Monseys from the former location of Goschgoschiink were first to come 
and cast in their lot with the Christian Indians. Glikkikan soon after came from 

* Dr. Schweinitz, the biographer of Zeisberger, to whom the writer is indebted for most 
of the above details, thinks it was at the junction of the Neshannocli and Slienango ; others 
think it was up the Mahoning, where Edinburg now stands. I think it was the former. 



858 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Kaskasl^ink, and became a decided Christian; and continued so until he was 
slain by Colonel Williamson's men at Gnadenhiitten on the Muskingum. 

The conversion of his bravest warrior and most eloquent counsellor exas- 
perated the chief Packanke. He reproached Glikkikan and denounced the mis- 
sion. He taunted Glikkikan with deserting him and his counsel — with a desire 
to turn white, and other reproaches. " Do you expect to get a white skin ? Not 
one of your feet will turn white. Were you not a brave man, and a good coun- 
sellor ? . . . And now you despise all this. You think you have found 
something better. Wait ! you will soon find how much you have been deceived." 
To which the converted warrior only replied, "You are right. I have joined the 
Brethren. Where they go I will go : where they lodge I will lodge ; their people 
shall be my people, and their God my God." A few days afterward he was so 
affected under the preaching of the gospel as to sob aloud. " A haughty war 
captain," writes Zeisberger, "weeps publicly in tae presence of his former asso- 
ciates ! It is marvelous !" 

Packanke made opposition for some time, but an event soon after occurred 
A^hich reconciled him. This was the adoption into the Monsey tribe of Zeis- 
berger. This ceremony took place on the 14th of July, 1770, at Kaskaskiink ; 
and the missionary was invested with all the rights and privileges of a Monsey. 
This proved the complete triumph of the missionary, and was the source of much 
influence for good among the red men. 

The new and larger town, on the west side of the Beaver, was laid out by 
Zeisberger, late in July, and was rapidly built. About the same time, John 
George Jungmann and his wife arrived at the mission, and Senseman returned 
to eastern Pennsylvania. Mr. Jungmann understood the Delaware language 
thoroughly, and was of much assistance to Zeisberger in preaching and teaching. 
A great revival followed. Many were converted. Glikkikan was baptized, 
together with Gendaskund, on Christmas day, and soon others ; so that by the 
beginning of 1711 the number of Christian professors in the town was seventy- 
three. On the 20th of June, 1771, a log church was dedicated, and the church 
members had increased to one hundred. It would be interesting to trace the 
history of this town and settlement of Christian Indians up the time that they 
removed from the bounds of Lawrence county to the new settlements of Chris- 
tain Indians on toe Tuscarawas, in what is now Ohio, but it would exceed the 
space allotted to this sketch. Through Zeisberger's agency in exploring the 
country and recommending the enterprises, missions had been established by 
the Brethren on the Tuscarawas, in the Muskingum valley, Ohio. Zeisberger 
took active part in the enterprise, and left the care of the mission at Friedens- 
stadt in the hands of Jungmann and others. Meanwhile difficulties began to sur- 
round the mission. Drunkenness was introduced among the heathen Indians 
by traders ; and they would come from Kaskaskiink, and other towns, to Frei- 
densstadt, and bowl along the streets in a drunken and threatening manner ; and 
sometimes use violence to the Christian inhabitants. In view of these troubles 
Zeisberger called the Christian Indians to join him at Gnadenhiitten and 
Schonbrun in Ohio; and in the spring of 1773, the migration was effected, the 
"City of Peace" was deserted, their sanctuary levelled with the ground, and the 
people migrated to the Muskingum. All that remains of this once pleasant 



LAWRENCE COUNTY. 



859 



Christian town is the name Moravia, applied to a hamlet and to the railway 
station. 

When the white settlers began to pour in, after Wayne's treaty of Greenville, 
1795, thore were still some families of the Indians lingered in the territory now 
embraced within Lawrence county ; and a few hunters were now and then found 
strajnng through the forests as late as 1814 ; an Indian village was located 
at Harbor bridge, but after the close of the war of 1812-'14 they disap- 
peared. To Lawrence belongs a \)va-i of the history of that war ; for a 
large proportion of her able-bodied young men bore a part in the conflict. 
After Hull's surrender, a call was made for troops, and two large compa- 
nies of volunteers were gathered from the sparse population of Mercer county, 
and a similar force from Beaver, a large proportion of whom were drawn 
from those parts of these counties 
now constituting Lawrence. One 
of these companies (the Mercer 
Blues), numbering eighty-four 
rifles, was commanded by Captain 
John Junkin, and another by Cap- 
tain Matthew Dawson. Of the for- 
mer, quite a number went from 
what is now the north part of 
Lawrence, and of the latter a still 
larger proportion. They did good 
service under the gallant Harrison, 
in the North-western army, and 
were distinguished alike for gallant- 
ry' and morality. It is a remark- 
able fact, that in Captain Junkin's 
company family worship was kept 
up by the mess in every tent but 
two, when not interrupted by mili- 
tary necessity. These men were 
the ancestors, to a considerable 
extent, of the " Roundhead " and 
the " Bucktail " regiments, which did such effective service in tie l;ite war for 
the Union. Quite a number of the sons and grandsons of the men of 1812 
filled the ranks of the regiments of 1862-'64. But one of those old soldiers 
survives — Henr}'^ Jordan, of Lawrence county. 

New Castle is the county seat, and is one of the most flourishing towns 
west of Pittsburgh in the State. It was laid out in 1802, by a Mr. C. Stewa t, 
who came to this locality from the neighborhood of New Castle, in Delaware, 
and the name was probably given in honor of that old Swedish town ; suggested, 
it may have been, by the resemblance of the name of the Indian town which 
occupied the same site. New Kaskaskiink. It continued a small and unimportant 
village until after the construction of the public works, when it began to grow in 
population and increase in business. It is located in a deep basin, and upon the 
encompassing hills at and around the confluence of the Shenango and the 




PUBLIC SCHOOL, BUILDING, NEW CASTLE. 
[From a Photograph bj A. W. Fhijtps,] 



860 



HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 







Neshannock. It was incorporated as a city in 1867. Its census has not been 
taken since 1870, but it probably now is between ten and twelve thousand. It 
contains a court-house, a jail, a market-house, with a spacious opera hall above 
it ; four Presbyterian churches, two Methodist Episcopal, one Episcopal Pro- 
testant, one Disciples, one Baptist, one Lutheran, two African, and one Primiti^'e 
Methodist churches. The number of furnaces is seven, and rolling mills three. 
Excellent window glass is also manufactured within the city limits. There 
are two large and elegant buildings for public school purposes, one in the first 
and the other in the second ward, besides five or six other edifices that are used 
for school purposes, one of which is "the New Castle one study college." The 
Roman Catholics are about completing a large and handsome building for their 

schools, which are now kept in rented 
rooms. 

The first courts in the county were 
held in the edifice of the First Methodist 
Episcopal church, pending the erection 
of a court house. The Hon. John 
Bredin, of Butler, was the first presiding 
judge, and after him Hon. Daniel 
Agnew, now of the Supreme Bench ; 
Hon. Lawrence L. McGuffin, and now 
the Hon. James Bredin (son of the first 
judge), and the Hon. Ebenezer McJun- 
kin, who preside alternately. 

There are several thriving villages 
in the county. Harlan sburg on the 
east, nine miles from the county seat ; 
Chewton, Wampum, and Newport, on 
the south ; Mount Jackson, south-west 
from New Castle ; Edinburg, west ; 
Pulaski on the Shenango, north-west. 
New Bedford, three miles south of the 
latter, and New Wilmington, the seat of Westminster college, a fiourishing 
institution, controlled by the United Presbyterian church. Fayette, East- 
brook, WiTTENBURG, PRINCETON, and Clinton, are femaller villages. 

Lawrence county sent to the front in the late civil war many and very 
excellent soldiers. The celebrated '•Roundhead" regiment, One Hundredth 
Pennsylvania volunteers. Colonel Daniel Leasure, which rendered such efljective 
service, was recruited chiefly from this county. Battery B, one of the most 
effective in the service, commanded by Captains H. T. Danfortb, J. Harvey 
Cooper, William McClelland, was from this county, and parts of other regiments 
were recruited here. There are five weekly newspapers published at the county 
seat. 

Lawrence county is traversed by the Pittsburgh and Erie railroad, and by 
the Lawrence Transportation; and the New Castle and Franklin railroads, 
whilst others are projected ; and one approaching New Castle from Allegheny 
City is now under construction. Some years ago, the county made heavy sub- 




DISCIPLES CHURCH, NEW CASTLE. 

I From a Photograph by A. W. Phipps. 1 



LAWBENCE COUNTY. 



861 



scriptions to railwc\ys that were never constructed, and lost her investments, 
which adds considerably to her taxes, down nearly to the present time, 1876. 
Perhaps no county in the Commonwealth possesses a larger amount of the 
elements of wealth, both of surface and mineral resources, in proportion to its 
area, than Lawrence County. 

In the construction of Lawrence county several townships of the same name 
were thrown into it, as Mercer county and Beaver had each a Mahoning, a Slip- 
pery Rock, and a Shcnango township. The Slippery Rock of Mercer county was 
for a time called North Slippery Rock, and the other Slippery Rock, both after 
the stream of that name. The original townships of Lawrence county were Big 
Beaver, Little Beaver, North Beaver, Mahoning, Neshannock, Pulaski, Shcnango, 
Slippery Rock, Wayne, Perry, and New Castle borough. Hickory was formed 
out of Neshannock in 1859 ; Pollock out of Shenango and Neshannock, in 1858; 
Scott by dividing Slippery Rock in 1853; Taylor out of Shenango and 
North Beaver the same year; Union out of Neshannock and Mahoning, 
in 1858; Wilmington borough, in 18 — ; Plain Grove out of Slippery Rock 
in 1855; and Washington out of Plain Grove and Scott in February 15, 
1859. Pollock township became the first ward of the city of New Castle at the 
time of the charter of that city The old borough of New Castle is the 
second ward. 



PHIIiADGLPHIA US. ASUGRICA 



NOVCSPBER 




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862 



LEBANON COUNTY. 




IWith acknowledgments to I. D. Rupp and George Ross, M.D.} 

EBANON county was formed from parts of Lancaster, but mainly 
from Dauphin county, by an act of Assembly, passed February 16, 
1813. By an act passed February 2, 1814, Thomas Smith, of 
Dauphin, Levi Hollingsworth, of Lebanon, and Jacob Hibshman, of 
Lancaster county, were appointed commissioners to run and mark the boundary 
lines between Lancaster, Lebanon, and Dauphin counties. 

The agricultural resources of Lebanon from her well cultivated farms are 
estimated at over three 
million dollars in value an- 
nuall3^ The surplus pro- 
duce finds an ample market 
in the coal regions of 
Schuylkill. The agricul- 
tural skill of the county 
has all that German indus- 
try and perseverance can 
give it — there is no higher 
encomium for it. Nowhere 
in the United States are 
the farms in such highly 
improved condition. Barns, 
almost like castles in their 
magnitude, and magnificent 
in their beauty and adorn- 
ment, out-baildings, fences, 
etc., all show the same dis- 
regard of expense, and on 
many the barn alone will 
far exceed, in expense and 

attractions, the entire establishment of a well-to-do New York or New England 
farmer. Orchards and meadows show the same thrift and prosperity. 

It is, however, as a producer of iron that Lebanon county stands among the 
foremost. At Cornwall is found the most remarkable and valuable body of iron 
ore in the world. It consists of three hills of solid ore, called respectively the 
Big Hill, Middle Hill, and Grassy Hill, better known abroad as the Cornwall ore 
banks. Big Hill is over four hundred feet high, and the base covers more than 
forty acres. In shape it is like a cone, and around its sloping sides a spiral 
railway has been constructed, ascending to the summit on a grade of two himdred 
feet to the mile. The ore is mined in breasts, along which the cars are backed, 

863 




■^"-^Jtri^^^t^ Ccfc 



LEBANON COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LEBANON. 



864 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



and the ore shoveled into thera. There are no shafts sunk as in minins: coal, but 
all the work is done in daylight, and in the open air. For many years the several 
owners of these ore hills mined just as much as each one needed to supply his 
furnaces, but Avith the growth of the trade, and the construction of numerous 
furnaces in all parts of the State, came a demand for this ore. The ore is a 
mngnetic oxide, containing a great deal of iron pyrites which, under atmospheric 
influences, changes into a soluble sulphate, and is washed away by the rain. The 
nearer it lies to the surface the freer it is of sulphur. Middle Hill is about two 
hundred j'ards from the Big Hill, and has an altitude of two hundred feet above 
the water level, and covers about thirty-five acres. The ore is the same as that 

mined at Big Hill. This hill 
shows the most perceptible 
impression made by 3'ears of 
steady mining, though amid 
the surrounding mass it al- 
most escapes notice. It has 
been constantly worked for a 
period ante-dating the Revo- 
lution. In the days of 1716 
cannon and munitions of war 
were furnished the colonists 
by the proprietors of Corn? 
wall. The Grassy Hill lies 
south-west of the Middle Hill, 
about one hundred 3'ards 
away. It has been worked 
for more than twenty years. 
This hill is about one hun- 
dred and fifty feet high, and 
covers thirty acres. Exami- 
nations have been made to 
ascertain to what depth these 
great bodies of iron ore ex- 
From their appearance the supply 




CORNWAIiL, MINES, MIDDLE HILL, THROUGH CUT. 

[From a Photograph by J. H. Keim] 



tend, but that has not 3^et been determined 

would seem to be inexhaustible for centuries yet to come. 

With such immense bodies of iron, the establishments for their conversion 
into metal located around them have made a reputation unequaled by any in the 
country. The famous charcoal furnace, the oldest in existence, which has sup- 
plied the iron trade for so many years, is still in blast. It was this furnace which 
supplied the iron for the cannon and ball made in the daj's of the Revolution. 
The old anthracite furnaces have been in continuous blast for a period of more 
than twenty-five years. The furnaces recently built, and especially Bird Cole- 
man, modeled and constructed by A. Wilhelm, Esq., the attorney of the Coleman 
hoirs since 1857, is the most admirably equipped furnace in the world. It is the 
wonder and admiration of the visitor. Belonging to this vast estate are no less 
than eight furnaces, nearl}^ all of which are in blast. The entire Cornwall estate, 
its huge hills of valuable ore, its iron producing establishments, its magnificent 



LEBANON COUN'rY. S65 

farms and improved stock, are unequaled in the world, and arc far more worthy a 
visit than famed Niagara. Other iron furnaces have been constructed in different 
parts of the count}', some of which, particularly the Lebanon furnaces owned by 
Hon. G. Dawson Coleman, are justl}'- celebrated. Rapidly the count}' has been 
developing, and the next decade will show the marked progress of Lebanon 
county in population, wealth, and material resources. 

The first settlements made within the present limits of the county, in the 
western part, were in Derry township, by Scotch-Irish. Derry was located prior 
to 1720. About three-fourths of the county was originally settled by Germans, 
some of whom had come to New York in 1710 and 1711, and removed in 1723- 
1729 to Tulpehocken and Quitapahilla; othei's emigrated from Germany and set- 
tled in the eastern part of Lebanon county, extending their settlements westward 
into Dauphin county. In August, 1729, some seventy-five families, Palatines, 
arrived in Philadelphia, most of whom settled on the Quitapahilla. There was 
an early settlement of German Jews in the neighborhood of Sheafferstown. 
They were so numerous at one time as to to have a synagogue and a rabbi, a 
doctor of the law, to read the Scriptures to them. As early as 1732 they had a 
cemetery, or necropolis, around which there was a substantial wall built, nearly 
the whole of which is yet standing. The cement or mortar used must have been 
very adhesive, made of a larger proportion of lime than is usually taken, for it 
is even now as compact and solid as limestone. The cemetery is about half a 
.mile south of Sheafferstown, one hundred yards east of the Lancaster road. A 
few hundi'ed yards south is Thurm-Berg, or Tower' Hill, an elevated point on 
which the famous Baron Stiegel erected a castle or tower. The one at Sheaffers- 
town, like that at Manheim, was mounted with cannon, for the express purpose 
of firing a salute when he made his appearance at either place. Residing princi- 
pally at Philadelphia, he occasionally invited his friends there into the country 
with him, to enjoy his baronial hospitality. 

The incidents of border and Indian wars, incursions, and massacres, are so 
completely merged in the sketch of the adjoining counties, that not much of 
interest, separately considered, remains to be noticed. Little, indeed, has been 
preserved, by tradition, or record, of the Indian incursions into the parts 
embraced within the present limits of the county. We shall only give such 
incidents as are of undoubted authenticit3^ In August, 1757, John Andrew's 
wife, going to a neighbor's house, was surprised by six Indians, had her horse 
shot under her, and she and her child carried off. At the same time, in Bethel 
township, as John Winklebach's two sons, and Joseph Fischbach, a soldier in 
the pa}'' of the Province, went out about sunrise to bring in the cows, they were 
fired upon by about fifteen Indians. The two lads were killed ; one of them 
was scalped; the other got into the house before he died, and the soldier was 
wounded in the head. The same morning, about seven o'clock, two miles below 
Manada Gap, as Thomas McGuire's son was bringing some cows out of a field, a 
little way from the house, he was pursued by two Indians and narrowly escaped. 
Leonard Long's son, while ploughing, was killed and scalped. On the other 
side of the fence, Leonard Miller's son was ploughing, who was made prisoner. 
Near Benjamin Clarke's house, four miles from the mill, two savages surprised 
Isaac Williams' wife and the widow Williams, killed and scalped the former in 



866 HISTO BY OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

sight of the house, she having run a little wa^^ after three balls had been shot 
through her body. The latter they carried away captive. 

A letter from Hanover township, dated October 1, 1757, says that the child- 
ren mentioned as having been carried ofl' from Lebanon township, belonging to 
Peter Wampler, were going to the meadows for a load of hay, and that the 
Indians took from the house what they thought most valuable, and destroj'cd 
what ihey could not take away, to a considerable value. On the 19th of June, 
1757, nineteen persons were killed in a mill on the Quitapahilla creek. In Sep- 
tember, Christian Banner and his son, a lad of twelve j^ears, who went out into 
the Conewago hills to cut timber, were attacked by the Indians. The father 
was shot and scalped, the son taken captive, carried off to Canada, and kept there 
till the close of the war, when he made his escape. Following these and other 
outrages by the ruthless savages, many of the inhabitants fled to escape being 
murdered. When the danger was over nearly all returned to their desolated 
homes. Some few sought other localities for a settlement. 

A brief description of the two forts erected during the French and Indian wars, 
within the present limits of Lebanon county, may prove acceptable as interesting: 

Fort Henry was near the base of the Blue mountain, erected in 1756, at a 
pass through the mountain called Tolihaio or Hole. This fort was erected by 
Captain Christian Busse, by order of Governor Morris, who named it Fort 
Henry. Governor Morris ordered, in January, 1756, Captain Busse "to proceed 
as soon as possible with the company under his command to the gap where the 
Swatara comes through the mountains, and in some convenient place there to 
erect a fort, of the form and dimensions herewith given, unless you shall judge 
the stockade already erected there conveniently placed, in which case you will 
take possession, and make such additional work as you may think necessary to 
make it sufficiently strong." During 1757 and 1758 Fort Henry was well garri- 
soned by eighty or ninety soldiers doing duty there. 

Fort Smith was located, about 1738, three-fourths of a mile north of Union 
Forge. The land on which the fort was erected was owned several years since by 
the widow Shuey. It is related that on a certain occasion the Indians appeared 
in great numbers, and nearly all the neighbors being in their own houses, Peter 
Heydrich gave immediate notice to the people to resort to the fort, and in the 
meantime took his drum and fife, marched himself in the woods, now beating the 
drum, then blowing the fife, giving at the same time the word of command as if he 
was giving it to a large force, though he was the only one to obey orders. By 
this sleight of war, it is stated, he succeeded to keep the savages away, and col- 
lected his neighbors securely. 

In the war of Independence many of the citizens of Lebanon county were in 
the ranks of the patriot army. Immense supplies were sent from this locality for 
the brave men at Yalley Forge and Whitemarsh. After tlie battle of Trenton a 
large number of Hessians were confined in the Lutheran church at Lebanon. 
Among the principal men at tliat eventful period were Colonel Greenawalt and 
Major Philip Marsteller. The latter served as commissary of purchases almost 
during the entire war — a position bj' no means a sinecure. He was active and 
energetic, and his correspondence, much of which is found in the records of the 
Revolution, is highly creditable. 



*" 



LEBANON COUNTY. 



.867 



As early as 1762 David Rittenhouse and Rev. William Smith, D.D., were 
appointed commissioners to examine into the feasibility of a canal to connect the 
Schuylkill river with the Swatara running into the Susquehanna. The events 
preceding and connected with the war for Independence caused public interest to 
die away, and nothing more was done until the year 1794, when operations were 
commenced and pushed with more or less vigor, and frequent cessations, in spite 
of discouragements, until 1837, when the Union canal was completed, and the 
first boat, the "Alpha" of Tulpehocken, passed Lebanon on its way westward. 
Although the construction of the different railroads in the county have in a great 
measure superseded this maritime highway, yet it can in truth be said that the 
projectors of the Union canal have done more to develop the resources, and add 
to the material prosperity of Lebanon county, than all other enterprises. The 
main line of the canal is seventy-nine miles in length, with a navigable feeder of 
seven miles. It extends from Middletown on the Susquehanna to Reading, where 
it connects with the Schuyl- 
kill canal. 

Lebanon boroi^h was 
laid out in the j^ear 1750, 
by George Steitz, by whose 
name the village was known 
for manj^ years, especially 
among the German settlers. 
In the Provincial records 
the town is designated, as 
early as 1759, "Lebanon 
town, in Lancaster count}^ 
and Lebanon township." 
The name is a scriptural 
one. It was incorporated 
as a borough, February 20, 
1821. Upon the comple- 
tion of the Union canal a town began to be built along its line, which was 
called North Lebanon. Both towns prospered and grew in friendly rivalry, 
and when, in 1856-7, the Lebanon Valley railroad was completed, the line of that 
road being located between the two towns, and a depot erected thereon, improve- 
ments and manufacturing establishments sprung up, covering the intervening 
space. The two towns thus having grown together, were consolidated in 1869. 
Beside the communications referred to, Lebanon is connected with the coal fields 
of Schuylkill by a railroad to Tremont, while there are in contemplation a con- 
nection in the near future with roads in Lancaster county towards the north, 
and by the South Mountain railroad with the south. With these various 
communications, and her great industries, Lebanon is becoming one of the 
most important cities of Penns^'lvania. 

Four miles north-west of Lebanon stands the Hill Church (Berg-Kirche), 
built in 1733, and in which Lutherans and German Reformed worshipped jointly. 
"Im Jahr, 1754, und spaeter," says Rev. George Lochman, "zur zeit die 
Indianer noch haeufige Einfaelle machten, man nahm oefters die Flinte mit zur 




BERG-KIKCHE"— HILIi CHURCH— LEBANON COUNTY. 
[From a Photograph bj J. H. Keim.] 



868 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Kirche am sich unterwegs gegen die Indianern zu vcrthei digen, und wenn man 
GottSsdienst liielte, warden oefters Maenner mit gcla denen Gewehreii aiif die 
Waclit gestellt." [In the year 1*754, and later, when the Indians made frequent 
incursions, people often took guns witli them to defend themselves against the 
Indians. During divine service, men with loaded guns were placed at the door 
as sentinels.] 

On the outskirts of Lebanon, at the Moravian station called Hebron, stands, 
quite near to their burial ground, an old stone church, built in 1750. The first 
meeting-house was a log one, erected in 1741, and in which a Moravian s^-nod 
was held by Bishop John Nitschman, in 1751. But as the Indians were trouble- 
some, the stone one was built as a place of refuge in times of danger. The 
organization Avas first called the " Congregation at the Qaitapahilla," and 
afterwards Hebron. The lower story of the church contained four rooms and two 
kitchens, each kitchen having a huge fire-place and chimney. The second story 
contained the audience room, with the pulpit on the south side, in the centre, the 
males sitting- on the west side and females on the east. Vestibules were at both 
ends, on the first and second stories, from which stairs ascended to the garret, 
it being built precisely like a dwelling house, to be used by two families, the 
second floor being used as a church, the minister using part of it as a parsonage, 
and keeping school in it too. After the battle of Trenton many of the Hessian 
prisoners were brought here, and the building was used as a military prison and 
hospital. It Was used for church services until 1848, at which time the new 
church was built at Lebanon. It was then abandoned. It is now used for a barn. 

Annville is a thriving village five miles west of Lebanon. It was laid out 
about 1765 by Messrs. Miller, Ulrich, and Reigel. It was settled perhaps twenty 
years previously. For many years it was called Millerstown, after one of the 
original owners. Near the railroad depot is yet standing an old house which was 
used during the Indian troubles as a fort, to which the settlers took refuge in 
times of danger. Lebanon Valley college, under the auspices of the United 
Brethren, is located here. It is in a prosperous and flourishing condition, and 
promises to take a high rank among the many educational institutions of the 

State. 

Jonestown was laid out in 1761, by William Jones, on part of one hundred 
and fourteen acres of land granted him by the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania 
Lots were sold with the proviso that purchasers, or their heirs or assigns, " shall 
make, erect, and build upon said lot or lots, one substantial dwelling-house, of 
the dimensions of 20 feet by 16 at least, with a good chimney of brick or stone, 
to be laid in or built with lime and sand, to be finished and tenantable on or 
before the 20th day of October, 1762." The yearly quit-rent of lots of one-half 
acre was seven shillings and sixpence sterling. The precaution as to the mate- 
rial used in building the chimney was necessary, as the general practice was to 
make chimneys of slabs of wood daubed over both inside and out with mortar 
made of clay. The town was originally called Williamstown. It is situated in 
the forks of the Big and Little Swatara, one half-mile above the junction, twenty- 
four miles east of Harrisburg, five miles north of Lebanon, on elevated ground, 
aflTording a picturesque view of the country south of the Blue mountain, six 
miles north of the borough. The town was incorporated August 20, 1870. One 



LEBANON COUNTY. 869 

mile south of Jonestown is an eminence called Bunker hill, the highest point of 
the ti-ap-rock hills. Upwards of thirty years ago, Judge Rank, on whose farm 
it is, suggested Bunker hill as a desirable point on which to erect a suitable 
edifice as an academy or school of advanced standing, believing as he did, 
greatly needed for the neighborhood. In August, 1858, the corner-stone of 
Swatara Collegiate Institute was laid,, not on Bunker hill, but on an eminence 
immediately north of Jonestown. The institute was soon organized, witli I. D. 
Rupp as principal, until 1860. In the spring of 1875 the building was 
destroyed by lire. It was rebuilt, however, and is now owned and conducted 
by Rev. E. J. Koons, A.M., principal. Jonestown, by its position at the inter- 
section of the South Mountain with the Lebanon and Tremont railroad, is des- 
tined to become a town of considerable importance. 

Myerstown, on the Lebanon Valley railroad, seven miles from the county- 
seat, was laid out by Isaac Myers, about 1Y68. It is situated in one of the most 
enchanting valleys of Pennsylvania, near to mountain scenery of great celebrity, 
in the midst of a region unsurpassed for fertility of soil. Palatinate College, 
chartered in 1868, invested with full collegiate powers, is located here. It is 
under the auspices of the Lebanon classis of the Reformed Church. Rev. 
George W. Aughinbaugh, D.D., is president of the facult3^ The college is 
highly prosperous. 

Palmyra, called in early days Palmstown, i^ ten miles west of Lebanon. It 
is an old settled town, and about the commencement of the century was consi- 
dered a thriving village. Owing to its location on the line of the Lebanon 
Valley railroad, it has recently taken a fresh start, and may in time again 
become an important town, situated as it is in the midst of a fine agricultural 
region. The Downington, Ephrata, and Harrisburg turnpike, once a great 
thoroughfare, passes through the town. On this road, three miles south, is 
Campbellstown, settled in the past century. The early pioneers in this section 
were Scotch-Irish — the Campbells, Semples, Pattersons, Mitchells, and others, 
few of whose descendants remain. 

Sheafferstown was laid out about the year 1741, by Mr. Sheaffer, after 
whom it was named. The inhabitants are of German descent. The town is 
pleasantly situated in a highl}'' cultivated region. It contains an academ}'. 

Fredericksburg, formerl^^ known by the name of Nassau, and Stumpstown, 
after the notorious Frederick Stump, who laid out the town in 1Y58, is situated 
ten miles north-east of Lebanon, on the line of the South Mountain railroad. 
In 1783 it contained twenty houses. In 1827 it was almost wholly destroyed by 
fire. Newmanstown, in Mill Creek township, is a thriving village. 

Organization of Townships. — North and South Annville were originally 
both included in one township, named Annville until 1845, when they were 
formed by its division. Annville was formed at the time of the organization of 
the county in 1813, from portions of Londonderry and Lebanon. The Scotch- 
Irish were the first settlers in the eastern part of the township, which then 
belonged to Lebanon. 

Cold Spring lies between the Blue or Kittatinny or Second mountain on 
the south, and the Fourth mountain on the north, with the Third mountain in 
the centre. It was established by act of Legislature in 1853, from a portion of 



870 HIS TO BY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Union and East Hanover townships. In Cold Spring township is a celebrated 
cold spring, from which the township takes its name. 

East Hanover was settled by Scotch-Irish, and was a part of Hanover town- 
ship, Dauphin county. It originally included Union, Cold Spring, and a part of 
Swatara,in Lebanon county. Hanover was erected about 1736-'7, from Peshtank 
or Paxton, and for several succeeding j'^ears was divided into the East and West 
End. The latter is mostly embraced at present in the limits of Lebanon county. 

Heidelberg originally comprised, beside the present township, the three 
Heidelbergs in Berks county, and part of Jackson township in Lebanon county. 
The first division was made at the time of the formation of Berks count}' in 1152, 
when the larger part was incorporated with that count3^ 

Bethel was, until 1739, a portion of Leban(3n township, and when it was cut 
off' included much more territory than at present. It has since been reduced, in 
1752, b}'^ the taking off" of Bethel, Berks county, and again in 1813, by the 
taking off" of what now forms a portion of Jackson and Swatara. Among the 
early settlers in this locality were Grove, Oberholtzer, Sherrick, Weaver, and 
Schueberly. 

North and South Lebanon and Cornwall were originally settled by 
Germans, about 1720, east of where Hebron now stands; and in 1723 several 
families had located within the eastern limits of North and South Lebanon, as 
they at present extend. • 

Londonderry was formed from Deny township, which was organized in 
1729. As then bounded, it embraced all within its limits known as the West 
End and the East End of Derry, or as subsequently called, Deny and London- 
derry. Derry was settled prior to 1720. 

Swatara was originally included in Bethel and Hanover townships. Its 
boundaries have been changed since 1830, by erecting Union township. The 
surface is diversified ; the north and south are hilly, and the central part level. 
Some of the soil is limestone, but the greater portion is gravel and slate, yet 
generally well improved. It is well supplied with water power, mills, etc. The 
Big Swatara is the dividing line between Swatara and Union townships their 
entire length. The Little Swatara crosses the townships a little south of the 
borough of Jonestown, and in its course across the township it propels two 
grist-mills and one saw mill. 

Union became a separate township organization in 1842. Since then its 
boundaries, which then extended to the northern limit of the county, have been 
reduced by the erection of Cold Spring. 

Mill Creek was formed from Jackson and Heidelberg, in 1844. The Muel- 
bach, or Mill Creek, a beautiful stream of considerable size which flows through 
from west to east, gave to the township its name. On this stream, as early as 
1720, the Dunkards had a settlement. Besides the Mill creek there are several 
other streams of smaller size. The South mountain, or Conewago hills, are in 
the southern part of the township. 

Jackson township was one of the very first settled in the present county of 
Lebanon. It was formed from a part of Bethel and Heidelberg, in 1813. 



y 



LEHIGH COUNTY. 



[ With acknowledgments to B. K. Buehrle and E. D. Leisenring, Allenlown.'\ 




EHIGH county was separated from Northampton, by act of Assem- 
bly, March 6th, 1812. The act defines the boundaries as follows: 
"That all that part of Northampton county, lying and being within 
the limits of the following townships, to wit: the townships of 
Lynn, Heidelberg, Lowhill, Weissenburg, Macungie, Upper Milford, South 
Whitehall, Northampton, Salisbury, Upper Saucon, and that part of Hanover 
township within the following bounds, to wit : beginning at Bethlehem line where 
it joins the Lehigh river, thence along the said line until it intersects the road 
leading to Allen township line, thence along the line of Allen township, west- 
wardly to the 
Lehigh, shall 
be, and the same 
are hereby, ac- 
cording to their 
present lines, 
declared to be 
erected into a 
county to be 
henceforth 
called Le- 
high." This 
act also autho- 
rized the Gov- 
ernor to ap- 
point three dis- 
creet and disin- 
terested per- 




sons, not rCSl- LEHIGH COUNTY COURT HOUSE, ALLENTOWN. 

dent in the 

county of Northampton, nor holding property therein, to fix upon a proper and 
convenient site for a court house, prison, and county offices, within the county of 
Lehigh, as near the centre as the situation thereof will admit, and to report to the 
Governor, in writing, July 1st, 1812. The court house was built in 1814; the 
jail had been previously built. 

The first court held in the county met at the public house kept by George 
Savitz. The following is an extract from the court records: "At a court ot 
General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, begun and held at the borough of North- 
ampton, for the county of Lehigh, on the 21st day of December, before the 
Hon. Robert Porter, president, and the Hon. Peter Rhoads and Jonas Harzell, 
Esqs., associate judges of said court, at the November terra, 1813, November 30, 

871 



872 HIS TOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

court met at the house of George Savitz, adjourned frona thence to meet in .the 
upper story of the county prison, prepared by the commissioners for holding 
courts of the county of Lehigh, until the court house be erected." 

Lehigh county is bounded on the north-west b}^ the Blue (Kittatinnj^ or North) 
mountains, separating it from Schuylkill and Carbon counties ; north-east by 
Northampton ; south-east by Bucks, and south-west by Montgomery and Berks 
counties. Length, 28 miles ; width, 15 ; area, 389 square miles, or 249,860 acres, 
whereof 181,097 acres were improved in 1870, supporting a population of 56,266. 
Settled originally by Germans from the Palatinate, their language, now known 
as Pennsylvania German, is still largely used, especially in the home circle, while 
the high German is used in the newspapers and in the pulpit of the more nume- 
rous denominations. The people (as might be expected, considering their origin) 
are noted for their industry, economy, and frugality. Prosperity and thrift are 
found on every hand, and the soil is cultivated in the most approved manner. 

The physical features and geol -'cal character of Lehigh county are similar 
to those of other counties which i.. jliiefly within the Kittatinny, Cumberland, 
or Great valley. The surface is generally undulating, although in some places 
rugged and somewhat broken. In the south-east are the hills and ridges 
belonging to the Soutli mountain range (Blue ridge), of primary (protozoic or 
Laurentian) formation, consisting largel}'^ of Potsdam sandstone, and abounding 
in crystalline iron ore, much of it magnetic. North of this is a broad belt of 
lower Silurian limestone, and then the Hudson and Utica or dark slate, which 
extends to the sandstone of the Blue (Kittatinny or North) mountains, on the 
northern boundar3^ The climate is healthy and temperate. The whole county 
is well watered by many rills and creeks flowing into the Lehigh river, which, 
for the most part, bounds it on the east. The valley is highl}'^ cultivated, and 
the hills and mountains are covered with forests. No scenery can excel this 
earthl^'^ paradise, when from the summit of the Blue ridge, or North mountain, 
the spectator looks down upon the broad expanse of field, meadow, and wood 
land, dotted with farm-houses and barns, interspersed with thriving towns and 
villages, and enlivened by the hum of machinery, the rolling of the trains on 
fi.ye different railroads, and the smoke arising from the stacks of numerous 
furnaces. 

The Lehigh river (called by the Delaware Indians Le-chau-wiech-ink, Le- 
chau-wek-ink, or Le-chau-wdek-i, compounded of Lechauwiechen, the fork of a 
road, and ink, the local suffix, signifying " at the place of the forks of the road," 
where there is a fork of the road, and shortened by the German settlers in 
Lecha, a name in current use at the present day), rises in Wayne, Pike, and 
Luzerne counties, with its various branches. Near Stoddartsville, Monroe 
county, the stream receives several mountain creeks, and continuing its down- 
ward and somewhat serpentine course, it maj'' appropriately be called a " moun- 
tain torrent." 

The Lehigh Water Gap (called by the Monsey Indians Buch-ka-buch-ka, 
which, according to Heckewelder, the historian, implies " mountains butting 
opposite to each other), so named from the river Lehigh, which here steals its 
wa}^ through the Kittatinny or Blue mountains, the dividing line between 
Carbon count}' and Lehigh and Northampton counties, presents to the spectator 



LEHIGH COUNTY. 873 

one of the most picturesque prospects in Pennsjdvania. From "the Gap " to 
Easton tlie river falls about one hundred feet, and forms the eastern boundary 
of the county, until at Catasauqua, below Allentown, it turns to the eastward, flows 
into Northampton count}', and emj^ties into the Delaware, at Easton. 

Saucon (corrupted from sak-unk, compounded of sa-ku-wit, the mouth of a 
creek, and ink, the local suffix, and signifying at the place of the creek's outlet, 
or where the creek debouches) is the name of a creek which rises in Upper 
Milford township, and running north-easterly, falls into the Lehigh river, two 
miles below Bethlehem. 

Jordan creek, so called by the fii'st settlers, after the Jordan, in Palestine, 
rises at the foot of the Blue or North mountains, running a serpentine course to 
the south-east, falls into the Little Lehigh, about one hundi'ed rods from its 
mouth. 

The Little Lehigh rises in Berks county, running a south-east course, it 
receives the waters of Cedar and Jordan creeks. It is a beautiful stream, 
affording water power to several mills ; it falls into the Lehigh at Allentown. 
Cedar creek, which empties into the Little Lehigh near Allentown, is one of the 
lovelist streams in the State, clear as crystal, always full, never overflowing 
(having for its source a spring so large as at once to afford water power sufficient 
to drive a mill), it winds for two miles (turning in its course some four or five 
mills) through a meadow that is a perfect picture. Besides those named above, 
the following may be mentioned : Trout, Coplay, or Balliets, Crowner's run, 
Sinking run. Cavern spring, Antelawny, Lyon run, Willson's run, Schantz's 
spring, and Perkiomen creek. Coplay is the name of a creek empting into 
the Lehigh near Catasauqua. The proper and original Indian name for this 
stream is Copeechan, signifying " that which runs evenly," or, a " fine running 
stream." 

As an agricultural county, there is none superior in the State, and especially 
do the rich townships of Saucon, the two Macungies, three Whitehalls, Salisbury, 
and Hanover excel in fertility of soil. Wheat and rye are the staple produc- 
tions ; the other cereals are Indian corn, oats, barley, and buckwheat. The total 
estimated value of all farm productions, including improvements and additions 
to stock, according to census of 1870, amounted to 3,085,841 dollars. 

The mineral resources of Lehigh are principally vast deposits of iron ore, rich 
and valuable beds of zinc, copper, manganese, cement, and slate. Iron ore is 
found in abundance in the Whitehalls, at Ironton, the Macungies, at Trexlertown 
(where it is found so highly charged with sulphuret of iron as to be used for the 
manufacture of copperas), the Milfords, Hanover, and Salisbury, in veins from 
four to forty feet thick, and so near the surface as to be mined with the greatest 
ease. It is of different kinds, such as rock, pipe, shell, kidnej^, and black and 
red sheer, yielding from seventy to ninety j^er cent. In 1370 there were twenty- 
three mining establishments, employing three hundred and eighty-three hands 
with a capital of $223,447, producing material to the value of $384,168. 

In Upper Saucon township, at Friedensville, are the famous zinc mines, 
believed to be practically inexhaustible and surpassed by few in the world. They 
have been worked since 1853, though discovered in 1845. The ore found here is 
mostly silicate of zinc, though great masses of carbonate of zinc also occur, both 



874 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

of most excellent quality. Geological observations and comparison with old 
European mines indicate that the ore continues, in all probability, to a depth of 
several hundred feet. These mines employ twelve engines (aggregating six 
hundred and seventy-six horse-power), among them probably the largest one in 
the country; four hundred hands, capital $400,000, producing material annually 
to the value of about $300,000. 

Hydraulic cement is manufactured from the lower beds of magnesian lime- 
stone in the neighborhood of Siegfried's Bridge and Coplay. These works have 
been in successful operation for a number of years, and the cement, which is 
manufactured here, is said to be equal in every respect to the celebrated Rose- 
dale cement. 

Slate for roofing purposes, for school slates, for mantels, and for ornamental 
purposes, is found in various parts of the county, and large quarries are 
worked. The quarries in the neighborhood of Slatington, worked since 1849, 
are, without doubt, the largest, and furnish the finest quality of slate in the 
States. 

Blue limestone is found in all parts of the county, and is extensively used in 
fertilizing the soil and in the manufacture of iron in the numerous furnaces 
found witliin its borders. 

Excellent sandstone for building purposes are quarried in the mountains 
south-east of Allentown. 

ft 

The early history of Lehigh county is contained in that of Northampton, and 
among the voluminous records relating to the latter territory, the descriptions 
are frequently vague as to the proper location of certain incidents. The greater 
proportion of the early settlers within the present limits of the county were 
Germans. The Moravians principally settled around Emaus, while the 
Schwenkfelders spread into the lower portion of the county adjoining 
Montgomery. At present the population is of German descent. There were few 
if any settlements prior to 1123, although it is probable that some of the 
Dunkards, Mennonites, and Amish, who settled at and near Falkner swamp, in 
the present Montgomery county, had in 1708-1715 crossed over upon the lands 
now in Upper Milford township. In 1752, when the county of Northampton was 
formed, it contained a population within its borders of nearly six thousand, over 
one-third of which was in Lehigh. 

From 1755 to 1763, during the French and Indian war, Lehigh, with other 
frontier counties, was invaded by marauding parties of Indians, who murdered 
indiscriminately men, women, and children, and carried some off into captivity. 
In 1755 and '56, the greater part of the inhabitants of Heidelberg township and 
some other places fled to Bethlehem for refuge, to escape being inhumanly 
butchered by the savages. On the 14th of February, 1756, the Indians surprised 
the inmates of the house of Frederick Reichelsderfer, shot two of his children, 
set his house and barn on fire, burned up all his grain and cattle. Thence they 
went to the house of Jacob Gerhart, there killed one man, two women, and six 
children. Two of the children had slipped under the bed, one was burned, the 
other escaped, ran a mile to get to the people. On the 24th of March following, 
the Indians killed George Seisloff and wife, also a young man of twenty, a boy 
of twelve, and a young girl of fourteen years, four of whom were scalped. 



LEHIGH COUNTY. 815 

The following petition shows the condition in which the inhabitants of a 
portion of Lehigh were placed, in these da^'S of horror and disma}', by reason of 
Indian incursions : 

" A petition of the back inhabitants of Lehigh township, situate between 
Allentown and the Blue mountains in Northampton county, to the honorable 
Governor and General Assembly, October 5, 115t, most humbly showeth : That 
the said township for a few years past has been, to your knowledge, ruined and 
destroyed by the murdering Indians. That since the late peace, the said inhabi- 
tants returned to their several and respective places of abode, and some of them 
have rebuilt their houses and out-houses which were burnt; that since the new 
murders were committed, some of the said inhabitants deserted their plantations 
and fled to the more improved parts of the Province, where they remain ; that if 
your petitioners get no assistance from you they will be reduced to poverty ; 
that the district in which your petitioners dwell contains twenty miles in length 
and eight miles in breadth, which is too extensive for them to defend without 
you assist with some forces ; that they apprehend it to be necessary for their 
defence that a road be cut along the Blue mountains through Lehigh township, 
and that several guai'd-houses be built along this said road, which maybe accom- 
plished with very little cost; that there are many inhabitants in said township 
who have neither arms nor ammunition, and who are too poor to provide them- 
selves therewith ; that several Indians keep lurking about the Blue mountains 
who pretend to be friends, and as several people have lately been captivated 
thereabouts, we presume it must be by them. May it, therefore, please your 
Honours to take our deplorable condition in consideration, and grant us men 
and ammunition, that we may thereby be enabled to defend ourselves, our pro- 
perty, and the lives of our wives and children, or grant such other relief, in the 
premises, as to you shall seem meet, and your petitioners, as in duty bound, will 
ever pray." 

The petitioners suggested to the Governor and Assembly that several guard- 
houses be built. Not long afterwards Fort Everett was erected, which appears to 
have been about twenty-tive miles from Fort William, in Berks county. 

On the 8th of October, 1763, some fifteen or twenty Indians who had attacked 
the house of John S teuton made an attack upon the house of Nicholas Marks, 
Whitehall township. A detailed account of the attack is here given : " Early this 
morning, October 9th, came Nicholas Marks (to Bethlehem) and brought the fol- 
lowing account, viz. : That yestei'da}^, just after dinner, as he opened his door, 
he saw an Indian standing about two poles from the house, who endeavored to 
shoot at him ; but Marks shutting the door immediately, the fellow slipped into 
a cellar close to the house. After this, Marks went out of the house with his 
wife and an apprentice boy, in order to make their escape, and saw another 
Indian standing behind a tree, who tried to shoot at them, but his gun missed. 
They then saw the third Indian running through the orchard, upon which they 
made the best of their way, about two miles off, to Adam Deshler's place, where 
twentv men in arms were assembled, who went first to the house of John Jacob 
Mickley, where they found a boy and a girl lying dead, and the girl scalped. 
From thence they went to Schneider's and Marks' plantations, and found both 
houses on fire, and a horse tied to the bushes. They also found Schneider, hia 



876 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 




wife, and three cliilclren dead in the field, the man and woman scalped ; and on 
going further, they found twoothers wounded, one of them was scalped. After 
this they returned with the two wounded girls to Deshler's, and saw a woman, 
Jacob Alleman's wife, with a child, lying dead in the road, and scalped. The 
number of Indians, they think, was about fifteen or twenty. I cannot describe 
tlie deplorable condition this poor country is in ; most of the inhabitants of 
Allentown and other places are fled from their habitations. Many are in Bethle- 
hem and other places of the brethren, and others farther down the country. I 

cannot ascertain the 
number killed, but 
think it exceeds 
twenty." Adam 
Deshler lived on the 
north bank of Coplay 
creek, in a stone 
house built by him in 
the 3^ear 1760, which 
is yet in a good state 
of preservation and 
inhabited. Adjoining 
this house on the 
north was a large 
frame building, suffi- 
ciently large for quar- 
tering twenty soldiers 
and for military stores. This place was, during Indian troubles, a kind of 
military post. A representation of this house of defence has been furnished us 
by Rev. W. C. Reichel. 

From tills period onward few outrages were committed by the Indians, owing 
to causes previously alluded to, and the country began to fill in by immigration, 
especially from the lower counties. When independence was declared, the 
people of this locality united in hailing the glorious event. Immediately, 
through the exertions of David Deshler and others, associations were promptly 
organized. Few held back for conscience-sake. .The courage, fortitude, and 
self-denial of the German inhabitants of Lehigh were not surpassed in that 
emergency. Surrounding dangers, difficulties, and provocations were no 
obstacles to their unconquerable love of freedom and determined resistance to 
tyranny. There was no battle fought in Lehigh county, as has been errone- 
ously stated, and the enem}^ never invaded its territory. From the Bethlehem 
Diary we learn that upon the refusal of the citizens there to have the laboratory 
for the manufacture of cartridges at that place, it was removed to Allentown. 

The quota of drafted men in Northampton county, as the proportion of the 
ten thousand men for the Flying Camp, as it was called, was three hundred 
and forty-six men; of this number about one hundred and twenty came from that 
portion of the county embraced in the present limits of Lehigh county. We 
learn from the Bethlehem Diary that, on the 30th of July, 1776, "one hundred 
and twenty recruits from Allentown and vicinity passed through this place to 



11 



deshler's fort, LEHIGH COUNTY. 

[From a Pencil Sketch bj Rev. W. C. Reichel.] 



LEHIGH COUNTY. 877 

the ' Flying Camp in the Jerse^^s,' " and on the 10th of February, 1777, the Diary 
says, that, " for the past week, we have been informed of threats of some militia 
in the vicinity of Allentown, against us and our town." The threat, says Henry, 
we may suppose to have arisen from the Tory principles of many of the inhabi- 
tants of Bethlehem. The inhabitants of Lehigh county were not backward in 
showing their attachment to the principles of the Revolution. 

In the war of 1812-'! 4, the citizens of Lehigh were generally as prompt 
as those of other counties to offer their services at the call of their country, to 
march either to the northern frontier or elsewhere to fight in her cause. The 
following are the officers of a company of light dragoons : Peter Ruch, captain ; 
William Boas, first lieutenant ; George Keck, second lieutenant. 

In the Mexican war but few of the heroes hailed from Lehigh, yet there 
were about twelve or fifteen, among whom Andrew Yingling may be mentioned, 
as still wearing the bronze medal of the National Association of Veterans. 

In the war for the Union, " Little Lehigh" took a prominent part. Among 
the very first defenders of the Nation's Capital were the Allen Infantry, com- 
manded by Captain, afterwards Major, Yaeger, to which special reference has 
been already made. These were followed by Company I, of the First Regiment, 
bf which T. H. Good of Allentown was chosen lieutenant-colonel. On the 21st 
July, 1862, the 47th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Colonel T. H. Good, 
was mustered into service for three years. The greater portion of this 
entire regiment was composed of men from Lehigh. It had seen service, says 
Professor Bates, in seven of the Southern States, participated in the most exhaust- 
ing campaigns, marched more than twelve hundred miles, and made twelve voyages 
at sea. It was the only Pennsylvania regiment that participated in the Red 
River expedition, or that served in that department until after the surrender of 
Lee. After the disastrous battles on the Peninsula, the 128th Regiment was 
mustered into service. Companies D and G were composed of Lehigh county 
volunteers. This regiment participated in the battle of Antietam, where its 
brave colonel fell ; afterwards it was st:itioned along the Potomac, until shortly 
before the battle of Chancellorsville, in which it took part, and was severely 
handled, losing many in killed, wounded, and prisoners. The 176th Regiment, 
also mustered in in 1862, was sent to Charleston, S. C, where it was mostly on 
fatigue duty. In addition to these, there were large portions of the 5th, 27 Lh, 
38th, and 41st Regiments of militia from Lehigh. 

Allentown was called Northampton until 1800, subsequently Allentown 
until 1811, then incorporated as the borough of Northampton until 1838, when 
the present name was finally adopted. It was laid out by James Allen in 1762, 
and is one of Pennsylvania's most beautiful cities. It is mostly situated on 
a wide plateau, on the right bank of the Lehigh river, and commands a fine 
prospect of the surrounding country, so that few cities in the State can vie with 
it in beauty of situation and loveliness of surrounding scenery. The houses are 
mostly of brick, the streets are wide, crossing each other at right angles, and are 
kept scrupulously clean and in excellent condition. The large and beautiful 
gardens, laid out with great taste, and displaying in some instances remarkable 
liberality in the culture of flowers, shrubbery, and fruit trees, surprise and 
astonish the stranger. The city is well lighted with gas, provided with a good 



878 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

fire department, and supplied with the coolest of water from a spring within its 
limits. In fact, it presents an appearance of solid comfort and elegance rarely to 
be met in an inland city. Allentown has also great advantages for manufacturing 
purposes. Situated in the midst of a rich agricultural district, and surrounded by 
inexhaustible beds of iron, zinc, limestone, and cement, it is destined to bec( m« 
the centre of the manufacturing interests of the Lehigh valley. Excellent 
facilities for transportation are afforded by the Lehigh canal, the Lehigh Valley, 
Lehigh and Susquehanna, the East Penn. and the Perkiomen railroads, to all 
parts of the country. The principal manufacture is iron, of which probably 
one hundred thousand tons are produced annually. Besides furnaces for the 
manufacture of iron in the rough, there are foundries, rolling mills, and machine 
shops. Shoe, leather, and woolen goods are also largely manufactured. The 
tobacco and cigar trade is very extensive, and carriages and agricultural imple- 
ments are sent hence to all parts of the country. The city supports three daily 
(two English and one German) and six weekly (two English and four German) 
newspapers, and one German monthly Sunday-school paper. Probably no city 
in the country excels Allentown in school-room accommodations for those who 
attend its public schools. The buildings are models of architectural taste and 
convenience, and no expense has been spared in their erection. Their value is 
estimated at $400,000. Higher education is also provided for by the establish- 
ment of Muhlenburg College, under Lutheran, and Allentown Female College, 
under Reformed auspices ; these, together with the Business College and the 
Academy of Natural Science, Art, and Literature, including a museum and 
library, amply provide for the intellectual wants of the. people. Their religious 
wants are supplied in twenty churches belonging to nine or ten different denomi- 
nations. 

Catasauqua (signifying in the Indian language, " thirsty land ") originally 
called Craneville, derives its name from a creek flowing into the Lehigh at this 
place. It is a thriving town of about three thousand inhabitants. It was incor- 
porated as a borough in 1852. Its iron works, almost its only industry, are on a 
gigantic scale, and being located in the midst of a rich iron ore and limestone 
region, bid fair to enjoy continued prosperity. The town also enjoj-s a good 
reputation for general intelligence and good schools. 

Slatington, a thriving borough, received its present name about 1851, and 
owes its existence to the slate found in great abundance and of the best quality 
in its immediate vicinity. It is situated two miles below the Lehigh Water Gap, 
on the Lehigh Valley and the Berks County railroads, and is rapidly growing in 
sizie and importance. It was incorporated in 1864, with Robert McDowell as its 
chief burgess ; in 1370 it contained upwards of fifteen hundred inhabitants. 

Macunqie (signifying " the feeding place of bears "), formerl}^ called Millers- 
town, and incorporated as such in 1857, was laid out by Peter Miller about 1776. 
It is situated at the foot of the South mountain, on the East Pennsylvania rail- 
road, about nine miles from Allentown. 

Among other towns in the county there are the following : CorLAY or 
ScHREiBERS, ou the Lehigh river, five miles above Allentown, is of recent origin, 
but of rapid growth. The iron works of the Lehigh Valley Iron company are 
located here. Emaus is at the foot of the South mountain, five miles south-west 



LEHIGH COUNTY. 



879 



from Allentown, on.the East Penn. railroad. As early as 1H1 the Moravians 
organized a church here. The first house in which the}- worshipped had been 
erected in 1742. Fogelsville is nine miles from Allentown, at the junction of 
the Allentown and Millerstown road. It is situated in a fertile part of the 
county. HoKENDAUQUA is on the west bank of the Lehigh, a mile above 
Catasauqua. The village was laid out in 1855. It is tlie seat of the Thomas Iron 
works. Trexlertown is a post town, eight miles from Allentown, on the 
Catasauqua and Fogelsville railroad. Whitehall, a post town, was known for 
many years as Siegfried's ferry, or as Siegfried's bridge. Colonel John Sieg- 
fried held seveial responsible positions in the Revolutionary army. He 
resided at this place. Saegersville is a post town about seventeen miles 
north-west from Allentown, near the line of Heidelberg township. The country 
around the village is rough and broken. 

The original townships, on the organization of the county of Lehigh, were 
Hanover, Heidelberg, Lowhill, Lynn, Macungie, Milford, Salisbury, Upper 
Saucon, Weissenburg, and Whitehall. Since then Macungie was divided into 
Lower and Upper Macungie, in 1832; and Milford into Lower and Upper 
Milford in 1847; Washington township was formed from Heidelberg in 1847, 
and subsequently, from Whitehall was formed North and South Whitehall. 




SITE OF SHIKELIilMY'S TOWN, NEAR LEWISBURG. 






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880 



LUZEENE COUNTY. 

[With acJcnowledgments to Steuben Jenkins, Wyoming; Stewart Pearce, Wilkes-Barrc ■ 
Thomas S. McNair, Hazlcton; H. HoUister, M. D., Providence; and D. Yarringlon 
Carbojidale.'] ' 




PON the formation of the county of Northumberland, in 1772, compre- 
hending within its limits the disputed territory of Wyoming, it was 
supposed, says Stewart Pearce, that the Provincial laws would be 
more readily extended over, and promptly enforced, against the 
Connecticut intruders. 
It was found, however, 
that the Yankees were 
as turbulent and ungov- 
ernable in Northumber- 
land as they had been in 
Northampton county, and 
it was deemed advisable 
after the close of the 
Revolution to cut off the 
northern portion of the 
former county. Accord- 
ingly, by the act of the 
25th of September, 1786, 
Luzerne county was es- 
tablished, and so named 
in honor of the Chevalier 
De la Luzerne, then Min- 
ister of France to the 
United States. To per- 
fect the boundary lines 
of Luzerne in 1804, a 
portion of the north-west- 
ern corner Avas annexed 
to Lj'coming count}^, and 
in 1808 there was added 
to it a part of Northum- 
berland lying west and 
south-west of the Nesco- 
pec creek. In 1810, a 
portion of Bradford, then 
called Ontario, and Susquelianna counties, were set off from Luzerne. Wyoming 
county was formed out of the noith-western part in 1842, and in 1856 a small 
portion of Foster township was annexed to Carbon coimty, reducing Luzerne 
3 F 881 




LUZERNE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, WILKES-BARRE. 
[From a Photograph bj E. W. Beckwith, Plymouth.] 



882 



nii^TORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



to its present boundaries. The original territory of Luzerne embraced 5,000 
square miles. Its present area is 1,427 square miles, being the largest county 
in the Commonwealth, containing 500 square miles more than Lancaster or 
Berks, and 67 more than the State of Rhode Island. 

Luzerne is very mountainous, yet notwithstanding its broken surface, boasts 
many beautiful and fertile valleys. Wyoming Yalley is situated in the centre 
of the county, twenty-one miles in length from north-east to south-west, with an 

average breadth of three 
miles. It contains forty 
thousand acres of land, 
of which twenty-five 
thousand are cultivated, 
the remainder being oc- 
cupied by groves, 
streams, etc. The Sus- 
quehanna river grace- 
fully winds through the 
centre of the valley. The 
mountains encompassing 
this valley vary in height 
from five hundred to 
nineteen hundred feet. 
From Prospect Rock, 
Campbell's or Dial 
Ledge, from Ross or 
Dilley's Hill, or upon 
any other prominent 
point of observation, 
this valley presents a 
magnificent picture, 
made famous in song. 
and in story. The In- 
dian name Maughwau- 
wame, signifies large 
valley. Lackawanna ^ 
Valley derives its name 
from the river which, 
courses through its 
whole leugth. It is a delightful valley, with an undulating surface, extending in 
length thirty miles from north-east to south-west, and contains about eighteen 
thousand acres of land, a considerable portion of which is cultivated, Hunting- 
ton Yalley lies in the north-western part of the county. It comprehends portions 
of Fairmount and Ross townships, and nearly the whole of Huntington town- 
ship. It is ten miles in length from north to south, and five miles wide, and 
contains more than thirty thousand acres of red shale land, three-fourths of 
which are cultivated. The Huntington creek flows through its whole extent. 
Sugar-loaf valley is situated in the south-western extremity of the county, 




THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE WYOMING VALLEY. 



LUZERNE COUNTY. ggg 

and includes part of Sugar-loaf, Butler, and Black Creek townships. It derives 
its name from an isolated cone-shaped mountain, five hundred feet high, towering 
near the centre of the valley. The Nescopec and Black creeks mean'^der through 
the valley, uniting their waters in the south-west, where they break through 
the Nescopec mountain, and flow onward to the river. 

The mountains of Luzerne county belong to the main chain of the Alleghe- 
nies, which are here broken into high knobs, irregular spurs, and broad ta°ble- 
lands, crossing the north-western part of the county. Across the centre of the 
county runs the Shawnee and Lackawanna range; and parallel with it, and 
about six miles distant, is the chain of the Wyoming and Moosic mountains. 
The North mountain is the highest in the county, being two thousand feet above 
the Susquehanna river at Wilkes-Barr^. Capouse mountain, named from 
Capouse, the chief of the Monsey Indians, takes its rise in Ransom township, 
above the mouth of the Lackawanna river, and extends to Fell township in the 
north-east corner of the county. It forms the north-western boundary of Lacka 
wanna valley, and is eight hundred and fifty feet above the level of the river. 
Moosic mountain, formerly inhabited by the moose, bounds the Lackawanna 
valley on the south-east. Its average height is nine hundred and fifty feet. 
Nescopec mountain, a sharp, well-defined range, extends from Black Creek town- 
ship on the south-western, to Jeff'erson township on the eastern boundary of the 
county. Its average height is one thousand feet, and it divides the waters that 
flow into the Lehigh from tiiose flowing into the Susquehanna. Beside these, 
there are Shickshinny, Bald, Wyoming range, Buck and Crystal ridge. Camp- 
bell's rock, at the south-west point of Capouse mountain, is frequently visited 
by travelers and others, on account of the exceedingly beautiful and picturesque 
view of Wyoming presented to the eye from its summit. Lee's mountain, 
named from Colonel Washington Lee, extends along the Susquehanna. Pulpit 
rock, named by the early German settlers in Hollenbach township Kanzel Kopf^ 
which it signifies, is a peak of this range. Honey Pot, the north-eastern ter- 
minus at Nanticoke, is eight hundred and sixty feet in height. This name was 
given to it by Major Alden, who, in 1TY2, discovered vast quantities of wild 
bees. Prospect rock and Penobscot knob are prominent points on the Wyo- 
ming or Wilkes-Barre range. 

The main stream is the Susquehanna river, which for a distance of forty-five 
miles courses .through the county. The scenery along it is grand and pic- 
turesque — lofty mountains, craggy cliff's, green fields and groves, thriving 
towns, and crystal-bound islands, alternating along the winding stream. The 
Lackawanna river, rising in Susquehanna count}-, flowing south-west about fifty 
miles, unites with the Susquehanna river above Pittston. The principal creeks 
flowing into the Susquehanna in the north-west are Shickshinny, Hunlock, 
Harvey's, Toby's, Abram's, and Huntington. Harvey's creek is named from 
Benjamin Harvey, who located near its junction in 1775, and is the outlet of 
Harvey's lake, the largest body of fresh water in Pennsylvania. It is an 
immense spring of pure cold water, with a beautiful, clean, sand and gravel 
bottom, and varies in dej^th from five to two hundred feet. The principal 
streams emptying into the Susquehanna on the south-east are Nescopec, Big 
and Little Wapwallopen, Spring, Black, and Nayaug or Roaring creeks. The 



884 



niSTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



main source of the Lehigh river is in Luzerne county. It forms the boundary 
line between that and Monroe county. Besides Harvey's lake alluded to, there 
are several others which for beauty are scarcely equaled, the principal of which 
are Crystal, Chapman's, and Henry. The latter is situated on the high range 
of the Moosic mountains, 1882 feet above the level of the sea. 

The principal anthracite coal formation of Pennsylvania underlies a great 
portion of lAizerne county. According to Professor Rogers, who says he 

measured it, the Northern coal field extends in length 
fifty miles, from Beach's mine, one mile below Shick- 
shinny, to a point some distance above Carbondale, and 
contains one hundred and seventj'-seven square miles. 
The veins of coal vary in number from two to eight, ac- 
coiding to location, and in thickness from one to twenty- 
eight feet. It is estimated that this entire field contains 
about 2,285,000,000 tons of good merchantable coal, to 
which we ma}' properly add 128,000,000 tons, the amount 
computed to belong to that portion of the Eastern 
Middle coal field l^ing in Luzerne county. 

The knowledge of the use of coal seems to have been 
communicated by the Indians to the whites, who, how- 
ever, remained a long time incredulous concerning its 
In 1768 Charles Stewart surveyed the Manor of 
Sunbury, opposite Wilkes-Barre, and on the origi- 
nal draft is noted " stone coal " as appearing in 
what is now called Ross Hill. In the year follow- 
ing, Obadiah Gore and his brother came from 
Connecticut with a body of settlers, and 
used anthracite coal in his blacksmith 
shop. In 1776 Durham boats were 
sent from below to Wyoming for coal, 
which was purchased from R, Geer, and 
mined from the opening above Mill creek. 
The use of anthracite for domestic pur- 
poses was discovered by Judge Jesse Fell. 
The following memorandum was made at 
the time on the fl3-leaf of a book entitled 
the "Free Mason's Monitor:" 

"February 11th, of Masonry, 5808. 
Made the experiment of burning the common stone coal of the valley in a 
grate, in a common fire-place in my house, and found it will answer the purpose 
of fuel, making a clearer and better fire, at less expense than burning wood in 
the common wa}-. 

"February 11th, 1808. Jesse Fell." 

News of this successful experiment, says Stewart Pearce, soon spread through 

the town and country, and people fiocked to witness the discovery. Similar 

grates were soon constructed by Judge Fell's neighbors, and in a short time 

were in general use throughout the valley. In the spring of that year, John and 




LACKAWANNA FALLS. 



LUZERNE COUNTY. 885 

Abijah Smith loaded two arks with coal in Ransom's creek, in Plymouth and 
took it down the river to Columbia, but on offering it for sale, no person could 
be induced to purchase. They were compelled to leave the black stones behind 
them unsold when they returned to their homes. The next 3-ear the Smiths 
not discouraged bj' their former ill-success, taking two arks of coal and a grate, 
proceeded to Columbia. The grate was put up. and the practicability of usin^r 
the black stones as a fuel was clearly demonstrated. The result was a sale of 
the coal, and thus began the initiative of the immense coal trade. Millions of 
money are now annually expended, thousands of miners employed, the dangers 
of damps, spontaneous combustion, and falling of the mines, are encountered to 
supply us with the black stones which were rejected as worthless onl}^ a little 
over half a century ago. 

Iron ore of various qualities has been discovered in Salem, Union, and 
Kingston townships, on the west side of the Susquehanna, and in Newport and 
Wilkes-Barrd townships on the east side ; also along the Lackawanna and in the 
Moosic mountain. Iron works have been established in several sections of the 
county, but the most extensive in northern Pennsylvania are the Lackawanna 
iron works, belonging to the Lackawanna Iron and Coal company, located at 
Scranton. The blast furnaces comprise five stacks, two built in 1849, one each 
in 1852, 1854, and 1812. The rolling mills established in 1840 comprise one 
hundred and thirteen puddling furnaces, thirty-five heating furnaces, and twelve 
trains of rolls — steam and water power. The products of these mills are lio-ht 
and heavy railroad iron, merchant bar iron, and car axles, with an annual 
capacity of 112,000 net tons of rails, and 13,500 tons of merchant bar iron, etc. 
In 1875 Bessemer steel Avorks were adfiied, consisting of two five-ton converters, 
four cupola furnaces, and four spiegel-melting cupolas, with an annual capacity 
of 45,000 net ton ingots. The first blow was made October 23, 1815; the first 
steel rail rolled December 29, 1875. ' 

Not long after the original settlement of the Province by Penn^ a tribe of the 
Shawanese Indians had been permitted by the Six Nations, the lords of the 
Susquehanna, to settle upon the borders of that river at various points. One of 
their stations was on the western bank of the river, near the lower end of the 
Wyoming valley, upon a broad plain which still bears the name of the Shawnee 
flats. Here they built a town, cultivated corn upon the flats, and enjoyed 
many years of repose. When the encroachments of the whites interfered with 
the Delaware and Minsi or Monsey tribes above the Forks of the Delaware and 
Lehigh, and their lands were wrested from them by the subtlety of the " Indian 
Walk," the Six Nations assigned them also an asjdum on the Susquehanna — the 
Monseys occupying the country about Wyalusing, and the Delawares the eastern 
side of the Wyoming valle}^, and the region at Shamokin, at the confluence of the 
North and West branches. Here, in the j^ear 1142, with some aid from the 
Provincial government, as stipulated by the treaty of removal, they built their 
town of Maughwauwame, on the east side of the river, on the lower flat, just below 
the present town of Wilkes-Barre. The Indian name of this town, modified and 
corrupted by European orthography and pronunciation, passed through several 
changes, such as M'ch wauwaumi, Wawamie, Waiomink, and lastlj' Wj'oming. 
The Delawares had been removed from the east against their will, bj^ tlie 



886 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

dictatorial interference of tlie Six Nations, who supported the pretensions of the 
Proprietary government in its claim to the lands at the forks. This wrong 
rankled in the hearts of the Delawares ; and though fear of the superior strength 
of the whites and the Six Nations suppressed the wrath of the tribe for some 
years, yet Teedyuscung, their chief, did not fail to complain at every treaty of 
the wrongs inflicted on his nation. The smothered fire continued to burn, and 
years afterwards broke out in fearful vengeance upon the heads of the settlers at 
Wyoming. 

Soon after the arrival of the Delawares at Wyoming, in the same year, 
1742, the celebrated Moravian missionary. Count Zinzendorf, for a season 
pitched his tent among the Indians of this valle}^, accompanied by another mis- 
sionary, Mack, and the wife of the latter, who served as interpreter. Becoming 
jealous of the Count, unable to appreciate the pure motives of his mission, and 
suspecting him of being either a spy or a land speculator in disguise, the Shaw- 
anese had determined upon his assassination. The Count had kindled a fire, 
and was in his tent deep in meditation, when the Indians stole upon him to 
execute their bloody commission. Warmed by the fire, a large rattlesnake had 
crept forth, and approaching the fire for its greater enjoyment, the serpent glided 
harmlessly over the legs of the holy man, unperceived by him. The Indians, 
however, were at the very moment looking stealthily into tlie tent, and saw 
the movement of the serpent. Awed by the aspect and the attitude of the 
Count, and imbibing the notion, from the harmless movements of the poison- 
ous reptile, that their intended victim enjoyed the special protection of the Great 
Spirit, the executioners desisted from their purpose, and retired. The Moravian 
mission was maintained here for severalj, years, and many, both of the Shaw- 
anese and Delawares, became — apparently, at least — converts to the Cliristian 
faith. When the men of Connecticut began to swarm thickly in the valley, and 
collision was feared, the mission was removed to W3^alusing, where another 
station had bgen previously planted. As explained elsewhere, the Shawanese 
removed to the Ohio, and through the intrigues of the French became alien- 
ated from the English. During the war of 1755-'58, a varietj' of troubles con- 
tinued to ngitate the valley. The Nanticokes, fearful of proximit}' to the whites, 
removed to Chemung and Chenango, in the country of the Six Nations. The 
Delawares, after Braddock's defeat, openly declared for the French, and were 
doubtless active in many of the scalping parties that desolated the frontiers 
during the autumn of 1755. But they were conciliated by the Proprietary 
government, backed by the influence of Sir William Johnson and the Quakers 
of Philadelphia ; their grievances were in a measure redressed, and their feel- 
ings soothed ; new houses were built for them by the government, and munificent 
jiresents granted. A part of the nation had also removed to the Ohio, but 
Teedyuscung, and many of the Christian Indians, still remained at Wyoming. 

The first grant of lands in America, saj^s Gordon, by the crown of Great Britain, 
were made with a lavishness which can exist only where acquisitions are without 
cost, and their value unknown ; and with a want of precision in regard to boun- 
daries, which could result onlj^ from entire ignorance of the country. In 1620, King 
James I. granted to the Pl^^mouth Company, an association in England, a charter 
"for the ruling and governing of New England in America." This charter 



LUZERNE COUNTY. 887 

covered the expanse from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degrees of north latitude, 
extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. There was an exception 
reserving from the grant all territories then actually in possession of the subjects 
of any other Christian prince or state. This exception operated in favor of the 
Dutch at Manhattan and Fort Orange, afterwards New York and Alhanj^ The 
Plymouth Company in 1628 granted to the Massachusetts colony their territory, 
and in 1631 to the Connecticut colony theirs; both by formal charters, which 
made their western boundar}-^ the Pacific ocean. On the restoration of Charles 
II., he granted, in 1662, a nevf charter to the people of Connecticut, confirming 
the previous one, and defining the southern boundary to be at a point on the 
coast, one hundred and twenty miles southwest of the mouth of Narraganset 
bay, in a straight line. In 1164, the same monarch granted to his brother, the 
Duke of York, the territory then claimed and occupied by the Dutch, and 
extending westward as far as the Delaware bay. The same year the Duke con- 
quered it from the Dutch, and took possession. A dispute arising between 
New York and Connecticut, concerning their boundary, it was determined by 
royal commissioners, in 1683, who fixed upon the present line between those 
States. This of course determined the southernmost point in the boundary of 
Connecticut, which is not far from forty-one degrees north latitude. This line, 
extending westward, would enter Pennsylvania near Stroudsburg, pass through 
Conyngham, in Luzerne county, and cross the Susquehanna at Bloomsburg, 
in Columbia county, cutting oflf all Northern Pennsylvania. 

In 1681, nineteen years after the date of the Connecticut charter, Charles II. 
granted to William Penn the memorable charter of Pennsylvania, by which the 
northern boundarj'^ of his Province was fixed at the forty-seeond degree of north 
latitude, where it is now established. Here, then, was a broad strip of territory 
granted by the same monarch to different grantees. The lands, however, like 
other portions of the wilderness, remained in possession of the Indians, and the 
pre-emption right only was considered as conveyed by the chai'ters. 

The different principles involved in the charter of the Connecticut colony, and 
this Province, necessarily produced an essential difference in the manner of 
acquiring the Indian title to the land. In the colony, the right of pre-emption 
was vested in the people ; and the different towns in Connecticut were settled at 
successive periods, by different bands of adventurers, who separatel}'^ acquired 
the Indian title either by purchase or by conquest, and in many instances without 
the aid or interference of the Commonwealth. In the Pi'ovmce, the pre-emption 
right was vested in William Penn, who made no grants of lands until the Indian 
title had been extinguished, and consequently the whole title in Pennsylvania 
was derived through the Proprietaries. 

In 1753 an association of persons, principally inhabitants of Connecticut, was 
formed for the purpose of commencing a settlement in that portion of the 
Connecticut territories which lay westward of the Province of New York. 
Agents were accordingly sent out for the purpose of exploring the country and 
selecting a proper district. The beautiful valley upon the Susquehanna river, in 
which the Indians of the Delaware tribe, eleven years before, had built their 
town of Wyoniing, attracted the attention of the agents ; and as they found the 
Indians apparently very friendly, and a considerable portion of the valley 



8S8 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

unoccupied except for purposes of hunting, tliey reported in favor of commencinor 
their settlements at that place, and of purchasing the lands of the Six Nations of 
Indians residing near the great lakes, who claimed all the lands upon the Susque- 
hanna. This report was adopted by the company ; and as a general meeting of 
commissioners from all the English American colonies was to take place at 
Albany the next year, in pursuance of his Majesty's instructions, for the purpose 
of forming a general treaty with the Indians, it was considered that a favorable 
opportunity would then be presented for purchasing the Wyoming lands. 

When the general congress of commissioners assembled at Albany, in 1Y54, 
the agents appointed by the Susquehanna company attended also ; and having 
successfully effected the objects of their negotiation, obtained from the principal 
chiefs of the Six Nations, on the II th of July, 1754, a deed of the lands upon the 
Susquehanna, including Wyoming and the country westward to the waters of 
the Allegheny. 

In justice to the Pennsylvanians, says Stone, more or less siding with the 
Connecticut claimants, it must be allowed that they always protested against the 
legality of this purchase by their rivals, alleging that the bargain was not made 
in open council, that it was the work of a few of the chiefs only, and that several 
of them were in a state of intoxication when they signed the deed of conveyance. 
It is furthermore true, that in 1736 the Six Nations had sold to the Proprie- 
taries the lands upon both sides of the Susquehanna, "from the mouth of the 
said river up to the mountains called the Kakatchlanamln hills, and on the west 
side to the setting of the sun." But this deed was held, by the advocates of the 
Connecticut purchase, to be quite too indefinite; and besides, as the "hills" 
mentioned, which are none other than the Blue mountains, formed the northern 
boundary not only of that purchase, but, in the apprehension of the Indians, of 
the colony of Pennsjlvania itself, W^'oming valley could not have been 
included. 

In 1755, John Jenkins, as the surveyor of the Connecticut Susquehanna 
company, went on and proceeded to locate and survey the Susquehanna river, 
taking the latitude, etc. In the latter part of August, 17G2, one hundred and 
nineteen of the proprietors went on to Wyoming and took possession of the 
lands in behalf of themselves and the company of proprietors. They took on 
with them horses, cattle, and farming utensils, and commenced operations in 
farming. They encamped on their arrival at the mouth of Mill creek, on the 
bank of the Susquehanna, where they built several huts for shelter and protec- 
tion. They cut grass and made hay on the neighboring lands, sowed some grain, 
and continued there for some time, when, in consequence of the lateness of 
the season, and the scantj^ supplies of provisions, etc., the committee of 
settlers, John Jenkins, John Smith, and Stephen Gardner,' advised a return to 
Connecticut until the next season, which was agreed *to and accordingly done. 
Upon their arrival at Wyoming there were no white Tnhabitants there, and no 
Indians except a few families, with Teedyuscung as their chief. 

Toedyuscung, at a treaty held at Lancaster, on the 19th of November, 1762, 
says to the Governor : " You may remember that some time ago I told you that 
I should be obliged to move from Wyomink on account of the New England 
people, and now I acquaint you that soon after I returned to Wyomink from 



LUZERNE COUNTY. 889 

Lancaster, there came one hundred and fifty of those people, furnished with all 
sorts of tools, as well for building as for husbandry, and declared they had 
bought the lands from the Six Nations, and would settle there, and were actually 
going to build themselves houses, and settle upon a creek called Leehawanock, 
about seven or eight miles above Wyomink. I threatened them hard, and 
declared I would carry them to the Governor at Philadelphia. They said they 
would go away and consult their Governor." 

Early in the month of Ma}-, 1763, the party that had been on the preceding 
year, with a large number of others, went on and renewed their possessions 
The}'- took with them horses, oxen, cows, and farming utensils, and proceeded to 
plowing, planting corn and sowing grain, building houses, and doing such things 
generally as their circumstances required. The settlements and improvements 
were extended into Wilkes-Barre, Kingston,. Ply mouth, and Hanover. Several 
hundred acres were improved with corn and other grain, and a large quantity of 
hay cut and gathered, and everything was moving forward in a prosperous and 
happy manner, when, on a sudden and without the least warning, on the 15th 
day of October, the settlers were attacked while dispersed and engaged at their 
work, and about twenty of them slain. The others abandoned the settlement 
and fled back to Connecticut, or to Orange county. New York. 

As to the first massacre of Wyoming, it has been repeatedly charged by the Con- 
necticut people that it was the work of the so-called Peuuamite soldiers. This was 
untrue. In the first place, there was no motive for the commission of such a deed; 
and in the second, a settlement of the whites north of the Kittatiuny Mountaius 
would have been a strong barrier and defence of the then frontiers. The Indians say 
the Yankees were but few and they friendly ; but be this as it may, the hostiles came 
from the lakes, passed the straggling settlements of the Connecticut people, not know- 
ing of their existence until on their return, when they too met the same fate as their 
neighbors beyond the mountains. The Rangers on the frontiers of Lancaster county, 
under the command of Colonels (Rev.) John Elder and Asher Clayton, determined 
to pursue the savages who had eluded their vigilance owing to the long distance 
between their stockade forts. Accordingly with this view in September, 1763, two 
hundred of the Rangers under the command of Col. Clayton marched to Wyoming. 
Another object of the expedition " was to destroy the immense corn left by the New 
England men at AVyoming," etc. To misconstrue these motives is as malicious as it 
is false. The report of the expedition was as follows : 

" Our party, under Captain Clayton, has returned from Wyoming, where they 
met with no Indians, but found the New Englanders who had been killed and 
scalped a day or two before they got there. They buried the dead — nine men 
and a woman — who had been most cruelly butchered. The woman was roasted, 
and had two hinges in her hands, supposed to be put in red hot; and sevei-al of 
the men had awls thrust into their eyes, and spears, arrows, pitchforks, etc., 
sticking in their bodies. They burnt what houses the Indians left, and destroyed 
a quantity of Indian corn," etc. 

After the return of the settlers in 1762, and during the winter, the committee, 
to wit : John Jenkins, John Smith, and Stephen Gardner, made report of tiie 
discovery of iron and anthracite coal at Wyoming, as also of the exceeding rich- 
ness of the land ; and the spirit of migration to that locality became very active 



890 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

and earnest. " At a meeting of the Susquehanna company, held at Windham, 
April 11, 1763, it appearing that two hundred or three hundred of the pro- 
pi'ietors of the lands on Susquehanna desire that several townships be laid out 
for the speedy settlement of the lands : it is, therefore, voted that there shall be 
eiglit townships laid out on said river, each of said townships to be five miles 
square, fit for good improvement, reserving for the use of tlie company for their 
after disposal all beds or mines of iron ore and coal that may be within the 
towns ordered for settlement." 

This would appear to be the first discovery and mention of anthracite coal 
in the countr3\ Iron was thought in those early days to be the most valuable, 
and was worked to a considerable extent for more than fifty years after the dis- 
cover}^, but it is now given up, and coal has become the great and absorbing 
industry at Wyoming — about eight millions of tons having been taken to market 
from the Wyoming field during the ^-ear ISTS. 

The murder of twenty of the settlers, on the 15th October, 1763, and the sub- 
sequent destruction of their houses and corn, gave a serious check, to the spirit 
of enterprise which was reaching out to the settlement of Wyoming, and turned 
the attention of many of those who had been at Wyoming to other localities. 
Dutchess and Orange counties. New York, and Sussex county. New Jersey, were 
made the future homes of those who had been at W3'oming, as well as those who 
had sold out their homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island, with intent to 
make their future homes there. From the facts given it would clearly appear 
that Wyoming was not at that time the most pleasant nor the most healthy 
locality to settle in. The tide of migration, so suddenly and rudely checked, 
did not commence its flow for many years. In the meantime, the company was 
perfecting its organization and attempting "to procure his Majesty's confirma- 
tion of their said purchase and formation into a distinct colony, for the purpose 
of civil government. [Meeting at Windham, 6th January, 1768.] 

At a meeting held at Hartford, 28th December, 1768, after reciting the diffi- 
culties attending their former settlements, and giving the then condition of affairs 
respecting the lands at Wyoming, " it is voted to proceed and settle said land 
l3ang on and adjacent to said Susquehanna river, purchased from the Indians by 
said company, as soon as conveniently may be ; voted that forty persons, 
upwards of the age of twenty-one j^ears, proprietors in said purchases, and 
approved by the committee, nominated and appointed, proceed to enter upon and 
take possession of said lands for and in behalf of said company, by the first day 
of February next, and that two hundred more of said company, of the age afore- 
said and approved as aforesaid, proceed and join said forty on the lands afore- 
said, as early in the spring as may be for the purpose aforesaid, not later than 
the 1st of May next; and that, in order to encourage said forty persons to proceed 
to take possession and settle the lands aforesaid, for and in behalf of said company, 
that there be paid into the hands of a committee appointed and hereafter named, 
to and for the use of the said forty, the sum of two hundred pounds, to be laid 
out by said committee in providing proper materials, sustenance, and pi'ovisions 
for said forty, as the discretion of said committee shall be thought proper 
and needful, and for the further encouragement of said forty, as also for the 
encouragement of the said two hundred who may join them in the spring, accord- 



i 



LUZERNE COUNTY. 891 

ing to the foregoing vote. It is further considered and voted to lay out five 
townships of land within the purchase of said corapanj^, and within the line set- 
tled with the Indians aforesaid, of five miles square each ; three on one side of 
the river and two of them on the opposite side of the river, adjoining and oppo- 
site to each other, only the river parting ; each of said townships to be five 
miles on the river. That the first forty have their first choice of the said five 
townships, the other four to belong to the two hundred — to be divided out to 
them by fifties in a township, reserving and appropriating three whole rights or 
shares in each township for the public use of a gospel ministry and schools in 
eacli of said towns, and reserving for tlieir after disposal all beds or mines of iron 
ore and coal." 

In pursuance of the resolution of the commissioners of the Susquehanna com- 
pany, which has just been given, the forty first settlers started on their journey 
in Januarj-, 1169, arriving in the valley on the last day of the month at Wilkes- 
Barre, where they found, on the present site of Wilkes-Barre, Amos Ogden, a 
trader from New Jersey, with a few goods, chiefl}^ trinkets, in possession of a 
log hut, and a few jDcrsons in possession of the lands at the mouth of Mill creek, 
where the massacre took place in October, 1763. On the 1st of February, these 
forty settlers passed over the river on the Kingston side and there located. 
They were under the direction of John Jenkins, Isaac Tripp, and Zebulon Butler, 
as a committee. They had brought with them horses and cattle, and utensils for 
farming, etc. The settlement was begun in the heart of a bitter cold winter, 
with the snow about eighteen inches deep on the ground. They had brought but 
little forage, and as their neighbors were indisposed to favor their settle- 
ment among them, their horses and cattle were in a condition to perish for 
want of food. They, however, dug away the snow on which their animals fed, as 
also upon the young and tender twigs of the birch, etc. Yet notwithstanding 
this, riearl}^ all of their horses died before spring opened. Unarmed by this un- 
favorable beginning, thej^ went to work and built houses and established them- 
selves as permanent settlers. The promised township was run out, surveyed, 
and laid out into lots, named meadow lots, house lots, and mountain lots, and 
divided among the settlers by lot, each receiving a forty-third part of the town- 
ship for himself, and three forty-third parts being set apart for public use, 
for the support of schools and the gospel ministry. They went to work and 
planted corn, sowed grain, gathered hay for winter, and were progressing pros- 
perously, and as they supposed peaceably, with their work, when in the month of 
October, Sheriff Jennings of Northampton county, appeared in their midst with 
a writ for their apprehension. Yielding to civil authority they marched with the 
sheriff" to Easton, where they were confined in jail on a charge of riot and forcible 
entry. 

And now commenced a bitter civil war, which lasted with the alternate 
success of the different parties for upwards of six years. In vain were the two 
colonial governments of Connecticut and Pennsylvania engaged in negotiations 
to adjust the question of jurisdiction. In vain had the Crown been appealed to 
for the same purpose, and in vain was the interposition of other colonial authori- 
ties invoked for that object. Now the colonists from Connecticut were increased 
by fresh arrivals and obtained the mastery ; and now again, either by numbers 



892 , HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

or stratagem, did the Pennsylvanians become lords of the manors. Forts, block- 
houses, and redoubts were built upon both sides ; some of which sustained regu- 
lar sieges. The settlements of both parties were alternately broken up — the men 
led off to prison,' the women and children driven away, and other outrages com- 
mitted. Blood was several times shed in this strange and civil strife, but, 
considering the temper that was exhibited, in far less quantities than might have 
been anticipated. Deeds of valor and of surpi'ising stratagem were performed. 
But, strange to relate, notwithstanding these troubles, the population of the 
valley rapidl}^ increased, and as the Connecticut people waged the contest with 
the most indomitable resolution, they in the long-run came nearest to success. 

The settlers, upon arriving upon the ground, or soon after, in connection with 
the other settlers from New England, organized a government of their own for 
the deciding of controversies and general management of their affairs. 
Their institutions were founded somewhat on the model of those of Solon, in 
which the principal authority was vested in the assemblies of the people. These 
assemblies made the laws, named or chose the judges and officers to administer 
them, and saw that they were executed. The meetings were held quarterly, or 
oftener, if need be, and the jurors sent up from the various towns chose the 
judges to preside over their deliberations. John Jenkins had the honor of 
presiding over the first and most of the subsequent meetings, and upon the 
change which took place subsequently, he was in 1777 appointed by the Legisla- 
ture of Connecticut to preside a judge. The authority of commissioners in 
Wyoming was exercised by justices of the peace, constables, etc., upon the 
establishment of a court by sheriffs and other officers. 

The first intention of the commissioners of the Susquehanna company and of 
the settlers at Wyoming, was to establish a separate and independent government, 
but in consequence of the difficulty with the Pennamites, they were obliged to 
appeal to Connecticut for aid and protection, and finally to place themselves 
under her authority, which they did, and paid taxes into her treasury. 

They were at once the governors and the governed; the judges and the 
executive. Their authority consisted in superintending the education of youth, 
establishing schools and religious exercises, preserving morality and I'eligion, 
and seeing that an industrious and honorable course of life be maintained, and 
that luxury, riot, extravagance, and error be suppressed. 

All these things were carried out through what were known as " town 
meetings," the peculiar institution of New England. In addition to the powers 
already enumerated, these town meetings organized the militia, and provided 
arms and equipments, chose jurors, elected representatives to the General 
Assembly, levied taxes, and exercised all other powers necessary for the existence 
of a State or Nation. In these town meetings grave public questions were 
discussed and decided upon, and one of their decisions had to them the force of 
the highest power of which they had knowledge, in fact more force than a law of 
the British Parliament — their supreme power in theory — for in town meeting it 
was declared that " taxation without representation is tyranny," while the 
Parliament said it was not, and they stood by the town meeting and made it the 
better authorit3^ 

The New England settlers at Wyoming were governed by these town meetings 



LUZERNE COUNTY. ggg 

until 1'774, when the whole distvict of country, then embracing eleven settled 
towns, was made into a township by the name of Westmoreland, and attached to 
LitchQeld count}^, Connecticut. 

The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania concluded to assemble such forces as their 
personal exertions could raise for the recovery of Wyoming ; and accordino-ly 
in September, a force of one hundred and forty men was placed under the com- 
mand of Captain Ogden. A proclamation had been published at Philadelphia bv 
Governor Penn, on the 28th June, 1770, directing all intruders to depart from 
Wyoming, and forbidding any settlements to be made there without the consent 
of the Proprietaries, and Ogden marched with his forces, accompanied by Aaron 
Van Campen, Esq., and other civil oflicers, ostensibly for the purpose of carrying 
this proclamation into effect. Ogden, knowing his strength was insufficient for 
the reduction of the settlement in case the settlers should be in garrison, con- 
cluded, if possible, to attack them by surprise ; and to effect this the more safely 
he commenced his march by way of Fort Allen, on the Lehigh, near the Water 
Gap, and thence by the Warrior's Path to Wyoming, Having arrived in sight of 
the Wyoming mountains, they left the Path for the greater safety, and on the 
night of the 21st of September encamped on the head-waters of Solomon's creek. 
In the morning of the 22d, Ogden, with a few attendants, ascended the high knob 
of Bullock's mountain, now called " Penobscot," which commands a view of the 
whole valley of Wyoming, from which, with his glasses, he observed the settlers 
leave the fort, and go into the fields in detached parties at a distance to their 
work. He concluded to attack them in this situatio)i, unprovided with arms, 
and accordingly divided his forces into several detachments, which commenced 
their attacks nearly at the same time. The working parties were immediately 
dispersed in every direction, and many of them were taken prisoners and sent 
under an escort to Easton jail ; the greater number succeeded in reaching the 
fort, where they immediatel3' prepared for their defence. Night was approaching, 
and Ogden did not think proper to attack the fort. He accordingly removed 
his troops with their booty to their encampment at Solomon's gap. A consulta- 
tion was held in Fort Durkee, and it was concluded, as they had provisions and 
ammunition to last some time, to send messengers to Coshutunk on tlie Delaware, 
for assistance. Accordingly about midnight the messengers departed, and 
thinking that Ogden and his party would be likely to guaixl the direct road to 
Coshutunk, the}^ concluded to go out through Solomon's gap. Ogden's party 
for their better security had encamped without fires, and took the messengers 
prisoners in the gap ; they learned from them the confused situation of the fort, 
filled with men, women, and children. Upon receiving this intelligence they 
concluded to make an immediate attack upon the fort. Accordingly Ogden's 
whole force was immediately put in motion, and a detachment, commanded by 
Captain Craig, suddenly entered the fort under cover of the night, knocked down 
the sentinel, and arrived at the door of the block-house before the garrison 
received notice of the attack. Several of the latter were killed in attempting to 
make resistance in the block-house, and Captain Craig's men having forced a 
numbei into a small room where they were trampling upon the women and 
children, knocked down Captain Butler, and were about to pierce him with tlieir 
bayonets, when Captain Craig himself entered the apartment, drove the soldiers 



894 HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

back, and prevented further bloodshed. The fort being thus taken, the principal 
portion of the garrison were again sent to prison at Easton, but Captain Butler 
and a few others were conducted to Philadelphia, where they were confined. 

Ogden and his party then plundered the settlement of whatever moveable 
property they could find, and having formed a garrison in the fort, withdrew with 
his booty to the settlements below the mountains, where most of his men resided. 
The Connecticut part}^ having disappeared, the garrison considered themselves as 
secure, the fort being in a good state of defence ; but on the 18th of December^ 
about three o'clock in the morning, while the garrison were asleep, a body of 
armed men, consisting of twenty-three persons, from Hanover in Lancaster county, 
and six from New England, under the command of Captain Lazarus Stewart, 
suddenly entered the fort and gave the alarm to the garrison by a general huzza 
for King George. The garrison at this time consisted of only eighteen men, 
besides a considerable number of women and children, who occupied several 
houses erected within the ramparts of the fort. Six of the men made their escape 
by leaping from the parapet, and flying naked to the woods; the remaining twelve 
wei'e taken prisoners, who, with the women and children, after being deprived of 
their moveable property, were driven from the valley, and Stewart and his party 
garrisoned the fort. 

Nathan Ogden, a brother of Captain Ogden, was killed in one of the subsequent 
sieges. Captain Ogden at the same time being closely besieged, and unable by 
any other mode to convey intelligence to Philadelphia, adopted a most ingenious 
stratagem to pass the enemy's lines. 

Having tied a portion of his clothes in a bundle, with his hat upon the top of 
them, and having connected them to his body by a cord of several feet in length, 
he committed himself to the river, and floated gently down the current, with the 
bundle following him at the end of the cord. Three of the redoubts commanded 
the river for a considerable distance above and below, and the sentinels, by means 
of the star-light, observing some object floating upon the river which excited 
suspicion, commenced a fire upon it, which was continued from two of the redoubts 
for some time, until observing that its motion was very uniform, and no faster 
than the current, their suspicions and their firing ceased. Ogden escaped unhurt, 
but his clothes and hat were pierced with several balls. 

There had settled on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and around the 
forks of the two branches, a race of men quite as resolute and pugnacious as the 
Wyoming boys ; but, deriving their titles from Pennsylvania, they viewed with 
jealousy any attempt to occupy lands under Connecticut title. They had already 
routed an infant Connecticut settlement on the West Branch, and imprisoned the 
settlers at Sunbury. Colonel Plunkett, one of the West Branch men, not satis- 
fied with this, was for carrying the war into the enemj^'s country; and accord- 
ingly, in 1*175, about the 20th December, in the double character of magistrate 
and colonel, with a force of seven hundred armed men, and a large boat to carry 
provisions, he started up the North Branch, ostensibly on a peaceful errand, "to 
restore peace and good order in the county." The Wyoming boys knew all the 
strong points of their beautiful valley, itself a fortress, and intrenched themselves 
at the narrow rocky defile at Nanticoke falls, through which Plunkett's men 
must necessarily pass. The assailants were welcomed with a volley of musketry 



LUZERNE COUNIY. 



89a 




on their first entrance into the defile, from tlie rampart on the western side. They 
fell back and deliberated. Pulling their small boat above the falls, they deter- 
mined to pass their troops over in small parties to the eastern side, and pass up 
into the valley under the beetling precipice that frowns upon the river there. 
The first boat load, which Plunkett accompanied, were attempting to land, when 
they were startled by a heavy fire from Captain Stewart, and a small party 
there concealed in the bushes. One man was killed — they tumbled into the boat 
and floated down the river 
as fast as the rapids would 
carry them. Another coun- 
cil was held. To force the 
breastwork on the western 
side was deemed impracti- 
cable ; the amount of the 
force on the opposite shore 
was unknown ; to ascend the 



steep rocky mountains in 

the face of a foe that could 

reach the summit before 

them, and tumble down 

rocks upon their heads, was 

equally impracticable ; and 

as in a few days the river 

might close, and leave them 

no means of exit by water, 

they concluded to abandon the enterprise. This was the last effort against 

Wyoming of the Provincial government, which expired the next year, amid 

the flames of revolution. 

For a time after the commencement of the Revolution, the valley of 
Wyoming was allowed a season of comparative repose. Both Connecticut and 
Pennsylvania had more important demands upon their attention. At the 
opening of the Revolution, " the pulsations of patriotic hear1;s throbbed with 
unfaltering energy throughout Wyoming. The fires of liberty glowed with an 
ardor intense and fervent." At a town meeting held August 1, 1175, it was 
voted, " That we will unanimously join our brethren of America in the common 
cause of defending our liberty." August 28, 1776, "Voted, that the people be 
called upon to work on ye forts without either fee or reward from ye said town." 
The same year, Lieutenant Obadiah Gore enlisted part of a company and joined 
the Continental army. Two other companies, each of eighty-six men, under 
Captain Robert Durkee and Captain Samuel Ransom, were raised under a 
resolution of Congress the same year, and joined the Continental army as part of 
the Connecticut line. These men were in the glorious affair at Mill Stone ; they 
were in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and in the terrible cannon- 
ade at Mud Fort, where the gallant Spalding commanded the detachment, and 
where the brave Matthewson was cut in two by a cannon ball. In December, 
1777, the town meeting voted, poor as they were, and almost all their able-bodied 
men away in the service — nobly voted — " that the committee of inspectors be 



STEWART'S BLOCK-HOUSE. 

[From Stewart Pearoe's Annals of LuzerneO 



896 HIS TORY OF PIJNNS YL VANIA . 

empowered to supply the sogers' wives and the sogers' widows and their families 
with the necessaries of life." 

Wyoming was an exposed frontier bordering on the country of the Six 

Nations a people numerous, fierce, and accustomed to war. From Tioga Point, 

where they would rendezvous, in twenty-four hours tlrey could descend the 
Susquehanna in boats to Wyoming. Nearly all the able-bodied men of 
Wyoming, fit to bear arms, had been called away into the Continental army. It 
was to be expected that the savages, and their British employers, should breathe 
vengeance against a settlement that had shown such spirit in the cause of 
libertv. They were also, beyond doubt, stimulated by the absconding Tories, 
who were burning with a much stronger desire to avenge what they conceived to 
be their own wrongs, than with ardor to serve their king. The defenceless 
situa^tion of the settlement could not be concealed from the enemy, and would 
naturally invite aggression, in the hope of weakening Washington's army 
by the diversion of the Wyoming troops for the defence of their own 
frontier. All these circumstances together marked Wyoming as a devoted 
victim. 

In November, 1111, many of the settlers on the North Branch of the Susque- 
hanna, above Wyoming, who had moved into that locality from the Delaware, 
under the auspices of the Pennsylvania authorities, began to give manifest 
evidence of their sympathy with the British Crown, and of opposition to the 
American cause. Lieutenant John Jenkins, while out on a scout, in the latter 
part of the month, at Wj^alusing, was betrayed by them into the hands of the 
Indians lurking about the locality, and was by them taken to Niagara. Upon 
report of this fact at Wyoming, Colonel Dcnison, of the 24th regiment of 
Connecticut militia, organized his little force and prepared to march into that 
locality. He reports that on the 20th of December, being informed that a band 
of Tories were forming on the westward of said town of Westmoreland, in order 
to stir up the Indians of Tioga to join said Tories and kill and destroy the 
inhabitants of Connecticut, he ordered part of his regiment to be immediately 
equipped and march to suppress the conspirators. . . . The party marched 
about eighty miles up the river, and took sundry Tories, over thirty, and 
happily contented the Tioga Indians, and entirel}^ disbanded the conspirators. 
A number of these prisoners were sent to Connecticut to jail. 

Lieutenant Jenkins was the first prisoner taken from Wyoming, but he did 
not remain long alone, for in February, 1178, Amos York and Lemuel Fitch 
were taken by a band of marauding Indians, and also carried to Niagara. They 
were kept at this place during the winter, among a camp of British Indians and 
Tories of the most savage and degraded character. Many of the latter were 
from the upper Susquehanna, and bore a particular enmit}^ to these prisoners, 
who, from this cause, suffered many insults, hardships, and injuries at the hands 
of their savage captors and keepers. 

The force wintering at Niagara during the winter of 1111-'1S had, most of it 
at least, been with General St. Leger in his attack on Fort Schuyler, in August, 
1111, and in consequence of their defeat there by the American forces under 
Colonel Gansevoort, as brave a man as ever drew a sword, were greatly 
exasperated. For this reason they were exceedingly venomous and cruel in 



LUZERNE COUNTY. 897 

their treatment of the prisoners in their charge. Their treatment is thus 
recorded in the "Annals of Tryon County :" 

" They had neither clothes, blankets, shelter, nor fire, while the guards were 
ordered not to use any violence in protecting the prisoners from the savages, 
Muo came every da}^ in large companies with knives, feeling of the prisoners to 
find who were fattest. They dragged one of the prisoners out of the guard, with 
the most lamentable cries, tortured him for a long time, and the Tories and 
Indians said they killed and ate him, as it appears they did another on an island 
in Lake Ontario, by bones found there newly picked, just after they had crossed 
the lake with the prisoners. The prisoners were murdered in considerable num. 
bers, from day to day, around the camp, some of them so nigh that their shrieks 
were heard. They were kept almost starved for provisions, and what they drew 
were of the worst kind, such as spoiled flour, biscuit full of maggots and mollld}^, 
no soap allowed, or other method of keeping clean, and were insulted, struck, 
etc., without xnerc}'- by the guards without provocation." 

It was amidst such people, such scenes, and such sufferings, that the 
Wyoming prisoners spent the winter, and of all which they suff"ered their full 
share. 

Early in the spring of 1118 they were taken to Montreal. At this place 
York and Fitch were put on board of a British transport, to be conveyed to 
some point in New England for release. Not having been found in arms, the 
British commander did not recognize or treat them as prisoners of war. Fitch 
died of a fever on the vo3'age. York survived until he reached Stonington, 
Connecticut, but died a few days after. 

As Lieutenant Jenkins was himself an active ofiSccr, and the son of one of 
the most distinguished men in Wyoming, the father having been several times 
chosen member of Assembly, and having been also judge of tlie court there, a 
proposal was made and accepted to exchange him for an Indian chief, then a 
prisoner at Albany. Under an Indian escort he was sent to that cit}-, and when 
the}^ arrived it was found that the chief had recently died of the small pox. 
The rage of the 3'oung Indians who had escorted him could scared}^ be 
restrained. They would have tomahawked Lieutenant Jenkins on the spot had 
they not been forcibly prevented. 

After remaining at Albany for a short time, the Indians started for Seneca 
Castle, taking Lieutenant Jenkins along with them, where it was declared they 
would immolate him to the manes of the dead chief for whom he was to have 
been exchanged. Their conduct toward their prisoner on the way assumed a 
frightful ferocity, and they would have put him to death in the early part of the 
journey but for the protecting care of a young chief, with whom he became 
acquainted at Niagara, and who formed a strong attachment for him. On the 
fourth night of the journey, Lieutenant Jenkins, with the assistance of the 
young chief, made his escape from the part}'^ and fled in the direction of home. 
He came upon the Susquehanna river near where the town of Union, N. Y., 
now stands, and by means of rudely constructed floats, drifted down the river 
to W3'oming, arriving home on the 2d of June, worn down with fatigue, 
exhausted and emaciated with starvation, almost naked, with feet torn and 
sore, for he had made the greater part of his journey barefooted. 
3 a 



898 



HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 



THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 








The year 1778 brought great distress and fear to the frontier generally, but 
particularly to Wyoming. The defeat and surrender of Burgoyne, at Saratoga, 
in October, 1777, had left the British without sufficient available force in 
America to carry on a regular campaign for this j^ear, and as the war was to be 
continued, the only resource left to the British government and commanders 
in America, was to employ the Indians and Tories almost exclusivelj', in carry- 
ing on a war of desolation on the frontier. This was their declared policy, and 
it was at once suspected and feared that Wyoming would be among the first to 
be attacked, for who were so hated and exposed as the people at Wyoming ? 
They had been amongst the first to declare against British usurpations, and had 
beeft the most earnest in supplying men and means to support their declaration. 

In this state of affairs the people of the 
frontiers appealed to Congress for forces for 
their protection. The people of Wyoming, 
in particular, represented to Congress the 
threatening situation of affairs in their local- 
ity, and made an earnest appeal for aid. 
Moved bv their urgent entreaties, Congress 
came to the rescue of W3'oming in the follow- 
ing remarkable resolution: "March 16, 1778. 
Resoloed, That one full company of foot be 
raised in the Town of Westmoreland, on the 
East branch of the Susquehanna, for the de- 
fence of the said Town and the settlements 
on the frontier in the neighborhood thereof, against the Indians, and the 
enemies of these States ; the said company to be re-enlisted to serve one 
year from the time of their enlisting unless sooner discharged b}'' Congress, and 
that the said company find their own arms, accoutrements, and blankets." It 
would not be difficult to estimate how much this resolution of Congress added to 
the eff"cctive force at Wyoming. It was just equivalent to a suggestion of this 
sort : Wyoming has appealed to us for help ; W^'pming needs help undoubtedly. 
Let Wyoming help herself; she has our permission to do so, provided she builds 
her own forts, and furnishes her " own arms, accoutrements, and blankets." 
This, however, was not satisfactory to the people of Wyoming. Immediately 
upon receiving intelligence of the action of Congress, tlicy again informed 
Congress of the threatening danger, and their exposed and defenceless condi- 
tion, and prayed that the two W3'oming companies of Durkee and Ransom be 
returned home to guard and protect them through the impending peril. They 
felt that there should be no difliculty about this demand being complied with, as 
those companies had been raised for the express purpose of defending their 
homes. When called upon, however, to go on the distant service of the 
Republic, and leave their homes defenceless, they marched with the utmost 
alacrity. Not a murmur was heard, for every man felt that the case was one of 
imperious necessity, and not one of them entertained a doubt but that the 
moment aflTairs were in proper condition to permit it, the pledge " to be sta- 



THE WYOMING BATTLE aEOUND. 



LUZERNE COUNTY. 899 

tioned in proper places to defend their homes," would be regarded in good faith, 
and they be ordered back to the valley. 

Independent of a just regavd for the pledge noticed, and without considering 
specially the interests of her people, policy would seem to have dictated the 
taking of early and ample measures to defend AV^'oming. General Schuyler 
wrote to the board of war on the subject. The officers and men earnestly plead 
and remonstrated that their families, left defenceless, were now menaced with 
invasion, and adverted to the terms of their enlistment. History affords no 
parallel of the pertinacious detention of men from their homes under such cir- 
cumstances. Treachery is not for a moment to be lisped, and yet the malign 
influence of the policy pursued, and the disastrous consequences, could not haA'e 
been aggravated if they had been purposely withheld. Nothing could have been 
more frank and confidiug, more brave and generous, than the whole conduct of 
the Wj^oming people from the beginning of the contest, and it is saying little to 
aver that they deserved at the hands of Congress a different requital ; but 
mercy, justice, and policy plead in vain. Wyoming, says Moore, seems to have 
been doomed by a selfishness or treachery which cannot be designated except 
by terms which respect forbids us to emplo}'. 

The return of Lieutenant Jenkins, and the intelligence he brought, confirmed 
the worst suspicions of the people, and they became at once actively aroused to 
the true danger of their situation. He informed them that the great mass of 
the Indians and Tories up the river and in New York had wintered in Niagara, 
that they had been abusive to him there while in captivity, and had threatened 
to go to Wyoming in the summer, drive off the settlers, and take possession of 
the country for themselves; that a plan of this kind had been concerted before 
he left there. This was the first reliable information the settlers had received 
of the threatened invasion of Wyoming, although it was well known much 
earlier that an invasion of the frontiers somewhere was to be made from Niagara 
by the combined force of British, Indians, and Tories that wintered at that 
place, and although not certainly known, it was very strongly suspected that 
Wyoming and its neighborhood was the objective point. 

An express was immediately sent to the commander-in-chief and to Congress 
to inform them of the certainty of the threatened invasion, and to demand that 
the companies of Durkee and Ransom be immediately sent to Wyoming, 
together with such additional force as could be spared for the occasion. 

Captain Dethick Hewitt, who had been appointed to enlist and command the 
new company, raised under the resolution of Congress, which has been given, 
and who were to furnish their own arms, accoutrements, and blankets, was 
immediately sent up the river on a scout. On the 5th of June there was an 
alarm from the Indians and six white men, Tories, coming in the neighborhood 
of Tunkhannock, about twenty-five miles up the river from Wyoming, and 
taking Wilcox, Pierce, and some others prisoners, and robbing and plundering 
the inhabitants of the neighborhood. News of this incursion was brought to the 
valley on the night of the 6th of June, and on the 7th, although Sunday, the 
inhabitants began to fortify. The same day an alarm came up from Shawncy. 
For a week or more after this there appeared to be a lull in the storm at 
Wyoming, but it was raging with great fierceness in other quarters. 



900 EISTOTiY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

The force that wintered at Niagara and in western New York, in pursuance 
of orders issued by Colonel Guy Johnson, assembled at Kanadaseago or Seneca 
Castle, early in May, and from this point sallied forth in divisions to carry on 
their hellish work. Although the objective point was Wyoming, yet they were 
to divide their force into parties and attack different points, lay them waste, 
spread terror, consternation, and death on every hand, that their ultimate desti- 
nation might not be positively known, and no force of suflicient size to offer 
successful resistance be concentrated against them ; and by dividing their force 
and sending it into different localities, they would be the better able to learn 
the strength and direction of any force that might be sent to oppose them. 

Captain Joseph Brant, or Thayendenegea, with his Mohawks, some Senecas, 
Schoharries, and Oquagoes, went by way of the outlet of the Seneca and Cayuga 
lakes, and the head-waters of the Mohawk, and arrived in the vicinity of Cherry 
valley about the 25th of Ma}'. He secreted his forces on Lady Hill, about a 
mile east of the fort, to await a favorable opportunity to strike the fatal blow 
and slay or capture its inhabitants. A company of boys happened to be 
training as Brant was looking down from his hiding place upon the devoted 
hamlet. Mistaking these miniature soldiers for armed men, he deferred the 
attack for a more favorable opportunity. After killing Lieutenant WormAvood, 
a promising young officer from Palatine, who had left the fort but a few minutes 
before on horseback, and taking Peter Sitz, his comrade, prisoner, Brant 
directed his course toward Cobelskill. 

On the first of June, 1778, was fought the battle of Cobelskill. The Indian 
forces, commanded by Brant, amounted to about three hundred and fifty. The 
American forces, commanded by Captains Patrick and Brown, amounted to 
about fifty. Of the latter force, twent^'-two were slain ; among them. Captain 
Patrick. Six were wounded, and two made prisoners. The enemy had about 
an equal number killed. The battle was fought mostly in the woods, and both 
parties fouglit in the Indian style, under cover of trees. From here Brant, 
after committing further depredations in that quarter, led his forces to Tioga, 
where he joined the main body of the enemy marching to the invasion of Wyo- 



ming. 



Major John Butler, commonly known as Colonel Butler, with the British 
and Tories amounting to about four hundred, and a party of Indians under 
Guiengwahto and Gucingerachton, both Seneca chiefs, amounting to about four 
hundred, passed up Seneca Lake and proceeded to Chemung and Tioga, at 
which .point they engaged in preparing boats for transporting themselves and 
their baggage down the North-east Branch of the Susquehanna. A considerable 
body of the Indians, about two hundred, under Gucingerachton, were detached 
at Knawaholee or Newtown, and sent across the country to strike the West 
Branch of the Susquehanna, and lay it waste, while Guiengwahto and Brant 
assisted in preparing the boats. 

GucingerachDon with his force swept the West Branch as with the besom of 
destruction. Consternation seized the people, and they fled in wild despair before 
the invading host, but death and desolation pursued them. Forty-seven were 
slain, and twentj'-one taken prisoners. 

Wyoming is now becoming the gathering point of all these scattered parties. 



LUZERNE COUNTY. 90i 

A glance at Lhe situation shows tliat the storm is forming daric and fearful in 
that direction, boding death and destruction through all its borders. 

On the 12th of June, William Crooks and Asa Budd went up the river to a 
place some two miles above Tuukhaunoclc, formerly occupied by a Tory named 
Secord, who had been absent at Niagara since the fall before. Crooks was fired 
upon by a party of Indians and killed. On the lYth, a party of six men, in two 
canoes, went up the river to observe the movements of the enemy. The party 
in the forward canoe landed about six miles below Tunkhannock, and ascended 
the bank. They saw an armed force of Indians and Tories running toward 
them. They gave the alarm, returned to their boats, and endeavored to get 
behind an island to escape the fire of the enemy which was being poured in 
upon them. The canoe in which were Mina Robbins, Joel Phelps, and Stephen 
Jenkins, was fired upon, and Robbins killed and Phelps wounded. Jenkins 
escaped unhurt, although his paddle was pierced and shattered by a bullet. 
In the part}^ that fired upon this canoe was Elijah Phelps, the brother of Joel 
and brother-in-law of Robbins. Captain Hewitt, with a scouting party, went up 
the river on the 26th, and returned on the 30th of June with news that there was 
a large party up the river. 

At Fort Jenkins, the uppermost in the valley, and only a mile above 
Wintermoot's, there were gathered the fLimilies of the old patriot, John Jenkins, 
Esq., the Hardings, and Gardners, distinguished for zeal in their country's 
cause, with others. Not apprised of the contiguity of the savage, on the 30th of 
June, before Captain Hewitt's return, Benjamin Harding, Stukely Harding, 
James Hadsall, and his sons James and John, the latter a bo}', Daniel Weller, 
John Gardner, and Daniel Carr, eight in all, took their arms and went up the 
river, five miles into Exeter, to their labor. Towards evening they were 
attacked. That they fought bravely was admitted by the enemy. Weller, 
Gardner, and Carr were taken prisoners. Benjamin and Stukely Harding, James 
Hadsall, and his son James were killed. John Hadsall, the boy, threw himself 
into the river and lay concealed under the willows, his mouth just above the 
surface. He heard, with anguish, the dying groans of his friends. Knowing he 
was near, the Indians searched carefully for him. At one time they were so 
close he could have touched them. He lay until late in the evening, then got 
out and went to the fort. 

Colonel Zebulon Butler, of the Continental army, then at home, assumed 
command of the settlers. On the 1st of July, Colonel Nathan Denison and 
Lieutenant-Colonel George Dorrance, with all the force gathered at that time, 
marched from Forty Fort to Exeter, a distance of eleven miles, where the 
murders of the preceding day had been perpetrated. The two Hardings, it 
appeared, must have contended to the last, for their arms and faces were much 
cut, and several spear holes were made through their bodies. All were scalped 
and otherwise mutilated. Two Indians who were watching the dead, expecting 
that friends might come to take away the bodies, and they might obtain other 
victims, were shot — one where he sat, the other in the river, to which he had 
fled. The bodies of the Hardings, says Miner, were removed and decently 
interred near Fort Jenkins, where, many years afterward, Elisha Harding, 



I 



902 



HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



thcii- brother, caused a stone to be raised to their memory, with this inscription: 
" Sweet be the sleep of those who prefer liberty to slavery." 

The enemy, numbering about two hundred British provincials, and about two 
hundred Tories from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, under the 
command of Major John Butler, and Captain Csldwell, of Sir John Johnson's 
Royal Greens, and about five hundred Indians, commanded by Guiengwatoh, a 
Seneca chief, and Captain Joseph Brant, Tha^-endenegea, a Mohawk, descended 
the Susquehanna river in boats, and landed near the mouth of Bowman's creek, 
where they remained a short time waiting for the West Branch party to join 
them. This party, as before stated, consisted of about two hundred Indians 
under the command of Gucingcrachton. Tlie whole force, after the junction, 




v.. 



VIEW OF FORTY FORT IN 1778. 
[From Stewart Pearce's Annals of Luzetue.] 

numbered about eleven hundred, and these moved forward to the invasion of 
Wyoming. They left the largest of their boats at this place, and with the lighter 
ones passed on down to the " Three Islands," five or six miles below, and about 
fifteen miles from the valley. From this point they marched overland, and 
encamped, on the evening of the 30th of June, on Sutton's creek, about two miles 
from where the Hardings were killed. The Hadsalls were taken to this place 
and put to death, with the most excruciating tortures, which furnished nearly an 
hour's pleasant pastime to the demoniac crew. 

On the 1st of July, while the settlers were marching up the river to bring 
down the dead bodies of the Hardings, and if possible chastise their murderers, 
the enemy were marching toward the valley by a route back of the mountain 



LUZEBNE COUIfTY. 903 

which lay between them and the route the settlers took in marching up and 
returning. They arrived and encamped on the mountain bounding the valley 
on the north-west, at a point directly opposite Wintermoot Fort. Parties from 
the enemy passed in and out of Wintermoot Fort the same evening. On the 
morning of the 2d the gates of Wintermoot Fort were thrown wide open to 
the enemy and possession was taken by them. The inmates of the fort con- 
sisted chiefly of Tories, who treacherously surrendered it to the enemy, 

" The evening of the same day," says Miner, " a detachment, under the com- 
mand of Captain Caldwell, was sent to reduce Jenkins' Fort. Originally the 
garrison consisted of seventeen, mostly old men, four of whom were slain and 
three made prisoners, as narrated above, so that no means of resistance being 
left, the stockade capitulated on honorable terms." 

During this and the following day the settlers were engaged in gathering all 
the force they had at Forty Fort. This stood a short distance below the site of 
Forty Fort church at Kingston, about eighty feet from the river. It covered 
half an acre 'of ground. Its shape, says Stewart Pearce, was that of a parallelo- 
gram fortified by stockades, which were logs set in the ground and extending 
twelve feet above, sharpened at the top. Its joints were covered bj'- other 
stockades, which rendered the barrier of nearlj^ double thickness. There was a 
gateway at each end and a sentry-box at each corner. The whole American" 
force consisted of about three hundred, exclusive of the train band and boys. 

Colonel Zebulon Butler happened to be at W3'oming at the time, and though 
he had no proper command, by invitation of the people he placed himself at 
their head, and led them to battle. There never was more courage displa^-ed in 
the various scenes of war. History does not portray an instance of more gallant 
devotion. There was no other alternative but to tight and conquer, or die ; for 
retreat with their families was impossible. Like brave men, they took counsel 
of tlieir courage. On the 3d of July they marched out to meet the enemy. 
Colonel Zebulon Butler commanded the right wing, aided by Major Garret. 
Colonel Dennison commanded the left, assisted by Lieutenant-Colonel George 
Dorrance. The field of fight was a plain, partly cleared and partly covered with 
scrub-oak and yellow-pine. The right of the W^'oming men rested on a steep 
bank which descends to the low river-flats ; the left extended to a marsh, thickly 
covered with timber and brush. Opposed to Colonel Zebulon Butler, of Wyom- 
ing, was Colonel John Butler, with-his Tory rangei's, in their green uniform. The 
enemy's right wing, opposed to Colonel Dennison, was chiefly composed of Indians. 
It was between four and five o'clock in the afternoon when the engagement began, 
and for some time it was kept up with great spirit. On the right, in open field, 
our men fired and advanced a step, and the enemy was driven back. But their 
numbers, nearly three to one, enabled them to outflank our men, especially on 
the left, where the ground, a swamp, was exactly fitted for savage warfare. 
Our men fell rapidly before the Indian rifles ; the rear as well as the flank was 
gained, and it became impossible to maintain the position. An order to fall 
back, given by Colonel Dennison, so as to present a better front to the enemy, 
could not be executed without confusion, and some misunderstood it as a signal 
to retreat. The practised enemy, not more brave, but, besides being more 
numerous, familiarized to war in fifty battles, sprang forward, raised theii 



<)04 HISTOJIY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

horrid yell, from one end of the line to the other, rushed in with the tomahawk 
and spear, and our people were defeated. They deserved a better fate. One of 
the men yielding a little ground, Colonel Dorrance, a few minutes before he fell, 
with the utmost coolness, said, " Stand up to your work, sir." After the enemy 
was in the rear, "Seel" said an officer to Captain Hewitt, "the enemy is inj 
force behind us ; shall we retreat ? " " Never ! " was his reply ; and he fell at/ 
the head of his men. " We are nearly alone," said Westbrook ; " shall we go ?'' 
" I'll have one more shot first," replied Cooper. That instant a savage sprang 
towards him with his spear. Cooper stretched him on the earth, and reloaded be- 
fore he left the ground. When the left was thrown into confusion, our Colonel 
Butler threw himself in front, and rode between the two lines, exposed to the 
double fire. " Don't leave me, my children," said he ; "the victory will be ours." 
But what could three hundred undisciplined militia effect against eleven hun- 
dred veteran troops ? The battle was lost ! Then followed the most dreadful 
massacre — the most heart-rending tortures. The brave but overpowered soldiers 
of Wyoming were slaughtered without mercy, principallj'' in the flight, and after 
surrendering themselves prisoners of war. The plain, the river, and the island 
of Monockonock were the principal scenes of this horrible massacre. Sixteen 
men, placed in a ring around a rock, were held b}'- stout Indians, while they were, 
one by one, slaughtered by the knife or tomahawk of a sqaw. One individual, 
a strong man, by the name of Hammond, escaped by a desperate effort. In 
another similar ring, nine persons were murdered in the same way. Many were 
shot in the river and hunted out and slain in their hiding-places (in one instance 
by a near, but adverse relative), on the now beautiful island of Monockonock. 
But sixty of the men who went into the battle survived ; and the forts were 
filled with widows and orphans (it is said the war made one hundred and fifty 
widows and six hundred orphans in the valley), whose tears and cries were sup- 
pressed after the surrender, for fear of provoking the Indians to kill them, 
for it was an Indian's pastime to brandish the tomahawk over their heads. 

A few instances will show how universal was the turn-out, and how general 
was the slaughter. Of the Gore family, one was away with the army, five 
brothers and two brothers-in-law went into the battle. At evening five lay dead 
on the field, one returned with his arm broken by a rifie ball; the other, and 
only one, unhurt. From the farm of Mr. Weeks, seven went out to battle ; five 
sons and sons-in-law, and two inmates. Not one escaped — the whole seven pe- 
rished. Anderson Dana went into battle with Stephen Whiting, his son-in-law, a 
few months before married to his daughter. The dreadful necessity of the hour 
allowed no exemption like that of the Jewish law, by which the young bridegroom 
might remain at home for one year, to cheer up his bride. The field of death 
was the resting-place of both. Anderson Dana, Jr. — then a boy of nine or ten 
years old — was left the only protector of the family. They fied, and begged 
their way to Connecticut. Of the Inman family, there were five present in the 
battle. Two fell in the battle, another died of the fatigues and exposure of 
the day; another was killed the same year by Indians. 

About two-thirds of those who went out fell. Naked, panting, and bloody, 
a few, who had escaped, came rushing into Wilkes-Barrd fort, where, trembling 
with anxiety, the women and children were gathered, waiting the dread issue. 



LUZERNE COUNTY. 



905 



Mr. Ilollenback, who had swam the river naked, amid the balls of the enemy, 
was the first to bring them the appalling news — ^'- All is loat!^' They fled to 
the mountains, and down the river. Their sufl'erings were extreme. Many 
widows and orphans begged their bread, on their way home to their friends in 
ConnecLicut. In one party, of near a hundred, there was but a single man. As 
it was understood that no quarter would be given to the soldiers of the line, 
Colonel Zebulon Butler, with the few other soldiers who had escaped, retired 
that same evening, with the families, from Wilkes-Barrd fort. 

But — those left at Forty Fort ? During the battle they could step on the 
river bank and hear the firing distinctly. For a while it was kept up with spirit, 
and hope prevailed ; but by and by, it became broken and irregular, approaching 
nearer and nearer. "Our people are defeated— they are retreating !" It was a 
dreadful moment. Just at evening a few of the fugitives rushed in, and fell 
down exhausted — some wounded and bloody. Through the night, every hour 
one or more came into the fort: Colonel Dennison also came in, and rallying 
enough of the wreck of the little Spartan band to make a mere show of defend- 
ing the fort, he succeeded the next day in entering into a capitulation for the 
settlement, with Colonel John Butler, fair and honorable for the circumstances; 
by which doubtless many lives were saved. This capitulation, drawn up in the 
handwriting of Rev. Jacob Johnson, the first clergyman of the settlement, 
stipulated: 

" That the settlement lay down their arms, and their garrison be demolished. 
That the inhabitants occupy their farms peaceably, and the lives of the inhabi- 
tants be preserved entire and unhurt. That the Continental stores are to be 
given up. That Colonel Butler will use his utmost influence that the private 
property of the inhabitants shall be preserved entire to them. That the 
prisoners in Forty Fort be delivered up. That the property taken from the 
people called Tories, be made good; and that they remain in peaceable 
possession of their farms, and unmolested in a free trade through this set- 
tlement. That the inhabitants which Colonel Dennison capitulates for, together 
with himself, do not take up arms during this contest." 

The enemy marched in six abreast, the British and Tories at the northern 
gate, the Indians at the southern, their banners flying and music playing. 
Colonel Dorrance, then a lad in the fort, remembered the look and conduct of 
the Indian leader — all eye — glancing quickly to the right, then glancing to the 
left — with all an Indian's jealousy and caution, lest some treachery or ambush 
should lurk in the fort. Alas ! the brave and powerful had fallen ; no strength 
remained to resist, no power to defend ! 

On paper, the terms of the capitulation are fair, but the Indians immediately 
began to rob and burn, plunder and destroy. Colonel Dennison complained to 
Colonel Butler. " I will put a stop to it, sir ; I will put a stop to it," said 
Butler. The plundering continued. Colonel D. remonstrated again with 
energ}', reminding him of his plighted faith. "I'll tell you what, sir," replied 
Colonel Butler, waving his hand impatiently, " I can do nothing with them ; I 
can do nothing with them." No lives, however, were taken by the Indians ; they 
confined themselves to plunder and insult. To show their entire independence 
and power, the Indians came into the fort, and one took the hat from Colonel 



906 . EISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VAKIA. 

Dennison's head. Another demanded his rifle-frock, which he had on. It did 
not suit Colonel D. to be thus stripped ; whereupon the Indian menacingly 
raised his tomahawk, and the colonel was obliged to, yield, but seeming to find 
difficulty in taking off the garment, he stepped back to where the women were 
sitting. A girl understood the movement, and took from a pocket in the frock 
a purse, and hid it under her apron. The frock was delivered to the Indian. 
The purse, containing a few dollars, was the whole military chest of Wyoming. 
Colonel Butler is represented as a portly, good-looking man, perhaps forty- 
five, dressed in green, the uniform of his rangers. He led the chief part of 
his army away in a few days ; but parties of Indians continued in the valley, 
burning and plundering, until at length fire after fire arose, east, west, north, 
and south. In a week or ten days it was seen that the articles of capitulation 
aflTorded no security, and the remaining widows and orphans, a desolate band, 
with scarcely provisions for a day, took up their sad pilgrimage over the dreary 
wilderness of the Pokono mountains, and the dismal " Shades of Death." Most 
of the fugitives made their way to Stroudsburg, where there was a small 
garrison. For two or three daj's they lived upon whortleb erries, which a kin 
Providence seems to have furnished in uncommon abundance that season — the 
manna of that wilderness. 

Soon after the battle. Captain Spalding, with a companj' from Stroudsburg, 
took possession of the desolate valley, and rebuilt the fort at Wilkes-Barrd. 
Colonel Hartley, from Muncy Fort, on the West Branch, also went up the 
North Branch with a part}^, burned the enemj^'s villages at Wyalusing, Sheshe- 
quin, and Tioga, and cut off a party of the enemy who were taking a boat-load 
of plunder from Wyoming. 

In March, 1719, the spring after the battle, a large body of Indians again 
eame down on the Wyoming settlements. The people were few, weak, and ill 
prepared for defence, although a body of troops was stationed in the valley for 
that purpose. The savages were estimated at about four hundred men. They 
scattered themselves abroad over the settlements, murdering, burning, taking 
prisoners, robbing houses, and driving away cattle. After doing much injury, 
they concentrated their forces and made an attack on the fort in Wilkes-Barr^; 
but the discharge of a field-piece deterred them, and they raised the siege. 

Most of the settlers had fled after the battle and massacre, but here and there 
a family had remained, or had returned soon after the flight. Skulking parties 
of Indians continued to prowl about the valley, killing, plundering, and scalping, 
as opportunity oflTered. 

In the summer of 1179, General Sullivan passed through Wyoming, with his 
army from Easton, on his memorable expedition against the country of the Six 
Nations. As they passed the fort amid the firing of salutes, with their arms 
gleaming in the sun, and their hundred and twenty boats arranged in regular 
order on the river, and their two thousand pack-horses in single file, they formed 
a military display surpassing any yet seen on the Susquehanna, and well calcu- 
lated to make a deep impression on the minds of the savages. Having ravaged 
the country on the Genesee and laid waste the Indian towns. General Sullivan 
returned to Wyoming in October, and thence to Easton. But the expedition 
had neither intimidated the savages nor prevented their incursions. During the 



LUZERNE COUNTY. 907 

remainder of the war they seemed to make it their special delight to scourfe the 
valley ; they stole into it in small parties, blood and desolation marking their 
track. 

In March, 1784, the settlers of Wyoming were compelled again to witness 
the desolation of their homes by a new cause. The winter had been unusually 
severe, and on the breaking up of the ice in the spring, the Susquehanna rose 
with great ripldity ; the immense masses of loose ice from above continued to 
lodge on tliat which was still firm at the lower end of the valley ; a gorge was 
formed, and one general inundation overspread the plains of Wyoming. The 
inhabitants took refuge on the surrounding heights, many being rescued from 
the roofs of their floating houses. At length a gorge at the upper end of the 
valley gave way, and huge masses of ice were scattered in every direction, which 
remained a great portion of the ensuing summer. The deluge broke the gorge 
below with a noise like that of contending thunderstorms, and houses, barns, 
stacks of hay and grain, cattle, sheep, and swine, were swept off in the rushino- 
torrent. A great scarcity of provisions followed the flood, and the sufferings of 
the inhabitants were aggravated by the plunder and persecution of the Penna- 
mite soldiers quartered among them. Governor Dickinson represented their 
sufferings to the Legislature with a recommendation for relief, but in vain. 
This was known as the ice flood ; another, less disastrous, wliich occurred in 
ItSt, was called the pumpkin flood., from the fact that it strewed the lower 
valley of the Susquehanna with the pumpkins of the unfortunate Connecticut 
settlers. 

After the peace with Great Britain the old controversy on the subject of 
land titles was renewed, and soon grew into a civil war. This war, like the old 
one, was marked by sieges of forts ; capitulations, made only to be broken ; 
seizures by sheriffs ; lynching — in which Colonel Timothy Pickering suffered 
some ; petitions, remonstrances, and memorials. Captain Armstrong, after- 
wards General, and Secretarj^ of War, figured as commander of one of the forts 
or expeditions on the Pennsylvania side. The opposite parties in that war were 
known by the nicknames of Pennamites on one side, and Connecticut boys or 
Yankees on the other. Affairs were eventually amicably settled — and from that 
time onward peace dawned over the land. Many of the descendants of the 
original Connecticut pioneers remain in the beautiful country their ancestors 
preserved " against foes without and foes within." 

In the Whiskey Insurrection of 1794, Captain Samuel Bowman's company 
represented Luzerne in that expedition. Owing to the state of feeling in 
Northumberland countj^, these troops were stationed at Sunbury for some time, 
but eventually joined the main body of the arm}^ at Bedford. In the war of 
1812--'14, there were from this locality. Captain Samuel Thomas' artillery com- 
pany, attached to Colonel Hill's regiment ; Captain Joseph Camp, 45th regi- 
ment ; Captains Frederick Baile}^ and Amos Tiffany, 129th regiment ; Captain 
George Hidley, 112th regiment ; Captain Peter Hallock, 35th regiment; besides 
the " Wyoming Blues," and a detachment under Captain Jacob Bittenbender. 
In the war with Mexico, Company I, First regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, 
Captain Edmimd L. Dana, saw good service. They participated in all the 
battles from "Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, and won for themselves honor 



908 



HIS TO BY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



and glory. In the war for the Union, Luzerne county furnished her full 
quota. Her dead lie on almost every battle-field of that great civil conflict, and 
many of her sons won imperishable renown. 

Wilkes-Barre, the capital of the county, was so named in honor of John 
Wilkes and Colonel Barre, distinguished advocates for liberty and the rights of 
the colonies. It was laid out by Colonel John Durkee, in 1172, and embraced 
two hundred acres. It was originally laid out in eight squares, with a diamond 
in the centre. The squares were subsequently divided into sixteen parallelo- 
grams, by the formation of Franklin and Washington streets. The first dwelling 
built within the town-plot was in 1769. Wilkes-Bari-d was incorporated a borough 

in 1806, and in 1871 a 
city. Including a por- 
tion of the township 
which has been added 
to the city limits, it 
contains a population 
of nearly twenty-five 
thousand inhabitants. 
It is situated on the 
east side of the Susque- 
hanna, about the centre 
of the Wyoming valley, 
connected with the bo- 
rough of Kingston and 
the Lackawanna and 
Bloomsburg railroad 
by a bridge over the 
river and a street rail- 
road. The Lehigh Valley, and the Lehigh and Susquehanna railroads pass through 
the town, as also the Susquehanna canal. It contains a large and commodious 
court house, situated in the public square, erected at a cost of $150,000 ; the 
county prisou, on the Pennsylvania system, of cut stone, costing $250,000 ; a city " 
hospital, situated in a lot of five acres, in a healthy, airy location ; a home for 
friendless children, commodious, well ventilated, to accommodate one hundred 
children ; twent3^-five churches of various denominations ; five large public school 
buildings ; an academy under the auspices of the Sisters of Mercy, and a fine 
public hall. The city is supplied with the purest spring water from Laurel run, 
the principal streets are paved, lighted with gas, with side-walks neatly " flagged." 
Of industrial manufactories, there are three large foundries and machine shops, 
wire-rope works, steam flouring mills, etc. Located in the centre of the Wyoming 
coal field, Wilkes-Barre is surrounded by numerous coal works belonging to the 
Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre coal company, Delaware and Hudson canal company, 
Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western coal company, together with a number of 
private operators. The Wyoming Athenaeum has a fine library, while the 
Wyoming Historical and Geographical Society's collection is large and valuable. 
The city government consists of a mayor and a council of twenty -one members. 
There are well organized paid fire and police departments. Few towns in the 




LUZERNE COUNTY PRISON, WILKES-BARRE. 

[From a Photograph by E. W. Beckwith, Plymouth.] 



LUZERNE COUNTY. 909 

State have increased in population and wealth equal to Wilkes-Barre within the 
past ten j-ears, owing chiefly to the dcA^elopment of coal mines and the construc- 
tion of the numerous railroads centering within it. 

IIazleton is situated in the southern part of Luzerne count}^, near the 
middle of the Lehigh coal field, and at the intersection of the Lehigh and 
Susquehanna turnpike with the public road leading from Wilkes-Barre to 
Tamaqua. Its distance from Tamaqua is fourteen miles ; from Mauch Chunk 
sixteen miles ; from Berwick seventeen miles, and from Wilkes-Barre twenty-six 
miles, reckoned by the old stage routes or wagon roads. It is the principal town 
in the populous and wealthy coal region in which it is located, and is the chief 
marketing centre for the highly cultivated agricultural region lying to its north 
and west. The leading industry of Hazleton is the mining and shipping of 
anthracite coal. The Hazleton coal basin lies in a gentle depression on the 
summit of the water-shed, which separates the river basins of the Lehigh and the 
Susquehanna. The discoverer of coal in this region was John Adam Winters, a 
native of Berks county, who moved into this vicinity in 1812. At a "deer lick" 
near the spot where the old Cranberry school-house afterwards stood, the deer 
had pawed up some coal which Mr. Winters found in 1818. This place is about 
three-fourths of a mile west of the present town of Hazleton, and near this spot 
the mining of coal was commenced by a drift above water level. The formation 
of the Hazleton coal company, March, 1836, was the forerunner of a prosperous 
future for Hazleton. A steady increase in population and wealth throughout 
the region followed. Active work for the construction of the Hazleton railroad 
was pushed forward in the early summer of 1836, under Ario Pardee, as engineer 
in chief, and J. G. Fell, principal assistant. The business of the road for some 
years was the coal-carrying trade exclusively, which at first was done in connec- 
tion with the Beaver Meadow railroad and Lehigh canal. This was confined to 
the summer season until the building of the Lehigh Valley railroad connecting 
with the New Jersey Central and North Pennsylvania railroads gave the 
Hazleton railroad its first opportunity of continued work throughout the year. 
Great numbers of hazel bushes once grew in the vicinity of Hazleton, giving 
name to the stream, and hence the name of the place. The present spelling 
Hazleton, which it is likely to retain, came through an orthographical mistake 
of the clerk in transcribing the act of incorporation of^the company. Hazleton 
was laid out by the Hazleton coal company in 1836, immediately following the 
organization of the company, and the erection of buildings was then commenced. 
It was then in Sugar-loaf township, from which Hazle township, with an area of 
fortj'-nine square miles, was formed in 1839. It was incorporated as a borough 
August 1, 1856. The population of the borough in 1860 was 1,707, and 4,317 
in 1870. In 1876 the population is estimated at 7,000. It contains ten church 
edifices, a school under the charge of the Sisters of Charity, and several private 
schools. The Lehigh Valley railroad company have large machine and car 
shops with foundry. There are also two steam flouring mills, three planing 
mills, and other important industries. There is a fine public library established 
by the liberality of Ario Pardee, Sr., a resident of Hazleton, whose liberal dona- 
tions to Lafayette College are matters of history. 

Kingston township was laid out March 2, 1774, the first settlers having 



910 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

arrived four 3'ears previous, in 1170. Within the township are evidences of 
ancient fortifications of pre-liistoric races, which show a state of civilization far 
in advance of the Indian tribes found here by our fathers. This township is not 
entirely unknown in the history of the Revolution. Here are the remains of 
Forty Fort, which was surrendered July 4, 1778, after a brave defence by a few 
poorly armed men. The ground upon which the battle was fought on the day 
preceding, lies mostly within this township, and is often pointed out to the 
stranger. A plain substantial monument rises above the bones of the patriots 
who fell by the combined force of the British troops and their cruel Indian allies. 
There is another relic of a past generation here — the old Forty Fort church, 
built in 1807, near the fort of the same name. The old church 3'et stands with 
the interior the same as when our fathers listened within its walls to the preach- 
ing of Lorenzo Dow, Philip Embury, and Francis Asburj^, the pioneer bishop, 
and is well worthy a visit from those interested in the history of the past. 

In this township are two villages, Kingston and Wyoming. Kingston is the 
most important of the two villages, and was doubtless so named by the early 
inhabitants in honor of the reigning king. These villages grev.' up from the early 
days of our country, but within the last ten or fifteen years they have been incor- 
porated, and attention has been given to a systematic laying out of the streets. The 
chief industry is the mining of anthracite coal, of which there are vast quantities. 
In Wyoming there are factories of terra cotta and shovels. In the village of Kings- 
ton are situated the shops of the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg railroad, which 
employ a large number of men. Here is also located the Wyoming Seminary, of 
Avhich the Rev. R. Nelson, D.D., was for twenty-eight years the successful principal. 
In 1872, Rev. D. Copeland, Ph.D., succeeded him, under whose administration the 
school maintains its high position. 

PiTTSTON, although settled as early as 1762, only contained, up to the year 
1838, eight or ten houses. At that period the establishment of Butler & 
Mallory's colliery gave an impetus to the town. It was incorporated as a bor- 
ough in 1853, and in the year following its boundaries were enlarged. Within 
a radius of two and a half miles there is a population of twenty thousand, 
most of whom are more or less directly interested in the coal trade. The most 
extensive collieries are owned by the Pennsylvania coal company. On the east 
side of the river there are many other collieries belonging to various parties. 
Beside these A'ast interests, there are a number of mechanical and manufacturing 
establishments located here. It is one of the busiest towns in Luzerne. It is 
situated on the Susquehanna river, where that stream enters the W3'oming vallcj', 
and is well connected with railroads running in all directions. 

White Haven borough, incorporated in 1812, derives its name from Josiah 
White of Philadelphia. The town is delightfidly located on the Lehigh river 
and canal, twenty miles south-cast from Wilkes-Barre. Until the destruction of 
the canal by a freshet, in 1862, it was at the head of slack-water navigation, and 
a shipping point of great activity. The principal business now is that connected 
with the lumber trade, of which it is the chief depot on the Lehigh. It contains 
a large number of saw mills, whose production amounts to upwards of thirty 
millions feet of lumber. In addition to these establishments, there is a large 
foundry and machine shop, with several smaller manufactories. 




LACKAWANNA COUNTY. 

[With acknoidcdtjmcnts to L. A. M'atres, Scranton.] 

I OR a period of at least thirty years strenuous efforts were made to divide the 
county of Luzerne by the erection of a new one to be called Lackawanna. 
This was successfully resisted by the citizens of the old county until the act 
known as the "New County Law," passed under the provisions of the Con- 
stitution of 1874, was approved by Governor Hartranft on the 17th day of April, 1878. 
Although a general law, it was applicable to only two counties of the State, one of 
which was Luzerne. Immediately after the approval of the act an application for 
the division of Luzerne, signed by over one thousand citizens, and sworn to by J. O. 
Kiersted, E. Himrod, J. E. Barrett, E. Merrifield, D. M. Jones and A. I. Ackerley, 
was filed in the office of the Secretary of Internal Affairs at HarrislDurg. On the 
14th day of May David Summers of Susquehanna county, William Griflis of Brad- 
ford county, and Richard H. Sanders of Philadelphia were appointed Commissioners 
to fix a boundary line, report population, etc. A survey was in due time completed 
under the charge of James Arehbald and P. Blewitt, Esqs., and on the 29th day of 
June, 1878, the Commissioners filed their report recommending the establishment of 
Lackawanna county. On the 8th day of July the Governor issued his proclamation 
ordering an election to be held August 13, 1878, upon the question of the new county. 
On the 15th of August the Commissioners, in pursuance of the law and the proclama- 
tion, met at Washington Hall in the city of- Scranton, and computed the votes that 
were cast, and certified the result to the Governor as follows: For the new county, 
9615. Against the new county, 1986. Majority in favor, 7629. On the 21st day 
of August, 1878, the Governor issued his proclamation declaring that from thenceforth 
the county of Lackawanna shall be and is established with all the rights, powers and 
privileges of other counties of this Commonwealth, and during the ensuing week 
appointed and commissioned the first set of officers for the new county. 

The county of Lackawanna, as thus officially recognized and constituted, comprised 
the townships of Buck, Benton, Carbon, Clifton, Covington, Fell, Greenfield, Jeffer- 
son, Lackawanna, Madison, Newton, North Abingtou, Old Forge, Ransom, Roaring 
Brook, Scott, South Abington and Spring Brook. 

Besides the cities of Scranton and Carbondale there are ten incorporated bt)roughs 
within its limits, viz. : Arehbald, Blakely, Dunmore, Dickson City, Glenburn, 
Gquldsboro', Yermyn, Olyphant, Waverly and Winton. The population of the 
county is estimated at 85,000 within an area of 440 square miles. As much relating 
to its early and recent history is incorporated with that of the county of Luzerne, 
which is therein treated of in full, it is superfluous to refer to it in this place. 

Lackawanna embraces in its area the northern limit of the anthracite coal meas- 
ures, together with large quantities of valuable farming and timber lands. Its 

industries are mostly connected with the iron and coal business of the country, and 

911 



912 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

are of .siicli character unci proportions as to reflect great credit on the enterprise of 
its citizens. 

ScRANTON, a city of the third class, is the county-seat. The region now occupied 
by it was called Capouse, from a peaceful tribe of Indians whose wigwams disap- 
peared in the summer of 1771. As the skin-clad red men withdrew from them with 
sullen reluctance, the whites began their clearings at Capouse. The Wyoming mas- 
sacre in 1778 left no living soul upon the grounds now occupied by this city. The 
first cabin that rose from the banks of the Nayaug, or Deep Hollow, now the site of 
Scranton, wa§ built in May, 1788, by Philip Abbott, wdio erected a primitive grist- 
mill or corn-cracker. In 1799 Ebeuzer and Benjamin Slocum purchased the prop- 
erty, enlarged the mill, erected a distillery, started a forge, and built two or three 
houses, when the appellation of Slocums, and then Slocum Hollow, was given it. A. 
post-office was established here, but like the forge and distillery, was abandoned, and 
the village of five brown houses relapsed into silence from which it was aroused by 
William Henry and the Scrantons in 1840. It was named by them at first Harrison, 
then Lackawanna Iron Works, then Scrantonia, lastly Scranton, from Col. Geoi'ge 
W., Selden T. and Joseph Scranton, who were the real founders of it. It is now the 
third city in the State in size, population and importance. It is the southern termi- 
nus of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's railroad, which extends to Mon- 
treal ; the northern termini of the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad, and of 
the Lehigh and Susquehanna division of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The 
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad passes through it. A street railway 
diverges to four portions of the city. Scranton is a place of vast mining and manu- 
facturing interests, deriving its prosperity from its immense rolling-mills, furnaces, 
forges, its great steel-works, its locomotive, brass and iron manufacturing establish- 
ments, and its numerous miscellaneous manufacturing of wood, sheet iron, stoves, silk, 
edge tools and leather. Besides these industries, under the control of twenty incor- 
porated companies, representing many millions of dollars, there are thirty-four 
churches, a large opera-house, a jDublic library, the largest collection of Indian stone 
relics in America, a city hospital, and a home for the friendless. Scranton contains 
a population of fifty thousand inhabitants. 

Carbondale was the first incorporated city within the limits of Luzerne county, 
the act of Assembly creating it bearing date March 15, 1851. In 1850 it contained 
less than five thousand inhabitants. On the 15th of December of that year the 
greater portion of Carbondale was destroyed by fire, and as previously there had 
been no municipal regulations, a meeting of the citizens was held, and a suggestion to 
apply for a city charter rather than one for a borough was carried unanimously, and 
measures were at once taken to Secure it. From that time onward, located as it is in 
the midst of valuable coal-mines, the city increased rapidly, and contains at present 
about fifteen thousand of a population. Apart from its coal interests, the city con- 
tains several manufactories. It has a court-house and several fine structures. 



LYCOMING COUNTY. 



BY E. S. WATSON, WILLIAMSPORT. 




YCOMING county was formed from Northumberland in acoordance 
with the act of April 13th, 1795. Thomas Forster, John Hanna, 
and James Crawford were the first commissioners. On the first day 
of December, of the year mentioned, they met in open court of 
general quarter sessions and took the oath of ofllce, and on the fifteenth day of 
the same month met and appointed John Kidd to be treasurer of taxes. At 
that time a vast area of territory was embraced within the limits of the county, 
comprising all the north-western portion of the State beyond Mifllin, Huntingdon, 
and Westmoreland counties, and extending to the Allegheny river. Gradually 
its limits were contracted by the formation from it of Armstrong, Centre, 
Indiana, Clearfield, Jefferson, M'Kean, Potter, Tioga, and Clinton counties, 
until, at the present time, it contains 1,080 square miles, or 691,200 acres. 

Probably in no county of the Commonwealth is the handiwork of nature 
more prominently displayed than in Lycoming, made more impressive by the 
contrasts presented the tourist. Mountains rising to an altitude of 1,500 or 
2,000 feet extend across the northern and central sections, ranges of the 
Allegheny and Laurel hill, while at the base is a sparse population, owing to 
the narrow valleys. But this wild, sterile region is offset by the beautiful 
valley of the West Branch, the subordinate limestone valleys to the south, and 
on the east the fertile and picturesque Muncy valley, with a dense and prosperous 
agricultural population. The West Branch valley is bounded on the south by 
a bold continuation of Bald Eagle mountain, while beyond, like a beautiful 
picture, lies Nippenose and White Deer Hole valleys, the White Deer mountain 
forming the soutliern boundary of the county. Nippcnose valley presents a 
curious formation. It is an oval limestone basin about ten miles in length, 
surrounded by high hills, the streams from which, after descending a short 
distance towards the centre of the valley, lose themselves under the surface of 
the limestone rocks. Nippenose creek collects its waters from springs bursting 
up from the rocks on the north side of the valley, and conveys them to the West 
Branch of the Susquehanna. The course of this stream is through the southern 
portion of the county, and the volume of water is increased by receiving Pino, 
Larr3''s, Lycoming, Loj^al Sock, and Muncy creeks from the north, and on the 
south or right bank, Nippenose, Black Hole, and White Deer Hole creeks. 

There are valuable beds of bituminous coal and iron ore in the county, but 
agriculture and lumbei'ing form the principal occupations. There are rolling 
mills, factories, tanneries, and a general variety of manufacturing branches, but 
they do not come up to the standard of what might be called prominent branches 
of industry. In the years 1836 and 1843, Professor Rogers made a geological 
survey of Lycoming county, but being at such an early da}'' it was not so complete 
3 u 913 



914 niSTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

as to furnish a full knowledge of the mineral productions lying beneath the 
surface, as at that time there were little or no developments, and the country- 
being heavily timbered rendered the points accessible very limited. Ilis report, 
however, shows the location of several good bodies of coal and iron ore, such as 
the Mclntyre, Frozen Run, Pine Creek, Ilogeland Run coal basins which present 
indications of value for the future exploration and development. Tlie Mclntyre 
mine has been run very successfully for the past five years, commencing with 
a tonnage of 17,808 tons in 1870, 106,730 tons in 1871, 171,427 tons in 1872, 
212,4G2 in 1873, and 138,907 tons in 1874. Tiiis coal is semi-bitumincus. 
Fossil iron ore was mined and shipped from Cogan station, on tlie Nortliern 
Central railroad, as early as 1858, and has continued with varying amounts 
from 100 to 1,000 tons, shipped to Danville, Bloomsburg, and Pottsville. The 
use of this will be increased as its value as a good fluxing ore becomes known, 
and as the price of iron will warrant its transportation to such points as 
needed. 

The numerous limestone quarries located below Williamsport and Muncy turn 
out a fair quality of building lime, and for fertilizing the soil, making quite an 
important local trade of value to builders and to the farmers of the count3\ In 
Mosquito valley there has been a quarry of black marble opened, whicli promises 
to become quite an important addition to the marble of the State when developed, 
so as to secure perfectly sound marble (as the best black marble is imported 
from Belgium at quite a high figure). As the county becomes cleared up and 
better opportunities are afforded for fresh explorations, new discoveries may be 
looked for, and capital invested at such points where there is reasonable expec- 
tation of success. The new survey ordered in the State will doubtless more 
fully develop the mineral resources, as from the geological position of the county 
there is room for careful examination. Among the minerals found are good 
commercial black oxide of manganese, seventy per cent. ; silver copper ore ; gray 
carbonate of iron, fifty per cent., containing five to seven per cent, manganese. 
There are basins of good fossil iron ore, stoneware and fire clays, and some vei-y 
fair outcrop specimens of zinc ores. From a specimen of rich copper mass, it 
is evident there must have existed some source where either the earlj^ French 
settlers or Indians procured their copper, for an inspection of old excavations on 
the edge of copper formations discloses remains where fire had been used at quite 
a depth below the present surface. Among other useful products that may have 
in the future a commercial value, are several quarries of good flag stone in 
different parts of the county ; also a very fair quality of pencil slate, and at four 
or five points a number of shades of good mineral paints. 

Originally the population of the county was composed of Scotch-Irish and 
Quakers, who moved in from the lower counties of the State. Their descendants 
still own lands along the valleys, but Germans and others from Pennsylvania 
and New York have located in such large numbers as to throw into obscurity, 
almost, the nationality of the original settlers. 

Previotis to 1768 the valley was occupied by bands of Shawanese and Mousey 
Indians, from the lower valley of the Susquehanna, and the way for settlement 
by the whites was not opened until the 5th of November of the year above 
mentioned, which was efiected by the treaty of Fort Stanwix — called the " new 



LYCOMING COUNTY. 915 

purchase " — by the Proprietary government. Soon after this purchase, a 
difference arose between the government and the settlers whether the stream 
Tyadaghton, mentioned in the treaty, was Lycoming or Pine creek when trans- 
lated into English. For sixteen j^ears it remained an open question, until the 
second treaty at Fort Stanwix, in 1784, when the question was settled by the 
Indians, who decided that the name mentioned in the treat}^ meant the Pine 
creek. In regard to the early settlement, nothing could be more clear than the 
following, from volume 2 of Smith's Laws : " There existed a great number of 
locations of the 3d of April, 1769, for the choicest lands on the West Branch of 
Susquehanna, between the mouths of L3'coming and Pine creeks; but the Propri- 
etaries from extreme caution, the result of that' experience which had also 
produced the very penal laws of 17G8 and 17G9, and the proclamation already 
stated, had prohibited any surve3'S being made beyond the Lycoming. In the 
meantime, in violation of all laws, a set of hardy adventurers had from time to 
time seated themselves on this doubtful territory. They made improvements, 
and formed a very considerable population. It is true, so far as regarded the 
rights to real property, they were not under the protection of the laws of the 
country, and were we to adopt the visionary theories of some philosophers, 
who have drawn their arguments from a supposed state of nature, we might be 
led to believe that the state of these people would have been a state of continual 
warfare ; and that in contests for property the weakest must give way to the 
strongest. To prevent the consequences, real or supposed, of this state of things, 
they formed a mutual compact among themselves. They annually elected a 
tribunal, in rotation, of three of their settlers, whom they called fair-plo,y men., 
who were to decide all controversies, and settle disputed boundaries. From 
their decision there was no appeal. There could be no resistance. The decree 
was enforced- by the whole body, who started up in mass, at the mandate of the 
court, and execution and eviction were as sudden and irresistible as the judg- 
ment. Every new comer was obliged to apply to this powerful tribunal, and 
upon his solemn engagement to submit in all respects to the law of the land he 
was permitted to take possession of some vacant spot. Their decrees were, 
however, just; and when their settlements were recognized by law, and fair 
play had ceased, their decisions were received in evidence, and confirmed by 
judgments of courts." 

In those early days, as now, the white man was pushing the Indian back, in 
spite of the proclamation of Governor Penn, notifying all persons not to settle 
on lands not purchased of the Indians and unsurveyed, and warning those that 
had settled to make haste and leave. But they diti not vacate, and in the enforce- 
ment of their "fair-play" code, it became necessary to adopt rigid measures. 
Any person resisting the decrees was placed in a canoe, rowed to the mouth of 
Lycoming creek, and there set adrift. Subsequently a law was passed, allowing 
the settlers between Lycoming and Pine cre'eks a pre-emption right to not over 
three hundred aci*es of land each, upon satisfactory proof being presented that 
they were actual settlers previous to 1780. 

For seven years after the purchase, the pioneers swung the axe, felled the 
giant trees, builded their cabins, and tilled their fields unmolested ; but just when 
they began to enjo}' the comforts of their cabin»homes, and reap the rewards of 



916 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



their industry, the cry of revolution was hoard, and the hardy backwoodsmen, 
trained to the vicissitudes of war during the frontier campaigns of 1755-63, with 
true patriotism, seized their arras and went forth to battle for liberty, leaving 
their families scantily provided for and exposed to the raids of hostile Indians, 
while they went to the aid of the imperilled at Boston. All along the West 
Branch, wherever there was a white settlement, stockade forts Avere erected — in 
some cases garrisoned by settlers, and in others by Continental troops. Samuel 
Horn's fort was three miles above the mouth of Pine creek, and Antis' fort was 
at the head of Nippenosc bottom ; Fort Muncy was between Pennsborough and 




LYCOMING COUNTY COURT HOUSE, AT WILLIAMSPORT. 

[From a Photograph bj J. F. Nice, Williamsport.] 

the mouth of Muncy creek. There were other forts below, but outside the 
present limits of Lj'coming count3^ 

One of the most notable events that occurred at this time was what is 
known as the " big runaway." In the autumn of 1778, Job Chillawa}^, a friendly 
Indian, had given intimation that a powerful descent of marauding Indians 
might be expected before long on the head-waters of the Susquehanna. Near 
the close of that season the Indians killed a settler by the name of Saltz- 
burn, on the Sinnemahoning, and Dan Jones at the mouth of Tangascootac. In 
the spring of 1779 Colonel Hepburn, afterwards Judge Hepburn, was stationed 
with a small force at Fort Muncy, at the mouth of Wallis' run, near which 
several murders had been committed. The Indians had killed Brown's and 
Benjamin's families, and had taken Cook and his wife prisoners on Loyal Sock 
creek. Colonel Hunter of Fgrt Augusta, alarmed by these murders, sent 



LYCOMING COUNTY. 91 7 

orders to Fort Muncy that all the settlers in that vicinity should evacuate, and 
take refuge at Sunbury. Colonel Hepburn was ordered to pass on the orders 
to Antis' and Horn's forts above. To carry this message none would volunteer 
except Covenhoven and a young Yankee millwright, an apprentice to Andrew 
Culbertson, Purposely avoiding all roads, they took their route along the top 
of Bald Eagle ridge until they reached Antis' gap, where they descended 
towards the fort at the head of Nippenose bottom. At the bottom of the 
hill they were startled by the report of a rifle near the fort, which had been fired 
by an Indian at a girl. The girl had just stooped to milk a cow — the harmless 
bullet passed through her clothes between her limbs and the ground. Milk- 
ing cows in those days was dangerous work. The Indians had just killed in 
the woods Abel Cady and Zephaniah Miller, and mortally wounded young 
Armstrong, who died that night. The messengers delivered their orders that 
all persons should evacuate within a week, and they were also to send word up 
to Horn's fort. 

On his way up, Covenhoven had staid all night with Andrew Armstrong, 
who then lived at the head of the long reach, where the late Esq. Stewart lived. 
Covenhoven warned him to quit, but he did not like to abandon his crops, and 
gave no heed to the warning. The Indians came upon him suddenly and took 
him prisoner, with his oldest child and Nanc}' Bunda3^ His wife concealed her- 
self under the bed and escaped. 

Covenhoven hastened down to his own family, and having taken them safely 
to Sunbury, returned in a keel-boat to secure his household furniture. As 
he was rounding a point above Derrstown (now Lewisburg), he met the whole 
convoy from all the forts above ; such a sight he never saw in his life. Boats, 
canoes, hog-troughs, rafts hastily made of dry sticks, every sort of floating 
article had been put in requisition, and were crowded with women, children, and 
"plunder." There were several hundred people in all. Whenever any obstruc- 
tion occurred at a shoal or ripple, the women would leap out and put their 
shoulders, not indeed to the wheel, but to the flat boat or raft, and launch it 
again into deep water. The men of the settlement came down in single 
file on each side of the river to guard the women and children. The whole 
convoy arrived safely at Sunbury, leaving the entire line of farms along the 
West Branch to the ravages of the Indians. They destroyed Fort Muncy, 
but did not penetrate in any force near Sunbury ; their attention having been 
soon after diverted to the memorable descent upon Wyoming. 

After Covenhoven had got his bedding, etc., in his boat, and was proceeding 
down the river, just below Fort Meninger, he saw a woman on the shore 
fleeing from an Indian. She jumped down the river bank and fell, perhaps 
wounded by his gun. The Indian scalped her, but in his haste neglected to strike 
her down. She survived the scalping, was picked up by the men from the 
fort, and lived near Warrior's run until about the year 1840. Her name was 
Mrs. Durham. 

Shortly after the big runaway. Colonel Brodhead was ordered up with his 
force of 100 or 150 men to rebuild Fort Muncy, and guard the settlers while 
gathering their crops. After performing this service he left for Fort Pitt, 
and Colonel Hartley with a battalion succeeded him. Captain Spalding, from 



918 ' HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Stroudsburg, also came down with a detachment by way of the Wyoming 
valley. Having built the barracks at Fort Muncy, they went up on an expe- 
dition to burn the Indian towns at Wyalusing, Sheshequin, and Tioga. This 
was just af^er the great battle at Wyoming, and before the British and Indians 
had finished getting their plunder up the river. After burning the Indian towns, 
the detachment had a sharp skirmish with tlie Indians from Wyoming, on tlie 
left bank of the Susquehanna at the narrows north of the W3^alusing moun- 
(ain. Mr. Covenhoven distinguished himself in that affair by his personal 
biavery. He was holding on by the roots of a tree on the steep precipice, when 
an Indian approached him and called to him to surrender. Mr. C, in reply, 
presented his gun and shot the Indian through the bowels. 

Among the noted families in tiiat trying period was that of Captain John 
Brady. The men were courageous, and always fought coolly but desperately. 
He had the fort near the mouth of Muncy creek, known as Fort Muncy. The 
Bradys, father and sons, joined the army at Boston at the first opening of the 
Revolution, but returned again when the exposed state of the valley seemed to 
need their services. They were again in service at the battle of Brandy wine. 
Sam was at Fort Freeland when it capitulated, but escaped. 

Shortly after the return from camp of Captain Brad}-^ and his son, a company 
of six or seven men formed to aid Peter Smith in cutting his oats from a field 
at Turkey run, about a mile below Williamsport. James Brady, son of Captain 
John Brady, and a younger brother of the famous Captain Sam Brady, was one 
of the party. It was the custom of those days to place sentinels at the sides of 
the field to watch while the others were reaping, the arms being stacked at a 
convenient point for seizure. The sentinels in this instance were rather care- 
less, and the Indians were down upon the reapers before they were aware of it. 
Brady, who was near the river bank, reached for his gun, but at that moment 
fell, wounded by an Indian. The latter struck him down and scalped him, but 
he was left alive. His companions had fled ; but a party from the fort, out in 
pursuit of the Indians, found Brady with his skull broken in, but still living. 
He desired to be taken to the fort at Sunbury, where his parents were. Mr. 
•Covenhoven was one of those who assisted in taking him down, and he describes 
the meeting between the mother and her wounded son as heart-rending. They 
arrived at the dead of night, and the mother, ever awake to alarms (although the 
party did not intend to wake her), came down to the river bank, and assisted in 
conveying her son to the house. On the way down he was feverish, and drank 
large quantities of water. He soon became delirious, and after lingering 
five days, expired. Captain John Brady, the father, was afterwards out with 
Peter Smith, near Wolf run, a tributary of Muncy creek. At a secluded spot, 
three Indians fired. Brady fell dead. Smith escaped on a frightened horse. 

Captain Samuel Brady was with Brodhead, at Pittsburgh, at the time he heard 
of his father's death ; and he is said then to have taken a solemn vow to devote his 
life to revenge the death of his father and brother. A brother of Samuel Brady 
lived many years in Indiana county, and two sisters at Sunbury. General Hugh 
Brady, of the United States army, was a nephew of Captain Samuel Brady. 

This fearless incident of the patriotic spirit of the "Fair-Play" men, is 
recorded in Meginness' Otzinachson, as follows : 



LTCOiriNG COUNTY. 919 

Early in the summer of 1716, the Fair-Play men and settlers along the river, 
above and below Pine creek, had received intelligence from Philadelphia that 
Congress had it in contemplation to declare the colonies independent, absolving 
them from all allegiance to Great Britain. This was good news to the little 
settlement up the West Branch, that was considered out of the jurisdiction of 
all civil law, and they set about making preparations to endorse the movcrnent, 
and ratify it in a formal manner. Accordingly, on the 4th day of July, 1770, 
they assembled on the plains about Pine creek in considerable numbers. A good 
supply of " old rye " was laid in as a sine qua non on this momentous occasion. 
The subject of independence was proposed, and freely discussed in several 
patriotic speeches, and, as their patriotism warmed up, it was finally decided to 
ratify the proposition under discussion in Congress, by a formal declaration of 
independence. A set of resolutions were drawn up and passed, absolving Ihem- 
seloes from all allegiance to Great Britain, and henceforth declaring themselves 
free and independent I What was remarkable about this declaration was, that it 
took place on the very day that the Declaration was signed in Philadelphia. 
It was a remarkable coincidence that two such important events should take 
place about the same time, hundreds of miles apart, witiiout any communication. 
When the old bell proclaimed, in thunder tones, to the citizens of Philadelphia 
that the colonies were declared independent, the shout of liberty went up from 
the banks of Pine creek, and resounded along the base of Bald Eagle mountain. 

The following names of settlers that participated in this glorious festival 
have been collected : Thomas, Francis, and John Clark, Alexander Donaldson, 
William Campbell, Alexander Hamilton, John Jackson, Adam Carson, Henry 
McCracken, Adam Dewitt, Ilobert Love, Hugh Nichols, and many others from 
below the creek not now remembered. 

Turning from the scenes of those eventful days, and following along the path 
of civilization down to the present day, we find now a prosperous city and 
thrifty villages and settlements, where once was a howling wilderness traversed 
by the red man. 

WiLLTAMSPORT, the county seat, was laid out and selected as such by the 
commissioners in 1796, the year after the county was organized. The site of 
the place was owned by Michael Ross, and in 1798, James Crawford, William 
Wilson, and Henry Donnell, commissioners, received a deed from Michael and 
Anna Ross for the land upon which now stands the court-house and jail. The 
city is handsomely situated on the north bank of the West Branch of the Sus- 
quehanna river, about forty miles above its confluence with the North Branch 
at Northumberland, in a valley of surpassing beauty and loveliness. The river 
at this point runs almost due east for several miles, and on the south side from 
the city is a bold mountain chain — Bald Eagle — which rises to an altitude of 
about five hundred feet. North of the city the foot hills of the Alleghenies are 
spread to the right and left, adding beauty to the location of the city. The true 
origin of the name of the city is involved in some doubt. Two reasons ai'e 
given, however, why Michael Ross gave it the name of Williamsport. The first, 
and probably correct one — because alwaj'S given by his children and later' 
descendants — is that he had a son William for whom he named the place. The 
other reason is, still maintained by some, that in consideration of William Hep- 



920 SIS TOR Y OF PUNNS YL VANIA. 

burn rendering assistance in having tlie county seat located ojv land owned by 
Mr. Ross, the latter named the town for him. The weight of authority is that 
It was named for William Ross. The first brick court-house, which occupied the 
site of the present structure, was commenced in 1801, and completed in 1803. 
It was torn down and rebuilt in 1860. In 1806, the village was incorporated as 
a borough. It did not increase very rapidly, however, for a long series of years, 
as the United States census in 1850 only showed a population of about 1,600. 
In i860 the population had nearly trebled, the census showing 5,664. In 1810 
the population was given as 16,030. At the present date the population ia esti- 
mated at not far from 20,000. Few cities in the Eastern States can show a more 
rapid growth, for as late as twenty-five years ago the vicinity of Williamsport 
cemetery, now in the heart of the city, was the favorite hunting ground of boys. 
The city was incorporated in 1867. It is noted for beautiful streets and elegant 
residences; in many instances the architecture of the public and private build- 
ings gives evidence of the thrift and enterprise of the citizens, while the larger 
number of graceful spires and cupolas^that point heavenward indicate a pervad- 
ing religious sentiment. 

Manufacturing interests are rapidly increasing. There is a large rubber 
factory, paint works, carriage manufactories, furniture establishments, machine 
shops and foundries, saw and tool works, boiler manufactories, oil works, 
floui'ing mills, tanneries, marble, belting, rope, brick, piano, and glue manu- 
factories, with a great number of smaller industries, which in the aggregate 
constitute an important element of trade. But the leading industry is the 
manufacture of lumber, and although upon the small streams of the county 
there are many saw mills, yet Williamsport is the great manufacturing centre. 
The first mill at this point was what was known as the " Big Water Mill," 
erected by a Philadelphia company in 1838-9. It was destroyed by fire 
some thirteen years ago. Within the past sixteen years the lumber interest 
has made rapid progress, until at the present time the amount of capital 
invested will reach several millions of dollars. From the time the " old water 
mill '' was built, about thirty-eight years ago, the number of mills has increased, 
until now there are between forty and fifty engaged in manufacturing lumber 
and dressing it in various ways. These mills will continue in operation for 
many years to come, as there are immense quantities of pine in the mountains 
yet, and when that is exhausted there is a sufficiency of hemlock to run the 
mills many years longer. The Dodge mills rank among the largest in the 
world. The main building is 95 by 200 feet, with two wings 18 by 22 feet. 
The machinery is driven by two engines of 350 horse power, and during the 
running season the mills have a capacity of turning out at least 45,000,000 feet, 
which could be increased by running over time. The interests of the manufac- 
turers of lumber in Williamsport, and, indeed, of the West Branch valley, are 
protected by an association called the " Lumberman's Exchange," and they are 
now operating under a charter granted by the Legislature in 1872. 

The great boom in the river at Williamsport, which was erected for the 
purpose of holding the logs floated down the stream from the pineries above, 
until they could be taken out and manufactured into boards, is one of the largest 
in the United States. To briefly give the origin of this mammoth enterprise, it 



LYCOMING COUNTY. 921 

will be necessary to refer back to 1845, when James H. Perkins arrived in 
Williamsport in company with John Layton, for the purpose of establishing a 
boom. Soon after their arrival they fixed upon the Long Reach, a few miles 
above the town at that day, but now partly embraced within the city limits, as 
the best point for locating the boom. The Legislature was petitioned for a 
charter, which was granted, and bears date March 17, 1846. The logs, as they 
floated down upon the high water, continued to be caught by men in small boats 
and tied into rafts, up to the spring of 1849, when two temporary booms, with 
sunken cribs, were put in. In the fall of 1849 a boom company was formed, the 
experiment made in the spring proving conclusively that the project "was a 
feasible one. The new boom was immediately commenced, and during the 
winter of 1849-50 it was made ready for receiving and holding the logs put into 
the river the following spring. At the end of four years it was manifest that 
the facilities for receiving and holding logs must be increased, and the work of 
extending the boom continued from time to time, "until now it is a work of vast 
magnitude and strength, extending for miles up the river. The great piers in 
position, the immense timbers securely bolted together which rest against them 
to hold the logs, and the erection of the dam, show that the undertaking was a 
colossal one. The boom has a capacity for holding over 300,000,000 feet of 
lumber, and in the spring months, when it is packed full of logs, so solidly that 
one can walk across the river on them, it is worth a journej'^ of hundreds of 
miles to see. It requires a large amount of money- to operate the boom every 
season. 

The most permanent public structure of Williamsport is the county jail, 
erected in 1861-8. It is of stone, and surrounded by a high wall. The cells 
were constructed with a view to secure criminals, and are of extraordinary 
strength. The court house, in the public square, is another fine structure. The 
square is shaded with trees and enclosed with an iron railing. The city can 
boast of an excellent institution of learning — Dickinson Seminary — where young 
men have been educated who have figured largely in the political, literar}'^, and 
ministerial fields. It is in a flourishing condition. 

Jersey Shore is located on the left, bank of the West Branch, fifteen miles 
west of Williamsport, about two miles from the line of the Philadelphia and 
Erie branch of the Pennsylvania railroad, and three miles below the mouth of 
Pine creek. In 1840 it only contained a population of 525, but the completion of 
the labile works increased it, until, in 1810, the census exhibited a population of 
1,394, which has been slightly augmented since. A large lumber trade is carried 
on with the country on the head-waters of Pine creek, and the borough will 
receive a fresh impetus by the completion of the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek, and 
Buffalo railroad, now in process of construction, which will directly connect the 
place with Williamsport. In 1800 the borough was named Waynesburg, but the 
title of Jersey Shore became so familiar that the former was finally dropped, and 
the name fixed by incorporation in 1826. 

MuNCY borough, formerly called Pennsborough, is situated near the left 
bank of the West Branch, a short distance below the mouth of Muncy creek, 
and fourteen miles by the road from Williamsport. The river here makes a 
graceful bend to the south. This is a neat and flourishing village, rapidly 



922 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 










increasing. It enjoys the trade of the rich and extensive valley of Muncy, 
which produces a vast quantity of wheat and lumber. Pennsborough was incor- 
porated March 15, 1826, but, January 19, 1827, the name was changed to Muncy. 
About five miles north-east from Muncy, on Muncy creek, is the village of 
HuGHSViLLE, a thrifty place, with an enterprising population. The Muncy 
Creek railway, which is to connect with the Sullivan county coal mines, passes 
through the place. 

Ralston is situated at the mouth of Stony or Rocky run, on Lycoming 

creek, twenty -six miles above Williamsport. There are 
at this place valuable bituminous coal mines. The 
Williamsport and Elmira railroad (now embraced in 
one of the divisions of the Northern Central) was 
finished to this point in 1837. The place derived its 
name from Matthew C. Ralston, Esq., of Philadelphia, 
deceased, president of the railroad compau}-, to whose 
enterprise and capital both the village and the railroad 
owed their existence. Unfortunately, however, his 
fortune was absorbed in the undertaking. Wil- 
liam P. Farrand, the engineer of the railroad, also 
devoted himself most enthusiastically to the accom- 
plishment of this enterprise. As the fruit of their 
labors in opening a way into this secluded region, seve- 
ral large iron works sprung up along 
the valley of Lycoming creek. 

MoNTOURSViLLE is a brisk borough, 
three miles from the city of Williams- 
port. Its railroad communication is 
by way of the Catawissa branch of 
the Philadelphia and Reading railroad. 
There are several saw mills in the vi- 
cinity, and quite a lumber trade is 
carried on. 

Organization of Townships. — 
The dates of the formation of the 
various townships are herewith given. 
Of a few it has been impossible to 
ascertain: Anthony, September 7, 1844; Armstrong, February 7, 1842; Brad}'^, 
January 31, 1855 ; Bastress, December 13, 1854 ; Brown, 1812 ; Cummings, 1832 ; 
Clinton, December, 1825 ; Cascade, August 9, 1842 ; Cogan House, December 6, 
1843; Eldred, November 16, 1858; Fairfield; Franklin; Gamble, 1875; Hep- 
burn, 1804 ; Jordan ; Jackson, 1824 ; Loyal Sock, April 13, 1795 ; Lycoming, 
May 1, 1785 ; Lewis ; Limestone ; Muncy, 1772 ; Muncy Creek, 1804 ; Mifflin, 
1796; Moreland ; McHenry, 'August 21, 1861; Mclntyre ; Nippenose, 1792; 
Old Lycoming, December 2, 1858; Penn ; Piatt, April 30, 1858; Porter, May 
6, 1840 ; Plunkett's Creek ; Pine, January 27, 1857 ; Shrewsbury, 1804 ; Sus- 
quehanna ; Upper Fairfield, September 12, 1851; Wolf; Washington, 1789; 
Woodward, November 28, 1855; Watson, January, 1845. 




RALSTON INCLINED PLANE 



M'KEAN COUNTY. 




BY WILLIAM K. KING, CEKES. 

I'KEAN county was separated from Lycoming county by the act of 
26th of March, 1804. It was named in honor of Governor Thomas 
M'Kean, who at that period filled the executive chair. Previous to 
1814 the county was for a time attached to Centre county, and the 
records were kept at Bellefonte. In that year M'Kean was attached to Lycom- 
ing for judicial 
and elective pur- 
poses. The coun- 
ties of M'Kean and 
Potter were as for- 
merly united, hav- 
ing one treasurer, 
one board of com- 
missioners, and one 
of auditors. The 
commissioners held 
their meetings at 
the house of Ben- 
jamin Burt, on the 
Allegheny river, 
and a little east of 
the county line. 
In 1826 M'Kean 
county was organ- 
ized for judicial 
purposes, and the 
first court was held 
in Smethport, in 
September of that 
year. The same 
year a substantial 
brick court house 
was erected. 

M'Kean county is situated on the northern border of the State, being the 
third county east from the west line thereof. It has a length on the State line 
of nearly forty miles, and a depth of about tweiitj^-five miles, containing 
about one thousand square miles, or six hundred and forty thousand acres. It 
may be considered an elevated table, broken by numerous streams which have 
formed in many places valleys of considerable width. The principal streams are 

923 




M'KEAN COUNTY COURT HOUSE, SMETHPORT. 

(From a Photograph by J. B. Bergstresser, Smethport.] 



924 HISTOBT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

the Allegheny river, which enters the county from the east, about midway of its 
width, and after running in a north-westerly direction about ten miles, it turns 
to the north, and passes intf^ the State of New York about eight miles west of 
the north-east corner of the county. Its valley is from one to two miles wide. 
The upper half of the distance the 'river passes through wiis county, there is 
considerable fall, affording good water power. The lower half has very little 
fall. The Oswaya creek enters the county about two miles south of me north- 
east corner, and passes into the State of New York about five miles west of that 
point. Potato creek rises in the south-eastern portion of the county, and 
running west of north, joins the Allegheny river about midway of its course 
through the county. Its principal tributary is Marvin creek, which rises in the 
southern part of the county, and joins it at Smethport. Tuneungwant creek has 
its source near the middle of the county, and runs north, emptying into the 
Allegheny in the State of New York. This valley is traversed by the Bradford 
branch of the New York and Erie railroad, and is the New Oildovado of the 
State. Upon the west are Willow creek, Sugar run, Kenjua, and a branch of 
Tionesta creeks, putting into the Allegheny river in Warren county. On the 
south we have West Clarion and Instanter creeks, waters of the Clarion river, 
and the Sinnemahoning Portage, which runs into the Susquehanna. The Alle- 
gheny Portage enters the county from the east, about five miles north of the 
south-east corner, and running in a north-westerl}^ direction, joins the Allegheny 
river at Port Allegheny. These streams have each many tributaries, which have 
their sources in innumerable springs of the purest water. 

The table land in the centre of the county is something over two thousand 
feet above tide. The beds of the streams are about one thousand five hundred, 
except the Sinnemahoning Portage, which is several huhdred feet lower, so that 
for the most part the surface of the county is cut up into hills and vallej^s, the 
former of more or less steepness, and the latter of greater or less width, accord- 
ing to the character of the soil and rock upon which the waters have since time 
began been operating. 

The soil is well adapted to the cultivation of the grasses, and from the rough- 
ness of the surface, and the abundance of pure cold water, it seems peculiarly 
adapted to grazing and dairying purposes, and is destined, when improved, to 
equal any territory of equal extent in the Union in the production of butter, 
cheese, wool, and beef. The large mineral resources of the county, just 
beginning to be developed, will furnish a good home market for all that the 
land will produce. 

The pine timber has nearly all disappeared, but there are yet remaining 
immense quantities of hemlock and other valuable timbers, affording opportuni- 
ties for a large business in lumbering and tanning. The sawing capacity of the 
mills already in operation is not less than one hundred millions feet of lumber 
per annum, and at Port Allegheny is one of the largest tanneries in the United 
States. The Bradford branch of the New York and Erie railroad has about 
twenty miles of track within the county, from the Lafayette coal beds north to 
the State line. The Philadelphia and Erie railroad runs for about twelve miles 
through the south-western portion of the county. The Buflalo, New York, and 
Philadelphia railroad traverses almost the entire width of the eastern portion of 



M'KEAN COUNTY. 92.5 

the county, and has a branch about twenty miles in length from Larabee station, 
near the mouth of Potato creek, to the Clermontville coal fields. There are three 
boroughs, Smethport, Kane, and Bradford. 

About the end of the last century a company of gentlemen, headed by John 
Keating, Esq., of Philadelphia, made an extensive purchase of wild lands in 
what are now M'Kean, Potter, Cameron, Clinton, and Clearfield counties. 
Francis King, an Englishman, member of the Society of Friends, then but 
recentl}^ from the city of London, was employed by the said company to examine 
different bodies of lands in this portion of the State, and spent nearly the wliole 
of two summers in exploring the country, making careful and minute memoranda 
of the surface of the countr3% character of the soil, timber, rocks, streams, and 
natural routes for thoroughfares. Upon his report the selections were made, and 
the purchase consummated. In the spring of 1798, Mr. King left Philadelphia 
with a part}^ of workmen ; they proceeded to the upper settlement upon the 
West Branch of the Susquehanna river, in the vicinity of Jersey Shore. There 
they loaded their canoes, and taking their horses sometimes in the channel of 
the river, and sometimes upon the banks, they pushed their canoes to the mouth 
of the Driftwood branch, and then up it to what is now Emporium. Here, on 
account of the smallness of the stream, they abandoned their canoes, and loading 
their tools and provisions upon their horses, they started in a northerly direction. 
Passing up a small tributary of the Driftwood, and down a branch of the 
Allegheny, they cut a bridle path through the forest vei-y nearly over the 
ground now traversed by the Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia railroad from 
Emporium to Port Allegheny. This place was for many years known as the 
Canoe Place. At the latter place they halted, and having constructed more 
canoes from the trunks of the white pine, then abundant all along the valley of 
the Upper Allegheny, they loaded their baggage into them, and proceeded down 
the river to the mouth of the Oswaya, and up that stream about four miles, where 
they located, calling the place Ceres ; built houses, cleared land, and commenced 
opening communications with other settlements. It was found that a small 
settlement had been commenced on the head-waters of a tributary of the Genesee 
river, and distant only fifty miles. This was the nearest white settlement in any 
direction. It was situated near the present village of Andover, on the New York 
and Erie railroad, and was known as Dike's settlement. A sort of road was soon 
opened between the two points, and also between Ceres and the Canoe Place, and 
between Ceres and the settlements on Pine creek, distant nearly one hundred 
miles. 

Progress in the work which was to make this little opening in the wilderness 
habitable for families was necessarily slow. The great distance from which 
supplies had to be brought, either in canoes or on the backs of horses, and the 
thick and heavy growth of timber to be removed from the land, were among the 
greatest obstacles to be overcome. The location was found to be exceptionally 
healthy, and the soil productive. Wherever an opening was made in the forest, 
the earth produced all the grains and vegetables indigenous to the climate, in 
almost miraculous quantities. The policy of love and kindness always practiced 
by the Friends towards the Indians was observed here, and had the effect of 
keeping up a kindly feeling among them towards Mr. King and his followers, and 



926 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

they were very useful to him in procuring supplies of meat and fish, in piloting 
members of the party through the forest, in hunting up and bringing those who 
occasionally got lost in the woods, and the pack horses that sometimes went 
astray, and in many other ways. Indian corn, wheat, and rye flourished and 
produced abundant crops, but there were no mills in which to grind the grain. 
Generall}' it was cooked and eaten whole, but sometimes a boat load was taken 
to Pittsburgh to be ground, and sometimes the Indian method of mashing in a 
stone mortar was adopted. 

In the first year of the present century Mr. King was joined b}'^ his family, 
and shortly after by several other families, mostl}^ Englishmen and Friends like 
himself, and whose ignorance of pioneer life was as complete as his own. I must 
leave mostly to the imagination of the reader the story of the trials and sufferings 
of this period. To be for many days without food of any kind, except the roots 
and buds of trees — to be for many weeks together without meat, fish, or salt — to 
be lost in the woods or stopped in the forest paths by heavy falls of snow, with- 
out food or the means of making a fire — were among the common experiences of 
the early settlers. Among those who early joined the Ceres settlement and spent 
their lives and left their families there, were John Bell, with his sons William 
and John, and stepsons Thomas and John Bee, son-in-law Robert Gilbert; and 
Thomas Smith, with his sons John, William, and Henrj^ John Bell, Jr., and 
James King, second son of Francis King, spent most of their youth and early 
manhood in the older portions of the State, but were by no means strangers to 
the trials and privations of the new settlement. Francis King, the founder of this 
little settlement, died suddenl}' while in the prime of life, leaving not only the 
aff"airs of the land-holders, under whose auspices he came, but also a large amount 
of unsettled business, and the care and responsibility of a large family, in the 
hands of his eldest son John, who for nearly fifty 3'eai'S was the active agent of 
Messrs. Keating & Co., and intimately connected with every improvement, both 
public and private. Among the younger men upon whose shoulders fell the 
cares and responsibilities of the new settlement may be mentioned William Bell, 
whose name is prominent in all the records of the infant colony, and of the 
earlier history of the county. About tiie time that settlements began to be made 
in other parts of the county, Jacob Young and Asahel Wright came to Ceres. 
They botli lived to be aged men, and though neither was ever particularly promi- 
nent in public affairs, they were both useful and esteemed citizens, and their 
names deserve a place in this record. 

In the year 1815, a large two-story frame building was erected at Ceres, under 
the direction of Messrs. Keating & Co., known as "The Land Office." This 
building was for many years occupied as a dwelling house, but was long ago 
taken down. The oldest building now standing at this place is a dwelling house, 
built by John King in the year 1819, in which a grandson now resides. Of the 
original families of the settlement, only three persons remain. These are 
Thomas Bee, Henry Smith, and Martha, daughter of Francis King and widow 
of William Bell. It is due to the memory of John Keating, Esq., of Philadel- 
phia, to say that, from the earliest settlement of this county to the period of his 
death, his watchful care over it and anxiety for its progress, his sympathy with 
the suflerings and privations of the settlers, and readiness to help in every possi- 



M'KEAN COUNTY. 927 

ble way, partook more of the character of the care of a father over his children, 
than that of the capitalist over a business enterprise. 

In the first year of the settlement, to supply the wants of the settlers, Mr. 
King set about the erection of a grist and saw mill, and ere long lumber was 
sawed and grain ground upon his own premises ; and despite all discouragements 
the settlement began after a little to present a thriving appearance. Numerous 
dwellings and other buildings were erected, a town was regularly laid out, and 
the hope was indulged that the country round about would rapidly fill up with 
settlers. About this time the territory of Ohio became in the minds of the peo- 
ple of the Atlantic States the earthly paradise, and the restless and discontented, 
as well as the enterprising and ambitious, strained every nerve to reach it. In 
1804 a road was opened through the State of New York, from tlie east to the 
Allegheny river at Clean, then and for many years called Hamilton, a point only 
ten miles distant from the Ceres settlement ; and immediately a current of emigra- 
tion was pouring over this route that would be astonishing even at the present 
da}'. At Olcan, boats, skiffs, canoes, and rafts were constructed, and the emi- 
grants were floated down the streams to the country which was the Eden of their 
dreams. It may seem at the first glance that this would have helped instead of 
retarding the settlement of M'Kean count}^, but when we consider that tlie set- 
tlers in a new country are almost invariably poor, and that they are daily met by 
trials and difficulties which seem insurmountable, what wonder is it that the 
stories of the great fertility of the West, the comparative ease with which the 
forest could be cleared, and the small amount of labor necessary to win a subsis- 
tence for their families, which were constantly told by the emigrants, should 
engender a degree of discontent with their situation that doubled every obstacle, 
calamity, privation, and annoj-ance, and shrivelled every blessing and advantage 
into nothingness. The river offered to bear them away upon its bosom at no 
cost but that of subsistence, and in many cases even that was supplied and wages 
paid by those who had lumber to run or needed assistance in pulling the flat 
boats upon which they had loaded their goods and embarked their families. To 
go was easy, but to return was difficult and expensive, and to the very poor im- 
possible. 

Another cause that materially retarded the development, if not the settlement 
of the county, was that the vast quantity and excellent quality of white pine 
timber offered to the settler a temptation to abandon his efforts to clear up and 
cultivate the soil, and embark in the lumbering business. The people were few, 
and wages consequently high. We were bordered on the north by a hard 
timbered district where land could be cleared for one-third to one-half what it 
cost here, and there was little or no pine timber to tempt men from their farms. 
Our lumbermen found that they could buy their supplies in the adjoining 
counties in the State of New York, and haul them to their camps cheaper than 
they could clear their own land and raise them ; and this plan was very generally 
adopted, the inevitable consequence of such a course being that, after they had 
exhausted the natural wealth of the county, without giving anything back in the 
way of improvements, they found themselves the possessors of large tracts of 
land which were for present purposes absolutely worthless, and having for years 
given np the pursuit of agriculture, as a business, they had no taste for or 



928 HlSTOB Y OF P ENNS YL VANIA. 

desire to return to it. Tliey would generally leave for other pine timbered 
regions, taking witli them nothing but added years and profitless experience, and 
leaving behind nothing but pine stumps and briar patches. The ease with which 
men could get away from here, and the high wages paid for pulling on rafts 
down the river, combined to make labor scarce, dear, and uncertain. Still the 
little settlement plodded on as best it could. Many came and few staid, and of 
the few, more turned their attention to lumbering and hunting than to farming. 
The idea of getting a living here without running a raft to market every spring 
had no existence in many minds. 

In the year 1810 six families from the state of New York, following up the 
Allegheny from Olean to the mouth of Potato creek, and up that stream some 
five or six miles, located themselves in the neighborhood now known as Farmer's 
Valley. Among them were three brothers, named Joseph, George, and Matthias 
Otto, whose descendants still reside in that neighborhood. George and Matthias 
both died many years ago. Joseph lived to be very old, and was one of the 
prominent men of the county. lie held at different terms most of the county 
offices. About this time a settlement was commenced at a place called Instanter, 
and familiarly known as Bunker Hill, by Joel Bishop, later and for many years 
one of the associate judges of the county, and upon lands owned by Jacob 
Ridgway, Esq., of Philadelphia; and here in 1821 or 1822 a fallow of four 
hundred acres was cleared, under the supervision of Paul E. Scull, Esq., late of 
Smethport, one of the most earnest and hopeful advocates of all projects 
which might have a tendency to advance the interests of the county. Near 
this farm of Mr. Ridgway, stone coal was early discovered, and was mined, first 
for the use of the few smiths in the vicinity, and later it became an article of 
export in a small wa}'^, being taken by teams in the winter season to the south- 
western counties of the State of New York and exchanged for grain, pork, salt, 
and other necessaries of the new settlements. Not until within the last yejij^ 
has an}^ railroad been constructed to this point. 

In 1815 ten families of Norwich, Chenango county, N. Y., exchanged their 
property with Messrs. Cooper, Mcllvain & Co., for lands in the valle}' of Potato 
creek^ some miles above Smethport, where they or their descendants still reside. 
This settlement was long known as Norwich settlement, and the present township 
of Norwich embraces the territory upon which they first located. Among the 
founders of this settlement were Jonathan Colegrove, Andrew Gallup, Rowland 
Burdick, David Comes, William Brewer, and Nathaniel White. Several 
beginnings were made along the valley of the Allegheny from Canoe Place, or 
Port Allegheny, to the State line, before the last-named settlements were begun. 
Among the earlier settlers along the river near Eldred were James Wright 
and his sons, Rensselaer, Micajah, and William P. Rensselaer Wright was 
from the first a prominent and influential citizen, and held at different terms 
nearly all the county offices. William P. Wright is still living. Jacob Knapp, 
who was the father of nineteen children, among whom was the celebrated 
revivalist of the same name, late of the State of Illinois. Joseph and Jacob Steele 
made beginnings near what is now Larabee station, about the year 1810, where 
their descendants now reside. Lower down the river, Riverius Hooke and 
sons, James McCrea, John Morris, father of Rev. S. D. Morris, of State Line 



M'KEAN COUNTY. 



929 



station, and others, made beginnings, their descendants still living in the 
neiarhborhood. 

Near Port Allegheny the earliest settlers were Judge Samuel Stanton, 
Jonathan Foster, and Dr. Horace Coleman. Judge Stanton and Dr. Coleman 
were active and public-spirited men, did all in their power to help on the settle- 
ment of the country, and were highly esteemed by the then few settlers of the 
county. Judge Stanton died many years ago while absent at Bcllefonte upon 
some public business. Mr. Foster was accidentally shot by his son. He and 
his son were out hunting wolves. Each wore a wolf-skin cap and each was 
ignorant of the vicinity of the other. It was the custom with Avolf hunters to 
howl in imitation of the wolf, and thus decoy their pre}'' to within rifle shot. 
After being out some time 
one howled ; the other 
thinking that he had heard 
a wolf, answered ; both 
were deceived, and each 
began cautiously to creep 
towards his supposed pre}^ 
A succession of calls and 
counter calls was kept up 
with sufficient accuracy of 
imitation to keep each de- 
ceived as to the real char- 
acter of the other. Final- 
ly, after much manoeuv- 
ring on both sides, and 
conducted after the known 
■■ habits of the wolf, they 
ai)proached very near each 
other, when the quick eye 
of the 3'ounger man caught 
sight of the wolf-skin cap 
of the elder as he raised 
his head to peer over a 
log, and he instantly fired. What must have been the feelings of that son as he 
walked triumphantly up to his prey, and found lying before him, not the body 
of the savage wolf, but that of his dying father. Could life be sufficiently long 
or busy to eradicate that scene from his memory? Dr. Coleman lived to ripe 
old age, and died respected by all, and surrounded by a large family, who do 
ample credit to the efforts of their sire in their behalf. 

A little later Solomon Sartwell, Sr., Nathan Dennis, John Wolcott, Allen 
and Justus llice, and others, came into what is now Eldred township. 

My impression is that De Golia, the Freemans, Fosters, Dikeraans, and 
Buchanans were among the earliest settlers in the valley of the Tuneunguant. 
Some thirty years ago Colonel S. C. Little came to Bradford, I believe, as the 
agent of a company known as "the Boston Land company," afterwards bought 
out by the late Daniel Kingsbury. Colonel Little was an active public spirited 
3 I 




M'KEAN COCNTY rRISON, SMETnrORT. 
IFrom a Photograpb by J. B. Bergstresser, Smcthporl.) 



930 HISTOR Y OF PENI^S YL VANIA. 

man, and grew in the good opinion of the people of the county to the day of his 
death. Few have been so much missed and so generally mourned. 

The Oswaya creelc was declared a public highway in I806-'7. In the fall of 
the latter year the constable of Ceres made return, under oath, to John C. 
Brevorst, justice of the peace, that there was no dam or weir upon said stream 
within the State of Pennsylvania. 

Of the readiness with which this county responded to the call of the govern- 
ment in. 1861 little need here be said. The exploits of the Bucktails, under 
Colonel, now General, Thomas L. Kane, and the names of the brave men who 
fell in defence of the Union, are too fresh in the memories of all, and too well 
preserved in the still recent annals of the war, to need repeating here. Suffice it 
to say that, in proportion to its population, from this county more men volun- 
teered and fewer were drafted, more went and fewer returned, than from any 
other county in the State, or probably in the Union. Maj^ their memory ever be 
green in the minds of the patriotic citizens not only of their native county, but 
of the great Commonwealth of which it is so very small a part. 

Smethport, the county seat, was laid out under the direction of William 
Bell, Thomas Smith, and John C. Brevorst, but no settlement was made there 
until 1812, when Captain Arnold Ilunter put up a log house within the town 
plot. Another house was built in 1812, but both were abandoned in 1814, and 
no nermanent settlement was made until 1822. About this time the first county 
com. nssioners were elected, and held their office in a small building located 
within the plot. Among the early settlers at Smethport were William Williams, 
Solomon Sartwell, Squire Manning, Dea. James Tajdor, Ira Oviatt, Gideon 
Irons, Isaac King; later came 0. J. Hamlin, Esq., and brothers, 0. R. Burnett, 
David Crow, Kichard Chadwick, Dr. George Darling, Ghordis and B. C. Corwin, 
Dr. W. Y. McCoy, et al ; and still later Ilenry Chapin, John Holmes, Nelson 
Richmond, A. S. Arnold, and others — active energetic business men and 
thoroughly identified with the history of the county. The first newspaper was 
published in March, 1832, by Hiram Payne. Recently new public buildings 
have been erected, and the town of Smethport has become a thriving and enter- 
prising borough. 



i 


M 



MERCER COUNTY. 

BY WILLIAM S. GARVIN AND SETH HOAQLAND, MERCER. 

ERCER county, as defined by act of Assembly, 12th of March, 1800, 
lies between Crawford on the north and Beaver on the south, on the 
line dividing Pennsylvania and Ohio. Length, thirty-two miles 
along the State line, and breadth, eastward, where it is bounded by 
Venango, twenty-eight miles — the south-east corner jutting on Butler count}^, the 
square points of both being cut off to make a fitting adjustment. It was named 
in honor of General Hugh Mercer, the young surgeon in the army of the Preten- 
der at the battle of Culloden, the companion of Washington in the Braddock 
campaign, and the indomitable American patriot who died from wounds received 
at the battle of Princeton, in 1777. 

The surface of the county is undulating, but little broken, and peculiarlj- well 
watered. It is covei-ed with springs and small streams running into the larger 
creeks. The creeks consist of the Big Shenango on the western side, which 
rises in Crawford county, Ncshannock in the centre, with heads all over the 
northern central, and Wolf creek on the eastern side. These streams all run in a 
southerly direction, and eventually are swallowed up in the Big Beaver, which 
empties itself into the Ohio river at Rochester. In addition to these there is the 
Little Shenango, that runs from east to west, across a considerable portion of the 
northern part of the county, rising five or sis miles east of the central line drawn 
from south to north, that empties itself into the Big Shenango, a little above 
Greenville, and also Sandy creek, that takes its rise in Crawford county, and run- 
ning diagonally through the north-east quarter of the county, to the south-east, 
enters Yenango county, and empties itself into the Allegheny river about twelve 
miles below Franklin. Sandy lake, a sheet of water about a mile and a half lon<y, 
and a half mile wide, very deep in the centre, discharges its surplus water into 
Sandy creek. 

The character of its general surface, the underlying limestone throughout its 
southern half, the bountiful supply of living water, and richness of soil, when 
known, were well calculated to invite the enterprising and hardy settler to the 
task of subduing its forests and making independent homes for themselves, with 
the hope that it would eventually become the foremost agricultural county in this 
part of the State. Their anticipations were not disappointed, for it is now not 
only a great agricultural, but a heavy and prosperous mining and iron count}'. 

Although declared a county, by act of Assembly in 1800, for all practical 
purposes it constituted a part of Crawford until February, 1804, when the first 
and second courts were held at the house of Joseph Hunter, situated on Mill 
creek, on the mill property near Mercer now owned by the Hon. William 
Stewart, in February and May of that year. The commission of Hon. Jesse 
Moore, as president judge of the circuit composed of the counties of Beaver, 

931 



932 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Butler, Mercer, Crawford, and Erie, was read ; also the commissions of Alexander 
Brown and Alexander Wriglit as judges for Mercer count3'. The various com- 
missions of John Findley (who was the eldest son of the historic William Find- 
le}^ that was so prominent in Congress in the support of Tliomas Jefferson), as 
prothonotar}', clerk of the courts, etc., was also read ; so also, that of William 
B^-ers as sheriff, James Braden as coroner, and John W. Hunter as deputy pro- 
secuting attorney. The sheriff and coroner, as well as a board of county com- 
missioners, consisting of Robert Bole, Andrew Denniston, and Thomas llobb, it 
is presumed were elected in October, 1803. 

The attorneys admitted to practice at the first court were John W. Hunter, 
Joseph Shannon, C. S. Sample, S. B. Foster, A. W. Foster, Ralph Marlin, Ed- 
ward Work, Patrick Farrcll}', William Ayres, Henry Baldwin, and Steel Sample. 
The two Fosters, Farrellj', Ayres, Baldwin, and Steel Sample, all afterwards 
turned out to be men of mark and abilit}', and forty and fifty 3'ears back from 
this writing it was a rich treat to liear the old men of that day recite the practical 
jokes, stratagems, and anecdotes of which they were the perpetrators. At the 
second term of court, held in May, the commission of William Araberson, as an 
additional judge for Mercer count}-, was read. This gave three associate judges. 
The writer of this, who, as a little bo}', occasionally dropped into the court 
house, along between 1814 and 1820, was indelibly impressed Avith the grand 
dignit}^ of the president judge. He Avas a heav}-, solemn-looking man, retaining 
the costume of the old style gentleman — small clothes, shoe-buckles, knee- 
buckles, bald head, but hair long behind and done up in a cue, and head and 
hair and collar of the black coat covered with a white powder sprinkled thereon. 
He has since seen the Supreme Court of the United States in session. The 
black gowns of the judges sitting in a row, the low colloquial tone in which 
causes are argued, and the quietness enforced, certainly give it a very dignified 
aspect, but still there was lacking the grand old powdered head and cue that 
gave Judge Moore the advantage in solemn and imposing dignit}'. 

The first grand jury that assembled in the county consisted of Hugh 
Hamilton, Joseph McEwen, Thomas Scott, James Waugh, William Welsh, 
James Denniston, John Alexander, Cyrus Beckwitli, Daniel Kelly, William 
Pangburn. John Grace, Duncan Carmichael, Robert Moore, William Nicholson, 
John Larimer, Alexander McCracken, James Montgomery, Jacob Loutzenhizer, 
Alexander Beans, and Joseph Smith, all of whom have long since paid the great 
debt of nature, but most of whom are yet alive in the generations that have 
followed and still reside in the county. 

The land on which Mercer, the shire town, was located, being ver^'- near the 
centre of the count}', consisted of two hundred acres, presented by John Hoge, 
of Washington, Pennsylvania, who was the owner of large tracts in the vicinity. 
The trustees to lay out the town and dispose of the lots were John Findley, 
William Mortimore, and "Little Bill}'" McMillan, so designated to distinguish 
him from a larger man of the same name. It was with the funds arising from 
the sale of these' lots that the first court house, standing in the centre of the 
public square, was built. On the 19th of May, 1807, John Chambers, John 
Leech, and William McMillan, the then county commissioners, contracted with 
Joseph Smith and John McCurdy for the building thereof, for the sum of 



MERCER COUNTY. 933 

$7, 11 6. It was a square brick building, two stories high, with wings for the 
oflflces. In 1840 there was an addition put to it to get better office accommoda- 
tions, at a cost of about $2,000, and the whole was burnt to the ground in 18G6, 
after which the present beautiful and substantial structure was erected, at the 
cost of $98,000. The first court house and jail, however, was a log structure on 
the ground now occupied by the First National Bank, the lower story for a jail 
being built of squared logs let down flat and dove-tailed at the corners, and the 
court room above, which Avas reached by stairs on the outside of the building. 
Until this construction was ready for prisoners, the county prison was a room in 
the house of James Braden, which the commissioners rented and fitted up for 
that purpose. 

At this time there were but six townships in the county, to wit : Salem, 
Pj'matuning, Neshannock, Wolf Creek, Cool Spring, and Sandy Creek. In the 
journal of the county commissioners, at a sitting on July 1, 1805, it is entered 
that R. Bole, A. Denniston, and E. Sankc}^, contracted with David Watson, Jr., 
to run the lines of the townships agreeably to a plan or order of the court, at 

cents per mile, and after this the names of Delaware, West Salem, 

Shenango, Lackawaiinock, Mahoning, Slippery Rock, Sandy Lake, Fi'ench Creek, 
and Springfield, were added to the list of townships, and Mercer, in virtue of 
being the count}'' town, was given a separate existence. With the exception of 
Slippery Rock and Wolf Creek, which were accommodated to the cut-off corner 
adjoining Butler county, all townships were now eight miles long from south to 
north, and seven miles wide. This continued until Hickory was carved out of 
Shenango and Pymatuning in 1831, since which all the others have been carved 
up so that there are now (besides losing a fourth of territory to go to the make- 
up of Lawrence county) no less than thirty-one townships and twelve organized 
boroughs in the county of Mercer. 

The traveled route through north-western Pennsylvania was that established 
bj^ -the French in 1752 — water communication up the Allegheny river to the 
mouth of French creek, then up that stream to Waterford, and from thence by 
an opened road to Erie. It was this route that was followed by General Wash- 
ington in 1753, when sent by Governor Dinwiddle, of Virginia, to demand from 
the French an explanation of their designs in establishing militarj' posts on the 
waters of the Ohio. This route left Mercer county entirely to the west, and 
may explain why settlements in Venango, Crawford, and Erie, which it traversed, 
preceded those formed in Mercer. There were no settlements made in it until 
after Wayne's victory over the Indians, and the peace with them that followed 
in 1795. After this, in the fall of 1795, the surveyors began their labors, follow- 
ed closely by the first settlers. Benjamin Stokely, who belonged to the first 
party of surveyors, remained alone when the otliers returned to their homes, and 
building himself a little cabin on the banks of the Cool Spring, was the first 
white man that spent a winter in the country. There was an encampment of 
two or three hundred Indians close to him, and he and they became very good 
friends. His youngest son, Bayne Stokely, now occupies the farm on which the 
father thus commenced the settlement. The wife of John Fell, and the maternal 
grandmother of the present Judge Trunkey, of Venango county, during lifetime, 
always claimed to be the first white female that wintered in the county. She was 



934 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

the sister of the late Andrew Campbell, of Greenville, and when a little girl 
came with her father, who settled on the Shenango, leaving for a time the mother 
and other members of his family behind until he could prepare a home for them. 

Among the first settlers along the Shenango were the grandfathers of the 
present generations of the Quinb3'S, Budds, Carnes, Beans, McKnights, McGrana- 
lians, Campbells, Hoaglands, Mossmans, Leeches, Pells, Hunters, and Christys. 
In the Neshannock and Mahoning regions, the Byers, Sankeys, Fishers, Wat- 
sons, Chenowiths, and Pearsons made their first settlement. In the centre the 
Stokelys, Zahnisers, Garvins, Alexanders, Findleys, Junkins, Dennistons, McCul- 
loughs. Pews, Rambos, Coulsons, and Hosacks. In the south-east corner the 
Roses, McMillans, Breckenridges, McCoys, and Courtneys. In the Sandy Lake 
and French creek region the Gordons, McCrackens, De Frances, Carnahans, 
Browns, Carmichaels, Carrols, Kilgores, Riggs, Condits, and McCloskeys. In 
the way of startling adventure, these men were not history makers. Their mis- 
sion was to open up a wilderness for the use of civilized man, and secure to them- 
selves and posterity comfortable homes. In striving to do this they underwent 
many privations. It took time to open out fields and get them under cultivation, 
so that bread could be got without transportation on horse-back from Pittsburgh 
or the settlements in Washington county, and before they could provide properly 
for the keeping of their stock over winter. The first stock was only wintered 
by the felling of maple and linwood trees to enable the cattle to browse on the 
buds. The foi-est then afforded them bear meat, venison, and turkey in abun- 
dance, but their appetites tired of this as the only food, and " hog and hominy," 
diversified with mush and milk, was the first change they could hope to make in 
their diet. Wolves, panthers, and bcai-s were by no means scarce, but as other 
game was plenty, these animals did not indulge in the more dangerous chase of 
man. A wolf scalp then brought a premium of eight dollars out of the county 
treasur}'-, and was a source of profit to quite a number of hunters. 

The first newspaper printed in the county was the Western Press, established 
in Mercer, by Jacob Hcrrington, in 1811, as a Democratic organ. It is still in 
existence, and is now published by William S. and E. L. Garvin, the first of 
whom entered the ofllce as an apprentice in 1819. In addition to which, there 
is the Dii^patch, in Mercer; the Times, Herald, and Eagle, in Sharon ; the Aduer- 
User, in Sharpsville ; the Advance and Argus, in Greenville ; the Sun, in James- 
town ; and the News, in Sandy Lake — ten weekly newspapers in all. 

In the war of 1812, the people of Mercer county were frequently called upon 
to give their aid in the defence of Erie, where the fleet of Commodore Perry 
was being built. On these alarms, which were about as frequent as a vessel of 
the enemy hove in sight in the lake offing, the whole county would be aroused 
by runners in a da}', and in a very few hours most of the able-bodied male popu 
lation, whether belonging to a volunteer compan}^ or the militia, would be on 
their march to Erie. On one occasion the news came to Mercer on a Sunday, 
while the Rev. S. Tait "vyas preaching in the court house. The sermon was 
suspended, the startling news announced from the pulpit, the dismissing bene- 
diction given, and immediate preparations for the march commenced. On the 
next day the military force of the county was well on its way to Erie. At 
another time the news of a threatened invasion came in the middle of the grain 



MERCER COUNTY. 935 

harvest. This made no difference, the response was immediate. It was on this 
occasion that Mr. John Findley dropped the sickle in his tracks in the wheat 
field, hastened to his house, and seizing his gun, with such provisions as his 
wife had at hand to put in his haversack, started on his way to the defence of 
his country. On his return, six weeks afterwards, the sickle was found by him 
where it had been dropped. It was on one of these occasions that but a single 
man was left in the county town — Cunningham Sample, an old lawj'er, com- 
pletely unmanned by age and obesity. It then became the duty of the young 
boj^s left at home, among whom was John Davitt, now of Pittsburgh, Walter 
I. Hunter, and others, to look to the wants of the women and little folks 
of the community. Wood had to be chopped for their fires, grain milled, 
potatoes dug, etc., and thus did all contribute to the defence of their country. 
This was the spirit of the Mercer county people in the war of 1812. A rifle 
company, the Mercer Blues, under the command of Captain John Junkin, 
volunteered its services for six months under General Harrison, and was at 
Fort Meigs in the winter of 1813. Their time expiring before the expected 
seige by the British forces under General Proctor had commenced, on the 
occasion of the Virginians, under General Leftwick, leaving the fort, they were 
among the Pennsylvania brigade that re-volunteered to remain until General 
Harrison was able to relieve them. Afterwards a number of them re-volun- 
teered again and remained to participate in the successful defence against the 
approaching siege of the enem}'. 

It took time to gel public roads opened through the county, so that pack- 
horses could be done away with and wagons substituted. The first clay turn- 
pike constructed was between Mercer and Meadville, about 1816. This was 
soon followed by a road from Butler to Mercer. The facilities for marketing 
the productions of the county were very inadequate. A large portion of the rye 
raised was turned into whiskey to render it portable, and in the winters, this, 
along with pork, deer skins, and furs, were loaded up in sleds and sent to Erie 
to barter for fish and salt. The same articles were also sent in a similar manner 
to Bellefonte to trade for iron, nails, and castings. Groceries and dry goods 
were principally obtained from Pittsburgh. It was no uncommon thing in those 
da^'s to trade a bushel of wheat for a pound of coflTee. Butter sold at a regular 
price of six and one-fourth cents per pound. It was about 1816 that tha driving* 
of cattle was commenced by Jacob Herrington, and a trade in horses also 
established. Good milch cows sold for eight and ten dollars, and a horse that 
would now bring one hundred and seventy-five dollars, could then have been 
bought at sixty or seventy dollars. This condition continued until 1836, when 
tlie construction of the Erie extension of the Pennsylvania canal to Erie, along 
the valley of the Shenango, on the west side of the county, was commenced, 
which constituted a new era in the commerce of the county, letting it out of the 
woods, as it were, and bringing it into connection with Pittsburgh on the south 
and the lakes on the north. In due time railroads were established and the 
canal abandoned. The mining of coal in the Slienango valley, and the large 
iron establishments erected therein, soon drew a large population of consumers, 
affording the farmers a foir market for their surplus productions ; and when 
Drake discovered a comparatively easy and cheap mode of reaching the petro- 



S,U HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

leuin of Venango county, on its eastern side, a fiesli impetus was given to tlie 
biisiness of Mercer count}', for here was a new marliet created by the rush to the 
oil regions that was greedy for her agricultural products. There are now four 
prosperous agricultural societies in the count}-, to wit: the West Penns3dvauia, 
with large grounds at Mercer; the Shenango Yallc}'^, which has beautiful and 
spacious grounds at Greenville ; the Mercer County Societ}^, that has fine 
grounds near Stoneboro, on the shore of Sandy Lake ; and the Jamestown 
Society. There are various farmers' clubs, who hold public sessions for the 
discussion of agricultural questions ; and as for Grangers, the county is full of 
them. 

Lawrence county was created in 1849, taking from the original Mercer 
county a little more than a fourth of her population, and nearly a fourth of her 
territory. The town of New Castle, which was five years older than that of 
Mei'cer; of New Bedford, started in 1813; of Ilarlansburg, in 1811; of Edin- 
burg, in 1821 ; of Wilmington, in 1824; of Ilillsburg, in 1825 ; and of Pulaski, 
in 1836, were all included in this partition. 

Beginning in the south-west corner of the count}', on the line of the Erie and 
Pittsburgh railroad, we first have West-Middlesex. It has one rolling mill, 
four furnaces, and a number of manufactories of various kinds. It is an incor- 
porated borough. 

Wheatland is about three and a half miles north of Middlesex, and was laid 
out and built up by Wood & Sons, of Pittsburgh, on a property purchased from 
the heirs of George Schilling, and on which the}' erected what is said to be the 
largest railroad mill in the United States, as well as four furnaces. It was 
incorporated as a borough in 1870. 

SnARON is two miles above, and lies directly west of the county town, adjoin- 
ing the dividing line between Ohio and Pennsylvania. Until 1836 it was a small 
cross-road village — a tavern, a country store, a blacksmith shop, with one or two 
tailors and as many shoemakers. An appropriation from the State Legislature 
for the extension of the Pennsylvania canal to Erie, in 1836, induced General 
Joel B. Curtis, of Mercer, to purchase a tract of coal land in the immediate 
neighborhood, with a view to a large coal trade with Erie and other places on the 
lake. The peculiar value of this coal was then unknown, but experiments 
'followed, and it was soon ascertained that it had superior qualities for all iron 
purposes, and could be successfully used in furnaces without cokeing, getting a 
metal but little inferior to that produced by the use of charcoal. The building of 
furnaces in the neighborhood followed — and a strike among the puddlers of 
Wheeling and Pittsburgh enabled General Curtis to form a combination with 
many of them to build a rolling mill at Sharon. This led to a further combination 
with parties that had got hold of the Lake Superior iron ores, by which the 
interests of both were expected to be advanced ; and thus it was that the Lake 
Superior ores were introduced into the market, the consumption of which has 
grown up to the stupendous proportions enjoyed at the present time. Sharon is 
now a thriving city, with a great deal of solid wealth. It has two large iron 
mills, besides several furnaces and other large manufactories, with a population 
of near seven thousand. General J. B. Curtis was its real founder, sustained by 
T. J. Porter, George Boyce, Matthew Murdoch, C. G. Carver, M. C. Trout, and a 



II 



MERCER COUNTY. 937 

few others. Poi'ter and Boyce, far advanced in life, are the only ones of the 
party that are yet living. 

SiiARrsviLLE, which lies about two miles north of Sharon, ma\' be said to 
have been lathered by the late General Pierce, who purchased the gi'ound on 
which it stands from Colonel Thomas Scott, the present president of the Penn- 
sylvania railroad company. It has near fifteen hundred inhabitants, seven 
furnaces, and numerous manufactories. The finest and most costly residence in 
the county is located here, built by General Pierce a short time before his death, 
Sharpsville, by the many railroads running into and through it, has peculiar 
facilities in the way of travel and trade. It is an incorporated borough. 

Clarksville, four miles north of Sharpsville, was laid out in 1832, by 
William Clark, and is an incorporated borough. It has not grown since the 
abandonment of the canal, and being more than a mile from the railroad, has not 
reaped the advantages derived by other towns on its line. 

Transfer is a little village that has grown up at the point of transfer of 
freight and passengers between the Erie and Pittsburgh, and Atlantic and Great 
Western railroads, which for a distance of about three miles run side by side. It 
is not incorporated, but remains a part of Pymatuning township. 

SiiENANGO is the next village north of Transfer, at the junction of the 
Shenango and Allegheny railroad with the Atlantic and Great Western. It is a 
small town, but is thriving. It is here that the coal and oil brought from Butler 
county b}' the Shenango and Allegheny railroad is transferred to the cars of the 
Atlantic and Great Western, made necessary by the diflTerence in the gauges of 
the two roads. 

Greenville is the second town in population and wealth in the county, and 
is two miles north of Shenango. It was laid out in 1819 by Thomas Bean and 
William Scott, on the west side of the Shenango. Numerous additions have been 
made to it on the east side, where the principal part of the town lies. It was 
incorporated in 1836, is a beautiful town, and contains an energetic and enter- 
prising people. An excellent water power was utilized in the construction of the 
canal through this place, which has been employed in driving the machinery of a 
large flouring mill and various other manufactories. It has two banks, two news- 
papers, and a rolling mill near town. Population, over three thousand. Thiel 
College, the principal educational institution in the county, is located here. It 
is the only Lutheran college west of the mountains in Pennsjdvania. 

Jamestown is six miles north of Greenville, at the crossing of the Erie and 
Pittsburgh railroad with that of the Franklin branch of the Lake Shore road. 
It was laid out by James Campbell, in 1853, and is a very prosperous little 
borough. 

These comprise the towns along the Erie and Pittsburgh railroad, in the 
Shenango vallej', in Mercer county. Following tlie Fi'anklin Branch of the Lake 
Shore road south-east of Jamestown, IIadley's Station and Clark's Mill con- 
stitute two thriving villages. 

Stoneboro, an incorporated town, standing on the shores of Sandy Lake, was 
laid out and built up by the railroad and coal company, the mines of which are 
in the immediate vicinity. It is a flourishing place, with a population of about 
one thousand. As a summer resort it has no mean claim — a fine hotel, a chaly- 



938 HISTOET OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

beate spring, boating on the lake, etc., enable summer guests seeking rest and 
recuperation to enjoy themselves comfortabl3^ Recently two immense structures 
have been erected for the storage of ice got off the lake, which is peculiarly clear 
and firm. 

Sandy Lake is the next and last town on this road in Mercer county. It is 
but a mile from Stoneboro, on Big Sandy creek, where the outlet of the lake 
enters its waters. It is an incorporated borough, with a population of about 
eight hundred and fifty. The tract on which it is located was settled by Alex- 
ander Brown, who was one of the first associate judges of the county, about the 
year 1800, and was laid out by his son, Hon. Thomas J. Brown, another associate 
judge, in 1849. The splendid water power on the creek contributed very much to 
give it a fair start, and the building of the Franklin branch of the Lake Shore 
railroad, gave it a further impetus that has since driven it along in the road of 
prosperity in an eminent degree. 

Starting from Shenango, on the line of the Shenango and Allegheny road, 
eight miles hence, we have first the village of Fredonia, now seeking incorpora- 
tion ; then five miles further on, Oakland, near Mercer ; then, five more miles, 
Pardoe's Station, a mining town ; then four miles, and we reach Pinegrove — 
all thriving and prosperous villages. Running across the northern range of 
townships, to the east of Jamestown, we have the incorporated borough of Siieak- 
LEYVILLE, founded by George Sheakley, in 1820. This is on the old turnpike 
between Mercer and Meadville. Population, four hundred. East of this, the 
village of New Vernon, the little borough of New Lebanon, and the village of 
MiLLEDGEViLLE. Going south from Sandy Lake, on the eastern side of the 
county, along the drainage of Wolf creek, are the villages of Hendersonville, 
MiLLBROOK, Pinegrove (on the Shenango and Allegheny railroad), and North 
Liberty. Between this latter place and Mercer, on the Butler turnpike, is located 
the villages of LouDON and Blacktown. On the road from Mercer to Harmony, 
in Butler county, stands the village of Leesburg, six miles from the county 
town. On the road from Mercer to Middlesex, midway, is the village of 
Greenfield, commenced in 1841 ; and a mile farther on, the little borough of 
Bethel. The village of Charleston, on the road between Mercer and Sharon ; 
Delaware Grove, on the Greenville road ; Fairview, on the road to Sheak- 
leyviile, and Jackson Centre, on the road to Franklin, each about six miles 
from Mercer, comprise the balance of the villages of the county. 

Mercer, the county town, was laid out in 1803, and now has a population of 
near three thousand. Until the construction of the Shenango and Allegheny, and 
the New Castle and Franklin railroads it was insular from the great traveled routes, 
and having nothing but the trade of the surrounding agricultural population, and 
the little advantage from the holding of the county courts, did not prosper so 
rapidly as Sharon and Greenville ; but since it has got two railroads crossing 
each other almost at right angles, has grown very rapidl}', and for the last year or 
two has perhaps been the most prosperous town in the count}'. It has a number 
of thriving manufactories of varii us kinds. One of the schools established by 
the State for the maintenance and education of the soldiers' orphans is estab- 
lished here, having over three hundred pupils. 



MIFFLIN COUNTY. 




[ With acknowledgments to iSilas Wright and C. W. Walters.] ' 

IFFLIN county was formed from Cumberland and Northumberland, 
by the act of September 19th, 1189. It was named in honor of 
General Thomas Mifflin, at that time President of the Supreme Exe- 
cutive Council of the State. The county contains about 370 square 
miles, and is irregular in shape, presenting indentations and projections in its 
outline, some of which are due to alterations made in n91 and 1792, and by the 
formation of Centre and 
Juniata counties in 1800 
and 1831. 

Iron ore of the best qua- 
lity abounds in the county. 
That found in the K)shico- 
quillas valley consists of 
the brown pyrated perox- 
ide, occurring in compact 
masses, hematite, or of the 
stalactite structure, com- 
monly called pipe ore. 
Large quantities of ore are 
shipped from Anderson's 
station, on the Pennsylva- 
nia railroad. In Lime- 
stone ridge, extending 
from Kishicoquillas creek, 
facing the Juniata, under- 
lying limestone, is found a 
hard, white compact sand- 
stone, almost purely sili- 
cious, much used in the 
manufacture of glass. This 
sand is so compact that it 
I'equires the blast to loosen 

before it can be mined, but after being exposed to the action of the air for a 
short time, it crumbles under the pressure of the hand. Between Lewistown 
and McVeytown sand works have been constnictod, which mine, in the aggre 
gate, nearly 20,000 tons annually. The material is shipped out of the county 
to be manufactured. 

In the limestone formations of this county quite a number of caves have been 
discovered, notable among which are Alexander's, in Kishicoquillas" valle}^, which 

939 




MIFFLIN COUNTY COURT nOUSE, LEWISTOWN. 

[From a Photograph by J. M. Weimer, Lewistown.] 



940 SIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

abounds in stalactites and stalagmites, preserving in midsummer the ice formed 
in the winter. Naginey's, in the same valley, along the line of the Mifflin and 
Centre County railroad, near Milro}', is the most spacious and widely celebrated 
in the county. It was discovered by Charles Naginey while quarrying lime- 
stone. It is much visited in the sumrher season. Ilanawalt's cave near 
McYcytown, is of vast dimensions, and contains calcareous concretions. Crude 
saltpetre has been obtained in it. Bevin's cave is on the summit of Limestone 
ridge. An Indian mound near Lewistown, containing bones, arrow heads, etc., 
was destroyed when the canal was made. Within the limits of the countj^ are 
several celebrated springs, of which Logan's, near Reedsville, is most widely 
known. Mifflin spring, generally known as Bridge's spring, about half a mile 
from Painterville Station, on the Sunbury and Lewistown railroad, is a mineral 
spring recently discovered of undoubted medicinal virtues. A partial analysis 
shows the presence of ingredients similar to the waters of the more famous 
Avon springs. 

Two prominent Indian characters, whose names have been perpetuated in this 
locality, deserve a passing notice prefatory to an historical resume of the 
county. We allude to Logan, the Mingo chief, and Kishicoquillas. The former 
is especially distinguished in American annals. Logan was the son of Shikellimy, 
an Iroquois chief, who figured conspicuously in the Indian history of Pennsylvania. 
He resided, until 1771, near a large spring now bearing his name, in the Kishico- 
quillas valley, six miles from Lewistown. Removing to the West, he located on 
the Ohio river at the mouth of Yellow creek, about thirty miles above Wheeling, 
and was joined there by his relatives and some Cayugas from Fort Augusta, 
wlio recognized him as the'w chief. Logan's whole family was afterwards 
barbarously murdered on the Ohio, above Wheeling, by some white savages, with- 
out a shadow of provocation. It was not long after that act that his consent was 
asked by a messenger, with wampum, to a trefttj^ with Lord Dunmore, on the 
Scioto, in 1774, when he returned the reply so familiar to every American child. 
Old Kishicoquillas had his wigwam near Buchanan's cabin, with whom he was 
alwa^-s on friendly terms. Some of his followers are said to have giA'cn notice 
to the Buchanans of the expected attack on Fort Granville, and they fled with 
their families and cattle to Carlisle. But little is pi-eserved relating to him, save 
his name, in that of the beautiful valley in Mifflin county. He was a chief of the 
Shawanese, well advanced in years, when the Burns, Maclays, Millikens, and 
McNitts came into the valley. 

The first settlers came from the Conococheague, by Avay of Aughwick. They 
were Arthur Buchanan, a brave backwoodsman, his two sons, and three other 
families, all of whom were Scotch-Irish. They encamped on the west side of 
Kishicoquillas creek, near its mouth, opposite the Indian town on il.e present 
site of east Lewistown, when Buchanan, who was the leader, proceeded to nego- 
tiate for land. At first he found the Indians unwilling, but meeting with the 
chief whom he christened Jacobs, from his resemblance to a burly Dutchman in 
Cumberland county, he succeeded in obtaining the land, now the principal part 
of Lewistown, west of the creek, extending up the river. This was in 1754. To 
this favored spot, this year and the forepart of the next, 1755, he induced so 
many persons to come to his settlement, that the Indians who adhered to Jacobs 




LBWISTOWN NARROW,-, PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD. 

941 



942 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

became dissatisfied, destroyed their town, and left. The council-house of the 
Indians was on the east side of the creek, opposite Buchanan's 6abin, and a line 
of wiofwams belonging to a number of different tribes stretched to the north 
along the stream. The destruction of the town so suddenl}^, and the departure 
of the Indians without a reason given, caused great fears of danger from their 
return ; accordingly they determined upon a fort for mutual protection. This 
fort was built one mile above Lewistown at a spring near the river, and called 
Fort Granville. The spring and site of this fort were dug away when the canal 
was made. The fort was built in the fall of 1755. 

The settlers were not molested until the spring of 1'756, when roving tribes 
on the war path made their appearance. They lived principally within the fort 
on account of the frequency of these marauding parties. Lieutenant Armstrong, 
with a militia force from Cumberland county, arrived in season to protect the 
settlers while reaping their grain, but soon after his arrival, learning of the ex- 
posed condition of the people in Tuscarora valley, he sent part of his force, 
under Lieutenant Falkner, to protect them while harvesting. This was in the early 
part of July. On the 30th of that month, Captain Edward Ward, who commanded 
the fort, with a well organized force in pay of the Province, detailed all but 
twenty-four men, with himself in command, to go and protect the settlers in 
Sherman's valley while harvesting, leaving Lieutenant Armstrong in command. 
The enemy learning of the departure of the troops, appeared in a force of " not 
less than a hundred and twenty," and assaulted the fort during the afternoon and 
evening of the 1st of August. About midnight they succeeded in setting the 
fort on fire, and Lieutenant Armstrong, exposing himself in trying to put out the 
flames, was shot by the Indians. There were twenty-two soldiers, three women, 
and several children taken prisoners, who were compelled to make forced marches 
to Kittanning, where they witnessed the cruel sacrifice of one of the soldiers 
named Turner. He was tied to a stake, and heated gun barrels were run through 
his body. After three hours of every torture that savage vengeance could invent, 
he was scalped, and an Indian boy held up who cut open his head with a hatchet. 
The fate of many of the other prisoners taken at Fort Granville was supposed to 
have been similar to Turner's, for they were never heard of afterwards. 

In 1169, the year after the ti-eaty of Fort Stanwix, the whites returned to 
the Granville settlement, and some of them commenced exploring the Kishico- 
quillas valle3^ Judge William Brown was the first settler of the valley. The 
Brattons, Hollidays, Junkinses, Wilsons, Rosses, Stackpoles, and others, made 
an early settlement in the south-western part of the count3\ Of these the 
Brattons gave name to one of the townships. The early settlers were nearly all 
Scotch-Irish. The vallej'S filled in rapidly, and during the eventful scenes in 
the subsequent history of the State, Milllin county took a prominent part. 

In the 3'ear 1189 a dispute ensued between Mifflin and Huntingdon counties, 
relative to the western line of division between them. A great deal of bad 
feeling was engendered, but fortunately there was no blood lost. In 1791 the 
harmony of the county was disturbed by the refusal of Judge Br3'son, who had 
been recently appointed an associate judge of the new count3', refusing to com- 
mission two colonels who had been elected by their regiments. The judge had, 
a short time previous, been brigade inspector, and the offended friends of the 



MIFFLIN COUNTY. 



943 



officers -were determined that he should not enjoy the honors of his station. 
Much excitement ensued, but the disturbance was finally quelled. 

On the 5th of November, 1829, the Pennsylvania canal was opened, and the 
first packet boat proceeded from Lewistown to Mifflintown. It was the occasion 
of much rejoicing. The construction of this great improvement gave a powerful 
impetus to the development of the count}'. Quite a number of thriving towns 
sprung up along the new route of traffic, manufactures were established, and 
business interests were greatly stimulated. 

In the second war with Great , Britain, Captain Henderson's company of 
Lewistown responded to the call of Governor Snyder. A single member of 





^^^^^€.^ 







. DISTANT VI KW OF THE BOROUGH OF LEWISTOWN. 
[From a Photograph by J. M. M'elmer, Lewistown ) 

the company survives. In the war with Mexico, there went forward to that 
distant country the company of Captain William H. Irwin. It left Lewistown 
for the seat of war, March 26, IS'lT. Twenty-five of the members never returned. 
The company served until the end of the war, and in addition to fights with 
guerrillas on the march to Puebla, it participated in the battles of Contreras, 
Chcrubusco, Molino del Rey, Chepultcpec, and City of Mexico. In June pre- 
ceding, it was engaged in the fights at the National Bridge and Passa la Ilaya. 
Captain Irwin having been severely wounded at the battle of Molino del Pvcy, 
returned to the States in the fall of 1847, after which the company was under 
the command of Lieutenant T. F. McCoy. In the war for the Union, one of the 
first companies to march to the relief of the National Capital was Captain 
Selheimer's, the Logan Guards, referred to in the General History. Other compa- 



944 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

nics and dctacliments followed, and during the entire four 3'ears of that terrible 
civil conflict, Mifllin county furnished men and means to crush out rebellion and 
secession. 

Lewistown, the county seat of Mifllin, is located on the left bank of the 
Juniata riA'er, at tlie mouth of Kishicoquillas creels. The town is pleasantly 
situated on elevated ground. It was laid out in HOO by General James Potter, 
Judge William Brown, and Major Montgomery, owners of the town plot, and 
christened in memory of a celebrated island of the Hebrides group west of Scot- 
land called Lewis. It was incorporated February 6, 1811. Two railroads pass 
through the town, the Lewistown and Sunbury railroad, connecting with the 
Pennsylvania at LewistOAvn station, and the Northern Central railroad at Selins- 
grove ; the other, the Mifllin and Centre County railroad running to Milro}^, in 
Mifllin county. The State canal passes through the town, and the Pennsyl- 
vania railroad on the opposite side of the river. Next to Huntingdon, it is 
the most important and populous town on the Juniata river. The borough is 
lighted with gas, and supplied with pure spring water. It contains two furnaces 
belonging to the Glamorgan iron company, two tanneries, boiler works, three 
flour mills, besides other mechanical and manufacturing industries. Three news- 
papers are here issued — the Gazette, True Democrat, and Democratic Sentinel. 
It contains a brick court house, stone prison, and a large public academ}-. The 
borough and vicinity has been visited by several fearful calamities. On the 4th 
of July, 1874, a terrific tornado swept over the town with irresistible ftuy, pros- 
trating buildings, destroying the bridge over the Juniata, crushing the Glamor- 
gan furnace No. 2, as if its stone walls had been paper, and spreading desolation 
ever3'where, leaving scarcely a property without some slight damage, and destroy- 
ing a number of lives. The ice freshet of 29th of December, 1874, carried away 
the trestle bridge erected after the destruction of the one by the tornado. On 
Friday, February 26, 1875, the new county bridge was destroyed by the ice. This 
structure had only been in possession of the county authorities since the January 
court preceding. 

McYeytown, twelve miles west of Lewistown, is located on the left bank of the 
river, in Oliver township. The railroad station is on the right bank of the river, 
from which a bridge crosses some distance east of the station to Mattawana 
island, and from the island another spans the northern channel to the town. This 
town Avas formerly called Waynesburg. It was incorporated as a borough April 
9, 1833. 

Newton Hamilton, formerly Hamiltonville, known in Provincial times as 
Muhlenberg, is twenty-two miles west of Lewistown by railroad, and twenty-one 
by the turnpike. In the spring of 1828, this town contained only four log 
houses. Owing to the impetus given by the construction of the canal, which 
passed through it, the town increased rapidly. The grounds of the Juniata 
Valley camp-meeting association, belonging to the M-*' odist church, are 
located near this place. Newton Hamilton was incorpu..,ucd as a borough 
April 12, 1833. 

Freedom Forge, on the line of the Mifllin and Centre County railroad, is 
occupied pi'incipally by operatives in the extensive iron works at that place. 
Yeagertown, in Derry township, is on the Lewistown and Bellefonte turnpike. 



MIFFLIN COUNTY. 



945 



It is occupied chiefl}'^ by operatives in the celebrated axe manufactory of the 
Messrs. Mann, located there. Reedsville is in Brown township, formerly 
known as Brown's Mills. Milroy is the terminus of the Mifllin and Centre 
County railroad, nine miles from Lewistown, in Armagli township. From it the 
traveler has a full view of the " Seven mountains,'' the ascent of which com- 
mences about a mile from the town. Belleville, Union township, eight miles 
west of Reedsville, is in Kishicoquillas valley. Not far from it is the village of 
Meciianicsville. Allenville is seven miles west of Belleville, in Menno 
township. It contains a mill and a woolen manufactory. 




THE UNITED STATES MINT AT PHILADELPHIA. 



3k 




MONROE COUNTY. 

BY WILLIAM S. REES, STROUDSBURQ. 
IWith acknowledgments to L. W. Brodhead.'] 

N the first day of April, 1835, the county of Monroe was formed. It 
was enacted " that the townships of Ross, Chestnut Hill, Toby- 
hanna, Pokono, Hamilton, Stroud, and Smithfield, north of the Blue 
mountain, and Northampton county, together with the townships of 
Middle Smithfield, Price, and Coolbaugh, in Pike county, shall be, and the same 
are hereby declared to be, erected into a separate county, to be called Monroe." 
Bj' the same act, Moses W. Coolbaugh, Benjamin V. Bush, William Van 
Buskirk, Michael Shoemaker, and Joseph Track were appointed trustees to 
receive donations in real estate and money towards defraying the expenses of 
the lands and public buildings for the use of the county, and select a site 
therefor. Several ofi"ers were made them, but Stroudsburg was considered the 
most favorable location, and accordingly selected. The county was named in 
honor of the fifth President of the United States. In 1843, on the organization 
of Carbon county, the township of Penn Forest was taken from Monroe. With 
this exception, the limits of the county remain as when first named. 

The surface of Monroe county is generally mountainous, the greater portion 
of it being occupied b}'' the lofty and desolate ranges of the Pocono, and other 
sandstone ridges and spurs, underlying the coal formation. In the north-western 
part of the count}', on the head-branches of the Lehigh, lies an immense body of 
rather wet land, covered with a dense forest of pine. This place was called, by 
the forlorn fugitives from Wyoming, the Great Swamp, or the Shades of Death. 
The towering ridge of the Kittatinny mountain rises along the south-eastern 
boundary of the county, and would seem to shut it out from the world below 
were it not for the open doors of the far-famed Delaware Water gap, the Wind 
gap, and Smith's gap. Between this mountain and the Pocono are several 
subordinate parallel ranges, with long narrow valleys of the limestone and slate 
formations, exhibiting a striking contrast in their beauty and fertility to the 
rugged soil of the mountains. 

The county is well supplied with water-power for mills and other manufac- 
turing purposes. The Delaware washes a portion of the soutli-eastern boundary. 
Its tributaries are Bushkill, Mill creek, Marshall creek, Brodhead's or Analo- 
mink creek, with several large branches, and Cherry creek. The tributaries of 
the Lehigh are the Tobyhanna, several branches of Big creek, and the sources of 
the Aquanshicola creek. One of the branches of Tobyhanna rises in a small 
lake called Long Pond. 

Within the present limits of Monroe county there were several Indian 
villages. It was a portion of the lands of the Minisinks, and it was here that the 

946 



MONROE COUNTY. 947 

celebrated Delaware chief Teedyuscung long resided. He was born on the 
Pocono. No Indian warrior who trod the soil of Pennsylvania is more deserving 
of a place in history than that brave chieftain. He was the ablest of the aborigi- 
nes, and played a distinguished part during the border wars. 

The presumption is, the first settlement within the boundaries of the State 
of Pennsylvania was at Shawnee, in Monroe county, by the Low Dutch, or 
Hollanders. Reference has been made in the sketch of Pike county to the 
instructions of Surveyor-General Lukens to Samuel Preston, in regard to the 
early settlements above the Kittatinny mountains. In addition to what has 
been there stated, we learn that in 1130 the Provincial authorities appointed 
the famous surveyor, Nicholas Scull, as agent to go and investigate the facts 
concerning the settlement. John Lukens accompanied him. The narrative 
proceeds: "As they both understood and could talk Indian, they hired Indian 
guides, and had a fatiguing journey, there being then no white inhabitants in 
the upper part of Bucks or Northampton counties. That they had very great 
difficulty to lead their horses through the Water gap to Meenesink flats, which 
were all settled with Hollanders ; with several they could only be understood in 
Indian ; that Samuel Dupui told them that when the rivers were frozen he 
had a good road to Esopus from the Mine Hole, on the Mine road, some 
hundred miles ; that he took his wheat and cider there, for salt and necessaries ; 
and did not appear to have any knowledge or idea where the river ran, of the 
Philadelphia market, or being in the government of Pennsylvania. They were 
of opinion that the first settlement of Hollanders, in Meenesink, were many years 
older than William Penn's charter ; and as Samuel Dupui had treated them so 
well, they concluded to make a surve}^ of his claim, in order to befriend him if 
necessary. When they began to survey, the Indians gathered around ; an old 
Indian laid his hand on Nicholas Scull's shoulder and said, ' put up iron string, 
go home !' that they quit and returned." 

Dupui's house stood near the Delaware, about five miles east of Stroudsburg. 
He was a Huguenot, settled originally at Esopus, and came to the Minisink 
prior to 1125. He purchased a large portion of the level land in which the 
present town of Shawnee is situated, of the xMinsi Indians, in 1121, and likewise 
the two large islands in the Delaware — Shawano and Manwalamink. He subse- 
quently purchased the same property of William Allen in 1133. 

The oldest survey in the county was made in 1121, "of a tract of land 
situated near the Minnesink," for William Allen, of Philadelpliia. This land 
was at the Shawnee town alluded to. 

John Drake, Solomon Jennings, and John McMickle, took up the land now 
known as "Angle Swamp," in 1148, iin.l it was : hen called the "Big Meadow," 
and the run near, called Big Meadow run. xVlong the Brodhead's, or Analomink 
creek, from the Brodhead six hundred acre tract to near Spragueville, was the 
Proprietaries' Manor of fifteen hundred acres. General Robert Brown lived at 
the Brodhead place, on the six hundred acre tract. At Bushkill, James Hynd- 
shaw settled at an early day. Among the early settlers in Hamilton township 
were John McDowell, Philip Bossard, Conrad Bittenbender, and others. 

The Hillborns settled at an early day on the Brodhead's creek, near Wywamic 
mountain, and th*e Solidays about the same time settled on the south-west branch 



948 HISTOB Y OF P ENNS YL VANIA. 

of the same stream, near its junction with the main creek, and were either killed 
or captm-ed by the Indians. Price and Wissimer settled further up the Brod- 
head's creek, now in Price and Barrett townships, and, I believe, were never 
molested by the Indians. Russell settled on the flats below, now Bartonsville, 
and John Russell was killed, in 1164, by the Indians, and the last killing done by 
the Indians was George Larne and his wife and child, in 1T80, at now the lower 
part of Tannersville, in Pocono township. 

About the year 1156 there was a line of forts erected to protect the frontier 
settlements. Fort Norris, at Greensweig's, now in Eldred township. This fort, 
saj'S Captain Young, "stands in a valley midway between the North mountain 
and the Tuskarora, six miles from each, on the high road towards the Minnesinks; 
it is a square, about eighty feet each waj'', with four half bastions, all very com- 
pletely stockaded, finished and defensible." Fort Hamilton, at Stroudsburg, the 
west end of the town, the same authority says: "This fort' stands in a corn- 
field by a farm house, in a plain and clear country ; it is a square, with four half 
bastions, all very ill-contrived and finished ; the stockades are six inches open in 
many places and not firm in the ground, and may be easily pulled down. Before 
the gate are some stockades driven in the ground to cover it, which I think might 
be a great shelter to an enemy. I, therefore, ordered them to pull them down. 
I also ordered to fill up the other stockades where they were open." Fort 
Hyndshaw was at the mouth of Bushkill creek. 

During the old French and Indian war of 1155-60, the inhabitants north of 
the mountain were continually in danger of being massacred by the Indians; and 
in some places the Indians commenced operations in 1155. In December, 1155, 
the Indians made an attack upon the inhabitants in the neighborhood of Fort 
Hamilton. They also appeared at what is now called Pleasant Valley, in Polk 
township, while the entire country beyond Brodhead's was deserted. Nicholas 
Weiss was killed near Brinker's, now Fennersville or Sciota, and his family 
taken to Canada. 

At this date the Provincial records contain numerous allusions to the 
murdei'ous attacks of the saA'^age Indians, and during the period between 1155 
and 1163 all the able-bodied men were required for the defence of the frontiers. 
Major William Parsons, writing to Governor Denny, gives accounts of the devas- 
tations of the settlements. With the return of peace the forays of the Indians 
into Monroe county ceased. 

During the Revolution Fort Penn was erected at the lower part of the town 
of Stroudsburg. General Sullivan, in 1119, on his wa^'^ from Easton to Wyoming 
with his troops to chastise the Indians on the Susquehanna, passed through the 
county. In his journal he says : " On the 18th of June, 1119, he had encamped 
at Hillard's (Heller's) tavern, eleven miles from Easton; June 19th, marched to 
Larnej'^'s (Larne's or Learn's) tavern, at Pokanose (Pocono) Point ; 20th, to 
Chowder Camp, which is now known as Hungry Hill, in Tobyhanna township, 
and at which place they halted several days and sent back to Fort Penn for pro- 
visions. While waiting they cut a road through the swamp there. At Hungry 
Hill there is a grave by the side of the old Sullivan road of one of the soldiers, 
and another grave at Locust ridge. During the war in the Wyoming valle}^, 
between the Connecticut claimants and the Pennsylvanians, called t^e Pennamite 



MONROE COUNTY. 949 

war, there was one battle fought within the boundaries of now Moni-oe count}', 
at Locust ridge, in whicli one of the Peimamite soldiers, named Everitt, was 
killed. Locust ridge seems to have been an old place, as there was a survey 
made there in 1749, for Samuel Dupui. There was also an old settlement at 
White Oak run, and one where General Sullivan crossed the Tobyhanna." 

Among the highly distinguished officers of the army of the Revolution from 
Pennsylvania, were General Daniel Brodhead, Captains Garret and Luke 
Brodhead, and Colonel Jacob Stroud, of Monroe county. The latter was prin- 
cipally in command at Fort Penn. The Brodheads were especially patriotic, 
and nearly the entire male portion of that family, able to bear arms, saw 
service in the war of Independence. 

But little transpired after 1180 to record, except that in some parts of the 
county there had been destructive fi'eshets in January, 1841 ; June, 18G2 ; and 
October, 1869. Monroe county lias improved steadily, and from a population of 
about 2,000, one hundred years ago, it now has a population of about 20,000, and 
an area of 384,000 acres of land ; and instead of a few scattering mills, there are 
now thirty flouring mills, ten tanneries, several foundries, a woolen mill, a tanite 
factory for manufacturing emery wheel^ etc., and a glass factory, while her hills 
and valleys are dotted with churches and school houses. 

Stroudsburg, the seat of justice for Monroe county, is pleasantly situated in 
the lower valley of the Pocono. Three beautiful streams unite on its eastern 
border. It was first settled by Colonel Jacob Stroud, who owneil about four 
thousand acres. Soon after the close of the French and Indian, war, Colonel 
Stroud came to the valley. He died in 1806. The town was laid out about 
1810, by Daniel Stroud, the son of the colonel, who, in addition to a liberal plan 
of broad avenues, enjoined in his deed of sale to all purchasers that they should 
set their houses thirty feet back from the side-walk. This gives to the resi- 
liences of that beautiful town the quiet rural air of a New England village. 
i5esides the public buildings, there are several churches, and a number of local 
industries, with a population of about 2,500 inhabitants. 

Four miles below Stroudsburg, on the Delaware, the waters of that river 
gracefully sweeping from the north to the east, turn suddenly and pass through 
the Blue mountain, cutting it to the base, while its ragged sloping sides, 
towering up to an elevation of sixteen hundred feet, frown down upon the river 
as it calmly pursues its course toward the ocean. This immense chasm is called 
the Delaware Water Gap, and has grown to be one of those delightful places of 
summer resort for which Pennsylvania is becoming famous. 

There are quite a number of thriving villages in Monroe county, the principal 
of which are Bartonsville, in Pocono township, laid out by Joseph Barton about 
1832 ; Tannersville, laid out by Joseph Edinger in 1825 ; Kunklestown, in 
Ross township ; . Pocono, Saylorsburg, Shawnee, and Kellersville, the 
latter once the competitor for the county seat. 



MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 




BY MORGAN E. WILLS, NORRISTOWN. 

EPTEMBER 10, 1*784, the Legislature passed an act " for erecting part 
of the county of Philadelphia into a separate county " to be called 
Montgomery. The act provided for the election of " four represent- 
atives, one fit person for sheriff, one fit person for coroner, and three 
commissioners, and one member of the Supreme Executive Council." Henry 
Pawling, Jr., Jonathan Roberts, George Smith, Robert Shannon, and Henry 

Cunnard were by 
the same act au- 
thorized to pur- 
chase a tract of 
land " in trust and 
for the use of the 
inhabitants tf ihe 
said county, and 
thereon to erect 
and build a court- 
house and prison, 
suflicient to accom- 
modate the public 
service of said 
county," which it 
appears they did, 
selecting the site 
of Norristown, 
upon which are 
now located the 
public buildings. 
They did not erect 
a court-house and 
jail, however, until 
1787, thi'ee years 

after the passage of the act authorizing them to do so. In the meantime, the 
courts were held wherever accommodations could be obtained. The first court 
was held at the public house kept by John Shannon, September 28, 1784, 
Frederick A. Muhlenberg presiding. By act of Assembly, 13th September, 
1785, Montgomery county was divided into three election districts. Again, in 
1797, the county was divided into five districts. Subsequent acts of Assem- 
bly further sub-divided the county, until at the present time there are eleven 

<)50 




MONTGOMERY COU^fTY COURT HOUSE, NORRISTOWN. 
[From a Photograph bj Stroud & Son, Norristown.] 



MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 95 1 

boroughs and thirty townships, forming fifty-four election districts. The popu- 
lation of Montgomery county in 1790 was 22,929; and in 1810, 81,612. 

There are no mountains in this county. The lands are agreeably diver- 
sified by undulating hills and valleys. Few valleys in any country can boast 
of more picturesque scenery than that of the Schuylkill river. Forming the 
south-western boundary for some distance, it meanders through broad cultivated 
fields, furnished with substantial stone houses and barns, with here and there an 
elegant country seat ; again it sweeps past bold bluffs of rocks, grudging a 
passage to the railroad, and then past some bright and busy manufacturing 
town, to which its own sparkling waters impart the movement. The other 
streams are the Perkiomen, the Skippack, Gulf creek, Manatawny, and the 
upper branches of the Wissahickon, Pennepack, Tacony, and Neshaminy. 

The primary rocks, gneiss, and talcose slate, form a narrow belt across the 
south-eastern end of the county. The very valuable primitive limestone of the 
Great valley lies in a narrow belt, from one to two miles wide, from near Willow 
Grove to Reesville, crossing the Schuylkill at Swedes Ford and Conshohocken. 
The limestone and marble of this deposit constitute a source of great wealth. 
Land lime is manufactured in great quantity, the production per annum being- 
not less than one million bushels. The chief market for it is New Jersey, Dela- 
ware, and Maryland, the average price for the same in the three States, delivered, 
being eighteen cents per bushel. This lime is burned with chestnut and stove 
coal in draw and set kilns. Building lime is also manufactured largely, the 
consumption per annum in Philadelphia being about one million five hundred 
thousand bushels, of which amount there are made in Montgomery county not 
less than nine hundred thousand bushels, the balance being manufactured in 
Chester county. Down to as late as 1850 building lime was chiefly made in 
Philadelphia, the stone from this region being sent down by canal. The 
average price of building lime at the kilns is twenty cents ; to builders in 
Philadelphia thirty-four cents per bushel. This lime is made in blow kilns, the 
fuel being: bituminous and anthracite coal. 

Iron ore is mined in large quantity, principally in Whitemarsh, Springfield, 
and adjoining townships, nearly all of which is hauled to the furnaces at 
Spring Mill and Conshohocken in the immediate neighborhood. The greater 
portion of the countj' is occupied by the red shales and sandstones of the 
" middle secondary " formation. The red shale makes an excellent soil, 
especially when treated with lime. 

The county is traversed in every direction by stone turnpikes and good 
common roads. Several of these turnpikes were made between 1800 and 1810. 
Of late years, however, there have been but one or two of these turnpike roads 
suflltJently traveled to warrant the managers in keeping them in proper repair, 
the Philadelphia and Reading, Pennsylvania, North Pennsylvania, Perkiomen, 
Plymouth, and Stony Creek railroads and their branches, traversing the county 
so thoroughly, that people find it more convenient to patronize them. The 
Schuylkill river is spanned by bridges at all the towns along its banks, those 
at Norristown, Conshohocken, Pottstown, and Royers' Ford, each paying large 
annual dividends to stockholders. 

Copper, in limited quantity, has been mined on the Perkiomen creek, but the 



952 HISTOB Y OF P ENNS YL VAIflA. 

company organized to operate the mines in this locality gave up in despair in 
1860. Scott's old geography speaks of a silver mine and a lead mine in Provi- 
dence township, discovered about the j^ear 1800, the existence of which, aowever, 
appears never to have been know^n to the oldest inhabitant of that region. 

Montgomery is rich in agricultural, mineral, and manufacturing resources. 
No county in the State combines these elements of wealth to a greater extent. 
The Schuylkill river affords valuable water-power, and on its banks have been 
established for many years a number of large woolen and cotton mills. With an 
area of nearly 300,000 acres of land, the cash value of which, in 18T0, was not 
less than $41,000,000, the farm productions in that year were estimated to be 
worth about $8,000,000. At present the yield of stone and marble is largely on 
the increase, while that of iron ore is only temporarily partially suspended on 
account of the universal dullness of the iron business. 

The county was originally settled in the south-east end by Welsh and 
Swedes ; in the upper end by Germans. The early settlement of Montgomery 
county followed close upon the arrival of William Penn. Robert Townsend, 
one of the early settlers about Germantown, says: " In the year 1682, I found 
a concern on mj^ mind to embark, with my wife and child, and went on board 
the ship Welcome, Robert Greenaway, commander, in company with my worthy 
friend William Penn, whose good conversation was very advantageous to all the 
compan3\ About a year after our arrival, there came in about twenty families 
from high and low Germany, of religious good people, who settled about Ger- 
mantown. The country continually increasing, people began to spread them- 
selves further back. Also a place called North Wales was settled by many of 
the ancient Britons, an honest-inclined people, although they had not then made 
a profession of the truth as held by us ; yet in a little time a large convincement 
was among them, and divers meeting-houses were built." 

Amono; the adventurers and settlers who arrived about this time, states 
Proud, were also many from Wales, of those who are called ancient Britons, and 
mostly Quakers ; divers of whom were of the original or early stock of that 
society there. They had early purchased of the Proprietary, in England, forty 
thousand acres of land. Those who came at present, took up so much of it on 
the west side of the Schuylkill river as made the three townships of Merion, 
Ha^erford, and Radnor ; and in a few years afterwards their number was so much 
augmented as to settle the three other townships of Newtown, Goshen, and 
Uwchland. After this they continued still increasing, and became a numerous 
and flourishing people. Divers of these early Welsh settlers were persons of 
excellent and worthy character, and several of good education, family, and estate 
— chiefly Quakers ; and many of them either eminent preachers in that society, 
or otherwise well qualified and disposed to do good. Rowland Ellis was a man 
of note among the Welsh settlers, from a place called Bryn-Mawr, near Dolgelly, 
in the county of Merioneth. In 1682, he sent over Thomas Owen and his family 
to make a settlement. This was the custom of divers others of the Welsh, at 
first, to send persons over to take up land for them, and to prepare it against 
their coming. Rowland Ellis first came over in 1686, bringing with him his eldest 
son, Rowland, then a boy. About one hundred Welsh passengers came at the 
same time. They had a long passage — suflfered much for want of provisions — 



MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 953 

touclied at Barbadoes, etc. Many died. Rowland Ellis, after remaining about 
nine months here, returned to Wales, leaving his son with his uncle, John 
Humphrey. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1697, with his famil}'-, and about 
one hundred other passengers, all from North Wales. He was then in his forty- 
fifth 3'ear. He Avas a preacher among the Quakers, and an acceptable man in 
every station. He lived long to do good, and died in his eightieth year, at his 
son-in-law's, John Evans' house. North Wales, now Gwynedd. Hugh Roberts 
was an eminent Quaker preacher ; he removed from Wales to Penns_ylvania about 
the 3'ear 1683, where he lived near eighteen years, to an advanced age. He had 
suffered much for his religion in his native country prior to his removal. On his 
return from a religious visit to Wales, in the service of preaching the gospel, 
in the 3'ear 1698, a number of the inhabitants of North Wales removed to Penn- 
S3'lvania in company wath him, where he arrived on the 7th of the fifth month. 
In the latter end of 1698, William Jones, Thomas Evans, Robert Evans, Owen 
Evans, Cadwallader Evans, Hugh Griffith, John Hugh, Edward Foulke, John 
Humphre3^, Robert Jones, and others, having purchased of Robert Turner ten 
thousand acres of land, began in the following year to improve and settle the same, 
and called the township Gw3'nedd — in English, North Wales. Some of the last 
mentioned passengers settled here, who, in general, did not, at first, profess with 
the' Quakers ; but afterwards the3', with many others, as the neighborhood 
increased, joined in religious societ3' with them, and were an industrious and 
worth3' people. Ellis Pugh, one of the early Welsh settlers who arrived in the 
Province in the 3'ear 1687, lived much of his time, and died here, 1718. He was 
convinced of the Quakers' principles in. Wales about the year 1674. He became 
a minister among them in 1680, in which capacity he continued till, his death. 
This tract of forty thousand acres, extending across the lower end of Mont- 
gomery into Chester and Delaware counties, was known formerly as the Welsh 
line. 

Man3r of the Welsh who first came over were devout members of the Church 
of England. Of the early settlers of Gw3aiedd township, only John Hughes and 
John Humphre3^ were Quakers originall3\ The others, who were Episcopalians, 
were in the habit of meeting at Robert Evans', where Cadwallader Evans read 
the Bible to those assembled. 

Smith gives the dates of the establishment of Friends meetings: " In 1683 
a first-da3^ meeting was established to be held at Takoney or Oxford. Another 
was also established at Poetquessing. And afterwards in the same year a 
monthly meeting was set up, to consist of those two meetings and that at 
Abington, to be held by turns among them. The 24tli of the seventh month, 
1716, the meeting at Horsham was settled, at first onl3' in the winter season; 
but Friends increasing, after some time a meeting-house was built, and it was 
fixed there constantly, and so continues. At North Wales a meeting-house v/as 
built in the year 1700, which was but two 3^ears after the arrival of the Welsh 
Friends to that place, and meetings were kept therein by the consent of Haver- 
ford monthly meeting, unto which they had at first joined themselves. Finding 
truth to prevail, and their numbers to increase, they found it necessary to build 
another meeting-house in 1712; and on the 19th of the ninth month that year, 
the first meeting for worship was held therein. Their number afterwards still 



954 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



increasing, as well among themselves as by the union of many adjacent settlers, 
Friends, belonging to North Wales or Gwynedd and Plymouth meeting, settled 
a monthly meeting of business among themselves, by the consent of Haverford 
meeting aforesaid and the quarterly meeting of Philadelphifi. The said monthly 
meeting was first held the 22d day of the twelfth month, 1714 or 1115, at 
Gwynedd meeting-house, and called Gwynedd monthly meeting. Plymouth 
meeting-house was built a considerable time before this, and a meeting for 
worship held there as at this day. The said meeting was in being the 4th of 
the fii'st month, 1688-9, and how long before is not certain." 

One of the venerable meeting-houses, founded by the early Friends from 
Wales, is that in Lower Merion townsliip, about two miles west of Manayunk. 
It was erected, as appears by a date on a tablet, in 1695, and is the oldest place 
of worship in the State. Among the early settlers in Merion were the Roberts 

family ; Edward 
Jones, "a man 
given to hospital- 
ity, and generally 
beloved b}' his ac- 
quaintances," who 
died in February, 
1137, at the age 
of eighty-two ; and 
Benjamin Humph- 



rey, who came 
over in 1683, and 
died in November, 
1131, aged seven- 
ty-six. He was 
also " remarked 
for his hospitality, 

and was a useful member among the Quakers." Mats Holstein and Peter Rambo, 
with their families, were the earliest Swedish settlers in Upper Merion. In 1165, 
the Swedish churches of Upper Merion, Wicaco, and Kingsessing, were unitedly 
incorporated by John Penn, and this original cliarter was amended and con- 
firmed by the Commonwealth in 1181. 

The Germans who settled at Germantown soon made known by letters 
throughout all Germany the pre-eminent advantages, both physical and moral, 
of Penn's Province in the new world ; and many came over from the Palatinate, 
and other parts of Germany, earl3' in the eighteenth century, between 1100 and 
1120 or 1130. These extended their settlements bej'ond the Welsh line, into the 
townships of Hanover and Frederick, about the head-waters of Perkiomen creek. 
An extensive neighborhood back of Pottstown, comprising New Hanover, and 
parts of Frederick and Douglass townships, is still known as "the swamp;" 
formerly as Faulkner's swamp, from one of the first settlers. 

Montgomery county was tlms peopled by the Welsh, Swedes, and Germans, 
who, though of many different religious sects, agreed at least in one principle, to 
live peaceably with each other ; while they diligently improved and cultivated 




FRIENDS* MEETING HOUSE AT LOWER MERION. 

(Fac-Simile of an Old Print.') 



MONTQ OM ER Y CO UNI ' Y. 



95b 



their possessions. The old French and Indian wars of 1755 and 1763, only 
alarmed, without injuring, the inhabitants of Montgomery; the scenes of the 
Revolution were brought nearer to their doors, y^ 

On the wes^t side of the Schuylkill, about six miles above Norristown, is a 
deep rugged hollow, at the mouth of Valley creek. An ancient forge established 
many years previous had given to the place the name of Valley Forge. Upon the 
mountainous flanks of this valley, which overlook all the adjacent country, Wash- 
ington finally concluded, after the fearful battle of Germantown and the occupa- 
tion of Philadelphia by the British, to establish his army for the winter. His 
soldiers were too ill-clothed to be 
exposed to the inclemency of that 
season under mere tents ; it was, 
therefore, decided that a sufficient 
number of huts or cabins should 
be erected of logs, filled in with 
mortar, in which the troops would 
find a comfortable shelter. The 
army reached the valley about the 
18th of December. They might 
have been tracked by the blood of 
their feet in marching barefooted, 
over the hard frozen ground be- 
tween Whitemarsh and Valle3^ 
Forge. They immediately set 
about constructing their habita- 
tions, which were disposed in the 
order of a military camp, but had 
really the appearance of a regular 
city. Each hut was sixteen feet 
by fourteen. One was assigned to 
twelve privates, and one to a 
smaller number of officers, accord- 
ing to their rank. Each general 
occupied a hut by himself. The 
whole encampment was surrounded 
on the land side by intrench men ts, 

and several small redoubts were built at different points 
ments may still be seen about a mile from the forge 




VALLEY FORaE. 



Some of the intrench- 
A temporai'3' bridge was 
thrown across the river, to fiicilitate communications with the surrounding 
country. The army remained at this place until the ensuing summer, when the 
British evacuated Philadelphia. 

This was the most gloomy epoch of the Revolution. For many weeks the 
army, although sheltered from the wind, endured extreme sufferings from the 
want of provisions, blankets, and clothing. The commissary's department, 
through neglect in Congress, had been badly managed, and on one occasion the 
supplies of beef were actually exhausted, and no one knew whence the morrow's 
supply would come. General Washington says : " For some days there has been 



956 BISTORT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

little less than a famine in camp. A part of the army have been a week without 
any kind of flesh, and the rest three or four days. Naked and starving as they 
are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the sol- 
diery, that they have not ere this been excited to mutiny and dispersion. Strong- 
symptoms of discontent, however, have appeared in particular instances." Such 
was the scarcity of blankets and straw that men were often obliged to siL up all 
night to keep themselves warm by the fire, and many were too ill-clothed to leave 
their huts. The want of wagons, and horses too, was severely felt for procuring 
supplies, and almost every species of camp transportation was performed by the 
men without a murmur, wlio yoked themselves to little carriages of their own 
making, or loaded their wood and provisions on their backs. The small-pox 
threatened those who had not been inoculated. Provisions continued to arrow 
more and more scarce; the country had become exhausted by the constant and 
pressing demands of both armies, and no doubt many provisions were concealed 
from the Americans b}' the disaflE'ected Tories, who found a better market at Phila- 
delphia, and better pay in British gold than in Continental money. Washington 
stated that there were in camp on the 23d December not less than two thousand 
eight hundred and ninety-eight men unfit for dut}' by reason of their being 
barefoot and otherwise naked, besides many others detained in hospitals, and 
crowded into farmers' houses, for the same causes. 

In the midst of these trying scenes, a strong combination was formed against 
Washington, in which several members of Congress, and a very few officers of the 
armv were engaged. General Gates, exulting in his laurels recently gained at 
Saratoga, General Lee, and General Conwa}', neither of them native Americans, 
were believed to be at the head of this movement. Attempts were made in vain to 
seduce Lafayette to the interest of this faction. He openly and promptly avowed 
his attachment to Washington, with whom he shared for some months the hard- 
ships of Valley Forge. The failure of this conspiracy is well known. In June, 
1118, when the British evacuated Philadelphia, General Washington immediately 
broke up the encampment at Vallej^ Forge, hurried across the Delaware, and met 
the enemy on the plains of Monmouth, in New Jersey. 

NoRRiSTOWN, the county seat, was laid out in 1784, the year Montgomery 
was by act of Legislature made a county from a part of Philadelphia. It was 
erected into a borough in 1812, with an area of five hundred and twenty acres- 
All its territory was taken from Norriton township, excepting about one hun- 
dred and fifty-eight acres from Plymouth, which were acquired when the limits of 
the borough were extended in 1853. It is now nearly two miles square, and con- 
tains an area of about two thousand three hundred acres. It has a river front on 
the Schuylkill of about two miles. Its population in 18T0 was 10,753. It is now 
(1876) estimated at 14,000. The tract upon which the town is located is a por- 
tion of that once belonging to William Penn, Jr., and which he sold, when in 
tins country, to enable him to settle the extravagant debts incurred by his youth- 
ful follies. We are further told by the historians of the day that William Trent 
and Isaac Norris purchased it for £850, from the latter of whom, who subsequently 
became the sole proprietor, the town took its name. The ground was a farm 
in the time of the Revolution, and belonged to John Bull, who, we are further 
informed, in spite of his name, was a staunch Whig, whose barn the British burnl 



MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 



957 



as they passed on towards Philadelphia. The first house occupied in Norristown 
was said to have been framed at Valley Forge, and floated down the river. It 
was on the river bank at Norristown tliat the spade was set to excavate the first 
public canal in the United States. Tiiis was the old Schuylkill and Delaware 
canal, intended to connect the two rivers, and also to supply water to the 
citizens of Philadelphia. For this latter purpose, the canal was to be taken to 
Philadelphia on the same level, witkout a lock. The company was incorporated 
10th April, 1792. After completing some fifteen miles of the heaviest sections, 
and the expenditure of about $400,000, the undertaking was abandoned, the 
principal stockholders being them- 
selves involved in commercial diffi- 
culties. The company was afterwards 
merged in the Union Canal companj^, 
and the Schuylkill Navigation com- 
pany. 

The large stone house in the north- 
west part of the town, now the pro- 
perty of and occupied by Thomas P. 
Knox, was formerly the residence of 
General Andrew Porter. He was a 
captain and colonel during the Revo- 
lution, and served with great gallantry 
at Trenton, Princeton, Brandj-wine, 
and in other campaigns. Mr. Madison 
offered him the commission of briga- 
dier-general in the American army, 
and also the office of secretarj^ of war ; 
both of which he declined. He was 
appointed surveyor-general of Penn- 
sylvania, by Governor Snj^der, in 1812, 
and died at the age of seventy, while 
in that office, at Harrisbiirg. 

The Norristown Library company 
was founded in May, 1796. The Nor- 
ristown Herald, now published b^^ Morgan 1\. Wills, was established by David 
Sower, June 14, 1799, as the Norristown Gazette. It was not called the Herald 
until 1800. The present publisher started a dail}' edition of the paper, December 
20, 1869, the first daily newspaper established in the town. The Norristown 
Register, now published by E. L. Acker, another old journal, was established in 
1801. 

St. John's Episcopal church was the first erected in the place, having been 
commenced in 1813. There are at present two Presbyterian, one Baptist, two 
Lutheran, three Reformed, five Methodist, one Mennonite, one Roman Catholic, 
one Episcopal, and one Friends church. The Bank of Montgomery county, now the 
National Bank of Montgomery county, was chartered August 29, 1815, and the 
First National Bank of Norristown in 1864. The present court house was 
erected in 1854. It is built in the Corinthian style, of blue and white marble, 




THE OLD NORRISTOWN FIRE COMPANY. 

[From a Photograph by Stroud i Son, Norristown.] 



958 HISTOR T OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

obtained in the county. It contains, beside the court-room, the various county 
offices, and was constructed at a cost of about $150,000. The prison, another 
handsome structure, erected about the same time, cost nearly $86,000. The 
Pennsylvania Tack works constitute one of the principal industrial features of 
the town, as do also the Star Glass works, erected in 1866. A rolling mill and 
blast furnace, three wool and cotton mills, and the Eagle and Norris iron works, 
are among the prominent manufacturing estSblishments. 

Norristown has many very handsome private residences, and the delightful 
railroad ride of sixteen miles up the Schuylkill from Philadelphia, induces a 
large number of persons who transact business in that city to make it their per- 
manent residence. The soldiers' monument, erected in the public square, and 
dedicated September 1*7, 1869, is a beautiful shaft of white and blue marble. The 
base consists of four parts. The first of the three blue marble bases is eight feet 
square by two feet deep ; the second is six feet seven inches square by twenty 
inches deep ; the third is five feet six inches square by sixteen inches deep. 
Above the blue bases is one of white marble, moulded. Next is the die, four 
feet square and four feet high, on which is engraved the names of not less than 
five hundred and forty-seven soldiers. On this rests an arched cap two feet high. 
Above this cap is a moulded die, two feet five inches high, having on its four 
sides, in relief, the coat-of-arms of Pennsylvania, that of the United States, and 
two wreathes of immortelles. The shaft is fifteen feet high, and two feet four 
inches square at its base, having on its four panels beautifully carved repre- 
sentations of the four arms of the service. Above are wreaths of leaves and 
other appropriate devices. Surmounting this is an arched cap, above which is a 
die with shields carved on its four sides, and a bell upon which is perched an 
eagle with extended wings. The monument was erected under the auspices of 
the Montgomery County Soldiers' Monument Association, in commemoration of 
the services and death of the soldiers who enlisted from the county during the 
Rebellion. 

CoNSHOHOCKEN was incorporated in 1850, George Richards, Mordecai R. 
Moore, Joseph Crawford, Isaac W. Roberts, Laurence E. Corson, and John M, 
Jones, being the commissioiiers appointed to lay ovit the borough. The streets 
are sixty-six feet wide. In 18*70 the population was 3,300. It is now estimated 
at 4,500. The principal manufacture is iron, the product of which reaches 
between two and a half and three millions of dollars annually. There are two 
cotton mills, which turn out about 30,000 j'ards of goods a week, and a warp 
mill that consumes about 6,000 pounds of cotton per week. The largest sheet- 
iron mill in the State, erected here, is a model of perfection. There are excel- 
lent public schools in the borough, and a public hall. Gas was introduced in 
1874, and the town is well supplied with water. The splendid iron bridge at 
this place was erected in 18*72. The Presbyterian church was the first place of 
worship, erected about thirty years ago. This was succeeded by the Catholic, 
Methodist, Episcopal, and Baptist churches. The first manufacturing operations 
were a grist mill and a marble saw mill. Following these were a saw manufactory 
and a silk mill. These have all given way to the other works to which we have 
referred. The scenery about Conshohocken is beautiful and picturesque in the 
extreme. 



MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 959 

PoTTSTOWN was laid out in town lots in 1752, by John Potts, and incorpo- 
rated into a borough the 6th day of February, 1815. With 3,100 inhabitants in 
1870, it now numbers probably not less than 5,000. It has several large rolling 
mills, planing mills, nail factory, the shops of the Philadelphia and Reading 
railroad company, employing many men, and various other industrial estab- 
lishments. It has gas works, library, numerous churches, daily newspaper, 
etc. The Cottage Female seminary is located here. 

Hatboro is a borough of one thousand population, situated on the line 
between Montgomery and Backs counties, on the upper waters of the Penne- 
pack creek, and on the road now called the old York road, laid out in 1722, by 
direction of the Proprietary Governors, Penn and his successor, Governor Keith, 
as the New York road from Philadelphia. This road was for many years a 
great thoroughfare between those cities in their early history It is fifteen 
miles north of Philadelphia, fifteen miles east of Norristown, and ten miles 
south of Doylestown, on the North-East Pennsylvania railroad. It was erected 
into a borough in 1812, from Moreland township. Hatboro was so called in 
1745, from the fact that hat manufacture was a prominent industry at that time. 
It has long since disappeared, however, and left but the name behind. Previous to 
that date, Hatboro was called the Crooked Billet, from the name of a tavern which 
pretentiously adopted the style and title of a more prominent tavern in Water 
street, Philadelphia, the same in which Franklin breakfasted on his first arrival 
in Philadelphia from Boston. By some old people Hatboro is still called the 
Billet to this day. In 1777 a battle was fought at this place between a strong- 
detachment of British troops, sent out from Philadelphia by General Howe, 
under Colonel Simcoe, and General John Lacey, of the Continental armj^, in 
which the Continentals were ignominiously defeated, having been surprised, and 
retreated in confusion, leaving their dead, wounded, prisoners, and baggage in 
the hands of the enemy. A handsome monument is erected on the ground on 
which the surprise took place, by a patriotic people, governed by a generous 
public sentiment. A library of seven thousand volumes is a distinctive feature 
of the town of Hatboro, founded in 1755, possessing an endowment from 
Nathan Holt, and filling a handsome building especially erected for its recep- 
tion. The building is in the Grecian style of architecture, and the library well 
patronized and highly appreciated by an intelligent and cultured people. 
Hatboro was the home of Nathaniel B. Boileau, once Secretary of the Com- 
monwealth of Pennsylvania. The school property was a legacy of Judge Robert 
Lollar, who, before the advent of the public school system in the State, founded 
the free Lollar academy here. In the immediate vicinity of Hatboro is the 
ancient property of Graeme Park — the home of Governor Sir William Keith. 
This house is still in excellent preservation, and is one of the most ancient in the 
State. Hatboro was connected with the North Pennsylvania railroad by the 
North-East Pennsylvania in 1873. This road was built by the people of this 
locality, and is a success. 

Bridgeport was incorporated February 27, 1851. It has an area of 460 acres, 
and was wholly taken from Upper Merion township. Located immediately 
opposite Norristown, and sloping gracefully up the river Schu3'lkill, its situation 
is at once picturesque and inviting. Its population in 1870 was 1,578. The 



960 



HIS TO BY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 




ANCIENT LUTHERAN CHURCH AT TRAPPE 
[Fac-Simile of an Old Print.] 



borough was laid out by Perry M. Hunter, L. E. Corson, M. McGlathery, and 
Alexander W. Supple. The Philadelphia and Reading railroad passes through 
the place, affording ample traveling facilities. 

West Consiiohocken, located on the opposite side of the river, has a popula- 
tion of about twelve hundred. It was incorporated in 1874. Extensive cloth 
mills are located here. Jenkintown was incorporated into a borough Decem- 
ber 8. 1874. The territory was exclusively taken from Abington township, and 
according to the original plot contains an area of two hundred and forty-eight 

acres. It has a 
population of 
about eight hun- 
dred. North 
Wales was laid 
out in 1867 by 
David Moyer. It 
was incorporated 
into a borough 
August 20, 1S69. 
Population, last 
census, was eight 
hundred. Lans- 
DALE was incor- 
porated into a 
borough August 

24, 1872. It is one of the most flourishing towns in the county. It is here 
the Stony Creek and the Doylestown railroads intersect with the North 
Pennsylvania road. East Greenville, incorporated a borough September 
6, 1875, is also a prosperous place, located in the upper end of the county. 
Greenlane, incorporated December 10, 1875, is the last, if not the least, of 
the boroughs erected in the county. It, also, is in the upper end. 

La Trappe, eight miles west of Norristown, is an ancient village. The old 
Lutheran church at this place, erected in 1743, is one of the chief objects of 
note. The interior of the church is still preserved nearly in its original state, 
and is, if possible, more quaint and antique than the exterior. Not only every 
pew, but each seat in the pew, has its own number branded upon it with a hot 
iron. Over the door of the church, on a tablet, is the following inscription in 
Latin, which is deciphered with some difficulty: "Sub remigio Christi has 

^DES SOCIETATI AlGUSTAN^ CONFESS. DeDIT^ DEDICATAS EX IPSO FUNDAMENTO 
EXSTRUXIT HeNRICUS MeLCHIOR MuLENBERG UNA CUM CENSORIBUS I. N. CrOSS- 

MANO, F. Marstellero, H. a. Heilmano, I. MuLLERO, II. Hasio, et G. 
Kebnero, a.d. mdccxliii." In the burial-ground in the rear, and near the south- 
eastern angle of the church, is the grave of the Rev. Henry M. Muhlenberg and 
his son. Gen. Peter Muhlenberg of the Revolution. Eagleyille, Evansburq, 
Flodrtown, Barren Hill, Fort Washington, Collegeville, Hickorytown, 
Jeffersonville, Port Kennedy, King of Prussia, Limerick Square, 
Norritonville, Bryn Mawr, Ardmore, Shannonville, Spring Mill, Swedes- 
burg, are all flourishing villages. 



MONTOUR COUNTY 




[With acknoivledgments to John G. Freeze.'^ 

ONTOUR county was erected by act of Assembly of May 3, 1850, and 
comprised the townships of Franlclin, Mahoning Valley, Liberty, 
Limestone, Derry, Anthony, and the borough of Danville, together 
with portions of the townships of Montour, Hemlock, and Madison. 
In 1853 the division line of the counties was re-adjusted, and a new township, 
called Roaring Creek, in Montour county, and parts of Franklin, Madison, and 
West Hamburg, were re- 
annexed, to Columbia 
county. 

The Muncy hills lie 
along its north-western 
border, and Montour's 
ridge passes through the 
county, furnishing to its 
industry immense quanti- 
ties of iron ore of the best 
quality. It has, also, large 
bodies of the finest lime- 
stone, and although bro- 
ken, has a good deal of 
level and fertile land. The 
Susquehanna river lies 
along its south-eastern 
border, and the county is 
watered and drained by 
Mahoning creek, which 
breaks through Montour's 
ridge at Mausdale, and 
empties into the North 
Branch of the Susquehan- 
na at Danville. The two 
branches of the Chillisquaque, rising in the Muncy hills, join at the borough of 
Washingtonville, and flow off into the West Branch of the Susquehanna, along 
the base of Montour's ridge. Big Roaring creek is the boundary line of 
May berry township, lying cast of the river. 

The North Branch canal runs through the county. The Catawissa railroad, 

and the Lackawanna and Blooms'ourg intersect it, and on the opposite side of the 

river from Danville, the Danville, Ilazleton, and Wilkes-Barrd railroad passes. 

All these improvements give to the borough of Danville easy access, and a 

3l 961 




MONTOUR COUNTY COURT HOUSE, DANVILLE. 
[From a Photograph by McMahan & Ireland, Danville.] 



962 HIS TOR Y OF PENNS TL VAN I A . 

convenient market with all parts of the country for its large iron product, which, 
unfortunately, is its sole important manufactory. 

Danville borough is at the mouth of Mahoning creek, on the North Branch 
of the Susquehanna. It is built on a part of a tract of land surveyed on a 
warrant of John Penn to John Lukens, Surveyor-General, dated 31st January, 
1*7 69, and the survey was made on the 22d February following. Subsequently 
the land came into the hands of Messrs. Francis & Peters, of Philadelphia. 
It passed through several ownerships previous to the war, but I have not been 
able to fix the time or place of the first actual settlement. 

During the Revolutionary war, but subsequent to the hottest period of the 
contest. Captain Montgomery, of Philadelphiia — the father — and Colonel, after- 
ward General William Montgomery, the uncle of the late Judge Montgomery, 
resolved to come out and settle on the Susquehanna, then a wild and 
dangerous frontier, still occasionally disturbed by Indians. They purchased 
their farms at the mouth of Mahoning from one John Simpson. They had but 
just entered upon the hardships of frontier life, when the storm of savage 
warfare descended upon Wyoming. The Montgomerys, just retired from the 
campaigns of the Revolution, were no strangers to the alarms of Indian 
warfare ; but Mrs. Montgomery had been reared amid the security and luxury 
of Philadelphia, and became so terrified in anticipation of being murd.ered by 
savages, that her husband was prevailed upon to remove with her and her 
little son, afterwards the judge, to Northumberland, where the s'ettlements were 
protected by a fort. Previously, however, to their removal, they were often 
annoyed by the lurking foe, and frequent murders were committed in the 
vicinity. Their fears, too, were quite as often excited by merely imaginary 
dangers. Captain Daniel Montgomery, looking out one evening, about dusk, 
upon the river, saw a fine canoe drifting down the sti-eam, and immediately 
pushed out with his own canoe to secure the prize. On coming up to it, and 
drawing it towards him with his hand, he was thunderstruck at seeing a very 
large muscular Indian lying flat on his back in the canoe, with his e^^es wildly 
glaring upon him. He let go his hold and prepared for defence, but in a 
moment, reflecting that he had seen water in the bottom of the strange canoe, 
he again approaclied it, and found the Indian was dead. A paper on his breast 
Bet forth that he had been shot near Wyoming, and set adrift by some of the 
Yankees. The captain towed his prize to the shore with a lighter -heart, and 
after a hearty laugh with his neighbors, sent the Indian on his mission. The 
following from the " Ilazleton Travellers," by Mr. Miner, of Luzerne county, is 
the counterpart to the story : 

" Among the Indians who formerly lived at Wyoming was one known by the 
name of Anthony Turkey. When the savages removed from Wyoming he went 
with them, and returned as an enemy at the time of the invasion. With him 
and the people there had been before a good understanding, and it created some 
surprise when known that he was with the bloody band who had come on the 
errand of destruction. It was Turkey who commanded the party that came 
to Mr. Weeks' the Sunday after the battle (of 1718), and taking the old 
gentleman's hat, shoved his rocking-chair into the street and sat down and 
rocked himself. In the invasion of March following, Turkey was here again, and 



MONTOUB COUNTY. 953 

in an engagement on the Kingston flats was shot through the thigh and 
surrounded by our people. ' Surrender, Turkey,' said they, ' we won't hurt 
you.' Probably conscious of his own cruelties, he defied them, and fought like 
a tiger-cat to the last. Some of our boys, in malicious sport, took his body, put 
it into an old canoe, fixed a dead rooster in the bow, fastened a bow and arrow 
in the dead Indian's hands, as if in the act just to fire, put a written ' pass ' on 
his breast to ' let the bearer go to his master King George or the d — P, and 
launched the canoe into the river, amid the cheers of men and boys." 

After the expedition of General Sullivan had quieted the frontier and 
expelled the Indians, the Montgomerys returned to Danville, where Daniel 
Montgomery, son of William, established a store, and laid off a few lots on a 
piece of land given him by his father. A few other settlers came in, and about 
the year 1806 we find Danville described in Scott's geography as "a small post- 
town on the East Branch of the Susquehanna, at the mouth of Mahoning." 
Judge Montgomery was at that time the postmaster, the first in the place who 
enjoyed that dignity. When it was proposed to erect Columbia count}', and 
establish Danville as the county seat, the elder General Montgomery was 
opposed to the scheme, fearing annoyance in his farming operations by the 
proximit}' of the town ; but his son, on the contrary, was eager for the success 
of the project, anticipating large gains from the sale of lots. After the county 
was fairly established, General Montgomery not only acquiesced, but entered 
with his whole heart into the enterprise for its improvement. He and his 
relatives endowed and erected an academy, and gave thirty lots as a fund for the 
support of the ministry here. He afterwards took a leading part in getting a 
charter for the Bear-gap road, which opened, the place to the Pottsville travel ; 
and also had great influence in inducing Stephen Girard to embark in the 
enterprise of the Danville and Pottsville railroad. A part of the road was made 
near Pottsville, and is now rotting in the sun without use. Girard and General 
Montgomery died nearly at the same time, other interests interfered, and the 
Danville and Pottsville railroad, with the bright visions of augmented wealth 
associated with it, existed only on paper. 

Mr. Wickersham, of Philadelphia, who owned a farm adjoining Danville, 
made a donation to the Presbyterian church of the beautiful knoll where the 
church and cemetery are now situated. 

The borough of Danville is a place of very considerable importance, owing 
to its iron production. Some idea of that can be gathered from the following 
summary : There are six iron foundries, owned respectively b}"- Messrs. Huber, 
•Biddle, Cruikshank, Moyer & Co., National iron company, and Waterman «& 
Beaver. There are seven blast furnaces — three of them owned by Waterman & 
Beaver, with an annual capacity of 24,000 tons ; two of them owned by John 
Roach, capacity 14,000 tons; and two by Grove Brothers, capacity 14,000 tons. 
There are five rolling mills, owned as follows : Pennsylvania works. Waterman 
& Beaver, annual capacity, 40,000 tons of rails; John Roach, two mills, annual 
capacity, 30,000 tons of rails ; Danville iron works, Wm. Faix, annual capacity, 
11,000 tons; Co-operative iron and steel works, capacit}'- annually, 11,000 tons. 

It contains fourteen churches belonging to the leading denominations. The 
Grove Brothers have erected a magnificent residence near the Catawissa railroad, 



964 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



at a cost of over $300,000, which for architectural beauty is not surpassed in the 
country. There are a number of other fine private dwellings which have been 
built within the last few years. The population of the borough is claimed to be 

about ten thousand. 

About one mile south-east of Dan- 
ville is located the State Hospital for 
the Insane, established by the act of 
Assembly of 13th April, 18G8. The 
corner-stone of the main buildina: was 
laid by Governor Gearj^, 2Gtii August, 
1869, and on the 6th day of November, 
18V2,the building was so far completed 
as to admit patients. It is constructed 
of hard blue stone from the neighbor- 
hood. When completed, there will be 
one centre building, with a wing on 
each side, consisting of three longitudi- 
nal sections, three stories in height, 
and three transverse, four stories in 
height. The heating, lighting, and 
ventilation are excellent, and in all its 
various compartments and arrange- 
ments it is unequalled by any similar 
institution in the country. The suc- 
cessful construction and efficient man- 
agement have been superintended by 
S. S. Schultz, M.D., and the State hos- 
pital at Danville is one of those great 
charities of our good old Common- 
wealth of which we may all be proud. 

The borough of Wastiingtonville 
is situate at the forks of the Chillisqua- 
que, in Derry township. It contains 
several churches, a grist mill, tannery, 
etc. It is on the public road from 
Danville to Muncy, and about eight 
miles from the former place, and very 
pleasantly located in the midst of a 
beautiful and fertile neighborhood. It 
is the site of the military post of Bos- 
ley's Mills in frontier times. Moores- 
BURG, in Libert}^ township, is on the 
public road from Danville to Milton. The Catawissa railroad runs within a 
few hundred yards of it, and has a depot there. Mausdale, in Valley township, 
on Mahoning creek, at Montour's ridge, lies on the Catawissa railroad, but has 
no depot. It is two miles from Danville. White Hall, Exchange, and Lime- 
STONEVILLE are the centres of excellent agricultural districts. 




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NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. 



BY REV. W. C. REICHEL, BETHLEHEM. 




HE history of Northampton, the seventh in order of time as to its 
erection, of the present sixty-seven counties of the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania (it being erected a county during the joint proprietor- 
ship of Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, sons of William Penn, in 
the spring of 1752), is rightly prefaced by some allusions to the so-called walking 
purchase, or the day and a half-day's walk; and this, because, by a performance 
of that walk, nine-tenths fully of the present county passed from the hands of 
its original Indian holders into those of the Proprietaries, thus enabling the latter, 
by extinguishing 
the Indian title, 
to encourage set- 
tlement within its 
borders, which 
was the first step 
towards its con- 
stitution as a poli- 
tical division of 
the Province. The 
main facts in the 
history of the fa- 
mous walk have 
been heretofore 
given. William 
Penn had pur- 
chased from May- 
keerickkisho and 

Tauo-hhaughsey, chiefs of the northern Indians on Delaware, " all those lands 
lying and being in the Province of Pennsylvania, beginning upon a line formerly 
laid out from a corner spruce tree by the river Delaware ; and from thence run- 
nino- along the foot of the mountains, west-north-west, to a corner white oak, 
marked with the letter P, standing by the path that leadeth to an Indian town 
called Playwickey ; and from thence extending westward to Neshaminy creek, from 
which said line, the said tract or tracts thereby granted doth extend itself back 
into the woods, as far as a man can go in one daij and a half, and bounded on 
the westerly side with the creek called Neshaminy, or the most westerly branch 
thereof; and from thence by a line to the utmost limits of the said one day and 
a half's journey; and from thence to the aforesaid river Delaware ; and from thence 
down the several courses of the said river to the first-mentioned spruce tree," etc. 
A map, however, drawn by Thomas Holme, sometime surveyor of the Province, 

965 




THE OLD INDIAN CHAPEL, BETHLEHEM. — 1765. 



966 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

illustrating this historic walk, which, together with other valuable documents 
bearing on the transaction, was purchased from the heirs of the Penn family, a 
few years ago, by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has, once for all, put 
to rest the many erroneous statements extant in books in reference to the day 
and a half-day's walk. Setting out from Wrightstown, as was stated, on 
the morning of the 19th of September, 1737, the walkers pursued a northerly 
course, keeping along the old Durham road to Durham creek, thence deployed 
westerl}'^, at about 2 o'clock p.m., forded the Lehigh a half-mile below Bethlehem, 
thence walked on in a north-westerly line through the plot of the present 
borough of Bethlehem, and passing through the north-east angle of Hanover 
township, Lehigh county, into Allen township, halted at sundown, not far from 
the site of Howell's mill on the Hockendauqua. Near their place of bivouac 
was an Indian town, at which resided Tishekunk, the counsellor of Lappawingoe 
Next morning, after having caught their horses which had strayed, they 
resumed the walk, and having crossed the Blue mountain at the Lehigh Water 
gap, after the lapse of six hours accomplished their task as related. The 
distance traveled did not exceed sixty or sixty-five miles. From the northern 
extremity of the line thus run by the walk, Surve3'or Holme ran a line parallel 
to the head line of the previous purchase near Wrightstown, in a north-easterly 
direction to the mouth of the Lackawaxen — thus ending William Penn's purchase 
of 1686, whereby there passed into the hands of the Proprietaries, past all claim 
for ever from the side of the Indians, the upper portion of Bucks, full nine-tenths 
of present Northampton, a large slice of Carbon, and the fourth of Monroe and 
Pike each, containing together, at the lowest estimate, an area of twelve hundred 
square miles. 

The consummation of this purchase, by walking, which was done with a deter- 
mination of purpose on the part of the whites not anticipated by the Indians, is 
usually regarded as one of the causes which led to the war of 1755 ; at any rate, 
as far as that was prosecuted within the limits of the disputed walking purchase. 

Northampton county was erected by virtue of an act of Assembly passed 
March 1 1th, 1752. It was divided from the county of Bucks, one of the original 
counties of Pennsylvania, " by the upper or north-western line of Durham tract, 
to the upper corner thereof; thence by a straight line to be run south-west- 
wardly to the line dividing the townships of Upper and Lower Milibrd ; thence 
along the said line to the line dividing Philadelphia and Bucks counties ; and 
thence by a line to the extremities of the said Province." When the county was 
erected, and for eighty years afterward, Northampton comprised all the territory 
within its present limits, and all of what is now embraced by Lehigh, Carbon, 
Monroe, Pike, Wayne, and Susquehanna, and parts of W3'oming, Luzerne, 
Schuylkill, Bradford, and Columbia counties. It was named by Thomas Penn, 
who, in a letter from England, dated September 8th, 1751, to Govei-nor Hamilton, 
says : " Some time since I wrote to Dr. Graeme and Mr. Peters to lay out some 
ground in the forks of Delaware for a town, which I suppose they have done, or 
begun to do. I desire it may be called Easton, from my Lord Pomfret's house, 
and whenever there is a new county, it be called Northampton." 

The same act authorizing the erection of Northampton county provided that 
Thomas Craig, Hugh Wilson, Thomas Armstrong, and James Martin, or any 



NOBTEAMPTON COUNTY. 



967 



three of them, were to purchase and take assurance to them and their heirs of a 
piece of land, situate in some convenient place, at Easton, on Lehietan, in the 
" Forks of the river Delaware," in trust and for the use of the inhabitants of the 
said county, and thereon to erect and build a court house and prison, sufficient 
to accommodate the public service of the said county, and for the ease and 
conveniency of the inhabitants. Three hundred pounds was raised by tax for 
building the court house, erected in 1763, and a jail in 1754. The first court was 
held in June, 1752. 

The " Forks of the Delaware " was the name long given to that triangular 
tract of country included between the Delaware and its west branch, the Lehigh, 
on the east, south, and west, and the Blue mountain on the north, including, 
therefore, all of present Northampton, excepting Saucon and Williams town- 
ships, and Han- 
over township in 



Lehigh county. 
In a more restrict- 
ed application, 
the site of Easton 
and its immediate 
vicinity were des- 
ignated as the 
Forks. 

The second 
court held was a 
court of record, 
October 3, 1752, 
before Thomas 



„,-'/^ff-_^,^.:^i^.-_ ._~!Kji^j-^ _:;_-j, 







FIRST HOUSE IN BETHLEHEM.— ERECTED 1741. 

[Pao-Simile of an Old Kngraviog.] 



Craig, Daniel Brodhead, Hugh Wilson, James Martin, Aaron Depui, and John 
Van Etten. The commissioners chosen for the county were Robert Gregg, 
Peter Trexler, and Benjamin Shoemaker. The assessors elected were Frederick 
Scull, George Custard, John Holder, James Ralston, John Walker, and Joseph 
Everhart. 

Northampton county lies between the Kittatinny mountain, originally called 
by the Indians Kauiatinchunk, i. e., the main or principal mountain on the north 
and the South mountain on the south. The Blue mountain is a very regular 
ridge, nearly uniform in height, averaging twelve hundred feet, and is capped 
by compact gray and reddish sandstone. The southern portion of the county is 
mountainous and uneven, being traversed by the irregular chain of hills called 
Lehigh hills, or the South mountain. These hills are chiefly composed of 
gneiss and other primary rocks, which are overlaid by limestone in some of the 
narrow valleys. Iron ore is found at various points in the hills. North of these 
hills is a broad belt of the great limestone formation of the Cumberland valley, 
which stretches from the Delaware, south-westward into Maryland and Virginia, 
having a soil of the most fertile and productive character, and a comparatively 
level surface. Iron ore is abundant along the south side of the Lehigh. The 
northern border of the limestone formation extends eastward from the Lehigh, 
at Siegfried's bridge, by Bath and Nazareth, to the Delaware river at the mouth 



968 HISTO UY OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

of Martin's creek. From this point to the base of the Blue mountain the rock 
formation is shxte, excepting a narrow point of limestone on the Delaware, at 
the mouth of Cobus creek, below the Water gap, which, after extending a short 
distance westward, sinks beneath the overlying slate. The surface of this slate 
region is generally hilly, and the soil but modei'ately productive. Extensive slate 
quarries have been opened in this county, which yield slate of a superior quality 
both for roofing and for manufacture into school slates. 

The Delaware and Lehigh rivers both pass through the Blue mountains by 
gaps apparently torn by the mighty force of the rushing waters coming down 
from the country above. Tiie mountain flanking these gaps is high and precipi- 
tous, rising almost perpendicularly from the water, and presenting magnificent 
views of wild and romantic scenery. The look-out from their summits affords 
extensive and beautiful prospects. Nearly midway between the Delaware and 
Lehigh rivers there is a singular opening or pass through the mountain, called by 
the German settlers Die Wind Kaft, the Wind gap, through which no stream 
passes, but the almost level crest line of the mountain is here depressed nearly as 
low as the country on each side, forming a notch in the mountain of peculiar con- 
venience for the passage of traA'elers and teams, and toward which the leading 
roads on both sides converge and pass through in one great thoroughfare. 
Between the Lehigh Water gap and the Wind gap, is Die Kleine Kaft, Little gap, 
and Smith's gap. 

Northampton county is unsurpassed by any in Eastern Pennsylvania in 
fertility of soil and in improvements of various kinds. The general appearance 
of the county indicates prosperity and plenty. Wherever the traveler turns his 
eye, he sees substantial and well built stone houses, spacious barns, fine 
churches, comfortable school houses, and beautiful orchards laden with fruit 
in their season, demonstrating the characteristic thrift and independence of the 
German farmer. 

The first settlers within the limits of the present Northampton county were 
Scotch-Irish, or Ulster Scots, descendants of those Scotch colonists whom the 
English government planted in the north of Ireland, in the province of Ulster, 
in the times of James I. In 1728, John Boyd, who had married Jane Craig, 
went with Colonel Thomas Craig, from Philadelphia to the Forks of Delaware, 
and settled at a place formerly called the Craig seUlement^ at the springs of the 
Caladaque creek, in the present East Allen township. Boyd was followed by 
others of his countrymen, among whom were Hugh Wilson and Samuel Brown. In 
1731, there had accumulated a sufTieient community to form a respectable settle- 
ment, says the Rev. John C. Clyde, in his" History of the Irish Settlement," and 
there is just reason for believing that these pioneers were organized a church by 
the Presbytery of Philadelphia, under the ministry of the Rev. Eleazer Wales, as 
early as \T6\. The Rev. Richard Webster, in his notes of the "early history of 
Allen township," says, that " William Craig and Thomas Craig appear to have 
been the principal settlers ; their residence was not far from where the Presby- 
terian church in Allen township now stands. Other men of property, influ8n;!e, 
and religious character, were John Ralston, Ptobert Walker, John Walker, John 
McNair, John Hays, James King, Gabriel King, his only son, eminent for 
piety ; Arthur Lattimore, Hugh Wilson, William Young, George Gjbson, 



NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. 969 

Andrew Mann, James Riddle, John Boyd, Nigel Gray, Thomas Arrastronsc, and 
widow Mary Dobbin." Ilugh Wilson, who was one of the commissioners appointed 
to select the site of Easton, was born in Ireland, in 1G89, and is claimed by his 
descendants to have been the son of a Scotch laird. He died on his farm in 
Allen township, in 1713. Wilson was a man of influence in the county, and held 
in high esteem by his own people. 

A second wing of the Scotch-Irish, settled near the mouth of Martin's creek, 
in Mount Bethel (somewhat later than did the first mentioned), and here founded 
what was long known as the " Hunter Settlement." Brainerd's cabin durinsr 
his career among the Delawares of this section (1744), is located by tradition 
about a mile north by east from the mouth of Martin's creek. Braincrd 
occasionally ministered to the Scotch-Irish seated on the springs of the 
Caladaque, as well as to those of Mount Bethel. 

The Germans followed the Scotch-Irish into the borders of the present 
county as early as 1739; a few years earlier, perhaps, into the two townships, 
south of the West Branch of Delaware or Lehigh. 

In 1752, when Northampton county was organized, there were nearly six 
thousand white settlers within the then extensive borders of the county — about 
three hundred Dutch, or Hollanders, several French families, eight hundred 
Scotch-Irish, and about four thousand Germans. In process of time the 
Germans measurably supplanted the Scotch-Ix'ish. The Germans constitute at 
present about one-ninth of the population. It is a fact, once stated for all, 
that the Germans have supplanted the Scotch-Irish throughout the entire valley 
of the Kittatinny, from Easton to Maryland. 

The first inhabitants of Northampton county were scarce beginning to enjoy 
the advantages which the organization of 1752 brought with it, when in the sum- 
mer of 1755 the peace in which they had thus far lived was rudely broken. It 
was French ambition and French aggi'ession which provoked the first war in 
which the followers of William Penn engaged with the aborigines. Whatever 
other considerations may have moved the Indians to entertain unfriendly feelings 
towards the descendants of a man whose memory they revered — whether loss of 
confidence in their integrity, or a sense of injury, or a wild hope of regaining 
their ancestral seats, it is a question whether they would have followed up their 
feelings by acts of open hostility, had they not been incited by the insidious 
representations of the French of Canada. An alliance with the Indian tribes of 
the Province, the latter well knew would enable them to carry on their military 
operations in the Ohio country successfully, and to realize their schemes of ter- 
ritorial aggrandisement. In this way, then, were the Delawares and lesser tribes 
residing on the Susquehanna and eastward seduced from their allegiance to the 
British crown, and led to inflict much suflcring on the white settlements which 
stretched along the line of the Blue mountain, from the romantic point at which 
the Delaware has bi'oken their barrier, to the confines of Maryland. Braddock's 
defeat was not only a fatal termination of a campaign which it had been hoped 
would inflict a decisive blow upon the enemy, but proved the direct means of 
encouragmsj the disaflected Indians to make the frontiers of the Province the 
scene of a predatory warfare, in which old Northampton was severely scourged 
at intervals during a period of full two years. 



970 EISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

The massacre of eleven Moravians at the Gnadenhiitten mission (Lehighton, 
Carbon county, Pennsylvania), in the evening of the 24th of November, 1755, 
was the first indication the inhabitants of the county had that the enemy was at 
their doors. Its remote settlements, and among these the scattered plantations 
that nestled in the small valleys immediately north of the Blue mountain, 
drained by the Big creek and its branches, by Brodhead's creek, McMichael's 
and Cherry creeks, and the Pennsylvania Minisinks, suffered most severely in 
the winter of 1755-'56. So emboldened were the savages grown in consequence 
of their successful forays, that in January of the last mentioned year, their scalp 
yell was heard within the precincts of the Moravian plantations at Nazareth, 
and Bethlehem was only saved from destruction at their hands by the exercise of 
extreme prudence, and by incessant watchfulness on the part of its inhabitants. 

The fear which now seized upon the dwellers on the frontiers is inde- 
scribable, and as government moved slowly in devising means for their 
protection (December of 1755 was half gone, when Franklin, who had been 
prevailed upon to take charge of the northern borders, and to provide for the 
defence of the inhabitants by raising troops and building a line of forts, moved 
to the seat of war), they placed their safety in flight. In this way it came to 
pass, that within six weeks after the first inroads of the enemy, not only was 
transmontane Northampton almost deserted b}' the whites, but even the planta- 
tions in the tier of townships resting against the south-eastern slope of the Blue 
mountain were left to their fate — invariably the torch of the Indian warrior. 
This condition of things reached its climax, it is true, in the winter of 1756; 
nevertheless, even pending negotiations for peace with the Indians as late as the 
autumn of 1757, there occurred repetitions of the horrors which had marked the 
inception of hostilities. 

The present townships of Smithfield, Stroud, and Hamilton, in Monroe 
county, were next invaded by the savages, after the massacre of the Moravians at 
Gnadenhiitten. On New Year's Day of 1756, the Moravian houses at Gnaden- 
hiitten East (Weissport, Carbon county) were all destroyed, and the enemy 
entered Lehigh and Allen townships. The papers of that day, as well as the 
Colonial Records, have preserved detailed accounts of these cruel marauds, 
of which the following are a few of the most interesting : 

The Rev. Nathaniel Seidel, a Moravian clergyman residing at Nazareth, under 
date of December 11, 175.5, writes to Bishop Spangenberg, at Bethlehem, in the 
following words : 

" Mr. Bizman, who just came from the Blue mountain, and is the bearer of 
this letter, will tell you that there is a number of (two hundred) Indians about 
Brodhead's plantation (Stroudsburg). They have destroyed all the i^lantations 
thereabouts, and killed several families at Hoeth's." — Col. Rec. vi. 756. 

The Rev. J. Michael Graflf writes to Bishop Spangenberg, under date of 
December 11, 1775, as follows : 

"An hour ago came Mr. Glotz, and told us that the 10th instant, in the night, 
Hoeth's family were killed by the Indians, except his son and the smith, who 
made their escape, and their houses burnt down. Just now came old Mr. Hart- 
man with his family, who also escaped, and they say that all the neighborhood 
of the above mentioned Hoeth's, viz. : Brodhead's, Culver's, McMichael's, and 



NOBTEAJ^IPTON COUNTY. 971 

all the houses and families thereabouts, were attacked by the Indians a'u day- 
light, and burnt down by them. 

" Mr. Culver's and Hartman's family are come to us with our wagons, and 
lodge i^artly here in Nazareth, partly in the tavern. Our wagons, which were 
to fetch some corn, were met by Culver's, three miles this side of his house, and 
when they heard this shocking news they resolved to return and carry these 
poor people to Nazareth. They say also that the number of Indians is above 
two hundred. We want your good advice what to do in this present situation 
and circumstances, and desire, if possible, your assistance.'' — Col. Rec. vi. 757. 

Timothy Horsfield, a justice of the peace and a resident of Bethlehem, wrote 
to Governor Morris, under date of December 12, 1755, in these words : 

" Hoeth and his family are cut off, only two escaping. The houses, etc., 
of Hoeth, Brodhead, and others, are actually laid in ashes, and people from 
all quarters are flying for their lives, and the common report is that the Indians 
are two hundred strong. 

" Your Honor can easily guess at the trouble and consternation we must be 
in on this occasion in these parts. As to Bethlehem, we have taken all precau- 
tion in our power for our defence ; we have taken all our little children from 
Nazai-eth to Bethlehem for the greater security, and these, with the rest of our 
children, are near three hundred in number. 

" Although our gracious King and Parliament have been pleased to exempt 
those amongst us of tender conscience from bearing arms, yet thei'e are many 
amongst us who make no scruple of defending themselves against such cruel 
savages. But, alas I what can we do, having very few arms and little or no 
ammunition ; and we are now, as it were, become the frontier, and as we are 
circumstanced, our family (Economy) being so large, it is impossible for us to 
retire to any other place for security. 

" I doubt not your Honor's goodness will lead you to consider the distress 
we are in, and speedily afford us what relief shall be thought necessary against 
these merciless savages. 

" p. S. — Hoeth's, Brodhead's, etc., are situated a few miles over the Blue 
mountains, about twenty-five or thirty miles from Bethlehem." 

William Parsons, of Easton, writes to the Hon. James Hamilton and 
Benjamin Franklin, Esq., under date of December 15, 1755 : " The settlers on 
this side of the mountain all along the river side are actually removed, and we 
are now the frontier part of the country. Our poor people of this town have 
quite expended their little substance and are wearied out with watching, and 
were all along in hopes government would have taken measures for their relief 
and for the security of the town. But now, seeing themselves as well as the 
town neglected, they are moving away as fast as they can. So that if we have 
no help, nor orders from the commissioners to use means to get help, in a day or 
two we shall every one of us be obliged to leave the town, and all that we have 
in it, to the fury of the enemy, who, there is no reason to doubt, are lurking 
about within sight of us. Besides the losses which I have reason to sustain in 
this calamity, I have expended what little stock of cash I had, in public services, 
so that I am obliged to send this by private hands, not being able to pay a 
person to go express with it. Pray, do something, or give some order for our 



972 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

speedy relief, or the whole country will be entirely ruined. If you had but given 
encouragement to some persons that you could have confided in, for their employ- 
ing people just for our present defence, till you could have agreed on a general 
plan, all this part of the counti-y might have been saved, which is now entirely 
lost, and the enemy are still penetrating further and further, and if immediate 
measures are not taken, they will very soon be within sight of Philadelphia. 
This is my real opinion, for all the country is flying before them, and no means 
are employed to stop them." — Col. Rec, vi., '761. 

Captain Jacob Arndt, of the Province service, has left a list of the killed 
and prisoners made by the Indians from the beginning of the war till December 
16 175T. This recoi'd was completed at Fort Allen (AVeissport, Carbon county), 
of which post Arndt was at the time commandant. According to this inte- 
restino- statement, one hundred and fourteen men, women, and children Avere 
killed and fifty-two taken captive. Of the latter, seven were returned by the 
Indians, or effected their escape. 

In January, 1759, there was published, by act of Parliament, a map of the 
Improved Part of the Province of Pennsylvania, drawn by Nicholas Scull, the 
well known surveyor, and sometime Surveyor-General. It contains the first 
authentic plot of Northampton count}', and shows the following points of 
interest : The Kittatinny or Pehoquelin hills (also so called by Lewis Evans 
in his map of Pennsylvania, published in 1755) ; the following tributaries of the 
Delaware — Cobus creek, Smalley's creek (Oughquoghton), and the Lehietan or 
Tatamy's creek, affluents of the Lehigh from the north — the Menakasy, Mill 
creek (now the Catasauqua), and the Hockendauqua ; from the south, the 
Saucon. Sculf notes but three mills : the mill at Bethlehem, Jones' mill above 
Easton on the Lehietan or Bushkill, and Cruikshank's mill (now John 
Knecht's), on the Saucon. Abraham Lefebre's public-house on the Bushkill, near 
Friedensthal, is also noted. Another point of interest presented in this valuable 
map is the site of the Healing Waters, a chalybeate spring, situate a few miles 
north of the Aquanshicola in the present Lower Towamensing township. Carbon 
county, to which public attention was drawn by the Moravian mission as early 
as 1746, and which subsequently, and even as late as the first decade of this 
century, was a resort for invalids. The admitted virtues of the waters of this 
historic spring, perhaps the oldest watering place in the Commonwealth, 
deserve to be again tested and rendered available for such as are in search of 
health. No more romantic spot could be found for a summer house than the 
site of the old Healing Waters of the Aquanshicola. 

The peace in which the inhabitants of Northampton were again beginning to 
live, after the adjustment of the differences with the Delawares and Shawanese 
in 1758, was a second time broken, when, in the summer of 1763, there came 
rumors of Indian incursions in the then far west, and of an impending Indian 
war. At the very time when the Ottawa chieftain, Pontiac, was prosecuting the 
siege of Detroit (12th May to 12th October), in the course of his mighty effort 
to drive the English from the country, lesser war parties, at the bidding of their 
great leader, had crossed the Alleghenies, and were committing depredations 
upon the frontiers of the Province. Before daybreak in the morning of the 8th 
of October, some Delawares attacked the house of John Stenton, in Allen town- 



NOBTHAMPTON COUNTY. 973 

ship, on the main road ffom Bethlehem to Fort Allen, eight miles north-west 
from the former place, where Captain Jacob Wettcrhold, of the Province service, 
with a squad of men, was lodging for the night. Meeting with Jean, the wife of 
James Horner, who was on her way to a neighbors for coals to light her morn- 
ing fire, the Indians, fearing lest she should betray them or raise an alarm, 
dispatched her Avith their tomahawks.* Thereupon they surrounded Stenton's 
house. No sooner had Captain Wetterhold's servant stepped out of the house 
Che had been sent to saddle the captain's horse) than he was shot down. The 
report of the Indian's piece brought his master to the door, who, on opening it, 
received a mortal wound. Sergeant Lawrence McGuire, in his attempt to draw 
him in, was also dangerously wounded and fell, whereupon the lieutenant 
advanced. lie was confronted by an Indian, who, leaping upon the bodies of 
the fallen men, presented a pistol, which the lieutenant thrust aside as it was 
being discharged, thus escaping with his life, and succeeding also in repelling 
the savage. The Indians now took a position at a window, and there shot 
Stenton as he was in the act of rising from bed. Rushing from tlie house, the 
wounded man ran for a mile, and dropped down a corpse. His wife and two 
children had meanwhile secreted themselves in the cellar, where they were fired 
upon three times, but without being struck. Captain Wettcrhold, despite his 
sufferings, dragged himself to a window, through which he shot cue of the 
savages while in the act of applying a torch to the house. Hereupon, taking up 
the dead body of their comrade, the besiegers withdrew. Having on their retreat 
plundered the house of James Allen, they attacked Andrew HazliLL'ti, where 
they shot and scalped a man, shot Hazlitt after a brave defence, and then 
tomahawked his fugitive wife and two children in a barbtxrous manner. Finally 
they set fire to his house, and then to that of Philip Kratzer, and crossing the 
Lehigh above Siegfried's bridge, passed into Whitehall township. 

In this maraud twenty-three persons were killed, and many dangerously 
wounded. The settlers were thrown into the utmost distress, fleeing from their 
plantations with hardly a sufficiency of clothes to cover themselves, and coming 
into the town of Northampton (now AUentown), where, we read, there were but 
four guns at the time, " and three of them unfit for use, with the enemj^ four 
miles from the place." At the same time, Yost's mill, about elcA'cn miles from 
Bethlehem, was destroyed, and all the people at the place, excepting a j'oung 
man, cut ofl". 

This was the last invasion of the present Northampton county by a savage 
foe. Old Northampton, and especially that part of it which was erected into 
Monroe, by act of Legislature, in April, 1836, suffered subsequently, at intervals, 
from the Indians as late as 1105. 

On the 19th of April, 1175, the first blood of the Revolution was shed on 
the green at Lexington, Mass. The news of this beginning of hostilities 
spread from colony to colony, and before the first of May, New England had 
raised upwards of 10,000 men, who, without delay rendezvoused at Boston, 



*The following is her obituary record in the cemetery of the English Presbyterian 
church of Allen township : " In memory of Jean, the wife of James Horner, who sufl'ered 
death at the hands of savage Indians, 8th October, 1763, aged 50 years." 



97^ HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

and then formed into camps and built fortifications around the British army, 
which was in the city. The battle of Bunker's Hill was fought on the 19th of 
June following, and then the war of the Revolution was fully begun. To meet 
the emergency that now confronted the American people, Congress voted to 
raise 20,U00 men, and appointed George Washington commander-in-chief. 
Pennsylvania was called on to contribute a quota of 4,800 men, and companies 
were accordino^ly organized in the various counties, which then numbered but 
eleven. On the 4th of July, 1176, a convention or meeting, consisting of the 
officers and privates of fifty-three battalions of the Associators of the Province 
of Pennsylvania, met at Lancaster to choose two brigadier-generals to command 
her battalions. Northampton was represented by Colonels Geiger, Stroud ; 
Majors Labar, Siegfried; Captains Arndt, Schneider (Snyder), Kern, Jayne; 
Privates McFarren, Opp, Berghaus, Haas, Brown, Best, J. McDawd, Jr., and 
D. Van Vleek. 

The following may serve to show the spirit manifested by the people of 
Northampton in the days when men's patriotism was put to the test : " The Inde- 
pendence of the United States being declared on the 4th of July, 1176, the news 
of this event became immediately known at Easton, and on the 8th of July was 
hailed by the citizens of this town and surrounding country by a public demon- 
stration. Major Abraham Labar, with his company, paraded through the 
streets with drums and flying colors, and was followed and joined by the citizens 
en masse. They met in the court house, where the Declaration of Independence 
was read by Robert Levers."* 

At the time General Washington proceeded to Boston with troops to invest 
that city, and Pennsylvania took measures to raise the number of men apportioned 
to the Province, a company was formed at Easton, consisting of sixty-seven men, 
including officers. These men elected Alexander Miller, of Mount Bethel, as 
their captain, and James and Charles Craig as lieutenants. 

When New York was in danger of falling into the hands of the British, 
10,000 men were ordered to be raised for its relief, called the Flying Camp. 
The quota of Northampton county was 346. In August, 1776, these men joined 
Washington's army on Long Island. One of these companies was commanded 
by Captain John Arndt, of Forks township. This company was part of Colonel 
Baxter's battalion of Northampton county, of the Flying Camp. 

After the defeat of the Americans on Long Island, in November of 1776, 
Washington with his forces retreated through New Jersey to Pennsylvania. 
From his headquarters in Bucks county, under date of December 22, 1776, the 
General writes to Colonel John Siegfried,f of Allen township, as follow-s : 

" Sir: The Council of Safety of this State, by their resolves of the 17th insl.., 
empowered me to call out the militia of Northampton county to the assistance 
of the Continental army, that, by our joint endeavors, we may put a stop to the 
progress of the enemy, who are making preparations to advance to Philadelphia 



*Miller'sGermannewspaperof July 10, 1776, Henry'sHistoryof the Lehigh Valley, p. 99. 
I John Siegfeied, sometime wagon-master of Northampton county, lies burled in a 
deserted and waste graveyard at Siegfried's Bridge. His grave is hardly to be found in 
the wilderness of briars and brambles, which grow rank in this resting-place of the dead. 



NORTHAMPTON COUNTY 



975 



as soon as they cross the Delaware, either by boats or on the ice. As I am 
unacquainted witli the names of the colonels of your militia, I have taken the 
liberty to enclose you six lettei-s, in which yoM will please insert the names of 
the proper offlcei'S, and send them immediately to them, by persons in whom you 
can confide for their delivery. If there are not as many colonels as letters, you 
may destroy the balance not wanted. 

" I most earnestly entreat those who are not so far lost to a love of country 
as to refuse to lend a hand to its support at this critical time, they may depend 
upon being treated as their baseness and want of public spirit will most justly 
deserve. 

" I am, sir, your most obedient servant, 

" George Washington." 

A number of companies of militia of the county, upon this requisition, 
immediately marched, and were engaged in the battles at Trenton, Brandywine, 
and Germantown. One of the eaiiiest of those to take the field was a com- 
pany, Captain Hays, enlisted in the Craig settlement in Allen township. The 
Rev. John Rosborough, the then pastor, accompanied the patriots of his flock 
in the capacity of chaplain, and with them reported for dut}' on the banks of the 
Delaware, near Coryell's Ferry, in Bucks county. Having taken part in the 
capture of the Hessians at Trenton, the first action in which they participated, 
the next morning, Mr. Rosborough, while in a farm house near the village of 
Pennington, was surprised by a scouting party of British horse, and cruelly put 
to death. He lies buiied in the graveyard of old " Trenton First Church." 

In the so-called Whiskey Insurrection, Northampton county was represented 
by two companies. One of them was commanded by Captain John Arndt, of 
Forks township. Although both were absent several months, they failed to see 
service, in as far as on their arrival at Carlisle, the status of the insurrection no 
longer demanding troops, they were ordered to return to their homes. 

In the war of 1812, Northampton county responded to the call made upon 
her, and sent forth her sons to repel the aggressor with an alacrity and hearti- 
ness worthy of her character and fame. The borough of Easton mustered 
several companies ; Hanover township sent out Captain Fry's riflemen, and 
the Drylands, Captain Henry Jarrett's troop of light horse. These rendezvoused 
at Marcus Hook, but never saw service. 

There were no companies organized in this county for the war with Mexico, 
although recruits were enlisted at Easton and other points. Northampton 
county, in the late war of the rebellion, recruited the 153d regiment of Pennsyl- 
vania volunteers, entire ; furnished five companies of the 1st regiment, four of 
the 129th — altogether some twenty-five companies at difljerent times, and for 
different arms of the service. 

The original limits of Northampton county were gradually reduced. A 
portion was yielded to Northumberland on its erection in March of 1112; a 
second to Wayne, in March of 1798. In erecting Schuylkill, in March of 1811, 
William Penn and Rush townships were lost to old Northampton. In March of 
1812, Lehigh ; in April of 1836, Monroe, and in March of 1843, Carbon counties, 
respectively and in succession, were concerned in further reducing the county, 
leaving it with an area at present of about 370 square miles, and upwards of 



976 HISTOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

230,000 acres of land. This territorjMs divided into seventeen townsliips, and 
lias within it eight boroughs, whose history will now be considered. 

Lower Saucon township (so named from the Saucon creek, a Delaware 
Indian word signifying " outlet of a streiam ") was erected in 1743, when still 
within the limits of Bucks. The surface of the eastern half of the township is 
hilly, being traversed by successive and parallel outliers of the South mountain ;. 
the western section, on the other hand, is level, has a fertile limestone soil, and 
may not be surpassed anywhere for the fineness of its farms. The Saucon creek, 
which rises in Upper Milford township, in Lehigh county, with its east branch, 
or Laubach's creek, drains the rich valleys of old Saucon. Both these streams 
afford excellent water-power, and their banks have been the sites of mills from 
the earliest times. Old deeds and records go to prove that large tracts of land 
were taken up by speculators in Philadelphia, such as the Aliens, Wistars, and 
Graemes, prior to 1730, and then sold out in smaller parcels to the first settlers, 
who were principally Germans, among them some German Baptists and Men- 
nonites. These may have entered the lower part of the township as early as 
1720. Many of the present inhabitants are descendants of the first settlers. 
Such arc the Kiegels, the Lerchs, the Labachs, the Hellers, the Boyers, the 
Beahras, the Bachmans, the Beils, the Lawalls, the Oberlys, the Stubers, the 
Ruchs, the Hesscs, the Leidys, the Weitknechts, etc. In the year of the town- 
ship's erection its population was estimated to be 300. 

Prior to the year 1737, Nathaniel Irish, sometime an agent for William Allen 
in the sale of lands, was seated near the mouth of the Saucon creek, on a tract of 
two hundred and ninety acres of land, to which he subsequently added five 
hundred acres. Here he built a grist and saw-mill. This property, in 1743, 
passed into the hands of George Cruikshank, a sugar planter from the island of 
Montserrat, and in 1769 to John Currie, Esq., late of Reading. Currie 
subsequently got a patent for a ferry over the Lehigh, just above the site of the 
present Freemansburg bridge. In 1809, William Currie conveyed a portion of 
the estate to Jacob Sheimer, for whom the present village of Shimersville is 
named. John Knecht's grist-mill, a foundry near by, a store, and a blacksmith 
shop, with a few dwellings, mark the site of the old Irish settlement. Higher 
up the Lehigh, and immediately below the site of the Bethlehem Iron company's 
buildings, Isaac Ysselstein; a Hollander from Esopus, settled about the same 
time as did Nathaniel Irish. 

The Moravians, who began to build Bethlehem in 1741, took up lands in 
Saucon, opposite their town, as early as 1743, and in 1745 built the Crown Inn.. 
The " Crown " was the first public-house on the Lehigh. Adding purchase to 
purchase, the Moravians eventually acquired upwards of fourteen hundred acres 
in one contiguous body in this township. Here they laid out large farms, 
which materially aided them for years in the prosecution of their enterprises as a 
society and a church. The present borough of South Bethlehem occupies the 
site of the Moldavian farms. 

The first church erected in the township was a log building, that stood as 
late as 1816, near the site of the present Lower Saucon church, which superseded 
its venerable predecessor in that year. It is not positively known when the old 
meeting-house was erected ; certain it is, that three years after his arrival in the 



NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. 



977 



countiy, in the autumn of 1742, the Rev. Henry M. Muhlenberg, the well known 
founder of the Lutheran church in Pennsylvania, preached to the Germans of 
this section in the Saucon church. The first regular supply, however, was the 
Rev. Rudolph H. Schrenk, who began his pastoral labors in 1 749. 

The second largest town in Saucon is Hellertown, since 1873 a borough. 
It receives its name from one of the Hellers, the dominant family of early settlers 
in this section ; lies in a fruitful valley near Saucon creek, and on a road which 
was the first one into this county from Philadelphia, having been laid out in 




OLD CROWN TNN, BETHLEHEM. 

1737. It is a brisk and growing place. A grist mill on the borough limits, 
stands on the site of an older one, near which the first proprietor, one StoflTel 
Wagner, kept a well-known public-house as early as 1759. 

The discovery of ores of zinc in Upper Saucon township, by W. Th. Roepper, 
of Bethlehem, in 1845, led, in 1853, to the erection of the Lehigh zinc com- 
pany's works, on the south bank of the river, opposite the borough of 
Bethlehem. Here was next laid out the town of Augusta, which, chan2:iii2: its 
name several times, eventually developed into South Bethlehem, which was 
inctrporated a borough in August of 1865. Zinc white, spelter, and sheet zinc, 
are the products of the afore-mentioned compan^^'s industries. The employees 
3 u 



978 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



are principally foreigners, Belgians, Germans, and Irish. The capacity of the 
oxide works is 2,000 tons per annum ; that of the spelter works, 3,600 tons. 
The annual yield of the mines is estimated to be 1Y,000 tons of ore. 

The Bethlehem Iron company, a portion of whose works lie within the 




precincts of the borough of South Bethlehem, erected their first stack in 1861, 
and in January of 1863 the first blast was fired. A mill for the rolling of iron 
rails was in operation in September of the same year. Rolling mill No. 2, built 
in the shape of a Greek cross, has an extreme length of 931 feet, and covers 



i 



NOBTHAMPTON COUNTY. 979 

upwards of four acres of gvouncl. This is exclusively a steel mill, has two eight- 
ton Bessemer converters, with a capacity of 125 tons of steel ingots per clay. 
The rolling department is able to turn out 1,100 tons of steel-rails per week. 
Seven stacks, a spiegeleisen furnace, a foundry, and a machine-shop, complete 
the company's works, which, at the present time, consume annually 10,000 
tons of Pennsylvania hematites and New Jersey magnetic oxide, and from 
70,000 to 15,000 tons of coal. Upwards of 2,000 men are employed in this 
magnificent enterprise, one of the largest of its kind in the country. 

The borough of South Bethlehem is well laid out, principally on level ground. 
The Union depot of the Lehigh Valley and the North Penn railroads occupies 
the site of the old Crown Inn. The Avestern part of the borough lies high, and 
consists of residences, many of which are conspicuous for the beauty of their 
architecture. St. Luke's Hospital, under the control of the Protestant Episcopal 
church, incorporated in 1812, has recently occupied the buildings of the Hydro- 
pathic Institute, on the slope of the Lehigh mountain, a short mile Avest of the 
Union depot, on the western line of Saucon township. 

Due south of the borough of South Bethlehem, on the ascent of the moun- 
tain, stands the Lehigh University, founded by the Hon. Asa Packer, of Mauch 
Chunk, in 1865. The main building. Packer Hall, is built of native sandstone, 
213 by 10 feet, in the architectural style of the Renaissance, and is a magnificent 
structure. Handsome residences for the President and the professors, and 
Christmas and Saucon halls, with a woodland park of sixty acres of ground, con- 
stitute the noble gift Avhich their benefactor presented to the young men of the 
country Avhen he endowed the institute originally, with $500,000, since supple- 
mented by large annual donations. The Lehigh University, Avith its schools of 
civil, mechanical, and manufacturing engineering, of chemistry, architecture, and 
construction, is governed by a board of trustees, of Avhich the bishop of the 
diocese of Central Pennsylvania is the president ex officio. The Rev. John M. 
Leavitt, D.D., is the present President of the University. The faculty consists of 
nine professors and six instructors. Through the generosity of the founder, the 
trustees were enabled, in 1811, to declare tuition free. 

The mineral resources of this township are iron ore of the brown hematite 
variet}', and limestone, much of which latter is burned to lime. 

Williams toAvnship, by the erection of Lower Saucon, at the March 
sessions, 1143, of Bucks county court, held at Newtown, contained the 
remaining portion of the lands in Northampton lying south of the Lehigh. 
A surA^ey was accordingly deemed unnecessary. For a number of years the 
county records mentioned the name of this township as Williamston, a name 
which is presumed to have been given it for John Williams, an early and promi- 
nent settler. Settlements were made as eaily as 1125. When Easton was being 
commenced in 1152, William Parsons, in December of that year, remarks, "that 
most of the provisions supplying the infant town are brought from Williams and 
Saucon townships, which contain a considerable number of inhabitants." John 
Williams, Melchior Hay, Nicholas Best, George Best, Michael Shoemaker, George 
Raub, and Martin Lehr, were some of the early German settlers. The Richards 
were English. Nearly the whole surface of the tOAA-nship is covered by the Lehigh ■ 
hills or South mountain, which are principally composed of gneiss and other 



980 



HIS TOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



primary rocks, and overlaid by limestone in some of the narrow valleys. Mag- 
netic iron ore is found in localities, and large quantities of the best of brown 
hematite, such as bomb-shell ore, etc. The soil in the valleys, especially next 
to the river, is rich, well cultivated, and very productive of wheat, corn, and grass. 
Fry's run, which by its tributaries receives the waters from the north and the 
south, and affords excellent power for grist and saw-mills, drains the greater 
portion of the township. There are several lesser water-courses. 

Hexen Kopf (witches' head or knob), an isolated prominence on one of the 
ridges of the South mountain, in the interior of the township, affords an exten- 
sive view of the surrounding country, and having been regarded by the first 
German settlers with superstitious awe as the scene of the witches' revelries, has 
become a place of resort for pleasure parties. As early as 1743, there was a 

church, or meet- 
ing-house, with- 
in the limits of 
this township, 
situate on the 
road that led 
from David 
Martin's ferry, 
over the Dela- 
ware (erected 
in 1737), to the 
so-called great 
road from Phil- 
adelphia to Na- 
thaniel Irish's 
mill, at the 
mouth of the 
Saucon, not far 
from the farm- 
house of Barnet Walter. In 1752, the Eev. Rudolph Schrenck, one of Muhlen- 
berg's associates, preached at this olden-time church. Subsequent to 1763, the 
congregation purchased a house of worship in Easton. 

There are two boroughs within the limits of Williams township — the borough 
of Glendon, and that of South Easton. The borough of Glendon, incorporated 
in 1867, has grown up around the Glendon iron works, situate along the right bank 
of the Lehigh, one and a half miles above South Easton, which were begun to be 
erected in 1843, by Charles Jackson and others of Boston, under the superintend- 
ence of Wm. Fermstone, the present acting manager. The first furnace was forty- 
five feet high, twelve feet at the boshes, and was at the time and for several years 
afterwards, the highest anthracite furnace in the United States. There are at 
present three stacks, and a fourth one in South Easton, belonging to this com- 
pany's works, which has the reputation of producing the best anthracite pig iron 
in the country. The ores principallj' used are hematite varieties, mined at the 
foot of the South mountain, near the junction of the limestone and gneiss, in the 
adjoining township. Magnetic oxide, from Morris county, N, J., is added to 




THE OLD MILL AT BETHLEHEM.— BUILT 1751. 



NOBTHAMPTON COUNTY. 981 

their producing a most desirable mixture. TJhler's furnace, and the Keystone 
Iron Company's furnace, each one stack, lie within the limits of the borough of 
Glendon. It was incorporated in 186t. 

Glendon is a station on the Lehigh Valley railroad, and lying on the Lehigh 
canal, has excellent conveniences for reaching market with its products. A 
short distance above Glendon, on the Lehigh, is the Lehigh Coal and Naviga- 
tion company's dam, called the " chain-dam," because by means of a chain 
supported on piers in the pool of the dam the boatmen are enabled to cross 
with their craft without danger of being swept over the breast. Coleman's 
island is at this point of the river. 

The borough of South Easton, so named because of its contiguity to 
Easton, situate on the right bank of the Lehigh, just above the junction of this 
river with the Delaware, was laid out in 1833 by the Lehigh Coal and Navi- 
gation compan}^, and incorpoi'ated a borough in 1840. It comprises part of 
three hundred acres of land owned by Melchior Ha}'^, who, in 1750, assisted 
William Parsons and Nicholas Scull in laying out and surveying the county 
town of the projected county of Northampton. 

Lower Mount Bethel township was settled about 1728 or 1730 by emi- 
grants from the north of Ireland, of Scotch descent, and hence called Scotch- 
Irish, or Ulster Scots. They belonged to the same immigration which entered 
Allen township, and in contradistinction to the Craig settlement, called their 
settlement Hunter's settlement, for Alexander Hunter, the most influential of 
their number. At first they seated themselves near the month of Martin's 
creek, on land then heavily timbered and well adapted for farms. Others of 
these pioneers were the Lyles, the McCrackens, the Sillimans, the Nelsons, the 
Crawfords, the Campbells, the Lairds, the Galbraiths, and the Boyds. With 
that instinctive love of border life which has alwaj's characterized the Scotch- 
Irish element of our population, these original settlers, after having made some im- 
provements, moA'cd farther into the interior of the Province, many to the Susque- 
hanna, and were succeeded by Germans, or descendants of this industrious people. 

Lower Mount Bethel was separated and organizer] a township in 1746. The 
face of the country is diversified, the upper portion hilly; a level tract of land, 
however, extending from the Plainfield line to the Delaware river, at Belvidere, 
from one to two miles in width, forming a part of the Kittatinny limestone 
formation and excellent farming land. The soil in the northern part of the 
township is slate and gravel. The township is drained b}'- Mud run, Martin's 
creek and its branches, and Richmond creek, or the Oughquoghton, all of whi( h 
furnish power for grist and saw-mills. There is an iron ore deposit near the 
Delaware river, about two miles below Belvidere, and at Martin's creek, near 
the Delaware, the hj-draulic cement stone makes its appearance. 

Washington township was formed from the upper part of Lower Mt. Bethel 
in 1871. As to the face of the countr}'^, there is a level marshy tract of several 
miles in width, running along the foot of the Blue mountain, in which are the 
springs of Martin's creek ; the remainder of the township is of the slate forma- 
tion, and decidedly hilly or rolling. It is well drained by said creek (written in 
old deeds by the Indian name of Moiawuquotenk) and its branches. All these 
afford water-power. 



9S2 HIS TOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

. Bangor, in the upper part of the township, on Martin's creek, an outgrowth 
of the slate industry, which between 1863 and 1870 was dominant throughout 
the upper tier of townships in Northampton county, was incorporated a borough 
in 1875. It is a lively and growing town. Just within the borough limits are 
the Bangor Slate company's well-known quarry. 

The surface of Upper Mount Bethel township is hilly and rolling, except- 
ing the belt of flat and marsh}^ land that skirts the base of the Blue mountain ; 
the soil is either a slaty gravel or limestone, and yields well in the A^alleys 
underlaid by the latter rock. 

In 1752, when Northampton county was erected, there were but few farmers 
residing in this portion of what was then simply Mount Bethel ; a few Low 
Dutch and a few Scotch-Irish — such as the Van Ettens, the Middaghs, and the 
Nelsons. In 1787 Upper Mount Bethel was formed into the township as we 
have it at present. 

Forks township adjoins the borough of Easton on the south. Prior to 1857, 
in which year old Forks, west of the Bushkill, was formed into Palmer, Forks 
had for its metes and bounds the same that were given it when in 1754 it was 
erected from the so-called Forks of Delaware ; hence, too, its name. The surface 
of this township is generally level ; the soil, limestone, well cultivated, and very 
productive. The first settlers were Germans, descendants of whom still occupy 
the paternal acres. 

Palmer township, until 1857, was a part of old Forks. It was named after 
George Palmer, a well-known deputy surveyor in the county in the last quarter of 
the last centur^^, who resided sometime at Easton, and sometime in the Craig 
settlement, where he died. He is buried in the old graveyard of the Allen 
township Presbyterian church. Most of the surveying done in upper North- 
ampton, subsequent to the Revolution, was done by George Palmer and his 
assistants. The face of the county apd the quality of the soil in Palmer resemble 
those of the Forks. The Bushkill, or Lehietan, which is at the upper end of the 
township forks (the most easterly branch, formerly being known as Tatemy's 
creek) has, from the earliest settlement, been famous for its mills. A number 
of these are still active in converting the products of this rich gi-ain-growing 
township into bread. Some of the first settlers were John Lefevre, John Van 
Etten, Robert Lyle, Garret Moore, and John Newland, from the " Hunter's settle- 
ment" on Martin's creek. These took up lands in the northern corner of the 
township. The Moravians made a settlement and built a mill on the west 
branch of Bushkill in 1752. In the spring of 1756, during the French and 
Indian war, this improvement, called by the brotherhood " Friedensthal," was 
stockaded, and afforded a place of refuge for many of the neighbors and 
refugees from the upper parts of the county and transmontane Northampton. 
On several occasions it was threatened by the savages, in the course of their 
predatory incursions. " Our dogs," writes one of the Moravians under date of 
January 22, 1756, "make a great noise every night till twelve o'clock, and run 
towards the island above the mill. I expect it is not without a good reason." 
This old mill was demolished some thirty j'ears ago. Near its site stands one 
of more recent structure. The Proprietaries' Manor of Fermor, or the Dry- 
lands, one of the two manors in Northampton, invaded the western limits of ' 



NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. 983 

Palmer, and belonged to what was locally at an early day called barren land 
or bai^rens. 

Easton, the seat of justice of Northampton county, is situated at the conflu- 
ence of the rivers Delaware and Lehigh (therefore in the very forks of Delaware), 
extending from the mouth of the latter along the former nearly half a mile to 
the Bushkill. It is therefore surrounded by water on three sides. For advan- 
tages of position as well as beauty of scenery it is unsurpassed by any inland town 
of Pennsylvania. Its site was selected, by order of the Proprietaries, by Nicholas 
Scull, Surveyor General, and it was laid out by William Parsons in the spring of 
1752. Mr. Parsons was called by Thomas Penn from Lancaster to superintend 
the erection of the proposed new town ; was at first invested with all the offices, 
proved an energetic agent for his employer, and died in December, ITSY. He 
lies buried within the limits of the beautiful place over which he watched so 
faithfully in its infancy. There is everj^ reason to believe that there was a 
cluster of dwellings in the forks of the Delaware when the site of Easton was 
selected, as David Martin, of Trenton, as early as 1139, had been granted a 
patent for ferrying over Delaware at this point. The panic created throughout the 
country by the sacking of the Moravian mission at Gnadenhiitten,in November of 
1755, which preceded the invasion of cis-montane Northampton, struck terror 
into the inhabitants of Easton. It was during the continuance of hostil- 
ities between the Indians and their white neighbors that Easton, between 
1756 and 1762, at various times, was the point selected by the former to treat 
with the lat'.er in reference to their grievances. There is no place in Pennsyl- 
vania as rich in historical associations touching the original proprietors of 
the soil as is the borough of Easton. For it was built in the garden spot 
of the red man, in a spot which was dear to him by reason of its beauty 
and by reason of its cherished ancestral memories. " I will treat with n'ou no 
where but in the Forks," were the words of the Delaware King, Teedyuscung, 
as often as the governors sought to meet him in conference. And hither the 
governors and their counsellors were compelled to come at the bidding of 
the haughty warrior. 

Parsons lived to see the completion of the jail, which was commenced in 
1752 and completed early in 1755, at a cost of about £400. The next great 
undertaking was the erection of a bridge over the Bushkill creek, at a cost of 
£226 to the county. A church and school-house, built of logs, was erected in 
the last-mentioned year, and paid for by private subscription. 

The first courts, from June, 1752, to March, 1766, were held in different 
taverns. The plan of the court-house, which was not completed until the last- 
named 3'ear, was taken from Carpenter's Hall, in Philadelphia. It was built of 
limestone, stood in the public square, was graced by a whipping-post and pillory, 
and cost $4,589. The bell which is used at the present day was cast by a 
Moravian at Bethlehem, in 1768. This olden time building was demolished in 
1861. 

The streets of the new town were well laid out, and bore the names of pro- 
minent persons, of members and friends of the Proprietaries' family, such as 
Pomfret, Fermor, Julianna, Hamilton, etc. These, unfortunately, have been 
exchanged for modern ones, which are entirely devoid of historical association. 



984 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

George Taylor, the representative in Congress from Northampton in 1776, 
and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, a native of the north 
of Ireland, was a resident of Easton between 1764 and 1769. He died at this 
place in February of 1781. A beautiful monument of Italian marble has been 
erected to his memory in the Easton cemetery. 

Easton was incorporated a borough September 23, 1789, and received the 
second charter of incorporation in 1823. It is at present divided into seven 
wards, and has a population rising of 13,000, being one of the largest boroughs 
in the Commonwealth. 

The first impulse given to business in this important town, independently of its 
character as the seat of justice, which circumstance will always ensure for it a 
large rural trade, was the discovery of, and the transportation of coal from the 
anthracite region of the upper Lehigh. The Lehigh slack-water navigation from 
Mauch Chunk to Easton, was opened in June of 1829 ; the Delaware division of 
the Pennsylvania canal, two years later ; and the Morris canal somewhat earlier. 
Thus the place was destined to become an entrepot of the coal trade, which posi- 
tion it still holds. Connected with the great emporiums of the Atlantic border, 
by the New Jersey Central railroad, the Morris and Essex division of the Dela- 
ware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad, and the Belvidere and Delaware railroad j 
and with the anthracite region of Pennsylvania by the Lehigh Valley railroad, 
and the Lehigh and Susquehanna division of the Central railroad of New Jersey, 
there are few places favored as is Easton in these important aids to trade and 
factors of prosperity. 

Easton is compactly and well built, with beautiful residences and handsome 
and spacious stores. There are nineteen churches and a public library. The 
present court house was erected in 1860 and 1861, at a cost of $53,000. Near it 
stands the county prison, a well-built and well-appointed structure, both as to 
exterior and as to its interior arrangements. The public and high-schools of the 
borough, under a special superintendent, are among the .best in the State. 

Lafayette College, located at Easton, having taken front rank among the educa- 
tional institutions of the United States, if not of the world, and one, too, of which 
every Pennsylvaniau should feel proud, deserves a fuller notice than our limits allow. 
It was chartered March 29, 1826, during the administration of Governor Shulze, him- 
self an ardent and staunch friend of popular education. It was about this time that 
the Marquis de Lafayette visited America, receiving everywhere a national ovation, 
and the college was named in his honor. It was at first intended that military tactics 
should occupy a large place in the instructions of the college, but this was found 
inexpedient, and the project soon abandoned. The Rev. George Junkin, D. D., was 
elected the first president of the college in 1832, and the year following, July 4, 1833, 
the corner-stone of the then main building laid. Dr. Junkin remained with the 
institution until 1841, when he accepted the presidency of Miami University, but 
returned in 1844 to Lafayette, which he again resigned in 1848 to accept the presi- 
dency of the now Washington and Lee University of Virginia. During the interim 
1841 to 1844, Rev. J. W. Yeomans, D. D., was at the head of the college. During 
the presidency of Rev. D. V. McLean, D. D. (1851 to 1857), a vigorous effort was 
made toward a permanent endowment of SI 00,000, by the sale of scholarships ; but 
this financial relief was only temporary. Rev. George W. McPhail, D. D., assumed 



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985 



the presidency iu 1858, when reuewed efforts were made in behalf of Lafayette. The 
brealcing out of the civil war of 1861-65, however, had a depressing effect upon the 
institution ; many of the students of the college enlisted iu the army, and the pres- 
sure of the times so much diminished the number of new studeuts that at one time 
it was feared that all the classes would be discontinued. Dr. MePhail resigned in 
1863, but at this critical juncture Rev. William C. Cattell, D. D., was called to the 
head. A new vitality was at once infused, and new vigor from that period forward 
characterized the work of the college, both' in its inner life and in the more remote 
points of contact with the patronage and public. Under this administration Lafay- 
ette has risen to her present commanding eminence, embracing departments of 
instruction widely different in specific scope and aim, yet brought into stimulating 
contact, and so into unity of a harmonious progress. The endowment of the chair 
of mathematics by Mr. Ario Pardee in August, 1864, was the beginning of those 












PAKDEE HALL, LAFAYETTE COLLEGE. 

earnest efforts by noble men whose munificence has placed Lafayette College where 
it stands to-day. 

The college-grounds include about thirty-three acres, beautifully located, over- 
looking the city of Easton. The old college-buildings have been completely trans- 
formed, while there have been erected during the past twelve years the Jenks Physi- 
cal Hall, the Astronomical Observatory, founded by Dr. Traill Green of Easton, and 
the Pardee Hall, named for its munificent founder. This magnificent structure cost 
nearly $300,000. It consists of one centre building five stories in height, 53 feet 
front and 83 feet deep, and two lateral wings, one on each side of the centre building, 
measuring 61 feet in length and 31 feet in width ; four stories in height, including a 
mansard roof, the whole terminating in two cross wings 42 feet front and 84 feet 
deep and four stories in height. The entire length of front in a straight line is 256 
feet. The material is Trenton brownstone, with trimming of light Ohio sandstone. 
The building is heated throughout by steam and lighted by gas. The first floor is 
mainly devoted to the study of mining and metallurgy ; the second contains the 
geological and mineralogical cabinets, a spacious auditorium, and smaller lecture- 
rooms, reading-rooms, and professors' studies. The third floor is devoted to the engi- 
neers. The right wing is occupied by the mining engineers. A large drawing-room 



986 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

occupies the lateral wing, while the cross wing embraces rooms for models and various 
professional purposes. The left wing is occupied by the civil engineers. The lateral 
wing comprises a drawing-room, and the cross wing is divided into rooms for lectures, 
working-models, collections, and the like. On the fourth floor the same ample pro- 
vision has been made for the chemists. The centre building is divided into large 
rooms, one for technical collections and the other an assistant's room. The lateral 
wings are intended for qualitative and quantitative analysis. The cross wings at the 
extremity of the building are occui^ied by additional laboratories, lecture-rooms, and 
professors' studies. The fifth floor of the centre building is mainly occupied by 
laboratories for original researches. In determining what rooms were needed and 
the best arrangement of them, similar buildings in Europe, as well as in this coun- 
try, were carefully studied, and liberal provision has been made in all the depart- 
ments of instruction for every aid which has been devised for the most thorough and 
attractive teaching, and also for the prosecution of original researches. 

The old standard curriculum of under-graduate studies has been adhered to 
throughout with a judicious regard for the interests of classical culture. Changes 
have occurred, it is true, and important additions have been made to this course, but 
only such as have seemed necessary in view of the just demands of changing times. 
In her recent remarkable growth, however, Lafayette has far exceeded the limits of 
this single course, and has, indeed, by her various schools or departments of instruc- 
tion, advanced to the rank of a university. We have no less authority than a lead- 
ing English review for stating that " the studies of a philological character carried 
on at Lafayette College are not surpassed in thoroughness by those which we are 
accustomed to associate with German universities." The schedules now offer seven 
distinct courses of study leading to degrees, as follows : I. The Classical Course — the 
graduates receiving the usual degree of Bachelor of Arts. ... II. The General 
Scientific Course — graduates receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science ; or for 
those taking an elective course in Latin, Bachelor of Philosophy. . . , III. The 
Course in Civil Engineering — the graduates receiving the degree of Civil Engineer. 
. . . IV. The Course in Mining and Metallurgy — the graduates receiving the degree 
of Mining Engineer. ... V. The Course in Chemistry — the graduates receiving the 
degree of Analytical Chemist. ... VI. Fost- Graduate Courses — designed for grad- 
uates of colleges or scientific schools ; those completing a three years' course in these 
post-graduate studies receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. . . . VII. The 
Department of Law — graduates receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. The gen- 
eral scientific course offers a system of thorough liberal culture based upon the study 
of the natural sciences, modern languages, and. mathematics. Its design is to fur- 
nish a system of instruction fully equivalent in general information and scholarly 
culture to the classical course, but withoxd the ancient languages. Anglo-Saxon, Ger- 
man, and French are therefore substituted for Latin and Greek. These languages are 
pursued in the light of modern philology, with the systematic thoroughness which we 
are accustomed to associate with classical studies. If, however, the surest test of sub- 
stantial progress is the number of students, in this tliere has been a remarkable ad- . 
vance. In 1863 there were thirty-nine students, now there are nearly four hundred ; 
while the Faculty, consisting of nine members at that period, now numbers twenty-eight. 

Allen township was formed on the petition of thirty-seven signers (most of 
whom were Scotch-Irish) to the Court of Quarter Sessions of the county of 



NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. 987 

Bucks, held at Newtown, in June, 1748. It included the present townships of 
Allen, East Allen, and Hanover, besides that portion of Lehigh county which 
invades the forks of Delaware. The Scotch-Irish were the first settlers in this 
part of the county, and the thirty-seven afore-mentioned signers were doubtless 
all the taxables in the year 1748. 

Allen township received its present bounds and metes when, in 1752, its 
adjacents to the north were formed into Lehigh township, and when, in 1845, 
East Allen was cut off. The Aliens of the present day retain the name given 
to old Allen, in honor of Chief Justice William Allen, of Philadelphia, who, 
subsequent to 1740, became the largest proprietor of lands in this section of the 
county. 

The upper half of the township is hilly and rolling, and the soil of the slate 
formation ; the lower portion is more level, limestone, well cultivated, with as 
fine farms as the yeoman's heart may desire. The mineral products are hydraulic 
cement, slate, and iron ore. Slate was prospected for and worked in small 
quantities on the bank of the Hockendauqua as early as 1832. The township 
is drained by the Hockendauqua, Dry run, and the Catasauqua, which aflford 
power for a number of grist and saw mills. 

The Scotch-Irish entered this part of old Allen soon after their first settle- 
ment on the head-waters of the Catasauqua. Few of their descendants, however, 
may be found on the ancestral acres, most of these having passed into the hands 
of strangers, principally Germans. 

The course taken by the walkers, Marshall and Yeates, in September of 1737, 
in their effort to ivalk out as much land as possible for Thomas Penn, ran from 
near the south-eastern to the extreme north-western corner of this township ; 
and it was not far from Howell's grist-mill, on the Hockendauqua, where the 
walkers and their attendants passed the night of the 19th of September, prior 
to resuming the walk for six additional hours, on the morning of the 20th. 
When excavating a cut for the bed of the Lehigh and Susquehanna railroad 
in 18G7, the workmen, not far from this point, came upon the remains of an 
Indian burial ground, which was probably the place of sepulture for the village, 
where the Indians, we are told, passed that memorable night in a wild cantico. 

East Allen was separated from Allen in 1845. The surface is generally 
level ; the soil limestone, and highly productive of wheat, rye, and Indian corn. 
The principal water-courses are the west branch of the Menakasy creek, and the 
springs of the Catasauqua or Caladaqua. It was within the limits of East Allen 
that the Ulster-Scot pioneers of Northampton county made their settlements as 
early as 1728. They seated themselves upon one of the richest limestone 
sections in the count}^, hewed out noble farms from the primeval forest — farms 
which are the admiration of the traveler to the present day — built churches 
and school houses, and for generations were a distinctive element in the popula- 
tion of the county. The first church was built in 1746 ; it was superseded by a 
second, and they in turn by the one which stands to the present day, near where 
are interred the remains of the first of those hardy yeomen who exchanged 
the comforts of home in the old world for the uncertainties of border life in an 
American wilderness. Both church and burial ground are near Weaversville. 

As has been stated earlier, this settlement of Scotch-Irish, which was long 



988 HISTOBY OF PENNSLYVANIA. 

known by the name of " the Craig settlement," extended from the Menakasy on 
the cast, to the Ilockendauqua and the Lehigh on the west. Hugh Wilson erected 
a grist mill on the Ilockendauqua creek as early as 1Y40. He and the Craig 
brothers were the most influential among this people. Names of other prominent 
individuals have been given on a previous page. David Bralnerd preached 
occasionally for the settlers here during his mission in the Forks of Delaware. 
During the French and Indian war, in January of 1756, immediately after the 
disaster which befell Captain Hays' company of Scotch-Irish at Gnadenhiitten 
(now Weissport), where he and his men were ambushed by the Indians and well 
nigh cut to pieces, the settlers fled from their farms and sought refuge among the 
Moravians at Bethlehem and Nazareth. " Soon after my arrival here," writes 
Franklin from Bethlehem, to Governor Morris, under date of January 14, 1756. 
" the principal people of the Irish settlement, such as Wilson and elder Craig, 
came to me and demanded an addition of thirty men to Craig's compau}^, or 
threatened they would immediately, one and all, leave their country to the 
enemy." Captain Ha3^s, mentioned above, resided on the site of Weaversville. 

On the 8th of October, 1763, the bloody affair at Stentou's public-house anew 
struck terror into the settlement, and its inhabitants for the last time were com- 
pelled to flee from their homes. The panic, however, was of short duration. 

In the Revolutionary war the Scotch-Irish of Northampton were among the 
first to take up arms in defence of their adopted country's liberties, and Captain 
Hays' company saw service at the battle of Long Island and at Trenton. General 
Robert Brown and General Thomas Craig, both oflScers in the Continental army, 
were natives of the Irish settlement. 

Immediately subsequent to the Revolution, when the estates of loyalist land- 
holders throuo-hout the Commonwealth were confiscated, a number of inhabitants 
of the Aliens (whose lands were then held in the name of James Allen, a son of 
William Allen the original proprietor), in order to avoid litigation, removed 
from their farms ; some to the Genesee country, some to the Redstone country, 
and some to the Susquehanna ; and thus it has happened that the names of the 
original settlers, save a few, such as the Homers, the Clydes, and the Hemp- 
hills, have become extinct. German farmers now hold the bulk of the farms first 
tilled by the Scotch-Irish. 

Not far from Odenwelder's tavern, in the centre of East Allen, George Wolf, 
the seventh Governor of Pennslyvania, was born in August of 1777. It was at the 
academy, established by the Presbyterians of his neighborhood, in 1791, that 
he received the rudiments of a classical education; and what was taught him 
here may have influenced him, later in life, to become the great advocate of a 
system of popular education. 

Bath, situated on the West Branch of the Menakasy, since 1856 a borough, 
was laid out several years prior to the Revolution, and named after Bath in 
England. It was in the last decade of the last century the geat of the land office, 
and in its vicinity resided George Palmer, the surveyor. The slate trade and 
the proximity of the Chapman quarry, have of late years given a decided 
impetus to its growth. Bath is a station on the Lehigh and Lackawanna 
division of the Central railroad of New Jersey. 

Siegfried's Bridge, a post village on the Lehigh river, and a station on 



NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. 



989 



the Lehigh and Susquehanna division of the Central railroad of New Jersey 
(which road skirts the western boundary of Allen township in its entirety), 
gradually grew up about a feriy for which John Siegfried had a patent as early 
as 1774. In 1824 a bridge superseded the ferry. This was one of the many 
bridges which were swept away in the great freshet of January, 1841, when the 
Lehigh valley suffered incalculable loss of property, and also loss of life. Sieg- 
fried's Bridge is come to be a brisk and growing place. 

Kreidersville is named for one of the German families who settled here 
about 1765. It lies on the old King's road to Fort Allen, laid out by order of 
the court in 1747 ; and which, until 1756, was the road by which the Mission- 
aries of Bethlehem were wont to travel to Gnadenhlitten (Lehighton), and others 
to the Healing Waters of the Aquanshicola. 

Hanover township was a portion of old Allen until the year 1798. In 1812, 
on the erection of Lehigh county, full two-thirds of Hanover was assigned to 
that county. It lies between East Allen on the north, and Lower Nazareth and 
Bethlehem on the west. The surface is level, except at points along the 
Menakasy creek, and the soil is limestone. This little township is a continuous 
scene of agricultural prosperity, being in the highest state of cultivation, and in 
the hands of sturdy German farmers. The farms average about one hundred 
acres each. 

The early history of Hanover is included in old Allen. The mineral products 
are lime and iron ore. The latter, within the past twentj^-five years, has been 
dug at numerous points, and is a superior quality of brown hematite. Getz's 
mine has yielded untold wealth continually for forty years. 

The Moravians were next in order to the Ulster Scots, to enter the Forks of 
Delaware, and settle within the limits of Upper and Lower Nazareth and 
Bethlehem townships, as they are constituted at present. In the sprino- of 
1740, the well-known Peter Boehler (sometime an intimate friend of the Wes- 
ley brothers) left Georgia with a handful of Moravians of Herrnbut, who had 
ineffectually attempted to establish a mission among the Creeks. On arriving at 
Philadelphia they were employed by George Whitefleld, to erect for him a large 
stone house he proposed to use as a school for negroes, on a tract of five thou- 
sand acres of land (the present Upper Nazareth township) which he had pur- 
chased of William Allen. Here the Moravians worked for the remainder of the 
year ; and having disagreed with Whitefleld, and being discharged, were com- 
pelled to seek a new home. This they found when their Bishop David Nitschman 
secured a tract of five hundred acres at the confluence of the Menakas}^ creek 
and the Lehigh river, on which, in March of 1741, they began to build Bethlehem. 
This eventually became their principal settlement in the Province, and continues 
to be the seat of government of the Moravians of- the church north. 

Upper Nazareth township lies in the A^ery heart of Northampton, and has 
virtually the same metes and bounds as had th^ original Whitefleld tract — which 
tract its proprietor named Nazareth. The tract was held by William Allen in 
right of Letitia Penn, and was invested with the privileges of court-baron. In 
1762 the tract, in its entirety, fell into the hands of the Moravians, and was held 
by them intact till towards the beginning of the Revolution ; subsequently they 
disposed of all save a few hundred acres. The township is well watered by the 



990 



HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



numerous branches of the Menakasy, has partly slate-gravel and partly limestone 
soil, is productive, and boasts the very best of farms. Most of the inhabitants 
are of German descent. 

During the "tenure of this noble domain by the industrious Moravians, tliey 
made, between n43 and 1752, several improvements, to wit: Old Nazareth, 
Gnadenhiitten, Christian's Spring, and New Nazareth, the present borough of 
Nazareth. Nothing of Old Nazareth, save its ruins, remains. Near it stands the 
Whitefield house, one of the most interesting monuments of the olden time 
in this country extant. This staunch structure was recently purchased by a 
friend of the Moravians, remodeled, converted into a home for retired mis- 







NAZARETH HALL, AT NAZARETH. 

sionaries, and donated in trust to that people. The Moravian Historical Society 
has it rooms on the upper floor. 

"But little of Christian's Spring — of its mills, and workshops, and great stone 
barns — is left to tell of the early days. The Gnadenhiitten farms were sold to the 
county commissioners in 1836, and on the site of the Moravian dwellings is 
erected the county almshouse, The so-called Indian graveyard — an old Moravian 
burial-place a short mile west of the boi'ough of Nazareth — contains the remains 
of several of the settlers who were killed by the savages in 1756. 

In 1755 the Moravians erected a spacious stone mansion west of the old 
Nazareth settlement, which they designed for the residence of Count Zinzendorf, 
who was expected to return to the country. Failing to do so, the house was 
converted into a school, and here, in October of 1785, was established that well 




NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. 991 

known and popular boarding school of the American Moravian church, Nazareth 
Hall. 

^ During the French and Indian war, in 1156, several of the manor farms were 
stockaded, and afforded places of refuge to the fugitive inhabitants of the upper 
tier of townships. Provincial troops were stationed at these stockades. 

In 1160, a fifth settlement was made by the Moravians one mile north of 
Nazareth. It was called Schoeneck. 

In the spring of 1111, New Nazareth was laid out around Nazareth Hall. 
This became the principal place on the baron^'^, and when it ceased to be a close 
denominational settlement, grew apace, and in 1856 was incorporated a borough. 

The borough of Nazareth is eligibly situated, and although destitute of the 
advantages which railroad connection invariably affords, is a thriving town. It 
contains four churches, the largest of which is the Moravian, a beautiful brick 
structure, and several industrial establishments. Nazareth Hall and the White- 
field house are in the borough. The Hall has now for upwards of ninety years 
sustained its reputation as an excellent institution of learning — having in that 
time sent out upwards of three thousand alumni. It has been presided over by 
fourteen principals. The Rev. Eugene Leibert is the present incumbent. 
Cottage Home is a charmingly situated family school, in charge of the Rev. 
E. H. Reichel. Nazareth is the seat of the fair grounds of the Northampton 
County Agricultural Society, incorporated in 1855. 

Upper Nazareth was until 1806 a part of Nazareth township, which latter 
was separated from Bethlehem in ll88. The mineral products are slate, lime- 
stone, and iron ore. 

LoAVER Nazareth township was formed from Bethlehem township in 1188. 
Totally different from its sister township of the same name, in the matter of 
being well watered, a great part of its border, along with portions of Palmer 
and Bethlehem, were at an early day denominated barrens, or drylands, twelve 
thousand acres of which region, between 1136 and 1110, constituted the Pro- 
prietaries' Manor of Fermor or the Drjdands. Tlie soil is heavy, limestone, and 
producing plentifully of wheat, vye, and Indian corn. The mineral products are 
limestone and hematite ores. 

Bethlehem township, as at present constituted, is a portion of old Bethlehem 
township, which, when laid out in 1146, embraced within its limits all of Upper 
and Lower Nazareth, together with what bears its name at present. It is 
bounded on the north by Lower Nazareth, on the east by Palmer, on the south by 
the Lehigh river, and on the west by Hanover and Lehigli covuity. The western 
part of Bethlehem is drained by the Menakasy creek ; the south by small water- 
courses that empty into the Lehigh. A part of this township is so called dry- 
land ; its surface is generally rolling, the soil rich heavy limestone, producing 
excellent crops of the staple cereals. The Moravians were the first settlers, and 
at one time held some two thousand acres of land next to the town of Bethlehem. 
The Drylands were settled twenty years subsequent to the beginning of that 
place. 

Bethlehem the oldest and principal town of the Moravians in this country-, 
and until 1844 a close denominational settlement, was begun to be built in 
March of 1141. Its founder was Bishop David Nitschman, a native of Moravia. 
3 N 



992 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Between 1741 and 17C2 the Moravians in ttie Province were united in an 
eponomy, or quasi communism, of which Bethlehem was the central part and 
seat of' government. This place at an early day arrested the attention of 
travelers, who never failed to be struck with the industry and intelligence of its 
people. The society received many accessions from the mother country, and 
was thus enabled to prosecute a mission among the Mohicans of New York and 
the Delawares of Pennsylvania. There are upwards of sixty of these dusky con- 
verts buried in the old Moravian graveyard at Bethlehem. During the Indian 
war of 1756 the place was at points stockaded, and afforded shelter to hundreds 
of settlers from the upper parts of the county. Count Zinzendorf was here in 
1742, and Bishop Augustus G. Spangenberg, one of the revered fathers of the 
American branch of the church, superintended its concerns at Bethlehem for about 

twenty years. 
Since 1844 the 
place has grown 
rapidly. The 
completion of 
the Lehigh Coal 
and Navigation 
company's canal 
in 1829, the sale 
of the Moravian 
farms on the 
south side of the 
Lehigh, the erec- 
tion of zinc and 
iron mills, and 
the opening of 
three railroads, 
have in turn 
stimulated old 
Bethlehem, in- 
fusing into it the life of rejuvenescence, so that from a business point of view it is 
behind none of its sister towns in enterprise and thrift. In 1845 the place was 
incorporated a borough. It is well built, on high ground that skirts the north 
bank of the Lehigh. The houses are brick, and without exception, slate roofed ; 
the stores are beautiful and commodious, and many of the private residences 
elegant and luxurious. It has ten churches, two large public schools (one 
recently erected at a cost of $80,000), and a well appointed fire department. 
The Moravians have a commodious four-story building occupied as a denomina- 
tional day school. The Moravian seminary for young ladies, established in 
1785, enjoys a high reputation to the present day, having sent out during the 
past ninety years of its existence upwards of six thousand alumni. It has 
been presided over by seventeen principals. The present incumbent is the Rev. 
Francis Wolle. 

The Revolutionary experiences of this old town were peculiarly exciting ; 
and although its inhabitants as a people scrupled to bear arms, and may not be 




THE "SCHNITZ HOUSE," AT BETHLEHEM. 



NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. 



993 



reckoned among the patriots of the camp — nevertheless they contributed freely 
of their substance to the common cause, and ministered, twice in the course of 
the great struggle, to hundreds of sick and wounded of the Continental army. 
Such was the case for the first time, when, in December of 1776, following the 
success of the British arms on Long Island, the removal of the general hospi- 
tal from Morristown to points in the interior, became an imperative necessity. 
Bethlehem then received for its quota upwards of eight hundred of the two 
thousand in hospital. One hundred and ten of these lie buried on the borders 
of the present borough. 

With the beginning of September of 1777, opened the most eventful period 
in the Revolutionary history of Bethlehem. For scarcely had the excitement 
incident on the arrival of two hundred prisoners of war (one hundred of these 




THE MARRIED BRETHREN AND SISTERS' HOUSE AND WATER HOUSE, BETHLEHEM. 

were partisans of Donald McDonald from tlie Cross Creek settlement, near 
Fayetteville, N. C.) fully subsided, when intelligence came of reverses to the 
patriot army, succeeded by a rumor that Bethlehem had been selected as head- 
quarters. On the 11th of September was fought the battle of Brandywine, or 
Chad's Ford, at which point Washington had made an unsuccessful stand for the 
defence of Philadelphia. Following this disaster and Howe's movement upon 
the then federal city, the militaiy stores of the army of the North were hurried 
inland from French creek, and by the 23d of the afore-raentioned month upwards 
of nine hundred army wagons were in camp on the outskirts of Bethlehem. 
Meanwhile Baron de Kalb and a corps of French engineers had arrived, their 
errand being to select an advantageous position for the army in the vicinity of 
the town, should Howe follow up his successes, and compel its shattered regi- 
ments once more to make a stand. A change in that general's programme, how- 
ever, drew the main army awaj', and thus the town failed to witness what might 



994 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

have proved a decisive engagement in a most critical period of tlie American 
Revolution. 

"On Saturday, the 20th September, 177*7," writes a chronicler of those 
stirring times, "we began to realize the extent of the panic that had stricken 
the inhabitants of the capital, as crowds of civilians as well as men in military 
life began to enter the town in the character of fugitives. Next day their num- 
ber increased, and toward evening the first installment of sick and wounded ar- 
rived. Among the latter was General Lafayette and suite. General Woodford, 
and Colon 2l Armstrong. Congress, too, was largely represented by some of its 
most influential members, such as John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Henry Lau- 
rens, and Charles Thompson." In the 'month of December the number of sol- 
diers in hospital at Bethlehem increased by daily accessions, and between 
Christmas and New Year upwards of seven hundred were crowded into what is 
the present central building of the Young Ladies' seminary. Three hundred 
of these died in the course of the winter. 

In the afternoon of the 15th of July, 1782, Washington, accompanied by 
two of his aids, on his way to headquarters, then at Newburg, arrived at Beth- 
lehem. Having inspected various objects of interest in the town, he was shown 
through the house for the unmarried women, from whose bazaar, tradition states, 
he made a selection of "blue stripes for his lady and of stout woolen kose for 
himself." He also visited the house of the unmarried men, and in the chapel of 
the brotherhood sat down to a cold repast. On the morning of the 26th he re- 
sumed his journey. This was Washington's only visit to Bethlehem. 

Freemansburg, so named for Jacob Freeman, the first settler, is situated 
at the junction of Nancy's run with the Lehigh. It was incorporated a borough 
in 1850. 

The tier of townships resting against the Blue mountain are Lehigh, Moore, 
Bushkill, and Plainfield. Lehigh township, the first of this group to be formed, 
originally extended from the Lehigh river as far east as the old Minisink road on 
the eastern line of Bushkill, and was, until 1752, called the " Adjacents of Allen." 
Its present metes and bounds were finally fixed in 1765. It is bounded on the 
north by Carbon county ; on the east by Moore ; on the south by Allen, and on 
the west by the Lehigh, which separates it from Lehigh county. The earliest 
record of this part of Northampton is one touching the surveys and laying out, 
in 1735, by order of Thomas Penn, of 6,500 acres of land, on which he designed 
to settle all the Fork Indians, which tract hence was Known as the Indian Land. 
Penn's project was never realized. This and the Manor of Fermor were the 
only Proprietaries' reservations in present Northampton county. 

This township suffered much during the Indian war, and at times was almost 
completely depopulated, the inhabitants fleeing to Bethlehem and Nazareth for 
safety and protection. Franklin, when on his way from Bethlehem to Gnaden- 
hiitten (Weissport), in Janiuuy of 1756, writes from the first place as follows: 
" As we drew near this place we met a number of wagons and many people 
moving off" with their effects from the Irish settlement and Lehigh township." 
Franklin was about setting out with several companies of Provincials, in 
command of Captains Foulke, McLaughlin, and Wayne, to build Fort Allen. 
The family of Dreisbachs was prominent before as well as during the Revolution 



NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. 995 

Joseph Dreisbach was colonel of the third battalion of militia in October of 
1775, and Simon a member of Assembly from 1776 to 1779. Since the Revolu- 
tion, Lehigh township has increased rapidly in wealth and population. The 
Lehigh water-gap, a point of interest to both tourist and geologist, in the north- 
west corner of the township, has been previously noticed. 

Moore township, next in order to Lehigh on the east, is nearly six miles 
square, containing thirty-five square miles, and about 22,506 acres of land. It is 
drained by the springs and head-waters of Hockendaugua and Menakasy creeks. 
The face of the country is hilly and rolling, and the soil, either gravel and slate, 
made by judicious culture to yield fair returns of the cereals, especially buck- 
wheat and rye. 

In 1752, when Northampton county was erected, this portion of it was part of 
the " Adjacents of Allen," and Moore received its present bounds as late as 1765. 
At one time it was proposed to call the township Penn. Its present name was 
given it in honor of John Moore, a representative of the county in the Provincial 
Assembly in 1761 and 1762. In January of 1756, the Indians entered this town- 
ship and committed a series of depredations and murders, firing Christian 
Miller's, Henry Diehl's, Henry Shopp's, Nicholas Hell's, Nicholas ShoU's, and 
Peter Doll's houses and barns, killing one of Heil's children and John Bauman. 
The latter's body was found two weeks after the maraud, and interred in the 
Moravian burial-ground at Nazareth. At an election held at Easton, May 22, 
1775, Philip Drum, of Moore, was elected as a member of the committee of safety. 

BusHKiLL township, so named from the Lehietan, or Bushkill creek, whose 
head-branches have their rise within its limits, is the third in order of the upper 
tier of townships. It was erected in 1814. The surface is undulating, the soil 
slaty or gravel, overlaying the limestone, on its southern border — nevertheless, 
under proper culture it is productive. The early history of this township is 
merged in that of Plainfield, and its inhabitants, like those of Plain field, were 
much exposed to the inroads of the Indians. The first settlers were Germans. 
The Moravians had several tracts of land adjacent to the Barony Nazareth, on 
one of which they erected a public-house in 1752, and called it the Rose, which was 
a place of refuge for the neighborhood in the war of 1756. William Edmonds, a 
member of the Provincial Assembly in 1755, kept a store near this tavern, in 1763 
and later, and carried on a considerable trade with the Indians of the Susque- 
hanna country. It was in this neighborhood that Governor Richard Penn, the 
Aliens, and others of the gentry of the capital, were wont to resort for grouse 
shooting on the adjacent plains or barrens between 1760 and 1770. 

In the neighborhood of Jacobsburg, four miles from Nazareth, William 
Henry, in 1792, erected a manufactory for muskets, for several thousand stand 
of which he had contracted with the Governor of the Commonwealth. A forge, 
and subsequently a blast furnace and foundry, were in operation here between 
1815 and 1824. Boulta gun factory was erected two miles lower down the Bush- 
kill, by William Henry, Jr., in 1813. It is still in operation. 

During the Indian wars the isolated inhabitants were frequently obliged to 
flee for protection to the Moravian towns. A murder, committed at Joseph 
Teller's farm-house, in September of 1787, led to the erection of a block-house 
about two miles south-east of the Wind Gap, whither the settlers might rendez- 



996 HIS TORY OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

vous in times of danger. This post, at whicli squads of Provincials were occa- 
sionally posted, is known in the records and reports of that time as Tidd's or 
Dietz's. Near this point a public-house had been erected as early as 1752, 
deriving its resources from the travel which passed its doors along the new 
Minisink road, through the Wind Gap. This tavern stand, at a later day, was 
long known as Heller's, and latterly as Stotz's. 

Plainfield township lies between Bushkill on the west, and Washington 
and Lower Mount Bethel on the east. In 1163, Plainfield received its present 
metes and bounds; and the name given it pointed to the face of the country, 
which was almost entirely devoid of timber, excepting along the water courses, 
and overo-rown with the dwarf oak. The first settlers, who were Germans, 
entered this region about 1740. 

The present area of Northampton county is about 370 square miles, contain- 
ing upwards of 230,000 acres of land. It is divided into seventeen townships, and 
has seven boroughs. The population, according to the census of 1870, was 
61,232 ; taxables, according to the assessment of 1875, 17,295 ; and the aggregate 
value of real estate taxable, $45,212,673. 

The great industries of the county are the production and manufacture of 
iron, slate, and zinc. There are twenty stacks or furnaces in the county. North- 
ampton adopted the public school system at an early day. It has 276 schools, 
in which 290 teachers, male and female, are employed, and which.have an average 
attendance of upwards of 10,000 scholars. 

The following are men of note who were reared or who spent their active 
lives in this county: William Parsons, the founder of Easton ; George Taylor, a 
signer of the Declaration of Independence ; Generals Robert Brown, Thomas 
Craig, and John Siegfried, of Revolutionary fame ; the Hon. Samuel Sitgreaves 
(died 1827, at Easton), an eminent jurist and a commissioner to settle claims 
against England under Jay's treaty ; the Hon. George Wolf, the seventh Gov- 
ernor of the Commonwealth ; the Hon. James M. Porter (died at Easton, 1866), 
Secretary of War during Taylor's administration ; the Hon. Richard Biodhead 
(died at Easton, 1864), United States Ser.ator from Pennsylvania; the late 
Hon. Andrew H. Reeder, Territorial Governor of Kansas ; and the late Hon. 
Judge Henry D. Maxwell, consul to Trieste during Taylor's administration. 
Northampton is historically a democratic county. 




NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY. 

BY JOHN F. WOLFINGER, MILTON. 
[With acknowledgments to T. H. Purely and John B. Linn.'\ 

ORTHUMBERLAND county was formed March 12, nT2, out of 
Lancaster, Cumberland, Berks, Northampton, and Bedford. It was 
then bounded as follows : " Beginning at the mouth of Mahantango 
creek on the west side of the river Susquehanna ; thence up the south 
side of said creek by the several courses thereof to the head at Robert 
Meteer's spring ; thence west to the top of Tussey's mountain ; thence south- 
westerly along the summit of the mountain to Little Juniata; thence up the 
north-easterly side of the main branch of Little Juniata to the head thereof; 
thence north to the line of Berks county ; thence north-west along the said line to 
the extremity of the Province ; thence east along the northern boundary to that 
part thereof which is due north from the most northern part of the Great Swamp ; 
thence south to the most northern part o^ the Swamp aforesaid; thence with a 
straight line to the head of the Lehigh or Middle creek ; thence down the said 
creek so far, that a line run west-south-west will strike the forks of Mahantango 
creek where Pine creek falls into the same, at the place called Spread Eagle, on 
the east side of Susquehanna; thence down the southerly side of said creek to 
the river aforesaid ; thence down and across the river to the place of beginning." 
The same act directed that the courts be held at Fort Augusta until a court 
house was built, and William Maclay, Samuel Hunter, John Lowdon, Joseph 
Wallis, and Robert Moody were authorized to locate the county seat and erect 
the public buildings. Joshua Elder, James Potter, Jesse Lukens, and William 
Scull were authorized to run the boundary line. Since the original establish- 
ment of the county as thus formed, its limits have been reduced by the succes- 
sive formations of Luzerne, Mifflin, LA'Coming, Centre, Columbia, and Union 
counties. Its present boundaries .are — on the north, Lycoming, Montour, and 
Columbia ; on the east, Montour, Columbia, and Schuylkill ; on the south, 
Schuylkill and Dauphin ; and on the west, the Susquehanna river, separating 
it from the counties of Union, Snyder, Juniata, and Perry. 

Northumberland is well watered. The West Branch, the main stream of 
the Susquehanna, for a distance of forty miles, washes its western border, while 
the North Branch flows through the centre a distance of ten miles, joining the 
West Branch at Northumberland. The other important streams are Warrior's 
run. Limestone run, and Chillisquaque creek, tributaries of the West Branch, with 
Roaring creek and Gravel run of the North Branch, and Shamokin, Mahanoy, 
and Mahantango creeks, tributaries of the Susquehanna. The surface of the 
county is mountainous, especially the southern part ; the middle portion is hilly, 
and the northern along the West Branch is more level. The principal mountains 
are Limestone and Montour ridges, above the forks of the river, and the Shamo- 

997 



998 



HIS TOE 7 OF PENNS YL VANIA. 



kin hills and Mahanoy, Line, and Mahantango ridges on the south side. Along 
the river and in the valleys there is a great amount of fertile land. 

The earliest record we have of this section of country dates back to 1728, 
when Governor Gordon gives certain instructions to Smith and Petty, Indian 
traders, who were about to make a journey to Shamokin. This place, which 
acquired considerable notoriety in the history of the State, was at this period a 
populous Indian village belonging to the Six Nations. It was the residence of 
Shikellimy, a celebrated Oneida chief, who had been sent by the Iroquois " to 
preside over ye Shawanees." Loskiel, in his history of the Moravian missions, 
states that on the 28th of September, 1742, Count Zinzendorf, accompanied by 



-^'^m.^^^ 




ON THE SUSQUEHANNA, ABOVE MILTON. 

Conrad Weiser, Martin Mack, and his 
wife, and two Indians named Joshua and 
David, after a long and tedious journey 
through the wilderness, arrived at the 
town of Shamokin. Shikellimy gave them a hearty welcome, said he was glad 
to receive such a messenger, and promised to forward his designs. In 1745, the 
Rev. David Brainerd visited Shamokin. The entry in his journal, under date 
of September 13, is as follows : " After having lodged out three nights, I 
arrived at the Indian town I aimed at on the Susquehanna, called Shaumoking, 
one of the places, and the largest of them, which I visited in May last. I was 
kindly received and entertained by the Indians ; but had little satisfaction, by 
reason of the heathenish dance and revel they then held in the house where I 
was obliged to lodge — which I could not suppress, though I often entreated 
them to desist, for the sake of one of their own friends who was then sick in the 
house, and whose disorder was much aggravated by the noise. Alas ! how 
destitute of natural affection are these poor uncultivated pagans ! although they 



NOBTHUMBERLAND COUNTY. 



999 



seem somewhat kind in tlieir own way. Of a truth, the dark corners of the 
earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. This town, as I observed in my 
diary of May last, lies partly on the east side of the river, partly on the west 
and partly on a large island in it, and contains upwards of fifty houses, and 
nearly three hundred persons, though I never saw much more than half that 
number in it. They are of three different tribes of Indians, speaking three 
languages wholly unintelligible to each other. About one-half of its inhabitants 
are Delawares ; the others called Senekas and Tutelas. The Indians of this 
place are accounted the most drunken, mischievous, and ruffian-like fellows of 
any in these parts ; and Satan seems to have his seat in this town in an eminent 
manner." 

The Six Nations used Shamokin as a convenient tarrying place for their war 
parties against the Catawbas, at the south ; and they were very desirous of 
having a blacksmith there, to save them the trouble of long journeys to Tulpe- 
hocken, or to Philadelphia. The Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania 
granted the request, on condition that he should remain no longer than while 
the Indians continued friendly to the English. The blacksmith, Anthony 
Schmidt, was from the Moravian mission at Bethlehem ; and this opened the 
way for the establishment of a mission at Shamokin, which was done in the 
spring of 1747, by Martin Mack, who had previously visited the place. John 
Hagen and Joseph Powell, of the mission, had built a house there. Bishop 
Cammerhoff and the pious Zeisberger visited the town in the year following. 

Towards the latter end of October, 1755, the frequent massacres by the 
French and Indians created great alarm, and measures were adopted looking to 
the defence of the frontiers. It being understood that the French had desiens 
against Shamokin, Governor Morris decided upon building a fort at that place, 
and in his letter of the 15th of November, informs Sir William Johnson of his 
determination. In January following (1756), at a conference with the Indians 
at Carlisle, they made the request of the Governor to "immediately take pos- 
session and build a fort at Shamokin, lest they, who are a cunning, designing 
people, should take possession before and prevent you," At subsequent con- 
ferences with the Indians, at their earnest solicitation, the Governor agreed to 
yield to their requests, but, notwithstanding, it does not appear that active 
measures were taken to commence a fort at this important point until the 
following spring, when Colonel Clapham, of the Provincial service, was directed 
to proceed on the •' expedition for building a fort at Shamokin." Full instruc- 
tions were given to that officer, with plans, etc. ; " the ground to be cleared 
around, and openings to the river, and buildings erected within the fort and 
without ; log houses in command of guns for the Indians ; a breastwork for the 
men while at w^ork." 

Ensign Samuel Miles, of Captain Lloyd's company 2d Pennsylvania battalion 
(afterwards Colonel Miles of the Revolution), in his manuscript journal thus 
notices the building of this fort : " We crossed the Susquehanna and marched on 
the west side thereof until we came opposite to where the town of Sunbury now 
stands, where we crossed over in batteaux, and I had the honor of being the first 
man who put his foot on shore at landing. In building the fort at Shamokin, 
Captain Levi Trump and myself had charge of the workmen, and after it was 



1000 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

finished, our battalion remained there in garrison until the year 1758. In the 
summer of 1756, I was nearly taken prisoner by the Indians. At about half a 
mile distance from the fort stood a large tree that bore excellent plums, and an 
open piece of ground near what is now called the Bloody spring. Lieutenant 
S. J. Atlee and myself one day took a walk to this tree to gather plums. While 
we were there a party of Indians lay a short distance from us concealed in the 
thicket, and had nearly got between us and the fort, when a soldier belonging to 
the bullock-guard came to the spring to drink ; the Indians were thereby in 
danger of being discovered, and in consequence fired at and killed the soldier, 
by which means we got off and returned to the fort in much less time than we 
were coming out." 

From this time on, events connected with Fort Augusta thicken, and so 
important a position does it hold in the historic annals of the Province, that a 
bare recital of the transactions then occui-ring would occupy more space than 
our limited pages will allow. The magazine, which was built in the south bastion 
of the fort, and underground, is all that remains of this celebrated post of defence 
in frontier times. 

Northumberland county took an early and active part in the Revolutionary 
struggle. Captain John Lowdon's company, numbering one hundred men, went 
into service at the outset, in July, 1775, for one year, and the associators under 
the command of Colonels Potter and James Murray, shared in all the battles and 
skirmishes around Philadelphia, from those of Trenton and Princeton to Ger- 
mantown and Guelph's mills, on 11th of December, 1777. 
i^ On the 25th of December, 1775, occurred Doctor Plunkett's celebrated expe- 
y dition to Wyoming. The Asserabl}'^, on the 25th of November, had requested 
i the Governor to issue orders for a due execution of the laws of the Province in 
Northumberland county. The Governor replied in a letter of that date, to the 
justices and sheriff, and pursuant to his orders a number of warrants were issued 
for persons residing at Wyoming, charged on oath with illegal practices, which 
were placed in Sheriff William Scull's hands. He judged it prudent to raise 
the posse of the county, and a body of nearly five hundred men accompanied him 
to the neighborhood of Wyoming. Doctor William Plunkett, who had been an V^ 
officer in the French-Indian war, seems to have had the military command. 
When they arrived at the Narrows, the posse was fired upon ; Hugh McWilliams 
. was killed, and three others desperately wounded. It was found impossible 
to force a passage on that side of the river, and an attempt was then made to 
cross the river in the night. When the boats had nearly reached the shore, and 
were entangled in a margin of ice, they were fired upon, and Jesse Lukens (son 
of Surveyor-General Lukens) was mortally wounded, and this second attempt 
baffled. The weather continuing intolerably severe, the expedition returned with- 
out effecting its object. 

In the spring of 1776, Casper Weitzel, Esq., a lawyer ofSunbury, raised a 
company, which was attached to the Pennsylvania rifle regiment, commanded 
by Colonel Samuel Miles. Captain Weitzel's commission is dated March 9, 1776. 
His first lieutenant was William Gray, John Robb second lieutenant, and George 
Grant, third lieutenant. His company suffered very heavily in the battle of 
Long Island, August 27, 1*776. Eighteen privates are marked as missing, " since 



u* 



NOBTIWMBERLAND COUNTY. 1001 

the battle." Lieutenant Gray was captured, and not exchanged until the 8th of 
December. In June, 1719, Grant was promoted captain of 9th Pennsylvania, 
" for merit and extraordinary services." 

At the battle of Brandywine, Colonel William Cook's 12th Pennsylvania 
regiment was actively engaged. Captain John Brady was badly wounded, and 
his lieutenant, William Boyd, was killed. The latter was a son of Sarali Boyd, 
a widow who resided at Northumberland, and a brother of Thomas Boyd, who 
shared in all the dangers and fatigues of the Canada campaign, and fell a 
sacrifice to Indian barbarity, on Sullivan's expedition, 1719. Another brother. 
Captain John Boyd, of the rangers, was an acting justice for many years after 
the war, at Northumberland. 

On Warrior's run, during the Revolution, was situated Freeland's fort, 
memorable for the scenes which occurred at its capture, in the early part of 
autumn, or, to use an old pioneer's expression, " about the time peaches were 
ripe," in 1779. The following account of that event was given by Mr. Coven- 
hoven, and another gentleman, a descendant of Mr. Vincent, who was captured 
at the fort. Rumors had been received at Fort Muncy (now the town of 
Muncy), where Colonel Hepburn, afterwards Judge Hepburn, was commanding, 
that a hostile force of British and Indians might be soon expected down the West 
Branch. To obtain more definite information, Robert Covenhoven, who was 
then acting as a guide and scout for the garrison, was sent out to the mountains 
above Ralston, on the head-waters of Lycoming creek and Tioga river. He was 
offered one or more companions, but he preferred to go alone. He knew 
every defile of the wilderness, and he could better elude observation alone than 
with several men, who might not follow his counsel. He travelled all night, 
and when he arrived among the mountains, he heard at least one hundred shots 
from the enemy encamped there, who were cleaning their guns. Without rest, 
and with no more food than he could eat as he ran, he returned immediately, 
and reported a large force approaching. Robert King also brought down word 
from Lycoming creek that Ferguson, with a party who had gone up to cut 
hay, had been attacked by Indians, and three men had been killed. Fort 
Muncy was filled with women and children, who were immediately put into boats 
and sent down to Fort Augusta, under the charge of Mr. Covenhoven. They 
took with them also the families from Fort Menuinger, at the mouth of 
Warrior's run ; but Freeland's fort being four miles up that run, from its mouth, 
there was not time to wait for the families there to come down. A messenger, 
howcA-er, was sent to alarm them. While the party was descending the river, 
the women would often jump out to tug the boats over the ripples. Fort Muncy, 
being untenable, was abandoned. 

About this time, and one or two days previous to the attack on Freeland's 
fort, Isaac, Benjamin, Peter, and Bethuel Vincent, brothers, together with Mr. 
Freeland, the owner of the fort, and his son, were at work in a field. A party of 
Indians came suddenly upon them. Isaac Vincent and Freeland, the father, 
were killed. Benjamin Vincent was taken prisoner. Jacob Freeland, the son, 
ran towards the stone-quarry, and was speared by an Indian in his thigh; he 
fell near the edge of the precipice, at the quarry. The Indians pounced upon 
him, but Freeland suddenly raised him upon his shoulders, and pitched him over 




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NOBTHUMBERLAND COUNTY. 1003 

into the quarry ; and would have killed him, but another Indian came up 
and killed Freeland, spearing him in several places. The other Vinr-pnts 
escaped to the fort. 

The main force of the enemy now appeared, consisting of about three 
hundred Indians and two hundred British, under Colonel McDonald. On their 
way down, they burnt Fort Muncy, and then laid siege to Freeland's fort 
which was commanded by Captain John Lytle. There were brave men in that 
fort, who would have defended it to the death ; but it was also filled with 
women and children, whom it was not thought prudent to expose to the 
cruelties that might result from a capture by storm. When, therefore, the 
enemy were about setting fire to the fort, a capitulation was entered into, by 
which the men and boys, able to bear arms, were to be taken prisoners, and 
the women and children were to return home unharmed. There was a Mrs. Kirk 
in the fort, with her daughter Jane and her son William. Before the capitulation 
she fixed a bayonet upon a pole, vowing she would kill at least one Indian ; 
but as there was no chance for fighting, she exhibited her cunning by putting 
petticoats upon her son Billy, who was able to bear arms, but had yet a smooth 
chin, and smuggled him out among the women. 

The enemy took possession of the fort, and allowed the women and child- 
ren to remain in an old building outside of the fort, on the bank of the run. 
At a preconcerted signal. Captain Hawkins Boone, who commanded a fort on 
Mudd}' run (about six hundred j-ards above its mouth, and two miles above 
Milton), came up to the relief of Freeland's fort, with a party of men. Per- 
ceiving the women and children playing outside of the fort, he suspected no 
danger, and incautiously approached so near that the women were obliged to 
make signs to him to retire. He retreated precipitately, but was perceived by 
the enemy, who with a strong force waylaid him, on the Northumberland 
road, at McClung's place. Boone's party fell into the ambush, and a most 
desperate encounter ensued, from which few of the Americans escaped. Wil- 
liam Miles (afterwards of Erie) was taken prisoner in Freeland's fort; and 
subsequently, in Canada, Colonel McDonald mentioned to him, in the highest 
terms of commendation, the desperate bravery of Hawkins Boone. He re- 
fused all quarter — encouraged and forced his men to stand up to the encounter; 
and at last, with most of his Spartan band, died on the field, ovei'powered 
by superior numbers. 

Cornelius Vincent and his son, Bethuel Vincent (father of the late Mr. 
Vincent, of McEwensville), Captain John Lytle, William Miles, and others, 
were taken prisoners at the capitulation. Captain Samuel Dougherty and a 
brother of Mr. Miles were killed in the fight. Peter Vincent escaped in the 
flurry occasioned by Hawkins Boone coming up. Sam Brady, James Dougherty, 
and James Hammond had cautioned Boone against keeping the road, in his 
retreat ; and they themselves, refusing to accompany him along the road, took 
the route through the woods, and escaped. 

In September, 1794, excitement was at its height in consequence of the 
excise laws, and some of the whiskey boys determined to erect a liberty pole at 
Northumberland. Judges William Wilson and John McPherson determined to 
prevent it. They called upon Daniel Montgomery, also d justice, to assist them. 



1004 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

He told them he would pull at the rope if the people required it. He, however, 
went with thera, but rendered them no assistance in suppressing the disturbance. 
A fight took place, and Judge Wilson read the riot act, as he called it, to dis- 
perse the crowd, but they paid no attention. One of thera presented his musket 
at the judge, but the old Revolutionary captain cocked his pistol and made him 
put down the musket, under the penalty of having his brains blown out. They 
arrested the judge, he would not give bail, and they were afraid to put him in 
pi-ison. In the melee, Jasper Ewing, the prothonotary, drew his pistol and snap- 
ped it at William Cook. Indictments were found against Daniel Montgomery, 
John Frick, and others, and it appears the}'^ were convicted, but pardoned. 

On Sunda}', December 16, 1805, occurred the duel between John Binns, of 
Northumberland, and Samuel Stewart, of Lj'coming. On account of the promi- 
nence of the actors, it had special influence on the passage of the act of 31st of 
March, 1806, which legislated " the code " out of Pennsylvania. Stewart attempted 
to chastise Binns, because he would not give him the name of the author of a 
paper signed " One of the People," in the Republican Argus, Binns' paper ; 
thereupon Binns challenged him. The duel was fought beyond the Marsh, near 
Allen's, in Chillisquaque township, at seven o'clock in the morning. Binns and 
his second, Charles Maclay, had slept the night before at Laushe's tavern, 
opposite Lewisburg; Stewart and his second, Andrew Kennedy, at Albright's 
tavern, in Lewisburg. The distance measured off was only eight paces, and 
one fire was exchanged without effect, when, by Maclay's earnest endeavors, a 
reconciliation was effected. 

Northumberland was laid out in 1*772 by John Lowden and William 
Patterson. Robert Martin is said to have built the first house there about the 
year 1167, for the accommodation of people who began to visit the "New 
Purchase " in search of land. 

The most noted of its inhabitants was Dr. Joseph Priestly, the philosopher, 
who emigrated in 1794, and died in Northumberland, on the 6th February, 1804. 
On the 1st of August, 1874, the scientists of America celebrated, at Northum- 
berland, the centennial of Dr. Priestly's discovery of oxygen. In 1803 the 
Northumberland Academy Avas erected, mainly through his efforts, of which Rev. 
Isaac Greer was for over eight years thereafter the principal. The borough was 
incorporated April 14, 1828, and its most celebrated institution, the Bank of 
Northumberland, April 1, 1831. 

Milton was laid out by Andrew Straub in 1792. The first settler on its site 
was Mai'cus Huling, who was licensed. May 26, 1772, to keep a tavern in Turbut 
township. It was incorporated as a borough, February 26, 1817. From 1822 
to 1835, Rev. David Kirkpatrick taught the academy at Milton. His roll of 
scholars embraces the names of two governors, quite a number of judges, 
ministers, missionaries, and prominent men. The town contains quite a number 
of manufacturing and mechanical industries, and is situated in the midst of a 
fine agricultural country. 

On the 16th of June, Governor Richard Penn ordered the surveyor-general, 
John Lukens, with all convenient speed to repair to Fort Augusta, and with the 
assistance of William Macla^^, to lay out a town to be called Sunbury, at the 
most commodious plac*e between the forks of the river and the mouth of Shamo- 



NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY. 1005 

kin creek. The town was laid out and lots granted to applicants therefor as 
early as July 3, 1172. 

The first house erected in Suubury seems to have been a frame one, built by 
John Lukens, the surveyor-general of Pennsylvania, for his own use. It is 
believed to be still standing. The charter for the first ferry bears date August 
14, 1772, from Thomas and Richard Peun to Robert King. In 1773, William 
Maclay built a stone dwelling-house, the same building now owned and occupied 
by S. P. Wolverton, on the river bank, in the north-western part of the town. 
" The Magazine," at Fort Augusta, was fitted up and used as a place for con- 
fining and punishing criminals in Northumberland county until a regular jail 
for this purpose was built. This magazine, as William Maclay informs us, had a 
small but complete dungeon under it, and so answered the purpose of a jail 
pretty well at that early day. The first regular jail of Northumberland county 
was built in 1775, under the superintendence of William Maclay, Samuel 
Hunter, and Robert Moodie, who, in 1774, received a loan of £800 from the 
Provincial Assembly to aid the county in building a court house and prison in 
said county. Tradition says that this jail stood on the south side of Market 
street and on the lot now, or lately, the property of the heirs of Charles 
Pleasants, Esq., deceased. 

Sunbury became a borough by the act of March 24, 1797. Martin Withing- 
ton was the first chief burgess, and Robert Hunter town clerk. For many years 
the town did not thrive, but its pleasant location, its proximity to the coal 
regions, and its advantages as a railroad centre, have aroused the dormant 
energies of its citizens, and Sunburj^ has, within the past ten years, grown to be 
one of the most important, in industries and population, of the inland towns of 
Pennsylvania, 

Watsontown. — In 1794 John Watson, who owned the site of the place, laid 
out a few lots, but changing his desire to have a village contiguous to his resi- 
dence, bought back most of the lots. In 1854 Edward Piper laid out a few lots, 
but it was not until the 3'ear 1866, when Ario Pardee, having purchased the 
principal portion of the Watson lands for lumber mills, concluded to lay out a 
regular town. Not far from the town was the site of Fort Freeland. 

Shamokin was laid out in 1835, under the auspices of the Shamokin coal 
compan3\ It owes its importance and prosperity to the development of the 
anthracite coal mines in its vicinity. It is about twenty miles south-east of 
Sunbury, on the creek of the same name, in a gap in the west side of the great 
Shamokin coal basin. Next to Sunbur}'- it is the most thriving town in the 
count}'. 

Mount Carmel was incorporated a borough, March 22, 1870. Like 
Shamokin it is an out-growth of the coal development, and is the fourth town in 
the county in population and business enterprise. 

Northumberland county contains quite a number of other important towns of 
which the principal ones are Treverton, Dalmatia, Mahanoy, Pottsgrove, etc. 
Turbutville laid out about 1820. 




PERRY COUNTY. 

BY SIXAS WRIGHT, MILLERSTOWN. 

HE act of 22d March, 1820, created a new county on and after the 
following first of September, out of all that part of Cumberland 
north of the summit of the Blue mountain and south of the Tusca- 
roras, and named it Perry, in honor of the gallant Oliver Hazard 
Perry The county is irregular in outline, being forty-seven miles long and four- 
teen and a half miles of an average width, and contains an area of five hundred and 
fifty square miles. 

Hematite and fossil iron ores are extensively mined in Michael's ridge, 
Greenwood township ; in Tuscarora mountains, Tuscarora township ; in Lime- 
stone ridge, in Oliver and Miller townships ; and Half-fall hills, in Buffalo and 
Watts townships. These mines have only been opened a few years, and give 
promise of contributing largely to the chief mineral wealth of the county. 
Hematite iron ore is generally accompanied by rocks of the metamorphic forma- 
tion. Limonite, or fossil ore, as it is locally known among miners, contains 85.6 
of the ore to 14.4 parts of water. The best limestone in the county contains 56 
parts of quick lime to 44 of carbonic acid. The streams of the county are 
Fishing creek, which rises in Rye township, and flows east into the Susquehanna 
at Marysville ; Sherman's creek, which rises in Tob03me township, and flows 
eastward through Jackson, Madison, Toboyne, Carroll, Wheatfleld, and Penn 
townships into the Susquehanna at the lower end of Duncannon, of Penn town- 
ship ; Little Juniata creek rises in Centre township, and flowing east through 
Centre township, enters and flows south-east through it and Penn, and falls into 
the Susquehanna at the lower end of Duncannon borough ; Little Buffalo creek 
rises in Saville township, and flows eastward, forming a boundary between 
Saville and Centre, Centre and Juniata townships, thence through Oliver town- 
ship, between East and West Newport, into the Jvmiata river ; Buffalo creek 
rises in Liberty Valle^', Madison township, and flows east through Madison into 
Saville, where it flows south-west, and then east through Tuscarora, Juniata, 
and Oliver townships into the Juniata river above Newport ; Raccoon creek 
rises in Saville township, and flows eastward through Tuscarora into the Juniata 
below Millerstown ; Cocolamus creek flows south-west from Juniata county' into 
the Juniata, one mile below Millerstown ; Wild Cat creek rises in Greenwood 
township, and falls into the Juniata at the base of Buffalo hills. The largest of 
the streams that flows eastward into the Susquehanna is Barger's run, which, 
rising in Greenwood township, flows through the entire length of Liverpool 
township into the Susquehanna, just below the town of Liverpool. 

The larger part of the county was called " Shearman's valley," after an Indian 
trader who lost his life in fording Shearman's creek at Gibson's. This valley 

1006 



PEREY COUNTY. 



1007 



extended from the Blue mountain to the Tuscaroras, westward from the Juniata 
river. Pfoutz's valley, extending from the Juniata to the Susquehanna, is a small 
valley between Turkey and Forge hills, having an average width of a mile, and 
was named after 
its first settler, 
John Pfoutz. 

The fiist ac- 
counts of settlers 
within the present 
limits of Perry 
county we have, 
are, that one Fred- 
erick Star, a Ger- 
man, with two or 
three of his coun- 
trymen, "made 
some small settle- 
ments on Big Juni- 
ata, about twenty- 
five miles from the 
mouth, and about 
ten miles north 
from the Blue 
mils, a place much 
esteemed by the In- 
dians for some of 
their best hunting- 
ground." This set- 
tlement was prob- 
ably east of Big 
Buffalo creek, and 
as early as 1741. 
The Provincial 
government re- 
moved these set- 
tlers at the request 
of the Indians, in 
1742, and forbade 
others at their 
greatest peril from 
violating the provi- 
sions of the treaty, 
preventing settle- 
ments north of 

the Blue mountain. After the organization of Cumberland count}', in 1750, 
Lieutenant-Governor Morris sent Richard Peters, Mathew Dill, George Croghan, 
Benjamin Chambers, Coniad Weiser, Thomas Wilson, John Finley, and 
3 o 




PERRY COUNTY COURT HOUSE AT NEW BLOOMFIELD. 



1 008 HISTO n Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

James Galbraith, with the under-sheriff of Cumberland county, to remove 
persons who had settled north of the Blue Hills. They came to the Juni- 
ata, near the place from which Star and others had been removed, where 
they found five cabins, one occupied by William White, another by George 
Gaboon, another not yet finished, owned by David Hiddleston, another occu- 
pied by George and William Gallowaj^, and the fifth occupied by Andrew Lycan. 
The families and contents of these cabins being first removed, they were set on 
fire and burnt. The settlers were bound in recognizance of £100 each to appear 
and answer for their trespass, at the next term of court, to be held at Shippens- 
burg, Benjamin Chambers and George Croghan having separated from the rest, 
reported, on their return, that about six miles north of the Blue Hills, on Sher- 
man's creek, they found James Parker, Thomas Parker, Owen McKeib, John 
McClure, Richard Kirkpatrick, James Murray, John Scott, Henry Gass, John 
Cowan, Simon Girty, and John Killough, who entered into bonds, under penalty 
of £500, to remove immediately with their families and all their effects, and 
agreed to give their cabins for the Proprietaries into the hands of George 
Stephenson. Some of these cabins were burnt after the families had moved out 
in order to prevent settlements in the future, or the return to their former resi- 
dences of the persons thus driven out. Andrew Montour was licensed to settle 
any place in Sherman's valley he deemed convenient. The Indians threatened 
summary vengeance if the settlers were not prevented from returning. Hence, 
to satisfy them and obviate further difficulties, the purchase of a large tract of 
land from the Indians was strongly recommended by Governor Hamilton. This 
brought about, in 1754, the Albany treaty. 

On the 3d of February, 1755, the land office was opened for the sale of lands 
in Sherman's valley, and on the Juniata. The first land located by order from 
the land office, in Pfoutz's valley, was by John Pfoutz, in 1755. He was the 
first considerable land-owner by any right, hence had the honor of giving his 
name to the valley. From 1755 to 1761, very little land was entered, owing to 
the constant terror of the Indians. 

There are no evidences of more than two Indian villages in Perry county. 
These were both along the Juniata, one on the flat between the Big Buffalo creek 
and the railroad, near Newport, and the other at Millerstown. The Sliawanese, 
who were the willing tools of the French, were found on Duncan's Island by 
Rev. David Brainerd, while on a visit in the discharge of his duties as a 
missionary. He stigmatizes them as "drunken, vicious, and profane." 

In the 3^ear 1756, a man named Woolcomber, living on the south side of 
Sherman's creek, not far from Centre, declined to leave his home or remove his 
family, on the ground that it was the Irish who were killing one another; " the 
peaceable Indians," said he, " will harm no one." While at dinner one day a 
number of Indians came into Woolcomber's house. He invited them to eat, 
when an Indian answered that they did not come to eat, but for scalps. When 
Woolcomber's son, who was then about fifteen years of age, heard the Indian's 
reply, he left the table and walked out of the house through a back door. 
Looking back, when he was out of the house, he saw an Indian strike his toma- 
hawk into his father's head. He then ran across Sherman's creek, which was 
near to the house, and as he ran his fears were confirmed by the screams of his 



PERRY COUNTY. 



1009 



mother, sisters, and brothers. He went to Robinson's fort and gave the alarm, 
whereupon about fort\^ volunteers proceeded to the scene of the murder and 
buried the dead. The Indians were never punished. 

In July, 1756, the settlers of Sherman's valley gathered the women and 
children into Robinson's fort, and went out in companies to reap the harvest. 
A party of Indians stealthily approached the fort and killed a daughter of 
Robert Miller, John Simmeson, the wife of James Wilson, and the widow 
Gibson, and carried with them as prisoners Hugh Gibson and Bets}^ Henry. 







VIEW OF THE BOROUaH OF NEWPORT. 



The reapers, hearing the firing of guns at the fort, returned home as hastily as 
possible, but they came too late to meet the savages, who had made good their 
escape. Hugh Gibson published an interesting nai'rative of his captivity. 

In Februar}^, 1756, a party of Indians from Shamokin came to Hugh Mitchel- 
tree's, who lived on the Juniata. He had gone to Cai lisle on business, and had 
Edward Nicholas to stay at his house until he should return. The Indians killed 
Mrs, Mitcheltree and young Nicholas before they left. From thence the same 
party of Indians proceeded up the river to where the Lukens now live. Mrs. 
William Wilcox and her son had crossed the river shortly before, and while she 
was staying for a visit at old Edward Nicholas' house, they made their appear- 
ance, killed Mr. Nicholas and his wife, and took Joseph, Thomas, and Catharine 
Nicholas, John Wilcox (the son who accompanied his mother over the river), 
James Armstrong's wife and two children, prisoners. Wliile committing these 
depredations in Juniata county, an Indian named Cotties wished to be captain of 
this i)art3', but they did not choose him, whereupon he and a boy went to Sher- 



1 01 HISTOE Y OF PENNSL Y VANIA. 

man's creek, and killed William Sheridan and his family, thirteen in number 
They then went down the creek to where three old persons lived, two mefi and a 
woman, named French, whom they killed. Cotties often boasted afterward that 
he and the boy took more scalps than all the others of the party. These mur- 
ders were caused by the French, who offered large rewards for the scalps of the 
English which should be brought in by the Indians. 

In the autumn (1756) James Bell and his brother agreed to go into Sher- 
man's valley to hunt for deer, and were to meet at Sterrett's gap, on the Kitta- 
tinny mountains. By some means or other, they did not meet, and Samuel slept 
that night in a cabin belonging to Mr. Patton, on Sherman's creek. The next 
morning he had not traveled far before he spied three Indians, who saw him at 
the same time. They all fired at each other; he wounded one of the Indians, 
but received no damage, except that his clothes were pierced with balls. Several 
shots were fired from both sides, each sheltered by the covert of trees. lie now 
stuck his tomahawk into the tree behind which he stood, so that should they 
approach he might be prepared. The tree was grazed with the Indians' balls, 
and he had thought seriously of making his escape by flight, but hesitated, fear- 
ing his ability to outrun them. After some time the Indians took the wounded 
one and put him over the fence, one taking one course and the other another, 
intending to make a circuit, so that Bell could no longer secure himself by the 
tree. But in trying to reach these advantageous positions they had to expose 
themselves, when he had the good fortune to shoot one of them dead. The other 
ran and took the dead Indian on his back, one leg over each shoulder. By this 
time Bell's gun was re-loaded ; he then ran after the Indian until he came within 
forty yards of him, when he shot through the dead Indian and lodged a ball in 
the living one, who droppe'd the dead man and ran off". On his return home from 
the deer hunt, Bell coming past the fence where the wounded Indian lay, he dis- 
patched him, but did not know that he had killed the third Indian until his bones 
"were found years afterward. 

In July, 1756, a small party of Indians attacked the plantation of Robert 

Baskins, who lived near Baskinsville railroad station. They murdered Baskins, 

burnt his house, and carried his wife and children away with them as prisoners. 

Another party belonging to the same band made Hugh Carrol and his family 
prisoners. 

About the same time the Indians murdered a family of seven persons on 
Sherman's creek, and then passed over the Kittatinny at Sterrett's Gap, wounded 
a man, killed a horse, and captured Mrs. Boyle, her two sons, and a daughter, 
living on Conodogwinet creek. From 1761 to 1763 there was comparative quiet and 
security from the incursions of the Indians. In the latter 3'ear, however, the coun- 
try was overrun b}^ the savages. From Robert Robinson's narrative, we glean the 
particulars of an engagement between twelve settlers and twentj'^-five Indians in 
the harvest time of that year. William Robinson was shot in the abdomen with 
buckshot. John Elliot, a boy of seventeen, fired his gun and then ran, loading as 
best he could by pouring powder into it at random and then pushing in a ball 
with his finger, while he was pursued by an Indian with uplifted tomahawk, and 
when he was within a short distance of him, Elliot suddenly turned round and 
shot the Indian in the breast, who gave a cry of pain, and turning, fled. Elliot 



PEJiUY COUNTY. 1011 

had gone but a short distance, when he came to William Robinson, who was 
weltering in his own blood upon the ground, and evidently in the agonies of 
death. lie begged Elliot to carry him off, so that the Indians would not find and 
scalp him ; but Elliot being a mere boy, found it utterly- impossible to do so 
much less lift him from the ground. Finding the willing efforts of his young 
friend fruitless to save him from the savages, Robinson said : " take my gun, and 
if ever in war or peace you have an opportunity to shoot an Indian with it, do 
so for my sake." Thomas Robinson stood behind a tree firing and loading as 
rapidly as possible, until the last white man had fled ; he had just fired his third 
shot when his position was revealed to the Indians. lu his hurried attempt to load 
again, he exposed his right arm, which received the balls from the guns of three 
Indians who fired at the same time. He then fled up a hill with his gun grasped 
in his left hand, until he came to a large log, which he attempted to leap over bj' 
placing his left hand on it ; but just as he was stooping to make the leap, a bullet 
passed through his side. He fell across the log. The Indians coming up, beat 
him on the head with the butts of their guns until he was mutilated in the most 
horrible manner possible. John Graham and David Miller were found dead near 
each other, not far from the place of attack. Graham's head was resting upon 
his hands, while the blood streamed through his fingers. Charles Elliot and 
Edward McConnel succeeded in escai)ing from the Indians and reached Buffalo 
creek ; but the}'^ were so closely pursued that, when they had crossed the creek 
and were scrambling up the bank, they were shot and fell back into the water, 
where their dead bodies were found. This little band of twelve consisted of 
three brothers Robinson, William, Robert, and Thomas; two brothers Elliot, 
John and Charles; two brothers Christy, William and James ; John Graham, 
David Miller, Edward McConnel, William McAllister, and John Nicholson. 

After this engagement the Indians proceeded very leisurelj^ to Alexander 
Logan's, feeling their security, no doubt, on account of the inhabitants having 
fled to the lower part of Sherman's valley. A part}^ of forty men, well armed 
and disciplined, started for Tuscarora valley to buiy the dead ; but when they 
came to Buflalo creek and saw them, having previously heard the reports of the 
settlers, which doubtless increased the number of the Indians, the captain thought 
it prudent to return. In the meantime, the six men who escaped in the engage- 
ment at Nicholson's went to Carlisle, and reported what they saw and experienced, 
whereupon a party of fifty volunteered to go in quest of the savages. They 
were commanded by High Sheriff Dunning and William Lyon. From the best 
information that could be had of the Indians, it was judged that they would 
visit Logan's to plunder and kill the cattle. The men were ambushed and in 
readiness when the Indians appeared, but owing to the eagerness in commenc- 
ing the attack by some of the party, but four or five Indians were either killed 
or mortally wounded, until they made their escape into the thick woods, whither 
pursuit was deemed too perilous. Previous to this engagement, Alexander 
Logan and his son John, Charles Coyle, William Hamilton, and Bartholomew 
Davis, hearing of the advance of Sheriff Dunning's party, followed the Indians 
to George McCord's, where they found and attacked them in the barn, but the 
attack was such a precipitate affair that none of the savages were killed 
or wounded, while the entire attacking party, excepting Bartholomew Davis, 



1012 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

paid the penalty with their lives. Davis escaped and joined Sheriff Dunning's 
party, and was engaged with them at Logan's. In the engagement at Logan's 
there was but one white man wounded. The soldiers brought with them what 
cattle they could collect, but great numbers were killed, and many of the horses 
were taken away by the Indians. The Indians set fire to the houses and barns, 
destroyed the growing corn, and burnt the grain in the stacks, so that the whole 
valley seemed to be one general blaze of conflagration as far as they went. Car- 
lisle was the only barrier between the frontier settlers and the merciless savages, 
and It was so crowded that every stable and shelter in the town was filled to its 
utmost capacity, and on either side of the Susquehanna the woods were the only 
shelter of many other refugee families, who had fled thither with their cattle 
and whatever of their effects could be hastily collected and carried with 
them. To relieve these sufferers, the Episcopal (Christ's and St. Peter's) 
churches, of Philadelphia, collected an amount of money equal to $2,942 89 in 
the currency of the present time, which was expended in supplj'ing flour, rice, 
and medicine for the immediate relief of the sufferers. To enable those who 
chose to return to their homes, two cliests of arms, half a barrel of powder, four 
hundred pounds of swan shot, and one thousand flints were purchased. Tliese 
were to be sold at greatly reduced prices to such persons as would use them for 
their own defence. Induced b}'^ an offer which placed protection in their own 
hands, the settlers returned to their former homes, where they lived in constant 
dread of the wily foe until Colonel Bouquet occupied Fort Duquesne, on the 24th 
of November, 1763. 

During the early part of the year 1814, Gov. Sn\'der having ordered a thou- 
sand militia to be raised in Pennsylvania to repel the British invasion of the 
Canada frontier, nearly one half of the number was raised as volunteers, in 
Cumberland county, then including Perry; the residue were raised principally 
by draft from the counties of Franklin, York, and Adams. The Cumberland 
county troops were rendezvoused at Carlisle, from which place they marched to 
Pittsburgh, and thence to Black Bock Fort, now the city of Buffalo. They 
reached Black Rock Fort about the 1st of April. Captain James Piper's com- 
pany was raised principall}'' witliin the present limits of Perry county, while the 
companies of Captains David Moreland and Jolm Creigh were wholly recruited 
therein. Captain John Creigh's company was mustered in ten days, from the 
27th of August till the 6th of September, and left Landisburg on the 7th of Sep- 
tember. Their services were tendered to and accepted by Governor Snyder, and 
arms and accoutrements were furnished them October 2d, at Camp Bush Hill, 
near Philadelphia. 

In the war with Mexico, almost an entire company was organized from the 
" Landisburg Guards " and "Bloomfield Light Infantry," but it was not accepted 
and credited to the count}^ as a company. They participated in the engage- 
ments of Buena Vista,Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, the bloody battles of Contreras, 
Cherubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chepultepec. 

Anpersonburg is in Madison township, on the line of the stage route from 
Greenpark to New Germantown. About a quarter of a mile east of the village is 
the " Andersonburg Soldiers' Orphan school," in charge of Professor William H. 
Hall, as principal. Baskinsville is in Penn township, lies north and adjacent 



FEERY COUNTY. J 013 

to Dnncannon borough. It was laid out in 1869, by John Shively, William C. 
King, and Dr. Joseph Swartz. Its location on the Pennsylvania railroad, and 
advantages of improvement, bid fair to make it a place of considerable impor- 
tance. Blain is in Jackson township. The post office has been Douglass' 
Mills, Multicaulisville, and Blain. The name Blain was given in honor of James 
Blain, the warantee of the land on which the original part of the town was laid 
out. For beauty of location the site of the town is unsurpassed. Water is 
con-^eyed in pipes along its principal streets. 

DuNCANNON borough was called Petersburg until 1865. It is the largest 
town in the county, according to the census of 1870. It was incorporated March 
12, 1844. Duncannon, of Penn township, is situated south of Little Juniata creek, 
at the base of a spur of mountain which, on account of its resemblance to the 
human face, is called " Profile Rock." This village owes its existence to the 
Duncannon iron company's works, which consist of rolling mills and nail 
factory, situated at the mouth of Sherman's creek, and a large anthracite fur- 
nace between the railroad and the Susquehanna river. These works, when in full 
operation, give employment to about five hundred men. 

Landisburq was laid out previous to 1800 by John Landis. The first court 
of common pleas in Perry county was held here on the 4th of December, 1820. It 
was the county seat from this time until the completion of the public buildings 
in Bloomfield in 1827. It was incorporated December 23, 1831. Mt. Dempry 
Academy is located here. Loysville, formerly called Andesville, is in Tyron® 
township. It was laid out by Mr. Michael Loy in 1840. About a half mile 
south-east of the town are the farm and buildings kept up for the support of the 
poor o!" the county. On elevated grounds, north-west of the tov\n, is Loysville 
Orphans' home, in charge of Rev. P. Willard as principal. 

Liverpool was laid out in 1808, by John Iluggins, and soon became the 
most important trading point along the Susquehanna in the county. It was in- 
corporated as a borough. May 4, 1832. 

Marysville was laid out in the spring and summer of 1861, by Theophilus 
Fenn. For a time its name struggled between Fennwick and Haleys. In 1866 it 
was incorporated as the borough of Haleys, the name given to the post office 
for more than a year. Both borough and post office have since been changed to 
Marysville. Haleys is the name of the station in the eastern part of the town. 
Marysville station is one mile distant from Haleys at the crossings of the Penn- 
sylvania and Northern Central railroads. The town contains a forge for the 
manufacture of blooms, a flour mill, a door and sash factory, etc. A round 
house, coal shutes, and a shifting yard of the Northern Central railroad are 
located here. Block-houses were built at the Marysville ends of both the rail- 
road bridges, to guard them from the attack of rebel invaders during the late 
war. 

MiLLERSTOWN, the oldest town except Huntingdon, on the Juniata river, was 
laid out in 1780, by David Miller, and ssemed destined at the time of the forma- 
tion of the county to become the county seat, and the largest town. It contains 
a large steam tannery, a carriage factory, and foundry. A toll bridge spans 
the river from the town to the Pennsjdvania raih'oad depot of the same name. 
A mile below town is Laura furnace, erected by Messrs. William N. Taylor & 



1014 ins TO R Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Compan3\ The Juniata Valley Normal school is located here. Millerstown 
was incorporated February 12, 1849. 

New Bloomfield is the name of the post office at Bloorafield, the county 
seat, Bloomfield, the title given in the patent to the tract of land on which it 
is located, was auspiciously appropriate for the new town, from the fact that its 
plot was marked out in a clover field in the month of June, 1822. Its site was 
fixed upon by Messrs. Laycock, Sheets, Pearcc, and Jenks, the fourth set of 
commissioners provided for in the act of separation, for the future county seat. 
The town is located in the Mahanoy valley, twenty-six miles north-west from 
Harrisburg, and five from the Pennsylvania railroad at Newport. The "court 
house, erected in 1824-'5, was remodeled in 1867-'8. The offices and public 
documents of the county were removed from Landisburg on the 12th and 13th 
of March, 1827. Bloomfield academy has been in operation many years. 

Neav Buffalo, a borough in Watts township, was laid out in 1800 bj' Jacob 
Baughman. It is located along the river, nineteen miles from Harrisburg, and 
was incorporated April 8, 1848. New Germantown, in Toboyne township, was 
laid out by Solomon Sheibley, and named in commemoration of Germantown, 
near Philadelphia. It is twentj^-four miles from Bloomfield. 

Newport Sixty years ago Newport consisted of four log houses. The town 

was laid out in 1814, by Daniel Reider, and assumed the name of Reidersville, by 
which it was known till 1820, when, in anticipation of becoming the count}' seat, 
its name was changed to Newport. It was incorporated March 10, 1840, and 
is the most flourishing town in the count3^ 

Organization of Townships. — Greenwood, Juniata, Rye, Savillc, Toboyne, 
and Tyrone, were original townships. Of Buffalo and Liverpool there is no record. 
Carrol was formed in 1834, from T^-rone, Rye, and Wheatfield ; Centre in 1831, 
from Juniata, Saville, Tyrone, and Wheatfield; Howe in 1861, from Oliver; 
Jackson in 1844, from Toboyne; Madison in 183G, from Tobo3'ne, Tyrone, an-d 
Saville ; Miller in 1852, from Oliver and Wheatfield ; Oliver in 1837, from Buflfalo, 
Juniata, and Centre; Penn in 1840, from Rye and Wheatfield; Spring in 1848, 
from Tyrone and Carroll; Tuscarora in 1859, from Greenwood and Juniata; 
Watts in 1849, from BuflTalo ; Wheatfield in 1826, from Rye. 



THE CITY AND COUNTY OF PHILADELPHIA. 







BY THOMPSON WESTCOTT, nilLADELPniA. 

HE history of Philadelphia commences Avitli the charter of the Pro- 
vince of Penns.ylvania, executed by Charles the Second to William 
Penn, on the 4th of March, 1G8I, old style. Penn made immediate 
arrangements for the settlement of his colony. In less than five 
weeks after heliad obtained the chartcr,he issued a letter directed to the inhabitants 
of Pennsylvania, promising thnt they should be governed by laws of their own 
making, and that he would not " usurp the right of any nor oppress his person." 
His cousin. Captain William Markham, formerly a soldier, was commissioned 
Deputy Governor of the 
Province of Pennsyl- 
vania on the 10th of 
Ai)ril, lG81,and instruc- 
tions given him for the 
management of affairs 
as soon as he should 
arrive in America. At 
the same time was pub- 
lished, by William Penn 
himself, an account of 
his Province, with the 
intention of attracting 
settlers. He promised 
to sell five thousand 

acres of ground, free of incumbrance, for one hundred pounds, with a 
quit-rent of a shilling j'early for one hundred acres. He offered to rent 
lands, not exceeding two hundred acres in each tract, at one penny yearly 
per acre, and to make an allowance for servants carried over to the amount of fifty 
acres per head. By the conditions and concessions agreed upon by Penn and the 
original adventurers and purchasers, on the 11th of July of the same year, it was 
agreed "that so soon as it pleaseth that the above persons arrive there, a certain 
quantity of land or ground plat shall be laid out for a large town or city, in the 
most convenient place upon the river for health and navigation ; and every pur- 
chaser and adventurer shall, by lot, have so much land therein as shall answer 
to the proportion which he hath bought or taken up on rent." There were other 
regulations connected with the laying out of the city. About the 21st of June, 
1081, Governor Markham arrived at New York and proceeded to Pennsylvania. 
He was followed, about five or six months afterward, by William Crispin, John 
Bezcr, Nathaniel Allen, and William Haige, who were appointed commissioners 
with special instructions to examine the rivers and creeks "in order to settle a 

1015 




FIRST CHURCH AT WICACO. 



1016 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



great town, with rcsi^ect to health, highness, and diyness of land, advantages for 
navigation, and unloading and loading vessels near the shores," etc. They were 
ordered to lay out ten thousanci acres as the bounds and extent of the liberties 
of said town. Penn said, "Be sure to settle the figure of the town so as that the 
streets hereafter may be uniform down to the water from the country bounds ; 
let the houses built be in a line or upon a line as much as may be ; ... let 
every house be placed, if the person pleases, in the middle of its plat as to the 
breadthway of it, so that there may be ground on each side for gardens, or 
orchards, or fields, that it may be a green country town which will never be burnt 
and always be wholesome." Crispin, having died on the voyage, Haige, Allen, 
and Bezer made the examination to determine upon the site for the " great 
town," after their arrival, and settled the matter as early as the beginning of 

May, 1682. It 
1] was known in 
England, at 
the latter end 
of July, that 
the capital 
city was to be 
on or near the 
river Schuyl- 
kill. The sur- 
vey s were 
made by 
Thomas Fair- 
man, an Eng- 
lishman who 
was settled at 
Shakamaxon 
before Penn 
received his 
grant, and by 
Thomas Holme, a surveyor, who arrived shortly' after the commissioners. 
According to the original plan, there was a street leading from the Delaware 
to the Schuylkill on the north side of the cit}', which was called Valley street, 
and a street on the southern boundary called Cedar street. Parallel with 
Vallej'' street, afterward called Vine street, was Songhurst street, afterward 
called Sassafras, and then Race ; Holme street, afterward Mulberry and 
Arch; High street, afterward Market; Wynne street, afterAvard Chestnut; Pool 
street, afterward Walnut ; Dock street, afterward Spruce ; and Pine street. The 
street extending from the Delaware to the Schuylkill, since known as Lombard 
street, was laid out some years afterwards, and was not on the original plan. 
Twenty-three streets, running from north to south, intersected the east and west 
streets between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. The plan of the city was 
continued on the western side of the latter stream, where three streets, running 
north and south, were laid out. The streets were named Delaware Front, 
Second, etc., out to Delaware Eleventh. The Twelfth street was Broad street, 




THE OLD SLATE-ROOF HOUSE. 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1017 

and next to it was Schuylkill Kleventh, and so the}' proceeded — Schu^ikill 
Tenth, Ninth, etc., until they reached Schuylkill Front, near the Schuylkill 
river. At the intersection of High and Broad streets Penn had given direction 
for the laying out of a square of ground for public uses, and four other squares 
were ordered to be laid out, one in each quarter of the town. Under this direc 
tion the north-east square was placed between Valley and Songhurst street, its 
east boundarjr on Delaware Sixth, and its western boundary between Delaware 
Seventh and Eighth ; the south-east square of the same size was west of Dela- 
ware Sixth, between Pool and Dock streets, but not extending as far south as 
the latter ; the north-west square was between Valley and Songhurst street, ex- 
tending east from Schuylkill Sixth, and crossing Schuylkill Seventh, extending 
nearly to Schuylkill Eighth ; the south-west square was of the same size, between 
Pool and Dock streets, not extending to the latter, and east of Schuylkill Sixth, 
and crossing Schuylkill Seventh, extending towards Schuylkill Eighth. This 
arrangement was changed in a short time, as far as regards the centre square, 
which was moved westward to the intersection of High and the fourteenth 
street from the Delaware. At the same time it is to be presumed that the 
north-west and south-west squares were shifted westward, so that their eastern 
boundary was Schuylkill Fifth (now Eighteenth street), and they crossed 
Schuylkill Fourth (Nineteenth street), and extended halfway to Schu^dkill Third 
(Twentieth street). 

When the name Philadelphia was publicly given to this "great town " is not 
now known. It is found in a warrant for land executed 10th of fifth month, 
1682 (July, old style). The name was undoubtedly chosen by the Proprietary, 
and it is supposed to have been adopted from the name of a cit}' in Lydia, Asia 
Minor, the seat of one of the seven early Christian churches, the signification 
"brotherly love" commending itself to the taste and judgment of the founder. 
Penn must have adopted the name before he left England, but he did not make 
his intention known in his original propositions addressed to settlers. In his 
address to be communicated to meetings in Pennsylvania and the territories 
thereunto belonging, to Friends, dated on board the ketch Endeavor, August 12, 
1684, on occasion of his return to England, Penn said, "And thou, Philadelphia, 
the virgin settlement of this Province, named before thou wert born, what love, 
what care, what service, what travail, has there been to bring thee forth, and pre- 
serve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee," A portion of the "great 
town " was the site of an Indian village called Coquanoc, and there were other 
villages in the county near to the city. Among them were Passyunk, which lay 
•on the east bank of the Schuylkill, south of Grey's Ferry road ; Wicaco, east of 
Pass3'unk, and near the Delaware; Cackamensi, modernized into Shackamaxon, 
between Gunner's run and Frankford creek, on the Delaware ; Nittabaconk, on 
the Schuylkill, near the falls ; Poquessing, on the banks of the creek flowing into 
the Delaware, which forms the north-eastern boundary of the city ; Pennipacka, 
•or Pennypack, near the ci'eek still bearing the latter name ; Wequiaquenske, the 
site of which is not known. Coquanoc does not appear on Lindstrom's map, 
the earliest known. Legend sa}' s that this village occupied part of the immediate 
•city laid out b}'' Penn, and that the word in Indian means " the grove of long 
pine trees." The principal streams of the city and its neighborhood were the 




1018 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1019 

Delaware, called by the Indians Pontaxet. Maskerisk-Kitton ; the Schuylkill, 
called on Lindstrom's map, the river of the Mene Jacksc, and said also to be on 
the map of Campanius, Skiar Kjln, or Linde Kiln. Other names assigned to the 
Schuylkill, were Lennilikbi, or Lennilibunk, derived from a linden tree, Gaushewen 
and Maniaunk, tlie latter being more properly applied to a place on the banks of 
the river. Into the Delaware, within the boundaries of Philadelphia, flowed Boka 
[Swedish for beach], now known as Bow creek; Mintpies, or Mingo ; Kingses- 
sing, or Eagle creek ; Boone's creek, Hollander's creek, llosamond creek. Hay 
creek, Moyaraensing kiln, Cooconocon, or Dock creek; Cohoquinoque, or Pegg's 
run; Cohocksink, or Mill creek; Tumanaranaraing, Aramingo, or Gunner's run; 
Wingohocking, Tacon^-, or P'rankford creek; "Wissinonaing, Pennypacka, or 
Pennypaek, and Poquessing. Into the Schuylkill the principal streams em[)tying 
near Philadelphia were Nanganesy, or Mill creek, on the west bank; and 
Wisaracka, or AVissahickon, on the cast. 

Settlers from England began to arrive in lC81,the first ships being the John 
and Sarah, and Bristol Factor. Several ships came over in 1682, and the 
Welcome, which brought William Penn and his companions, arrived in October 
of that year. There were probably one or two hundred persons at Philadelphia 
when Penn arrived, and few had the means of immediatel}^ erecting houses, so 
that the majority spent the winter in caves dug under the higii bluff on the 
river front between Valley (Vine) and Pool (Walnut) streets. The first 
object of Penn was to settle the laws and regulations for the government of 
the Province. 

The first Assembly was held at the Swedish town of Upland, the name of 
which was about that time changed to Cliester. Here, on the 7th of the tenth 
month (December), 1G82, was agreed to, the " Great Law'' of sixty-nine sections, 
covering matters of morality as well as regulations for the government of 
propert}^ and the securing of the rights of conscience. 

There is no record to show how or when the townships were created. Penn 
had authority under the charter to erect towns and cities and to lay out the 
country into townships and counties. According to the minutes of the first 
Assembly at Chester, there were present delegates from the counties of Bucks and 
Cliester, for New Castle, Jones, New Deal, Chester, and Philadelphia. The 
county organization must have been determined upon before Penn left England. 
The situation of Philadelphia was peculiar at this time. Bucks and Chester were 
laid out with specified boundaries adjoining Philadelphia, and as a consequence 
the county of Philadelphia embraced the whole Province between Chester and 
Bucks, and north, north-west, and north-east to an indefinite extent. On the 29th 
of December, Penn writes, " I am now casting the country into townships for 
large lots of land. I have held an assembly, in which many good laws are passed. 
We could not stay safely to the spring for a government." Up to that time 
twenty-three ships had sailed for Pennsylvania, and none had miscarried. There 
is no trace of the names of the townships of Philadelphia county except in scat- 
tered deeds and other writings, so as to ascertain the years when they were 
formed, until 1741. The following townships were undoubtedly established 
before 1G84: German township, Oxford, Bristol, Morcland Manor, Plymouth, 
Ryberry, Dublin, Morion, Kingsessing, and Bristol. In the year 1741 the town 



1020 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

ships of Philadelphia county were, Amity, AUamingle, Byberry, Bristol, BlocKley, 
Creesham, Cheltenham, Colebrookdale, Douglass,^Lower Dublin, Upper Dublin, 
Exeter, Franconia, Frederick, Germantown, Gwynedd, New Hanover, Upper 
Hanover, Horsham, Kingsess, Limerick, Moreland Manor, Montgomery, Maiden 
Creek, Upper Merion, Lower Merion, Manatawny, Northern Liberties, Norri- 
ton, Oxford, Ouley, Providence, Perkiomen, Skippack, Passyunk, Moyamensing, 
Plymouth, Roxborough, Salford, Springfield, Towamensing, Whitpaine, White- 
marsh, Worcester, Wayamensing. 

In 1762 several of these townships had disappeared from the records of Phil- 
adelphia, being incorporated in Berks county. At that time, as appears by records 
of the court of quarter sessions, the following were Philadelphia townships : 
Abington, Bristol, Blockley, Byberry, Cresham, Germantown, Cheltenham, 
Douglass, Frederick, Franconia, Gwynedd, Horsham, Hatfield, Kingsess, 
Limerick, Lower Merion, Lower Salford, Lower Dublin, Lower end of German- 
town, Moyamensing, District of Southwark, Montgomery, Marlborough, Manor 
of Moreland, New Hanover, Norriton, Northern Liberties, Oxford, Perkiomen, 
Plymouth, Passyunk, Providence, Roxborough, Skippack, Springfield, Towamen- 
sing, Upper end of Germantown, Upper Salford, Upper Dublin, Upper Merion, 
Worcester, Whitpaine, Whitemarsh. 

Beside the townships, there were several important manox-s in Philadelphia 
county, as follows: Springettsbury, containing 1,830 acres, extending along the 
north side of Vine street from the Delaware to the Schuylkill ; bounded on the 
north by the Cohoquinoque creek, or Pegg's run, as far as the Ridge road, and 
thence stretching north-westward to Turner's lane ; and thence to the Schuylkill, 
and down the latter to Vine street. This tract of ground was intended to be a 
manor, and is called such in early patents from the Penns, but in later 
deeds is spoken of as the reputed Manor of Springettsbury. Portions of it were 
sold from time to time by the Penns, until it became so insignificant that it was 
called the Springettsbury farm. The latter when divided, in 1181, between 
members of the Penn family, contained less than two hundred acres, and occu- 
pied the ground between the present Vine street and Callowhill street, west of 
Twentieth, extending to the Schuylkill river. The Manor of Moreland — ten 
thousand acres — in the northern portion of the county, on the Delaware side, 
lying west of Byberry township, was granted to Nicholas More, August 25, 
1682. It was partly in Bucks and partly in Philadelphia county, and when 
divided, thei-e was a township of Moreland in botli counties. The Manor of 
Mountjoy was authorized in 1683, by warrant to Letitia Penn. It contained 
7,800 acres, and extended from the Welsh tract, in Chester county, to the river 
Schuylkill, opposite the present borough of Norristown. The Manor of Wil- 
liamstadt, laid out for William Penn, Jr., was on the east side of the Schuylkill, 
opposite Mountjoy. Norristown is now within this manor. Springfield Manor, 
Iving to the east of the northern portion of German township, was laid out for 
Gulielma Maria Penn. The Manor of Gilberts — five thousand acres — reserved 
for the Proprietary himself, was on the east side of the Schuylkill, opposite the 
present town of Phoenixville, Montgomery county. The Manor of Manatawny— 
twelve thousand acres— lying on the Schuylkill, below Williamstadt, was granted 
to John Penn in 1701. 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 



1021 



The indefinite area of Philadelphia county became reduced during the pro- 
gress of years. Berks county was formed out of a portion of Philadelphia, 
Chester, and Lancaster counties, in 1152, and blocked off the northern territory 
between Bucks and Chester. Montgomery county swallowed up another por- 
tion of the ground between Bucks and Chester, in 1184, and thenceforth Phila- 
delphia, from being the largest of the counties, became the smallest. 

The town of Philadelphia increased so wonderfully that in the course 
of a year it was estimated that it contained 80 dwelling houses and over 
500 inhabitants. In 1700, there were 100 houses and over 4,500 inhabi- 
tants. During this interval there is no clear indication of the manner in which 
the town was governed. The minutes of the Provincial Council, 26th of 
5th month (August), 1684, show that an order was made that Philadel- 
phia should be 
made into a 
borough, with 
a mayor and 
six aldermen ; 
but nothing 
further a p- 
pears upon the 
minutes in re- 
lation to this 
matter, nor is 
there any refer- 
ence to the act 
being accom- 
plished. The 
seal of the 
count y, i n 
leas, was or- 
dered to be an 
anchor. The 

city was managed as a part of the count}', by the magistrates, by the 
Assembl}^, and by the Governors in council, all of whom interfered with 
and directed matters of municipal concern. During Penn's second visit 
he prepared a charter for the city of Philadelphia, which was executed 
October 25, 1101. Edward Shippen was nominated for mayor, and Thomas 
Story recorder, by that instrument. Eight citizens were nominated aldermen, 
and twelve others common councilmen. The charter was a very liberal 
instrument, and conferred as much authority as was needful for the times,, 
granting to the common councilmen power to increase their number from time 
to time, the aldermen to be elected from among common council, and the maj'or 
from among the aldermen. Provision was also made for a city court for the 
trial of offences less than felony, to be held by the mayor, recorder, and aldermen. 
This government continued up to the time of the Revolution, when it was super- 
seded by the events of the times. The last meeting was held on the 11th of 
F'ebruar}', 1116, William Powell being mayor. During the remainder of the 




THE OLD COURT HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA. 



1022 HIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Revolution the affairs of the city were administered by wardens and city commis- 
sioners. It was not till March 11, 1789, that a charter was granted to the city of 
Philadelphia by the Legislature of Pennsylvania. A ma3'or, common council, 
and a board of aldermen Avere provided for. The latter was shortly after- 
wards succeeded by a select council, and the aldermen ceased to be legisla- 
tive officers of the city. A ma^'or's court was established, such as existed 
under the old charter of Pcnn and an aldermen's court. Some modifications 
in the charter were made in the course of years, until 1854, when the interests 
of the public demanded that an anomalous system which had grown up by the 
increase of the county should be abolished. There had been created north and 
south of the boundaries of the old city a number of independent municipalities, 
each resembling the city corporation in the manner of organization and authority, 
but each being free from au}^ control which would necessitate deference to the 
interests of other sections of the city and count}'. Therefore, on the 2d of 
February, 1854, was passed b}' the Legislature a supplement to the charter, 
commonly called the Consolidation Act, which broke up all the independent 
townships and county authority, enlarged the boundaries of the city so as to 
embrace the whole count}', divided the city into wards, and provided for e 
election of a mayor, recorder, select and common council. 

The growth of the incorporated districts adjoining the city was gradual, and 
was as follows : South wark, created by act of Assembly, March 2G, 1762 ; North- 
ern Liberties, March 28, 1803 ; Moyamensing, March 24, 1812; Spring Garden, 
March 22, 1813; ^lensington, March 6, 1820; West Philadelphia, February 17, 
1844; Penn, February 26,' 1844; Richmond, February 27, 1847 ; Belmont, April 
14, 1853. 

The City of Philadelphia, according to the present boundaries, is of irregular 
form, representing upon the map a rough resemblance to the head of a knight 
with helmet and visor up. It extends along the Delaware, from the mouth of 
Bow creek, about two and a half miles below the mouth of the Schuylkill to 
Poquessing creek about five miles below Bristol, Bucks county ; thence up that 
creek and by tlie line of Bucks county and south-west by irregular lines, l)ounded 
b_y Montgomery county, over to and across the Schuylkill and Delaware county 
to Bow creek, and down the mouth of the same to the place of the beginning. 
It contains 129.882 square miles, or 82,804 acres. The City Hall, at Fifth 
and Chestnut streets, is in longitude 75° 9' 54", and the latitude is about 
39° 56' 30". By municipal census, taken April 3, 1876, the number of dwelling 
houses in the city were ascertained to be 143,936. This does not include stores, 
warehouses, mills, factories, churches, or other buildings. The number of build- 
ings, of all kinds, is probably 160,000. The population, April 3, 1876, was 
817,448 ; males, 398,068 ; females, 416,380. Males, 'over twenty-one years of age, 
226,070 ; females over twenty-one 3'ears of age, 246,634 ; males under twenty- 
one years, 171,993 ; females under twenty-one years, 172,746. 

The streets cross each other generally at right angles. The}' are lighted 
with gas, and at the commencement of the year 1876, there were 10,729 public 
lamps, and 672 miles of gas mains. Water was supplied by means of 
628 miles of water main, and drainage carried off by 136^ miles of sewers and 
culverts. There were ovc 1,200 miles of streets opened, of which more thau 700 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1039 

having been conveyed there in a grand procession, and solemnly deposited with 
appropriate ceremonies. 

In 1832 the Asiatic cholera, which had been progressing with fearful devasta- 
tion over the face of the globe, broke out in the city on the 5th of July. Pro- 
gressing steadfastly westward from India across the continent of Europe, its 
coming was expected and prepared for. Medical commissions had been sent out 
by city councils to study the character of the disease, and ascertain the best 
means of prevention and cure. Public hospitals were established, and when the 
epidemic made its appearance, the communit}^ were ready to meet the misfor- 
tune. On the 4th of October the last case was reported. While the disease 
prevailed there were 2,314 cases, and 935 deaths. The ratio of cases to popula- 
tion in the city proper was one in TO; and deaths, one in 112 and a fraction. 
This being tlie most thickly built portion of the territory, showed less favorable 
results than in other districts where the population was sparse and the sanitary 
condition better. 

Between 1834 and 1844 a spirit of turbulence, riot, and disorder seemed 
prevalent throughout the United States. Philadelphia felt the influence, which 
first manifested itself in outrages against the blacks, in August, 1834, when a 
meeting-house, near the Wharton market, was torn down and many colored 
people were assaulted and beaten, and their houses broken into. In October 
occurred " the Robb's row riot," in the district of Moyamensing, a row of houses 
on Christian, west of Ninth, opposite the Mo^'amensing Commissioners' Hall, be- 
ing burned and several persons injured. This disturbance was created by heated 
political antagonism. Another riot, in which the blacks suffered and their 
houses were burned, occurred in July, 1835. In 1838, May 17, took place the 
Pennsj'lvania Hall riot, during which a large and elegant building dedicated to 
purposes of pubfic discussion by the Pennsjdvania Society for the Abolition of 
Slavery, only three days before, was attacked, broken into, set on fire, and totally 
destroyed. The Kensington railroad riots took place in 1840, a manifestation of 
opposition against an attempt by the Philadelphia and Trenton railroad company 
to lay their tracks on Front street, in the built-up part of the city. In this dis- 
turbance the rails were torn up, houses burned, and persons injui'ed. Another 
riot, in which blacks were victims, took place in the summer of 1842, during 
which Smith's Beneficial Hall, a building erected by a colored man for the meet- 
ings of colored people, was attacked and burned. 

' The most terrible riots known in the history of Philadelphia took place 
in 1844, and resulted from political and sectarian prejudices which were aroused 
into activity by the formation of the Native American party and a spirit of great 
animosity to the Roman Catholic religion. The movement for the formation of 
the Native American part}^ took place in the early part of this year. On the 6 th 
of May a Native American meeting was called, which was intended to be held on 
an open lot at the south-east corner of Second and Master streets. Before the 
proceedings were finished, some difficult}^ arose between the persons- holding the 
meeting and others on the outskirts supposed to be Catholics, which resulted in 
the latter making an attack in such force that the participants of the meeting 
were dispersed. They rallied, and proceeded to a market house near by, on 
Washington street, above Master. The meeting was re-organized, but the dis- 
3 Q 



i040 niSTOET OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

turbances were soon renewed, and fire-arms were used by the assailants. This 
unfortunate affair took place in a portion of the city where the majority of the 
inhabitants were Roman Catholics, and although there was nothing to show that 
the latter were combined for purposes of outrage, the feelings of the persons 




assailed led them to a bitter extremity. They obtained arms ; an attack was 
made on the buildings in the neighborhood of the market, which were defended ; 
muskets were used on both sides. Several persons were killed, but the American 
party being triumphant, set fire to and destroyed the obnoxious houses. These 
excesses led to an attack on the Catholic church of St. Michael, at Second and 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1041 

Jefferson streets, not far from the place of outbreak. It was broken into, set on fire, 
and totally destroyed, as was also a female seminary under charge of sisters of a 
religious order. On the same evening the Roman Catholic church of St. Augus- 
tine, Fourth below Vine street, was attacked by a mob, set on fire, and totally 
destroyed, with the priest's house adjoining. Troops had been called out before 
this time, and such measures were taken as prevented further outrage. In July 
these disturbances were renewed. The Native Americans celebrated the 4th of 
July with a large and showy procession which quietl}^ marched through the 
streets, and ended the day with a grand display of fireworks on the line of the 
Columbia railroad, beyond Fairmount, when the pai'ticipants dispersed, every thing 
being apparently peaceful. Some of the Catholics misinterpreted this pageant 
as a method of concentration for a general attack on the Catholic churches, a 
supposition entirely unwarranted by the circumstances of the case. But it so 
happened that it was discovered, on the evening of the 6th of July, that muskets 
had been taken into the Catholic church of St. Philip De Neri, on Queen street, 
for its defence. This building was situated in a strong Native American 
district, and indignation was expressed at the conduct of the chui'ch authori- 
ties, who had countenanced the formation of a military company among the 
members for the defence of the churcih. There was excitement, and 
crowds assembled in the neighborhood of the church. The sheriff's posae 
was early on the ground. Military appeared afterward. Great excite- 
ment was caused by an arrest of a member of the posse by military order, 
he having protested against an order issued by the officer having com- 
mand of the troops, directing that the citizens who were slow in retiring before 
the troops should be fired upon if they did not move more quickly. The pro- 
testing citizen was promptly arrested, taken to the church, and detained 
there — a piece of polic^"^ which greatly inflamed the people, who looked upon the 
prisoner as a mart3'r to their cause. He was kept in confinement during the 
remainder of the niglit and until next day. The mob, determined to release him, 
procured cannon, which were loaded with slugs and other missiles, and fired at 
the rear of the church, doing but little damage. It was then brought to the 
front, but further trouble was prevented by efforts of citizens of the district. 
The prisoner was released, which somewhat allayed the excitement, A volun- 
teer company of Irishmen, placed in the church to guard the prisoner, was, on 
marching out, chased and dispersed. Knowledge of these transactions being 
noised through the city drew great crowds to the neighborhood. In the course 
of the afternoon the church was broken into, and hundreds passed through the 
building, more from curiosity than from any other purpose. The excitement 
was subsiding. A committee of citizens, the greater number of whom were pro- 
minent Native Americans, was organized for the protection of the church. 
According to every probability the disturbance had ceased without prospect of 
renewal. Under tliese circumstances tlie military again made their appearance on 
the scene. The force had been organized in Independence Square, and marched 
down with music playing, drawing with it a crowd of idlers, for the day was 
Sunda}'. Upon reaching the ground efforts were made to clear the streets by 
soldiers with fixed bayonets. The crowd retired slowly. An altercation is said 
to have taken place between some of the soldiers and the citizens, during which 



1042 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

a brick was thrown, striking one of the volunteers. Tlie captain commanding 
tins company gave orders to his men to Qre, and two volleys were fired into the 
crowd. The street was full of men, women, and child Ken. Several persons were 
killed instantly and others wounded. The anger of the populace at this dreadful 
occurrence was intense. The excitement was renewed in more furious manifes- 
tation than before. The rioters, principal among whom were sailors and water- 
men, procured four pieces of artillery, and with muskets attacked the soldiers. 
The latter responded. The battle continued during the night of the Tth and the 
morning of the 8th of Julv. Two soldiers were killed and several wounded. 
Seven citizens were killed and several wounded. The situation of the military 
was perilous. They were without food, and were beleaguered by an infuriated 
populace. It was evident that if they remained until the next night the}' would 
all be massacred. Under these circumstances, the commissioners of Soutliwark 
undertook to ensure the safety of the church and the peace of the district, if 
the troops were withdrawn. They left the scene on the morning of the 8th. 
There was no difficulty afterward, and thus ended the most dreadful riot which 
ever took place in Philadelphia. The occurrence was the last of this kind, as 
there has been no serious disturbance since. 

The practicability of using gas for illuminating purposes was shown as earl}' 
as 1817, at Peale's Museum, in the State House, the article being manufactured by 
Dr. Charles Kugler. The Masonic Hall adopted that process of lighting soon after- 
ward, and the Chestnut Street theatre followed. In March, 1835, the Philadel- 
phia gas company was created by councils, with capital stock of $125,000, the 
right being reserved to the city to purchase the Avorks at a specified rate within 
a certain time. On the 8th of February, 1836, the first public use of gas was 
made, there being forty-six public lamps and only nineteen private applicants 
for the use of the gas. The city bought out the rights and property of the gas 
company, July 1, 1841, for $113,000, and took possession of the works. Gas 
companies were afterwards established in various districts, the rights of which 
were subsequently bought out by the city, except in the single case of the gas 
w^orks of the Northern Liberties. 

The consolidation of the city with the adjoining districts, in 1854, has been 
proved to be a measure of importance by enlarging the sphere of municipal 
action. Great improvements have taken place, and the increase in the number 
of houses, the addition to the population, the extension of the manufacturing 
interests, and the enlargement of commerce has been remarkable. For seven 
years after consolidation no public event of great importance occurred until the 
breaking out of the war of the rebellion in 1861. At that time the sympathies 
of the greater portion of the population was strong in support of the United 
States government. The news of the fall of Sumter was followed by volun- 
teering for the defence of the Union, which resulted in the formation of several 
regiments almost immediately. During the continuance of the war there were 
raised in Philadelphia and went into service, six regiments for three months' 
service; for three years' service, thirty-five infantry regiments, three artillery, 
eight cavalry; for one year, five regiments of infantry; for nine months, four 
regimen'is of infantry; for one hundred days, three i-egiments ; for emergency 
during invasions, three regiments of infantry and two of artillery ; drafted 



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1044 



HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 



militia for ninety daj's, ten regiments ; independent battalions, five. Of these 
troops the Union League raised nine regiments of infantry and one battalion 
of cavalry; the Corn Exchange, two regiments. During the continuance of the 
war the Union and Cooper-Shop Volunteer i-efreshment saloons, which were main- 
tained by subscription, in the neighborhood of the landing-place used by the 
Baltimore, the New York, and the Pennsylvania railroads, on the Delaware, near 
Washington street, received, fed, and refreshed nearly one million of soldiers, 
most of whom came from the North and East, or passed in that direction on 
their return home. In 1863, a fair for the benefit of the United States Sanitary 
Commission was held in Logan Square — the proceeds being appropriated for the 
benefit of sick and wounded soldiers. The receipts amounted to $1,565,377 15. 





GIRARD COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA. 



On the 10th of May, 1876, the International Exposition in honor of the cen- 
tennial anniversary of American independence was opened in Fairmount Park, 
in an enclosure of two hundred and thirtj'-six acres, ceded for that purpose by 
the Park Commission. The preparation for this great event was enormous. 
The buildings erected upon the grounds for various purposes connected with the 
display were nearly two hundred. Among these were structures devoted to pur- 
poses of the exhibition, as illustrated by machinery, manufactures, horticulture, 
agriculture, and for the accommodation of foreign nations and the various States 
of the Union which participated, beside every arrangement for the comfort of 
visitors. The foreign nations which took part in the display were European, 
Asiatic, African, and North and South American. There were thirty-five separate 
foreign departments, and the United States was abundantly represented in manu- 
facture, invention, science, art, horticulture, agriculture, mining, and every con- 
ceivable form of industry. This great display exceeded anything -yhich had 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1045 

occurred in tne world, and was a fitting triumpli of a century of progress in the 
essentials to the prosperity of manlvind. 

Pliiladelpliia, having been for more than a century the seat of the Provincial 
and the State government, and during the Revolutionary war, the meeting-place 
of Congress and capital of the Confederacy, and during the administrations of 
Washington and Adams, the capital of the Federal government, has had in it, 
connected with public events, many buildings of historic note. The oldest 
memorial of the shadowy past still existing, is the cottage of William Penn. 
The date of this house goes back to 1682-3. The slate-roofed house, old Swedes' 
church, Christ church, the State House, and several other buildings, yai remain. 
Many other buildings of historic note or architectural beauty adorn the metro- 
polis, principally among which are Girard College, founded through the benevo- 
lence of Stephen Girard, the Masonic Temple, the public buildings, and the 
Uni^ersity of Pennsylvania. In 1798 the University bought a house in Ninth 
street, below Market, which had been built for the use of the President of the 
United States by the State of Pennsylvania. A medical department or college 
had been created in connection with the college before the Revolution, but had 
occupied separate buildings. In 1807 a building for the department was erected 
on Ninth street. In 1829 the original buildings were torn down and two 
buildings erected for the use of the departments of literature and medicine. In 
1874 this property was sold to the United States government, for the purpose of 
erecting thereon a post office, and the University removed to the elegant site on 
Locust, between Thirty-third and Thirt3'-fourth, which was granted by the city. 
Here are separate buildings for the departments of literature and science and 
medicine, together with the University' hospital. The material of these buildings 
is green stone, with gray stone ornaments. The st^'le is collegiate gothic, with 
towers, gables, buttresses, pinnacles, bay and <>\al windows. The corner-stone 
of the building of science and arts was laid June 15, 1871, and it was finished 
and opened October 11, 1872. It is two hundred and fifiy-four feet long, one 
hundred and twenty-four feet wide at the centre, and one hundred and two feet 
two inches deep at the wings. The medical department stands west of the main 
building, and is fitted up for purposes of medical instructions. There are 
accommodations for six hundred students, with class rooms, lecture rooms, and 
every convenience. The hospital is south of the main building, on Spruce street. 
When finished the front will be two hundred and fifty feet six inches, and the 
central building and two parlors each one hundred and ninet^'-eight feet in 
depth. Councils granted the ground for this h( spital, $200,000 was subscribed 
by the State of Pennsylvania, and $350,000 from private subscriptions. There 
•is a splended medical and surgical staflT, and the hospital is entirely free to all 
who, needing its services, are residents of Pennsylvania. 



[Communicated by William Travis, A.M.'\ 

Germantown, although now incorporated in the City of Philadelphia, de- 
mands a separate notice. It is included, with Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill, 
in the Twenty-second ward of the city. Its situation has always been regarded 
as most picturesquely beautiful. It occupies a grand slope of country, extending 




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1046 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1047 

from the old Logan estate, below Fisher's Lane, between two and three miles in a 
north-western direction to Mount Airy. This inclined plane is remarkably 
diversified with greater and less elevations, separated by ravines that begin near 
the Germantown avenue, or Main street, and widens into little vales, pursuing 
meandering courses, deepening as they go, until those on the east combine with 
the beautiful valleys that extend down to the Delaware river ; whilst those on the 
west soon terminate in the Wissahickon, the western boundarj'- of the slope, and 
help to form the scenes of enchanting beauty and loveliness of that world- 
renowned drive in Fairmount Park. These ravines are coursed by streams of 
water, supplied by multitudinous springs, constituting the most perfect natural 
drainage possible. The ground rises still higher through the village of Mount 
Airy, and the summit is reached at Chestnut Hill, about two miles beyond the 
northern limits of Germantown. 

It was such a diversified region of country that arrested the attention of the 
learned and enterprising Francis Daniel Pastorius, the friend of William 
Penn, given his place in the celestial sphere by the poet Whittier as the " Penn- 
sylvania Pilgrim." He took up the site of Germantown, as the agent of the 
Frankfort Company, in 1683 ; but Chestnut Hill, and the region between that and 
Germantown, were taken up for himself and a friend. The Germantown tract 
comprised between 5,000 and 6,000 acres, which was soon surveyed and laid out 
in 57 town lots, 27^ on each side of Main street. Each lot facing on Main street, 
together with back lots, comprised about 50 acres of land. These were divided 
among the settlers b}^ casting lots; and soon a thrifty town sprung up along 
this winding street. The settlers were mostly from Germany and Holland, and 
religiously of the Quaker, Mennonite, and Tunker persuasion. Specimens of the 
unique and substantial structure of their houses still remain. All the first 
settlers came here evidently for a religious asylum. Among them was quite a 
number of hermits, who dwelt in caves in the near vicinity. 

The town never had anj' organized government, except during a period of 
about fifteen 3'ears, commencing in 1691, Pastorius himself being the first 
bailiff. The town lost its charter because the religious scruples of the people 
would not permit them to take the oath of qualification for ofllice. 

In 1735, Christopher Sower established the first t3^pe foundry in this country 
at Germantown. In 1739, he commenced the publication of a quarterly news- 
paper, having manufactured his own t3'^pe and ink. In 1743 he issued an edition 
of a quarto German Bible, the first published in this country. His son continued 
his father's business and greatly enlarged it, publishing many books, in addition 
to two editions of the Bible. The newspaper became a monthly, and as the 
stirring times of the Revolution approached, it was issued weekly, obtaining a cir- 
culation of some twelve thousand, it is said becoming a power in the land. It 
is expected that such a people would be interested in the education of their 
children. For this, the citizens of Germantown were particularly distinguished 
at a very early daj'. In 1760, after frequent meetings and discussions, held at 
the house of Daniel Mackinet, the popular tavern of the day, a movement was 
organized, that combined all the wealth, enterprize, and intelligence of the place, 
toward the speedy erection of a large and commodious school building, with two 
smaller buildings as wings for residences of the masters, in a large beautiful lot 



1048 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

on Bensill's, now School lane. They called the main building The Union 
School House, a name at once typical and very suggestive. The fact that the 
language of the people was divided about equally between the German and Eng- 
lish, must have been a great obstacle in the way. This was met by making it 
a German and English school; and there were at once enrolled seventy German 
and sixty English pupils. The contributions to these buildings and grounds, 
during the first two years, amounted to about twelve hundred pounds. The 
board of trustees at first became the great organized body of the town, a seat in 
which was the object of every aspiring man's ambition. These trustees were 
elected by the contributors, until 1836. The institution was chartered by the 
Legislature in 1786, as "The Public School of Germantown," but for more 
than half a century it has been known as The Germantown Academy. The 
academy has always had considerable celebrity, and is still an object of the 
deepest interest and pride of the citizens, many of whom have been educated 
here. 

It was during the prevalence of yellow fever in Philadelphia, in 1793, that 
the salubrity and healthfulncss of the place became so much prized. No case of 
that terrible scourge was ever known to originate here. The members of both 
the National and State governments made this town their place of secure retreat. 
The United States Bank was for a time located here. The academy was offered 
as a place of meeting to both Congress and the State Legislature ; and it was 
for a time occupied by two of the banks of Philadelphia. After the removal of 
the National government to Washington, and the withdrawal of the distinguished 
men who had become accustomed to make this their summer residence, German- 
town became isolated and exclusive for a long period. The steam railway con- 
necting with the city, for this reason among others, was for a time a non-produc- 
tive undertaking, and became almost an entire failure. The aristocratic and 
exclusive inhabitants and owners of the land refused to share their little para- 
dise with the outside world. But manufactories, especially of hosiery and fine 
woolen goods, grew up very rapidly, that have alread}' gained a national reputa- 
tion, and both operative and operator demanded dwelling places for themselves. 
For some years past a spirit of noble enterprise has attracted to the place 
greatly increased population and multiplied wealth. 

The old churches, of rather Quaker plainness, have given place, in many 
cases, to large and commodious structures, adorned according to the style and 
taste of modern church architecture. Everywhere there is evidence of thrift, 
enterprise, and increasing wealth, all of which are made to contribute to the 
comfort, ease, and elegant living of the people. 



PIKE COUNTY. 




BY WILLIAM WESTFALL, ROWLANDS. 

I IKE county was taken from Wayne by the act of March 26th, 1814. 
One or more terms of court was held at a little hamlet called Will- 
sonville, on the east bank of the Waullenpaupack, at the extreme 
western boundary of the county. From theie the county seat was 

removed to Milford, on the bank of the Delaware river, liaving crossed the entire 

county and gained the most extreme eastern point. Tlie courts were held in a 

hotel kept by George Bow- 

hannan, until the court 

house could be erected. 
One, and perhaps the 

most valuable resource of 

the count}', has nearly dis- 
appeared from its borders. 

At an early day the whole 

county was covered witli 

a dense forest of white and 

3'ellow pine, oak, ash, and 

hickory, while three or 

four of the western town- 
ships could boast of h iv- 

ing the best hemlock land 

in the State ; in fact, one 

was named Green, from 

the circumstance that the 

foliage of the forest never 



changed. 



ago, 



saw 



A few 3^ears 
mills dotted 




PIKE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MILFORD. 
[From a Fbotograpb by Lajton, Milford.] 



every mountain stream ; 
lumber manufactured, and 
in the log, covered the 
banks wherever an eddy 
could be found suitable for rafting, and in the spring and fall a majority of 
the male population were floating their hard-earned products down the Delaware 
in search for a market. Agriculture nKso thrived in the vallej-s and along tlie 
streams. Perhaps there is no better land in the world than the flats along the 
Delawai'e. Wheat, lye, and corn grow exuberantly, and tlie husbandman's 
reward can be seen in the neat buildings and the well-kept herds. Altliough 
lumbering for a livelihood is among the things of the past, yet the mountain land 
which a few years ago was nearly valueless, is now sought after by capitalists 

1049 



1050 HISTORY OF PENKSLTVANIA. 

and skilled quarrymen. Flag and worked stone are extensively shipped by the 
Delaware and Hudson canal, and over the Erie road and its branches, from 
Lackawaxen and Shohola townships, to the value of hundreds of thousands of 
dollars annually. 

The earliest settlements made by Europeans in what is now Pike county was 
along the Delaware river, below Milford, by a party of Hollanders who came 
from Esopus (now Kingston), on the Hudson river. The precise date when these 
settlements were made is not known, but it was at a period previous to the 
arrival of Penn. In the j^ear 1730 the Proprietaries appointed Nicholas Scull, 
the famous surveyor, to proceed on a tour of investigation up the Delaware river 
and find out by observation whether there were any white settlements north and 
west of the great mountain. John Lukens, afterwards surveyor-general of Penn- 
sylvania, accompanied Scull on this expedition. From a letter of Samuel 
Preston, of Stock Port, in Wayne county, who was a deputy-surveyor under 
John Lukens, published in 1181, we learn that Messrs. Scull and Lukens were 
"much surprised by seeing large groves of apple trees far bej- ond the size of any 
near Philadelphia." The next settlement, if it could be called one, was made at 
Mast Hope, a little hamlet now on the Erie railroad, in Lackawaxen township. 
Here a cabin was built by a party of hunters and trappers, a clearing made, and 
a number of apple trees set out. It was afterwards claimed as Manor land, 
and the present owners of the property have the deed in their possession bearing 
the Proprietary seal. About 1160, a family by the name of Cox left the settle- 
ment below Milford, for a new location. Arriving at Mast Hope, they were 
struck with astonishment to find a large and thrifty orchard of apple trees 
superior in size to those in the settlement which they had left. No vestige of a 
habitation was found, and the family as a consequence considered themselves 
masters. Several tracts of land were afterwards taken up and patented by them 
in the vicinity. After enduring innumerable hardships from hunger and cold, 
and eking out a miserable existence for a number of years, they became tired of 
their isolation and returned to the haunts of civilization. Upon visiting the 
old grave-3'ards of the county, the last resting-place of many of the old settlers, 
can be found the record of such names as Walker, Kimble, Roberts, Holbert, 
Dimmick, Mott, Bowhannan, Biddis, McCarty, Dingman, Drake, Van Etten, 
Quick, Brodhead, Nyce, Westbrook, and many others. 

On the 22d day of July, 1119, near what is now the little town of Lacka- 
waxen, was fought one of the fiercest Indian battles on record. Although this 
massacre took place in the State of New York, nothing but the pure waters of 
the Delaware separate the battle-ground from Pike county, and a brief history 
of that dreadful day's proceedings may not be ought of place in this sketch. 
Early in July, Captain Brant, the half-breed Indian chief, left the Susquehanna 
with some four hundred warriors, to make an incursion into the Delaware 
valley. The settlers received timely warning, and threw out scouts to watch the 
approach of the invaders. The wily Indians turned a short corner, struck for the 
upper Delaware, crossed near Mast Hope, at a place known as Grass}"- Brook, 
clambered over the mountains, and by forced marches reached the little town of 
Minisink, where the thriving village of Port Jervis now stands. The inhabi- 
tants saved themselves by flight, but the town was sacked, the horses and cattle 



PIKE COUNTY. 105 

driven away, and the buildings reduced to a mass of smoking ruins. Flushed 
with success, the invaders moved slowly up the Delaware with their plunder, 
keeping the York State side. While these scenes were transpiring, the people 
of Orange county raised about one hundred and fift}' men, and put them on the 
trail of the savages. On the night of tlie 21st the Indians encamped at the 
mouth of Beaver brook. The pursuing partj' lay four or five miles further down 
the river. On the fatal morning of the 22d, both parties were early in motion. 
Brant had reached the ford at the mouth of the Lackawaxen, and a good part of 
his plunder was safe in Pike county. The whites held a short consultation at 
the Indian encampment, and the more prudent urged a return. The delibera- 
tions were cut short by a Captain Meeker, who boldly stepped to the front, 
exclaiming, " Let brave men follow me." This had the desired effect, and nearly 
the whole party were once more in hot pursuit. Two short miles brought them 
to the ford. A large bod}' of the enemy could be seen upon the opposite shore. 
A few shots were fired, and one Indian was seen to roll down the bank towards 
the river. About this time a heavy volley was fired into the whites from the 
high hills in the rear, which awakened them to a sense of their danger and the 
fatal mistake the}' had committed of leaving the only avenue of escape in the 
hands of the enemy. The officers in command ordered a rush to be made for 
the high ground. The Indians fell back, and chose their own position ; the 
pursued recrossed the river, and this brave but doomed band of patriotic whites 
were cut off from water, and surrounded by their merciless enemies. The sun 
poured out its fierce heat, and all through that long sweltering July day the 
battle raged with unmitigated fury. When night closed around the combatants, 
some twenty-five or thirty made a dash for the river, headed by Mnjor Wood, 
who, through mistake, made the grand masonic hailing sign of distress as he' 
approached the spot where Brant was standing. The Indian, true to his 
obligations, allowed the party to pass. They swam the river and made their 
escape into the wilds of Pike county. A few more escaped under the cover of 
darkness, and the rest lay upon the hillside cold in the arms of death. In the 
year 1822, the bones of friend and foe were picked up, put in boxes, taken to 
Goshen, in Orange county, given decent burial, and a beautiful monument, 
erected by a public-spirited citizen of the place, marks the spot where the bones 
of the heroes lay who fought what is known as the Battle of the Minisink. The 
details of this terrible disaster to the early settlers of this region have been 
gathered from the descendants of those who were living at that day. 

The Delaware and Hudson canal crosses the Delaware river at Lackawaxen by 
a fine suspension aqueduct, and passes along the west bank of the Lackawaxen 
river to Honesdale. The Ilonesdale and Hawiey branch of the Erie railroad is 
located upon the eastern bank, and over these two works a large portion of the 
coal mined in the Wyoming valley finds its way to a market. In this part of the 
county are a number of beautiful lakes, where the disciples of Isaak Walt(m 
spend many a pleasant hour. The famous Indian fighter, Tom Quick, was well 
acquainted with this part of the country in his day, and skulked around the ponds 
or lakes to slay what he called one of the accursed race. Like the Wandering 
Jew, he had no abiding place, but was continually on the move to fulfil the oath 
he had made when a young man to kill one hundred Indians during his lifetime. 



1052 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

It is stated that before his mission was accomplished he was taken seriously ill, 
and was supposed would not recover. He prayed continually for life and 
health to carry out his project. He eventually recovered, the number of 
Indians were slain, when his old and trusty friend, the rifle, was oiled up and 
laid away never more to be handled by its owner. He left his old haunts, and 
died shortly after. He is sleeping his last sleep on the banks of the Delaware, 
between Shohola and Milford. 

The first settlement made at Millford was about the year nt9,b3'a Hollander 
named Yanderraark, who gave the name to the creek north of the town. He also 
took up and patented a tract of land, which is still outside of the corporate limits 
of the village. In the year 1800 there were but two houses and a blacksmith 
shop on the site. The whole plain at that time was thickly grown over with 
pine, stunted oak, and bushes, with dense forests of hemlock skirting the moun- 
tain streams. The plateau, upon which the town is built, rises some three or 
four hundred feet above the waters of the Delaware river, which is the eastern 
boundary of the town. In the year 1814 it became the county seat, and was 
laid out with broad streets, crossing at right angles. In 1870, a new court-house 
was erected, at an expense of some fortj'-five thousand dollars. In 18T4, the act 
of incorporation was passed. 

DiNGMAN, eight miles down the Delaware river, is a small hamlet noted as a 
favorite summer resort. Busiikill, still further down the river, is a quiet village, 
Matamoras, eight miles above Milford, lies on the bank of the Delaware river; 
it is a thriving, growing town, Lackawaxen, twenty miles further up the river, 
derives its name from the stream which here empties into the Delaware ; it is a 
^ busy, bustling place. Mast IIorE, five miles above on the river, is built upon 
the bank of the stream from which it derives its name. Rowlands, Millville, 
and KiMBLES, are post towns on tlie Hawley and Honesdale branch of the Erie 
railway. At each place there is a thriving, industrious population, the princi- 
pal occupations being lumbering and stone quarrying. 

Pike County was so named in honor of the brave Zebulon M. Pike, killed at the 
battle of York, near Ontario, Canada, April 27, 1813. 

Organization of Townships. — Blooming Grove was erected December 17, 
1850, from parts of Lackawaxen and Palmyra; Dingman, April 17, 1832, from 
Upper Smithfield; Green, April 24,1839, from Palmyra; Lehman, August 19, 
1829, from Delaware; Milford, April 17, 1832, from Upper Smithfield ; Porter, 
December IG, 1851, from parts of Delaware and Lehman; Shohola, 'September 
25, 1852, from parts of Lackawaxen, Westfall, and Milford ; Westfull, January 
31, 1839, from Milford. Pike county, at its organization, comprised the town- 
ships of Middle Smithfield, Delaware, Upper Smithfield, Lackawaxen, and 
ralm3'ra. 



POTTER COUNTY. 




BY E. O. AUSTIN, FOREST HOUSE. 

TIE territory comprised witliin tlie bounds of tlie county of Potter 
was formerly a portion of Dunstable townsliip, Lycoming county. 
Tlie lands comprising it were mostly patented, and the district lines 
with preliminary surveys made and established about 1790. The 
owners of these lands, looking to their future occupation, caused the initial 
steps to erect it into a county to be taken in 1803. On the 26ih of March, 1804, 
an act of the Legislature 
was passed, naming the 
county and defining its 
boundaries, but still leav- 
ing it attached to Lycom- 
ing county for all execu- 
tive and judicial purposes. 
On the 3d of February, 
1806, the powers and duties 
of the commissioners of 
Lj'coming were extended 
over Potter, providing that 
separate accounts should 
be kept of the monies col- 
lected, and also separate 
books for the recording of 
deeds therein. It was 
named in honor of General 
James Potter, an officer of 
the Revolution, and a dis- 
tinguished citizen of Penn- 
sylvania. Sampson Craw- 
ford, Hugh White, and 
Robert McClure were ap- 
pointed trustees to receive 
the donation from John Keating, one of the principal land owners in the 
county, of certain lands for the use of the county. These lands comprised 
two-thirds of the squares of the town, lo be located and surveyed for the county 
seat, one public square for the county buildings, one square on wliich to erect 
an academy, and a certain quantity of land to be held for its use. The county 
seat was to be located at some place not more than seven miles from the geogra- 
phical centre of the county. On the 4th of March, 1807, the site was fixed at the 
forks of the Allegheny river, within tl»e {)rescribed distance from the centre, and 

1053 




POTTER COUNTY COURT HOUSE, COUDERSPORT. 
[From a Photograph in possessioa of M S. Thompson.] 



1054 BISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

named Coudersport, in honor of Judge Couder, a particular friend of the patron, 
Mr. Keating. Potter, M'Kean, and Tioga counties all formed a portion of 
Lycoming county until 1804, when the steps before mentioned were taken. This 
state of things continued until 1833, wlicn Potter and M'Kean were organized 
in conjunction as a separate judicial district, the courts being held at Smethport, 
M'Kean county, with provisions, however, anticipating an early organization of 
Potter, under which the records of each territory were kept separate, those per- 
taining to Potter being subsequently transferred to Coudersport. In 1835 it 
(Potter) attained its full organization, the first judges and sheriff being 
commissioned by Governor Wolf in 1835 and '30. 

Potter county is a portion of a large tract of high rolling table-land, Ij'ing in 
the northei'n central portion of the State, including the counties of Tioga, Potter, 
M'Kean, Elk, Cameron, etc., comprising considerable of the great bituminous 
coal basin, and rich in iron ore, with traces of silver, copper, and lead. It is 
bounded by the counties of Steuben and Allegheny, in New York, and Tioga, 
Clinton, Cameron, and M'Kean, in Pennsylvania. The northern half is rolling, 
and generally settled and improved. The southern half is much broken up with 
deep and narrow valleys, and high abrupt ridges, all heavily timbered, and con- 
taining most of the minerals yet discovered. Most of the larger branches of the 
West Branch of the Susquehanna, Allegheny, and Genesee rivers take their rise 
here. A peculiar feature of the formation of the county is seen in the elevation 
of the Allegheny basin over that of the Susquehanna. The altitude of the Alle- 
gheu}', as compared with any similar point on the Susquehanna within the 
county, is about three hundred and seventy feet greater. 

The mean elevation of the count}' is about 1,200 feet above Lake Erie, and 
about 1,900 feet above the sea. The northerly and easterly slopes of the ridges 
are very abrupt and precipitous, while the southerly and westerly are long and 
of gradual ascent. The county is 37 miles long, from north to south, and 30 
in breadth from east to west. Its population in 1840 was 3,371, and in 1870, 
11,265, on an area of 710,000 acres. 

The resources of the county are mainly such as pertain to an agricultural dis- 
trict. Every section of the county is devoted to farming, the northern half almost 
exclusively^ All the crops adapted to the Middle States come to maturity. 
Oats, buckwheat, and potatoes jaeld very abundantly and of the best quality. 
The production of wheat will compare favorably \aW\ any similarly situated 
county, while in the vallej'S corn is a staple crop. The hardier fruits thrive 
well, and some orchards on the high-lands are nearly alwaj's exempt from frosts 
and blights. But grazing and dairying are the chief resources of the people. 
The best varieties of the grasses thrive luxuriantly. The sward is not of that 
closeness and fineness seen in the best grass regions of New York, but may be 
ranked with the second best in the countr3^ At the present time cheese factories 
are rapidly multiplying, and while a system of mixed farming will undoubt'edly 
prevail in the future, dairying will ultimately be the principal business of the 
people. 

Of the mineral resources of the county it is as yat too early to speak with 
cei'tainty. Bituminous coal is found in man}' places, but remains almost 
entirely undeveloped. On Pine and Kettle creeks it is known to exist in con- 



POTTER COUNTY. IO55 

siderabie quantities, and on the Allghcn}- river several mines have been partially 
developed, indicating that they may be worked to advantage when thoroughfares 
shall be constructed for taking the coal to market. Indications of iron are often 
met with, and several veins of some extent are known, but all as yet unworked. 
Traces of other metals are often met with, but it is not known whether they exist 
in sufficient quantity to pay for mining. The county is practically without lime, 
the writer of this knowing of but one or two places where it exists at all, and 
not then in quantities and of a quality to admit of its being worked. The 
manufacture of lumber has always been, and must continue to be, a leading 
interest for 3'ears to come. A large portion of the logs and timber consumed in 
the mills at Williamsport aud Lock Haven are floated down the streams of this 
count}'. Indeed, the establishment of the booms at those places, and the associa- 
ted sj'stem of business carried on tliere, was the hardest blow at the prosperity 
of the county it has ever received. The drain upon the material of wealth has 
been immense, without one particle of return, as the lines of barren hills and 
hillsides, and great number of decajdng saw-mills, unmistakably evidence. If 
we except the lumber mills, there are but few manufactories, and these of no 
great importance. 

Woolen cloth is manufactured in small quantities, altogether for homo use, 
and leather to some extent, but most of the wool, and immense quantities of 
tan bark, are shipped to neighboring localities and the cities. 

The first and only railroad built within the bounds of the county — the Buf- 
falo, New York, and Philadelphia railroad — was opened in the winter of 1872. 
It passes only a short distance through Keating township, but the impetus it 
gave to business in its vicinity was very great. The only railway station at 
present in this county is Keating Summit, on the above-mentioned road. A rail- 
road is in process of construction between Jersej'^ Shore, in Clinton county, and 
Port Allegheny, in M'Kean county, connecting the Buffixlo road with the Pliila- 
delphia and Erie. It runs diagonally through the centre of the county, and 
great expectations are entertained of the very beneficial eflects it cannot fail to 
produce. 

Desirous of introducing settlers and establishing an agency in the county of 
Potter, John Keating, to whom allusion has been made in the sketch of M'Kean 
count}', caused ten acres of land to be cleared, and the body of a log house to be 
erected at what was long known as the " Keating Farm," in the town of Sweden, 
in the summer of 1807. In the fall of the same j'ear, William Aj'res, with some 
help, came up from King's settlement, covered, chinked, and mudded the house, 
preparatory to its habitation in the spring. In March, 1808, he moved in with 
his family, consisting of his wife and three children, George, Nancy, and Tame?, 
and a negro bo}'. Asylum Peters. For two years this family was alone, and, ex- 
cept a visit from the proprietor and a few journe3's to Big Meadows, or King's 
settlement, for supplies, no person was seen, if we except now and then some 
Indians who occasionally passed that way on their hunting excursions. 

About two years after Mr. Ayres established himself on the Keating farm, 
Major Isaac L3'man located at LjMnansvilie and assumed the agency of the Keat- 
ing lands in this section. His family consisted of John, Burrel, Laura, Henry, 
Isaac, Otis, and Charles. The Lymans were followed by others, which soon gave 
3 R 



1 056 HISTO EY OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

the little colony the appeai-ance of prosperity, and established a society rude but 
kindly. John Peet and family were the next to locate witliin the boundaries of 
the county, about one mile below Coudersport, on the Allegheny river. Benjamin 
Burt was the next settler, locating in Roulette township, on the Alleghen3', wliere 
he has lived the greater part of the time since. He is still a liale old man, residing 
in Coudersport. Jolm K. Burt, the first male child born in the limits of Potter 
county, lives on the farm his father Benjamin first settled on. Other accessions 
to their numbers followed in time. Messrs. Harry Campbell, Sherman, and 
Walker settled in Roulette, at what is now called Dutch town. Obadiah Sart- 
wcll, a blacksmith, built a house and lived for some time on the site of the 
borougli of Coudersport, but becoming disgusted with the situation, removed to 
the lower part of Roulette, at the mouth of a creek which now bears his name. 
Roads were now opened to the nearest and moit necessary points, and facilities 
were offered for opening settlements in other parts of the country, which were 
rapidly improved. 

lu the Avar of 1812, and the Mexican war, the population of the count}' was 
too sparse to afford many recruits ; but in the war of the Rebellion it furnished 
its full share. We find, by actual count, more than twelve hundred credited to 
the count}'. One out of seven of the whole population were engaged in their 
country's service, many of wliom were distinguished for their capacity and 
abilit}' as soldiers. The celebrated Bucktail regiment of the Pennsylvania 
Reserves was largel}' recruited in this count}'. Among the sharpshooters 
none were superior to those from Potter, and the memory and services of the 
gallant dead have been commemorated by the erection of a durable monument, 
suitably inscribed, at Coudersport. 

An episode in the history of the county was the attempt of the celebrated 
Ole Bull to plant a colony of his countrymen within its limits. In 1853, he 
bought of John F. Cowen, ll,14i acres of land lying within the present limits 
of Abbott township, for which he paid the sum of ten thousand dollars, on 
which tract he settled a considerable number of Norwegians and Danes. His 
scheme attracted the attention of many distinguished men, from whom he 
received contributions of machinery, stock, etc. Among those who thus coun- 
tenanced his efforts was the sage of Ashland, Henry Clay. ]Iis presents con- 
sisted of blooded horses and cattle, the descendants of Avhich are among the 
best grades of stock in the county. Mr. Bull did not seem to be adapted to the 
work of founding a colony, and having fallen into tlie hands of sharpers, was 
ultimately obliged to abandon his project with almost the total loss of iiis life- 
lono- savings. Most of the colonists migrated Avcst, a few, however, remaining 
in the vicinity. 

On tlie 21st of March, 1834, a terrible hurricane passed througli the entire 
length of the county, in the manner of a wliirhvind, destroying everything in its 
course, and to this day are traces of the devastation to be seen along the northern 
frontier. Luckily there were but few buildings in its path, its fury being spent 
on the timber. At Lymansville it found the only buildings in its whole length, 
all of which it destroyed or greatly damaged. In Uarrison, this county (Pot- 
ter), and West Union, Steuben county, N. Y., thirty miles distant, boards and 
shingles were found, which came, unmistakably, from these buildings. 



POTTER COUNTY. 1057 

CouDERSPORT, the county seat, situated on the Allegheny river, about fourteen 
miles from its source, is a thriving town, containing three churches, a tannery, 
machine shop, several saw and grist mills, a large and excellent graded school 
building, and the county buildings, consisting of brick court-house, a stone jail, 
and sheriff's residence. Lewisville borough, situated near the head of the east 
branch of the Genesee river, is a thriving town, second in importance in the 
county. 

Organization of Townships. — Eulalia was set off from Dunstable town- 
ship, Lycoming county, by order of the court of Lycoming, December 5, 1810, 
embracing all of Potter county ; deriving its name from Eulalia Lyman, the first 
child born within its limits. . . . Roulette was set off by the same court, from 
Eulalia, Januar}' 29, 181 G, embracing the territory now composed of Roulette, 
Clara, Pleasant Valley, and Sharon townships. . . . Harrison, February 6, 
1823. Benjamin Burt, Reuben Card, and Jacob Streeter were appointed, by same 
court, commissioners to divide Eulalia township; the new township to be called 
Harrison, running from north-east corner of the county south nine miles and 
ninety-nine perches ; west eight miles and twenty-eight perches, embracing Har- 
rison and parts of Hector, Ul3'sses, and Bingham. . . . The south-west part 
of the county, under the name of Wharton, was erected May 3, 1826, containing 
within its limits the present townsliips of Wharton, Sylvania, ar.d Portage, and 
parts of Summit, Homer, and Keating. ... Hi 1828 the north half of the 
county was divided by a decree of the court into townships six miles square, 
which were surveyed ten years later by L. B. Cole. The survey commenced at 
the north-west corner of the county, on the State line. The townships were 
named in the following order: First tier — Sharon, Chester, Loudon, Bingham, 
Harrison ; Second tier — Milton, Hebron, Denmark, Ulj'sses, Hector; Third tier — 
Roulette, Eulalia, Sweden, Jackson, Pike. . . . Sweden was organized Feb- 
ruary, 1828, with Jackson, Pike, and Ulj'sses attached thereto. . . . Sharon 
organized December, 1828, with Chester and Milton attached. . . . The name 
of Chester was subsequently changed to Oswaya, the Indian name of a branch of 
the Allegheny river, which runs through it. The name of Milton was changed 
to Clara. Bingham was organized in 1830. Loudon organized in 1830, and the 
name changed to Genesee, a river by the name running through it. At the same 
time Denmark M'as changed to Allegheny. Hector erected in 1830, and the 
election appointed to be held at Benjamin Wilber's. Pike organized January, 
1832, with Jackson attached. Hebron erected in 1832; election to be held at 
the house of Asa Coon. Ulysses erected December, 1832 ; election to be held 
at the house of Stephen Brace. Allegheny erected September, 1835. Clara 
divided in 1847, the western half to be called Pleasant Valley. Abbott 
erected in 1851. Homer, Stewartson, West Branch, Summit, erected in 1853. 
Keating, Sylvania, erected in 1S5G. Portage — in the erection of Cameron 
county, in 18G0, the inhabited portion of Portage township was set off to that 
county ; it was re-organized iu 1871, a part of Sylvania being attached to it. 




1058 




SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. 

BY aEORQE CHAMBERS, POTTSVILLE. 

HE territory now embraced within the limits of Schuylkill county is 
a portion of that which was purchased from the Six Nations for 
£500, by the treaty of August 22d, 1149, at Philadelph a. The 
preceding treaty of October 11th, 1136, which was made with the 
Five Nations, had only conveyed the land on the south-eastern side of the 
Kittatinny or Blue mountain. It gave the white man a title to the fertile soil 
now possessed by the farmers of Berks county, and encouraged him to settle on 
the Tulpehocken creek, and to ascend the Schuylkill river to the gap where 
Port Clinton now is located, but beyond that point he ventured at his peril, and 
without even the shadowy safeguard of an Indian compact to protect him from 
the tomahawk. Yet, as to-day the frontiersman presses forward into the Black 
Hills where the dusky warrior has warned hira not to trespass, and enters the 
" gold country" regardless of tl e Sioux — so in earlier days the pioneers of civili- 
zation pushed on in advance of treaties, and sought new lands where the farmer 
might till a fertile soil. Tempted by visions of future farms, in the beautiful 
valley which stretches on both sides of the Schuylkill river, and from the Blue 
mountain on the south to the Second mountain on the north, a number of men 
of German nationality ventured to locate within it at a very early period. 
Exactly how soon the first had come, it is now impossible to ascertain. 

We know, however, that as early as 1747,- George Godfried Orwig, with his 
wife Glora, had emigrated from Germany, and taken up their residence at 
Sculp Hill, about one mile south of where Orwigsburg now stands, and that they 
were not alone, but that a number of families resided in the same neighborhood. 
The children of George Godfried Orwig and Glora his wife were four in number : 
George, Peter, Henr}^, and a daughter — the latter of whom went to the West. 
About 1773, George Orwig married Mary Gilbert, and removed to the place now 
called Albright's Mill, near where Orwigsburg afterwards was located, and he 
there built, prior to 1790, a house and a mill on Pine creek. 

A family by the name of Yeager had removed from near Philadelphia to 
this valley about 1762. One of the children, Conrad, had been left in what 
is now Montgomery county. All of the fnmil}-, except Conrad, were massacred 
by the Indians, and afterwards Conrad learned of their fate from a boy who had 
been living with them, but who had been captured at the time of the massacre and 
had escaped from his captors. Subsequently, Conrad Yeager removed to the 
same region, and about 1809 one of his daughters married Isaac Orwig, a son 
of George Orwig. Peter Orwig, son of George Godfried Orwig, founded the 
town of Orwigsburg, which was laid out in 1796. Among the early settlers, 
Thomas Reed had located in the same valley, in 1750, if not sooner, and Martin 
Dreibelbis had, previously to the Revolution, built a grist mill and saw mill 

1059 



1060 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

where Schuylkill Haven now appears. Other families had selected other locations 
in the same valley, and a number of different places are still pointed out as tho 
scenes of Indian murders. The savage warriors came down from the mountains to 
make bloody forays on the peaceful farms, and the same sad story so often 
written of almost every valley of our State, can be heard from the lips of 
old residents in the neighborhood just described. The Fincher family were 
killed by the Indians about where the round house at Schuylkill Haven 
afterwards stood, the only member being a son, who reached the house of Thomas 
Reed above mentioned. Another family in the neighborhood of the place now 
called Friedensburg were massacred about the same time. In 1756, in the 
eastern end of what has since become Schuylkill county, had been built Fort 
Franklin, which was on Lizard creek. And further westward, Fort Bohundy 
(also called Fort Lebanon and Fort William) had been erected on Bohundy 
creek, in 1754. The territory now comprising Schuylkill county had been 
divided between the county of Beiks, erected March 11th, 1752, and 
the county of Northampton, erected upon the same da3\ During the 3'ears 
which elapsed prior to the beginning of the present century, the rocky hills 
now forming the coal districts of Schuylkill county wei'C not considered a 
desirable place of residence. Upon their rugged surface no dwelling seems to 
have existed except the Neiman House, which was located within the present 
limits of Pottsville, and in which the Xeiman fiimily were murdered after the 
Revolution. We can trace no other dwelling in this uninviting region prior to the 
year 1800, although an isolated saw mill had appeared here and there, and a few 
attemps to dig and utilize the coal had already been made. A saw mill had 
already been built where Pottsville now is seen, and George Orwig had placed 
another near the present site of St. Clair. The Orwig family, it is known 
operated the latter mill by carrying with them to it a week's provisions, and thus 
sawino- all the lumber they wished without establishing a residence at the mill, 
and it is probable that other parties took a similar method at other saw mills 
north of Sharp mountain. 

In the year 1800, Reese and Thomas sent men to the present location of 
Pottsville to make a dam and race, preparatory to building a furnace and forge. 
Anion o- the w^orkmen was John Reed, a son of Thomas Reed, above named. 
John Reed built for himself a small dwelling, and in it, in the same year, 1800, 
was born Jeremiah Reed, afterwards sheriff of Schuylkill count}', and who was, 
as far as tradition states, the first child born within the limits of the present 
town of Pottsville. Reese and Thomas built, prior to 1804, a very small char- 
coal furnace on the Physic tract, where Pottsville is now situated,, and in 
that year the place was bought by John Pott, Sr. In 1807 the old txreenwood 
furnace and forge was erected at that place, by John Pott, Sr., through his 
managers, John Pott, Jr., and Daniel Focht. In 1810 John Pott, Sr., removed 
to the new place with his fiimil}^, and in the same year he built a large stone 
grist mill, w^hich is still standing. Houses were erected in the neighborhood, 
and in 1816 John Pott, Sr., laid out the town of Pottsville. 

The county of Schuylkill having been erected in 1811, Orwigsburg became 
the county seat, and thus was advanced in importance. 

At this time settlements had been made at man}'^ different points within the 



SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. 1061 

district now forming Schuylkill county, but although the turnpike from Reading 
to Sunbury had been opened through, it was iu a very imperfect condition. 
The canal had not yet been made, and communication with the market centres 
of the large towns was very difficult, and the coal trade had not yet begun. In 
liis "Miners' Journal Coal Statistical Register" for 1870, Mr. Benjamin Dannan 
said : " In 1811 Schuylkill county was cut off from old Berks. They said, let her 
go, she is so poor that it is only an expense to us. Then the population was from 
6,000 to 7,000." Before this time the north-western portion of the county, then 
called " the Mahantangos," had become of importance, and in succeeding 
elections, the people nearer the county seat could not ascertain what candidates 
had been elected until "the Mahantangos " had been heard from. At this time, 
however, Schuylkill county was not so large as it is now, as the portion 'which 
afterwards formed the original Union township was not taken from Columbia 
and Luzerne counties until March 3, 1818. The present area of the county is 
about seven hundred and fifty square miles. Though in part out of chrono- 
logical order, it may be well to state, at this point, the names and dates of 
formation of the townships into which the county is now divided. 

Brunswig township was formed 1811; East Brunswig township was formed 
out of Brunswig townsliip, 1834; West Brunswig township was formed out of 
Brunswig township, 1834; Barry township was formed out of Norwegian 
township, 1821 ; Branch township was formed out of Norwegian township, 1838 ; 
Blythe township was formed out of Schuylkill township, 1846; Butler township 
WHS formed out of Barry township, 1848; Cass township was formed out of 
Branch township, 1848 ; Eldred township was formed out of Upper Mahantango 
township, 1849; Frailey township was formed out of Lower Mahantango; 
Branch, Barrj', and Porter townships, 1847 ; Foster township was formed out of 
Cass; Butler and Barry townships, 1855 ; Hegins township was formed out of 
Lower Maliantango township, 1853 ; Ilubley township was formed out of Lower 
Mahantango township, 1853; Kline township was formed out of Rush township, 
1873; Manheim township was formed 1811; North Manheim township was 
formed out of Manheim townsliip, 1845 ; Soutli Manheim township was formed 
out of Manheim township, 1845 ; Upper Maliantango township was formed 1811 ; 
Lower Mahantango township was formed 1811; Mahanoy township was formed 
out of Rush township, 1849; Norwegian township was formed 1811; East 
Norwegian township was formed out of Norwegian township, 1847 ; New Castle 
township was formed out of Norwegian township, 1848; Pinegrove township 
was formed 1811; Porter tovvnship was formed out of Lower Mahantango 
township, 1840; Rush township was formed 1811; Reilly township was formed 
out of Branch and Cass townships, 1857 ; Rahn township was formed out of 
West Penn tovvnship, 1860; Ryan township was formed out of Rush and 
Mahanoy townships, 1868; Schuylkill tovvnship was formed 1811; Tremont 
township was formed out of Pinegrove township, 1848; Union township was 
formed out of Columbia and Luzerne counties, 1818 ; North Union township was 
formed out of Union township, 1867 ; East Union township was formed out of 
Union township, 1867 ; West Penn township was formed 1811 ; Wayne township 
was formed out of Manheim and Pinegrove townships, 1827 ; Washington 
township was formed out of Wayne and Pinegrove townships, 1856. 



1062 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



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SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. 1063 

From 1811 to 1825 the population of Schuylkill county increased steadily 
but not with great rapidity. The census for 1825 showed the number of 
inhabitants to be 11,339. The coal trade was still very limited, and, so far as 
Schuylkill county was involved, it had scarcely begun. 

In that year, 1825, the Schuylkill canal was opened up to Mount Carbon, and 
the number of tons of coal sent to market from Schuylkill county was 6,500. 
The coal monument and table, prepared by P. W. Sheafer, of Pottsville, civil 
and mining engineer, and which are ingeniously constructed so as to give at a 
glance a clear and comprehensive view of the expansion and occasional con- 
traction of the trade of the different regions, is here inserted as the best 
instructor upon the subject which the reader can have. 

Before proceeding to a further discussion of the mining and transportation of 
the mineral which has given to Schuylkill county her prosperity, we may now 
take a retrospective survey of the discovery of anthracite coal, and of its intro- 
duction into use. The often quoted statement made in the report of the Board 
of Trade to the Coal Mining Association, in 1833, that "so early as 1190 coal was 
known to abound in this county," has led many readers into the erroneous belief 
that coal had not been discovered here until that time. But it should be noted 
that the word "abound " is inserted in the sentence, and it does not conflict with 
well established statements that show the existence of coal in Schuylkill county 
to have been known at a much earlier period. In an interesting paper, read by 
Mr. William J. Buck before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, January 4, 
1875, it was stated, upon the jmthority of the Penn manuscripts, that anthracite 
coal was discovered in the Wyoming valley in 1766, and that a specimen of it 
was sent to England during the summer of that year. The same gentleman 
further states, " that the earliest authority we find for the existence of coal any- 
where in the vicinity of the present town of Pottsville is William Scull's map of 
the Province of Pennsylvania, published in 1770. Coal is marked thereon at 
three places, commencing about two miles west of said borough, and extending 
in nearly a south-western direction for nearly four miles. It is also indicated, on 
the same map, about ten miles distant, on the north side of the Mahanoy creek, 
near the present town of Gordan or Ashland. It is not now known who first 
made this discovery, but its location on said map at this early period in that 
vicinity is important, and goes to set aside considerable that has been published 
on this matter as erroneous." 

The writer has been shown, by Charles M. Lewis, of Pottsville, civil and 
mining engineer, several papers of interest in relation to the discovery and intro- 
duction of coal. The first is a copy of a rough draft of a letter written to Thomas 
H. Burrowes, Esq., and dated Reading, May 27, 1846. Mr. Lewis states that 
it is in the ban Iwriting of Thomas Baird, an old surveyor, and an authority on 
the subject of the letter. It states, inter alia, that there was, soon after the 
Revolution, a company formed for opening coal mines and sawing lumber, 
near where the town of Pottsville now is, and that the coal had been discovered 
in digging a tail-race for the old saw-mill on Norwegian creek. The company 
is stated to have been composed in part, at least, of Samuel Potts, Thomas Potts, 
(who then owned the land), General Arthur St. Clair, Samuel Baird, Thomas 
Rutter, Colonel Francis Nichols, Thomas Mayberry, and Jesse Potts, of Potts- 



10(54 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

town, Montgomery county, and probably Major William Nichols, who lived in 
Philadelphia. The company found that, to render the Schuylkill river navigable, 
would require more money than could bo raised then, and after sawing some 
lumber, to pay expenses, they settled their accounts in 1786, and "the land was 
taken back again by Messrs. Samuel Potts and Thomas Potts." That was 
doubtless the company referred to by Mr. Burrowes, iu his " State Book of 
Pennsylvania," edition of 184G. Mr. Baird also says : "I have seen a draft of 
survey, made in 1774, and returned to the land office, on which coal is marked, 
and where mines are now opened and worked, where the town of St. Clair is 
now laid out." Mr. Lewis has also a certified cop}' of the original draft of survey 
of the St. Clair tract, surveyed Noveral)er 2G, 1775, upon wliich are marks, and 
the words, " Said to be coal." This is, no doubt, the survey referred to by Mr. 
Baird. That land is north-east of Pottsville, and not tlie tracts touched by the 
marks on Scull's map, above described. It is, tliercfore, not surprising that 
when, in 1800, Reese and Thomas located their furnace on the site of the present 
town of Pottsville, old openings were found in the neighborhood fi'om which 
coal had been taken out some time before. Mr. Charles M. Lewis has shown 
the writer a paper " On the Introduction of Anthracite Coal into Use," written 
and read September 4, 1858, by his father, Samuel Lewis, of Pottsville, civil 
and mining engineer, and who possesses very extensive and accurate information 
in regard to the subject. 

After a statement of the reasons for preparing the paper, Mr. Lewis says: 
" We will now give Colonel Shoemaker's version of the affair, part of which is to 
be found in print: 'In 1832, an association was formed in this county called the 
Coal Mining Association of Schuylkill county, of which the writer hereof was a 
member. Among other officers, there was a standing committee called the 
Board of Trade. At the first annual meeting of the association, iu January, 
1833, this Board of Trade, through its chairman, Benjamin H. Springer, Esq., 
made a report, noticing, among other things, the discover}^ and first introduction 
into use of our coal, from which I beg leave to make the following extracts, first 
observing that we have a full set of the reports of this Board of Trade, with other 
interesting matter relating to the coal trade, bound in a volume and deposited in 
our library. The report says: In the year 1812, our fellow-citizen, Colonel 
George Shoemaker, procured a quantity of coal from a shaft sunk on a tract of 
land he had recently purchased on the Norwegian, and now owned b}^ the North 
American Coal Company, and known as the Centreville tract. With this he 
loaded nine wagons, and proceeded to Philadelphia. Much time was spent 
by him in endeavoring to introduce it into notice, but all his efforts proved 
unavailing. Those who deigned to try it declared Colonel Shoemaker to be an 
imposter for attempting to impose stone on them for coal, and were clamorous 
against him. Not discouraged by the sneers and sarcasms cast upon him, he 
persisted in the undertaking, and at last succeeded in disposing of two loads for 
the cost of transportation, and the remaining seven he gave to persons who 
promised to try to use it, and lost all the coal and the charges on these seven. 
Messrs. Mellon & Bishop, at the earnest solicitations of Colonel Shoemaker, were 
induced to make trial of it in their rolling mill in Delaware county, and finding it 
to answer fully the character given it by him, noticed its usefulness in the Phila« 



SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. 1065 

dclphia papers. At the reading of this report, Colonel Shoemaker was present 
by invitation, who fully confirmed the foregoing statement, and furnished some 
additional information, among which was that he was induced to make the 
venture of taking tlie coal to Philadelphia, from the success attending its use 
here, botli in the blacksmith fires and for warming houses, and that he could not 
believe that so useful an article was intended to always lie in the earth unnoticed 
and unknown. 

" That when he had induced Mr. Mellon to try the coal in his rolling mill, he 
(Shoemaker) accompanied the coal out to it, and arrived there in the evening, when 
tlje foreman of the mill pronounced the article to be stone, and not coal, and that 
he Avas an imposter in seeking to palm off such stuff on his employers as coal. 
As a fail- trial of it by this man or the men under him could not be expected, it 
was arranged between Shoemaker and Mellon, who was a practical workman, 
that they would experiment with the coal early next morning before the work- 
men came. They accordingly repaired to the mill in the morning, kindled a fire 
in one of the furnaces with wood, on which they placed the coal. After it began 
to ignite, Mellon was inclined to use the poker, against which Shoemaker cau- 
tioned him. They were shortly afterwards called to breakfast, previous to which 
Mr. Shoemaker said he had observed the blue blaze of the kindling authracite 
just breaking through the body of the coal, and he knew that all was right if it 
were let alone, and directed the man left in charge not to use the poker or open 
the furnace doors until their return. When they returned they found the furnace 
in a perfect glow of white heat. The iron was put in, and heated in much less 
time than usual, and it passed through the rolls with unusual facility, or in the 
language of the workmen, like lead. All — employers as well as workmen — were 
perfectly satisfied with the experiment, which was tried over and over again, and 
always with complete success, and to crown the whole, the surly foreman 
acknowledged his error and begged pardon of Mr. Shoemaker for rudeness the 
preceding evening. In all this there is nothing that looks like Mi*. Shoemaker 
not understanding how to ignite and burn anthracite coal. It had been burned 
in an open grate at Wilkes-Barre four years before, and in Pottsville, by the elder 
John Pott, at least two years before this time, as well as used in his smith-shop 
at the Greenwood furnace; and there is no probability that Mr. Shoe-maker was 
ignorant of the process, aside from his own positive testimony on the subject." 

From 1825 to 1829 the amount of coal shipped from Schuylkill county 
gradually increased, until, as the table shows us, in the latter year, 79,913 tons 
went to market. In the year 1829 there was a great excitement in regard to coal 
and coal lands, and during that and the succeeding year many speculators 
hastened to Schuylkill count}-, hoping to make fortunes out of the now valuable 
lands. The 3Iiners^ Journal of June 2Gth, 1830, under the heading of borough 
census, speaks of the increase of the population of Pottsville as " almost unpre- 
cedented," and foots up a grand total of 2,424 residents ; and further states, that 
there were besides about 1,350 who did not consider themselves permanent 
residents, making the whole number 3,*7'74. At that time the population of the 
county had reached the number of 20,744. In all directions new towns and 
villages wex'e being laid out, and every indication pointed to permanent prosperity. 
As is always the result, however, depression followed in the wake of excitement. 



lOCG HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

and the year 1831 looked upon many a bankrupt, and turned sadly homeward 
many an adventurer who had been sanguine of successful venture. Comfortable 
dwelling houses in the new town of Pottsville were unoccupied, and could have 
been had for the asking free of rent. It was a common saying that " men who had 
come in the stage with plenty of money, went down the tow-path of the canal 
with packs on their backs." 

The depression did not continue long. Among those who had flocked to the 
"Land o' King Coal" were pioneers who were equal to overcoming all obstacles 
and to producing enduring prosperity and wealth instead of failure and want. 
From that time to the present, despite some 3-ears of disaster and seasons of 
gloom, Schuylkill county has continued to increase in wealth, and in the number 
of inhabitants who swell her census lists. Although there are some fertile 
acres within her boundaries, and well-tilled farms skirt the mountain ranges in 
different localities, the agricultural productions of Schuylkill county will never 
seem of much importance when compared with her coal and iron. The old 
Greenwood furnace has already been mentioned. Near it, in Pottsville, before 
the year 1836, a number of men had been endeavoring to solve the problem of 
how to make iron with anthracite coal. M. B. Buckley, Thomas S. Ridgway, 
and John Pott, Jr., had already succeeded in melting the ore with anthracite 
coal, but the difficulty had been that the iron and the cinder could not be 
separated. Burd Patterson, also, who was an energetic and prominent pioneer, 
and to whom Schuylkill is indebted for many a rapid advance, had devoted time 
and money in efforts to attain a method by which the desirable result could be 
reached. 

At length, in 1836, Dr. Geisenheimer, a man of scientific knowledge and 
logical mind, succeeded in obtaining the iron separate from the cinder. His 
triumphant efforts were made at the Valley furnace, in Schuylkill county, and 
place his name high upon the list of those who have enlarged the power of man 
over the materials around him. In the same year, as the Miners^ Journal of 
August 6, 1836, informs us. Governor Ritner being in Schuylkill county, went 
to the Valley furnace to witness the new method of making iron, and was 
greatly pleased with what he saw. It is stated upon good authority that Dr. 
Geisenheimer first made anthracite iron with the cold blast, and that it was 
subsequently that the more efficient hot blast was introduced from across the 
Atlantic. 

The Pioneer furnace at Pottsville was commenced in 1837, and was the first 
one built for the purpose of making iron with anthracite coal. After passing 
through many hands this furnace was bought by Atkins Bros., and subsequently, 
in 1866, it was torn down by them and a new one built in its stead, and they have 
since erected two more at the same place. The total annual capacity of the three 
furnaces is twenty-eight thousand tons. The same enterprising firm are pro- 
prietors of the Pottsville rolling mill, which they have enlarged until it is equal 
to producing two thousand tons of iron per month, and when run to full capacity 
gives employment to five hundred men. 

The Palo Alto iron works at Pottsville, which owe their advancement to the 
energy and business ability of Benjamin Haywood, have a capacity of one thou- 
sand five hundred tons of iron per month, and require, when in full operation, 



SCUVYLKILL COUNTY. 10G7 

about five hundred employees. The furnaces built at St. Clair, Stanhope, 
Minersville, Port Carbon, and Ringgold swell the annual pig-iron capacity of tlie 
furnaces of Schuylkill county to a total of sixty -eight thousand tons. 

The Colliery iron works at Pottsville were begun, in 1835, by Haywood & 
Snyder, and continue in successful operation, now giving emj^loyment to as many 
as two hundred men and boys. The firm of Haywood & Snyder made, at a 
branch establishment at Danville, the first rolls for making T rails for the Mon- 
tour iron works. These were the first T rail rolls made in Pennsylvania, and 
with the possible exception of the rolls of the Mount Savage mill in Maryland, 
the first in this country. The Colliery iron works are now owned by George W* 
Snyder, Benjamin Haywood having retired from the firm in 1850, and the estab- 
lishment has made some very heavy machinery, some of which will be mentioned 
further on in the present sketch. 

The Orchard iron works at Pottsville were founded in 1846 by John L. Pott. 
A large amount of heavy machinery for the manufacture of iron has been turned 
out by this establishment for many parts of the United States. At one time 
they were at work simultaneously on machinery to be sent to Maine and other 
machinery to be sent to Georgia. Other large iron establishments have been 
built upon an extensive scale at diff"erent points in the count}-. 

The first newspaper printed in the Schuylkill county was the Freiheits Press, 
which was published at Orwigsburg. The Miners^ Journal was started in 1827, 
at Pottsville, by George Taylor. In 1829 it passed into the possession of 
Benjamin Bannan, who conducted it successfully for many years, and made the 
name of the Miners' Journal known over a greater extent of territory than is 
often reached by a country newspaper. In 18G9 Mr. Bannan and Colonel 
Robert H. Ramsey, whom he had taken into partnership with him, began the 
publication of the Daily Iliners' Journal. The new enterprise was due princi- 
pally to the efforts of Colonel Ramse^^, whose zeal and industry were unceasing, 
and the paper has continued to prosper without cessation ever since. Mr. 
Bannan died in the summer of 1875, and in less than a \'ear afterwards Colonel 
Ramsey had been summoned from earth. A large number of other newspapers 
are published in Schuylkill county. 

In 1829 Abraham Pott, a son of John Pott, Sr., had erected for his saw mill 
in Black valley the first steam engine ever used in Schuylkill county. It was 
put up for him b^' Prosper Martin, of Philadelphia, and was about ten horse 
power. With this engine Mr. Pott made the first practically successful attempt 
to generate with anthracite coal the steam for an engine. The difficult}' had 
always been that the anthracite coal quickly burned out the old st3-le of grate 
bars. The first set of bars were burned out by Mr. Pott's fire in about twelve 
hours. He then made a pattern of his own invention, forming the bars about 
four inches deep in the centre and two inches deep at each end, and at Windsor 
furnace, in Berks county, new bars were cast. The change was a complete 
success, and the bars now in use are almost identical in form with those then 
devised by Mr. Pott. 

From 1830 there was rapid improvement in the methods of mining and 
ti'ansporting coal. In 1835 a steam engine was erected at the Spohn colliery, 
Centreville, near Pottsville. It was put up by Haywood and Snyder, the 



1068 



HISTORY OF FENNSLVANIA. 



castings, however, having been made by Levi Morris & Co., of Philadelphia. 
"Wiat engine was about twenty-horse power, and was used for hoisting coal and 
pumping Avater. In the same year Haywood & Snyder built for the North 
American Coal company the first steam engine ever built in Schuylkill county. 
It was thirty-horse power, twelve-inch cylinder in diameter, and four-feet stroke. 

The Muiers' 
Journal of 
March 18Lh, 
1837, describes 
the advance at 
that date as fol- 
lows : " It is 
well known the 
business of min- 
ing hitherto 
has been main- 
ly confined to 
operations 
above the water 
level. The na- 
tural conse- 
quence that fol- 
lowed, of many 
veins having 
been worked 
out or exhausted on certain tracts 
of land above the water level, has 
introduced the new system of min- 
ing below by moans of inclined 
planes and steam engines. The 
number of engines already erected 
and in operation is considerable, and that num- 
*'j ber will in all likelihood be greatly increased 
within a few j-ears. 
W\/i^ After a time, however, a better plan was sug- 
gested by John G. Ilewes, of Pottsville. While 
on a visit to Philadelphia, his attention was 
attracted by the then common spectacle of a 
man on the sti'ect breaking up the large pieces 
of coal into sizes suitable for use in the house- 
hold fire. Mr. Hewes concluded that the dust and fragments, too small to 
bum, should be separated from the coal before the latter was shipped to 
market, and thus a saving of freight be effected. At his suggestion was made 
the first coal-screen ever run by steam power in the Schuylkill region. It was 
erected by Ilewes, Baber, and Co., on the landing known as the Long Dock, 
at Port Carbon. The coal was broken by hand with hammers, on planks, and 




VIEW NEAR BROOKSIUE. 



SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. 1069 

afterwards on perforated iron plates, by gangs of men in structures known as 
penitentiaries. 

The introduction of breakers is described in the report of the Board of Trade 
to the Coal Mining Association, January, 1845, as follows : 

" The introduction into this county within the past year of machinery for 
breaking coal, may justly be considered as an acquisition of vast importance to 
tlie already extensive means and appliances for economising manual labor. The 
machine in general use was invented by Messrs. J. & S. Battin, of Philadelphia, 
and was first put up in their coaly ard in that citj' about a year ago. The first 
in this county was erected by Mr. Gideon Bast, on Wolf creek, near Minersville, 
and since that time they have been put up in various places, and are found to 
answer the fondest hopes of the inventor, and meet most fully the wishes of the 
coal operators, in performing the work at a very reduced cost and less waste 
of the coal. This machiner}', with the circular screens attached, and driven by a 
twelve-horse engine, is capable of breaking and screening two hundred tons of 
coal per day, which is fully equal to the work of from forty to fifty men." 

In 1845, Alfred Lawton began sinking the Saint Clair shaft, but failed to 
complete it down to the Mammoth vein, although, by a bore hole, he had 
reached the Primrose at a depth of 122 feet. Subsequently, in 1851, E. W. 
McGinness commenced operations at the same shaft, and his determined efforts 
were rewarded by the distinction he gained when he reached the Mammoth vein. 
The Mammoth vein was struck at the depth of 438 feet from the surface. A 
deep boring made in Crow Hollow, in 1852-'3, under the direction of P. W. 
Sheafer, cut the Mammoth vein at a depth of 385 feet. The next shaft in the 
same vicinitj' sunk to the Mammoth vein was that of the Hickory coal company, 
at Wadesville. Its location and direction, which involved difficult and delicate 
scientific work, were successfullj' performed by P. W. & Walter S, Sheafer, civil 
and mining engineers. In miner's phraseology the Mammoth vein was " won " 
at the depth of G19|^ feet, the engineers estimate having been GOT feet, a wonder- 
fully accurate calculation. The Pottsville collieries of the Philadelphia and 
Reading Coal and Iron Company are on the most extensive scale yet hazarded in 
this country. The shaft, located by General Henry Pleasants, chief engineer of 
the company, is the deepest coal shaft in the United States, and bears strong 
testimony to the scientific knowledge and skill of General Pleasants. From it 
coal is now hoisted vertically 1,584 feet. The Pottsville collieries have two 
hoisting shafts, but can be worked practically as one colliery, and will, when 
complete, prepare 2,000 tons daily, or practically about 500,000 tons per annum. 
The East shaft and boring developed the veins as follows: Little 'I'racy vein, 
cut at a depth of 216 feet ; Trac}', 413 feet; Little Diamond, 690 feet; Diamond, 
830 feet; Little Orchard, 1,065 feet; Orchard, 1,099 feet; Primrose, 1,558 feet; 
Holmes, 1,651 feet; Four Ft., 1,814 feet; Seven Ft., 1,909 feet; Mammoth, 
1,054 feet. 

The shaft is sunk to the depth of 1,592 feet. The depths below the Primrose 
were tested by the Diamond drill. The Orchard and Primrose veins are unusually 
far apart here, owing to the folding of the measures. The machinery for the 
Pottsville collieries is very heavy. For them the Colliery iron works at Potts- 
ville are now building a pair of engines, working in conjunction, with forty -five 



1070 ■ HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

inches cylinder diameter, and five feet stroke. These engines develop actually 
about 1,800 horse power, and are capable of developing, if required, 5,000 horse 
power — being under the same circumstances about one-fourth more powerful than 
the great Corliss engine which drove the machinery in Machinery Hall at the 
Centennial Exposition. The Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron company 
own 152,992 acres of land, 2,262 acres of which will be worked through the 
Pottsville collieries. In comparison with this establishment it may be stated 
that in 1835 the annual production of a first-class colliery was about 10,000 tons. 
The railroad above described, as made by Mr. Abraham Pott, was from a point in 
Black valley to the Schuylkill river, and was about half a mile in length. It was 
begun in 1826, and completed in the spring of 1827, and, therefore, could claim 
to be ahead in point of time of the well-known railroad from Summit Hill to the 
Lehigh river, Mauch Chunk, built in 1827. In 1829 and 1830, a number of rail- 
roads in Schuylkill county were projected and partly or entirely built. To-day 
we may ride over railroads dating back to those years. The Pottsville and Dan- 
ville railroad, completed not much later, was used but for a short time and then 
abandoned. A net-work of railroads now extends into all parts of the coal 
reo-ion. In 1870, the number of miles of railroad underground, in Schuylkill 
county, was estimated at 339. The East Mahanoy tunnel is 3,411 feet in length, 
and the Little Schuylkill tunnel, 892 feet. 

It is impracticable in this work to give a history of the part taken by Schuylkill 
county men in the military operations of the country. The American army of 
the war of 1812 had entered upon its rolls the names of brave soldiers from this 
region. A number of men from Schuylkill county enlisted in the Washington 
Blues, a company commanded by Captain Daniel D. B. Keim, of Reading. 
Amono- them was John Bannan, afterwards an able and prominent lawyer of 
Pottsville, and who at the time of his death was the oldest member of the 
Schuylkill county bar. The Washington Artillerists, afterwards company B, 
1st Regiment Pennsylvania volunteers, left Pottsville for the fields of Mexico 
December 5, 1846. These soldiers were engaged at the battles of Vera Cruz, 
Cerro Gordo, Puebla, Humantli, Atlixco, La Pas, and other places now familiar 
on the map of Mexico. The survivors reached Pottsville, on their return, 
July 28, 1848. They were commanded by Captain James Nagle, a gallant 
officer, afterwards well known as Colonel, successively of the 6th and 48th 
Regiments Pennsylvania volunteers, and the 39th Pennsylvania militia, and 
194th Regiment of one hundred daj^s men, and also as Brigadier-General 
commanding the Second Division of the Ninth Army corps. 

When the rebellion began, two companies from Schuylkill county were 
among the first defenders who reached Washington, April 18, 1861, and as is 
said in the " Memorial of the patriotism of Schuylkill county :" " Schuylkill, 
with three sister counties of Pennsylvania, wears the distinguished honor of 
being first in the field for the defence of Washington." During the progress of 
the war several regiments and a number of independent companies marched to 
the front from Schuylkill county, and her soldiers fought with the bravest, and 
won laurels in battle. But it is impossible here to give an account, including 
the names and deeds of each, and it would be invidious to mention only a few. 

The lands in Schuylkill county, devised by Stephen Girard to the city of 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1023 

wore paved. Nineteen horse railroad companies carried, in the previous year 
70,465,489 passengers, in 903 cars, over 242 miles of streets, and there were 
vai-ions steam railroads which carried a very large number of passengers to sta- 
tions within the bounds of the city. The river Schuylkill is crossed by fourteen 
bridges, three for special railroad use, the others for general use. One of these 
that at Girard avenue, is 100 feet in breadth, the widest bridge in the world. 
The houses are of red brick, trimmed with marble, and also of brown stone, sand- 
stone, marble, greenstone, iron, and other materials. A large proportion of the 
dwelling houses are supplied with gas and water and baths, the latter being hot 
and cold. Water is supplied by five pumping works, which have seven great 
reservoirs, and furnished, in 18V5, 15,097,160,069 gallons. There are five manu- 
facturing gas works, with capacity to make over 2,000,000,000 cubic feet of gas 
per year. The city is the seat of manafactures which are more extensive in 
variety than they are in any other city of the United States. In 1870, there 
were 8,579 manufacturing establishments in Philadelphia, employing 152,550 
hands, and paying in wages $08,647,874, with over $200,000,000 of capital, and 
producing articles worth $302,484,098. At the present time the number of 
manufacturing establishments are estimated to be 11,500; capital employed, 
$250,000,000 ; value of manufoctures produced, $400,000,000. 

The commerce of Philadelpliia has been increasing recently very largely. 
The exports in 1875 were $31,930,727, being an increase in five years of more 
than fourteen millions of dollars. The imports were $23,457,334, an increase 
of about seven and a half millions of dollars in the same period. This result 
is due to the establishment of ocean lines of steamships to Liverpool and 
Antwerp, to the easy and cheap method of handling grain in bulk, and to 
the great amount of trade brought to the city by means of the Pennsylvania 
and other railroads. There are forty-two banks in the city, National and State, 
with an aggregate capital of about $19,500,000. Safe deposit, trust, and saving 
fund companies hold large deposits of money. There are sixty-two insurance 
companies — fire, life, and marine — acting under Pennsylvania charters, beside 
man}' foreign agencies. The educational institutions are the University of 
Pennsylvania, founded 1749; Girard college; four medical, and two dental 
colleges; a polytechnic college; about five hundred public schools, with nearly 
110,000 pupils, and many private schools. The principal scientific institutions 
are the College of Physicians, Academy of Natural Science, Zoological Society, 
American Philosophical Society, Franklin Institute, ^Vaguer Institute, Horticul- 
tural Society, etc. The Academy of Fine Arts, and School of Design for Women, 
are devoted to the promotion of drawing, painting, and sculpture. The Musical 
Fund Society and others cultivate the art of music. There are numerous libra- 
ries, the oldest of which, the Philadelphia, founded July 31, 1731, is the most 
venerable institution of that kind in the United States. There are twenty-four 
hospitals for the relief of the sick and afflicted, fifteen dispensaries for supplying 
medicine gratis to the poor, twenty-one asjdums for orphans and abandoned 
children, nineteen homes for aged men and women, an asylum for the deaf and 
dumb, three for the blind, and many other charitable societies giving special 
relief in particular methods. There were five hundred and thirty-four religious 

congregations in the city in January, 1876, many of them occupying very 
3 p ' 



1024 



HISTOBF OF PENNSLYVANIA. 



splendid church buildings. There were separate auxiliary buildings of a 
religious character, and twenty public cemeteries, in addition to church burial 
grounds. The Academy of Music, three dramatic theatres, and various concert 
and music halls were open for the entertainment of the public. There weie 
two parks and thirteen public squares belonging to the city. Fairraount park 
contains 2,740 acres, and is the largest park in the United States, and only 
exceeded by Epping and Windsor Forests, England, and the Prater of Vienna. 

The facts connected with the early history of Philadelphia are almost identical 
with those of the Province of Pennsylvania, and as the general sketch has gone 

over this field, we 
shall refer only to 
such matters as 
may not have been 
specially noted. 

There was some 
trouble in 1G98 
upon account of 
pirates who infest- 
ed the Atlantic 
coast, robbing and 
burning, and when- 
ever occasion re- 
quired, boldly re- 
sorting to the sea- 
ports, where, by 
their bravado, tl ey 
seemed to defy ar- 
rest. Robert 
Quarry, judge of 
the Admiralty, was 
involved in conti- 
nual quarrels on 
this account, and 
in one of his let- 
ters to England said that " Pennsylvania was the greatest refuge for pirates 
and rogues in America, and that the navigation laws of England were 
openly infringed." At this time four pirates were in prison in the citj'', 
supposed to be Captain Kid's men ; others were believed to be lurking 
in the neighborhood. These complaints were ui'gtd by Quarry in a partisan 
spirit, in the hope of overturning the Proprietary government. Penn returned 
to Pennsylvania earh' in December, 1699, and remained in the Province nearly 
two years, leaving Philadelphia about the beginning of November, 1701. At 
his former visit he had lived at the house originally built for him, between 
Market and Chestnut, and Front and Second streets, known in later times as the 
Letitia house. During his second visit he occupied the house of Edward Shippen, 
in Second street, near Spruce, and afterward the Slate Roof house, which had been 
built by Samuel Carpenter, and was situated at the corner of Second street and 




THE OLD SWEDES' CnURCn. 



rniLADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1025 

the alley afterward known as Norris alley (now Gothic street). Here his son 
John, afterwards called the American, was born, being the only member of the 
family whose birth-place was not in England. Lieutenant-Governor John Evans, 
who arrived from England in 1704, brought with him William Penn, Junior, son 
of the Proprietor. Evans was young, gay, and rash, and Penn, in taste and 
habits, was no credit to the Quaker principles of his father. Penn got himself 
into trouble during a disgraceful midnight brawl at a pot-house and tavern in 
Coombes allej', where some of the watch were beaten. The constables arrested 
the 3'oung man, who acted as if he supposed that his birth vested him with 
privileges to break the laws. The Quakers would not agree to such licentious 
sentiments, and the result was that young Penn, incensed, renounced Quakerism, 
and returned to the church of England, the Church of his grandfather. Admiral 
Penn. No descendant of the Penn family after tliat time was a Quaker. 

In 1747 affairs seemed to be in a menacing condition. French privateers 
had come into the Delaware and made captures, plundering the neighboring 
shores. A fort, called the Association Battery, -which was south of the city, 
below the Swede's church and upon the ground where the United States Navy 
Yard was afterwards placed, was finished in the middle of 1749, and mounted 
with fift}' cannon in 1750, of which fourteen were presented b}' the Penn family. 
Tlie peace of Aix-la-Chapello, between Great Britain, France, and Spain, in 
April, 1748, which was known in Pennsylvania about tiie 24th of August, might 
have seemed to render the finishing of this fort unnecessary, but the proceedings 
were not relaxed until it was mounted and equipped for future use, when the 
emergency should rise. The associated regiments of the city chose Abraham 
Taylor, colonel ; Thomas Lawrence, lieutenant-colonel ; Samuel McCall, major. 
Edward Jones was colonel of the county regiment, Thomas York, lieutenant- 
colonel, and Samuel Shaw, major. 

General Edward Braddock, who was sent over from England in 1755, to 
drive out the French and subdue the Indians, received recruits from Philadelphia, 
which were enlisted for Dunbar's and Halket's regiment. The issue of Brad- 
dock's unfortunate march against Fort Duquesne caused great alarm and ex- 
citement, and the defeated troops, who escaped the Indian and French rifles, 
marched back despondingly to the city. There was the usual trouble about 
raising money to support these troops. Finally, an amount was raised by sub- 
scription, and the Quakers in the Assembly, for the first time in their histor}', were 
so greatlv pressed that they passed a militia law, in the preamble of whicii it was 
stated, in effect, that though the Quakers were against bearing arms themselves, 
"they do not, as the world is now circumstanced, condemn the use of arms by 
others." The creation of a militia, of which there were twenty companies iu 
the city and county, excited some jealousy among the associators, and they 
raised six companies of independent volunteers, in addition to the old association 
companies. Benjamin Franklin was elected colonel of the militia regiment for 
the city, and Jacob Duchc colonel of that of the county. 

In the year 1755, the unfortunate inhabitants of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, 
known as the French neutrals, were sent to Philadelphia by Governor Lawrence 
of that colony. They were 454 in number, men, women, and children, and were 
set on shore without any provision being made for their sustenance. These 



1026 



HISTOBT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



unhapp3^ persons were landed at the pest-ho ise on Province Island, and a 
guard put over them. Anthony Benezet interested himself in their behalf, and 
the Assembly voted a sum sufficient to pay for clothing and other necessaries. 
In the course of a year or t\vo it was resolved to disperse these people and 
distribute them among the various townships where such of them as would work 
might have oppor unity to do so. In 1750, Governor Robert Hunter Morris 
formally declared war against the Indians, and offered rewards for their scalps — a 
proceeding unauthorized by s instructions and disapproved by the Proprietaries. 
The Quakers in ths emergency formed the " Friendly Association for Regaining 

and Preserving Peace with the In- 
dians," the object of which was to bring 
the influence of united effort to bear 
upon the government and to influence 
t' e Indians to lay aside hos'ilities. 
They purchased valuable presents for 
the Indians, and expressed themselves 
anxious to co-operate with the govern- 
ment in the interests of peace. But 
the British ministr}'^, as might have 
been expected, were indisposed to 
permit such proceedings. The Earl 
of Halifax expressed strong dissatis- 
faction at the policy of the Friendly 
Association, and said "that a treaty 
held with the Indians at Philadelphia, 
by the people called Quakers, was the 
most extraordinary procedure he had 
ever seen, in persons who were on the 
same footing only with all other of 
the King's private subjects, to presume 
to trea' with foreign princes, which," 
said the noble Earl, "is the highest 
invasion of his Majesty's prerogative 
royal," The war upon the savages, 
on the part of the Province of I'enn- 
sylvan'a, did not last long. Sir Wil- 
liam Johnson, of New York, who was 
general commissioner of the British 
government for treating with the Indians, thought it rash and imprudent, and 
in a little over five weeks Governor Morris proclaimed a cessation of hostilities 
for a limited time, which arrangement was continued until peace was finally 
agreed upon. Armstrong's expedition against Kittanning and the killing of 
Capta'u Jacobs put an end to further danger from the Indians at this time. 
In August of the same year, 1756, war again broke out with France, and this 
with the Spanish war continued for six years longer, during which time privateers 
and letters of marque were active, and the Governor and the Assembly were 
engaged in constant dispute about the passage of money bills, so that at last the 




CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1027 

Assembly, in sturdy independence, sent Benjamin Franklin to England to 
remonstrate against the actions of the Penn family, and to represent the 
Province in conference with the principal officers of the British government. 

Barracks in the Northern Liberties were built for the British soldiers in 1157, 
between Buttonwood and Green streets, extending from Third to Second street. 
Another militia act was passed in 1757, and what was more remarkable, the 
Province fitted out a ship of war to cruise for the protection of commerce. 
This vessel was called the Pennsylvania frigate, commanded by Captain John 
Sibbald, and cruised in the neighborhood of the capes of the Delaware as long 
as hostilities lasted. 

Peace was established between England, France, and Spain, by a preliminary 
treaty at Fontainbleau, November 3, 1762 — the definitive treaty being made in 
February of the succeeding 3'ear, and this was the last foreign war which attracted 
attention before the outbreak of the American Revolution. Among other con- 
sequences of this treaty was the surrender of Canada entirely to (ireat Britain, 
and the cessation of the French power upon the North American continent. 
Relief from Indian troubles, which had been greatly fomented by French influence, 
was hoped for. But a confederacy among the western Indians precipitated bar- 
barous warfare upon the borders of Pennsylvania, in 1763, which trouble 
was disposed of by expeditions under Colonels Armstrong and Bouquet, which 
defeated the savages and drove them over the mountains and beyond the Ohio. 

The passage of the Stamp Act by the British Parliament, March 22, 1705, led 
to the institution of measures in Philadelphia, which encouraged a rising spirit 
of independence of Great Britain, which finally led to the most important results. 
It was resolved to practice ecomonj^ and the determination first manifested itself 
in resolutions against expensive funerals and ostentatious burial of the dead. 
The eating of mutton was discouraged, in order to promote the raising of wool, 
and some persons resolved that, as an aid to production of good home-brewed 
the}^ would drink no more foreign beer, and import no British goods until the 
Stamp Act was repealed. John Hughes, of Philadelphia, was appointed stamp 
distributor for Pennsylvania, and became at once immensely unpopular. He was 
burned in effigy in May, and his house surrounded by a mob. The Pennsylvania 
Assembly, in September, passed resolutions declaring that it was the inherent 
birthright and indubitable privilege of every British subject to be taxed only 
by his own consent, or that of his legal representatives. The ship Royal Char- 
lotte, having the stamps on board for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, 
under convoy of the sloop of war Sardine, Captain James Hawker, was feeii 
corainac around Gloucester Point on the 5th of October. Immediatelv all the 
ships in the harbor hoisted their flags at half-mast, the bells were muffled and 
tolled, and everything wore an appearance of mourning at the loss of liberty. 
Several thousand citizens assembled at the State House in the afternoon, and 
sent a deputation to request Hughes, the stamp agent, to resign. He was not 
willing to do so, and delayed the matter for a short time, when he made reply 
refusing to resign, but promising not to enforce the Stamp Act in Pennsylvania? 
until it had been put into execution in the neighboring colonies. Shortly after, 
the merchants and traders of Philadelphia made an agreement not to import 
goods from England until the repeal of the Stamp Act, and to countermand orders 



1 028 HISTO BY OF PENJ!fS YL VANIA. 

already sent there for goods. The act of Parliament was to go into effect on the 
first of November, and on the day previous. the newspapers published in the city 
came out with ghastly emblems of raortalit}- — skull and cross-boiu s. pick-axes, 
spades, and coffins, and heavy black lines, stating that as tliey could not legally 
publish their papers without stamps, they had determined to suspend publication. 
This state of affairs continued only for a few days, when publication was resumed. 
There was much more serious trouble in the public offices, because the lawyers 
were of opinion that it was unsafe to conduct legal proceedings without stamps, 
as lonof as the statute was in force. The result was a closing of the offices for 
six months. News of the repeal of the Stamp Act, by one branch of Parliament, 
under the influence of the new Pitt ministry, was received in the latter part of 
March, 1166. Bells were rung, bon-fires kindled, and the health of the royal 
farail}'^ was drank. Not till two months afterwards was the final repeal ascertained ; 
and goods shipped from England, in the meanwhile had been locked up and kept 
out of the market. The captain of the yessel bringing the news was escorted to 
the Coffee-House, presented with a gold-laced cocked-hat, and in a foaming bowl 
of punch drank the sentiment, " Prosperity to America." Next day there was a 
grand dinner given at the State House, at which all the colonial dignitaries and 
British officers in town were present. Salutes were fired, the bells were rung, 
and strong beer distributed to the populace. 

Scaj"cely had the irritation of feeling caused b}'^ the Stamp Act subsided, before 
the British government, in pursuance of a direct assertion of the right to tax 
America, wliich was made in the repealing act, proceeded to carry out what 
seemed to be a threat. On the 29th of June, UBT, was passed by Parliament an 
act lev^'ing duties on paper, glass, painters' colors, lead, and tea, imported by 
the Americans. Intelligence of the result created a greater excitement through- 
out America than had even the passage of the Stamp Act. 

The economical resolutions of the Stamp Act times were renewed. A load of 
malt, brought in July in the Charming Polly, was, by the patriotic action of the 
brewers, refused and sent back to England. The cargo of the Speedwell brig 
was impounded, and certain citizens who had bought cheese imported in that 
vessel, were compelled to turn it over to the poor debtors. 

The brig Friend's Good-will was sent back without being allowed to be un- 
loaded. The King's collector of customs was in trouble. Articles which he had 
seized were rescued, and one of his informers was ducked, tarred, and feathered. 
American manufactures were commenced. Glass ware, china ware, wooden 
buttons, woolen goods, steel, silk, brass buttons, paper hangings, and other 
articles which had been entirely imported from England, were now made in the 
city. This state of affairs continued until the British government repealed the 
tax laws so far as regarded paper, glass, and painters' colors, leaving, only as 
an assertion of their authority, the tax on tea. News of this repeal was received 
in May, 1710. Under this condition of affairs it was argued by some that the 
non- importation agreement might be relaxed as to ever^-thing except tea, but 
the great body of merchants declined to suspend non-importation in pursuance 
of which several vessels which came from different parts of the American colonies 
with goods were sent back. But whilst importation through the custom house 
was denounced, smuggling of British goods was encouraged. In November a 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1029 

King's customs schooner, in the Delaware river, seized a suspicious pilot boat, 
and found that it was loaded with tea, claret, and gin. Muskett, tlie captain of 
the cruiser, took possession of his prize, but did not hold it long. The same 
niglit the schooner was boarded by thirty men, whose faces were blackened and 
who were armed with clubs, cutlasses, and pistols. Tliey overpowered the Kino-'s 
men, rescued the pilot boat, and sailed away, and though efforts were made to 
detect the offenders, nothing was ever heard of the goods or the rescuers. It was 
not until the latter end of 1773 that it became evident that the British government 
was iletermined to put this matter to a test by sending tea to America, although 
the merchants had sent no orders for it. Preparations were made by handbills 
and broadsides, addressed particularly to the Delaware pilots, to look out for 
the tea ship, the name of which was known. Broadsides were distributed, 
addressed to Captain Ayres, commander of the ship, threatening him with tar 
and feathers if he brought his commodity to the wharves. On Christmas day 
the Polly arrived at Chester. The consignee came to the city, and learning the 
state of public feeling, resigned his commission. At Gloucester Point the Polly 
was hailed by a committee, and Captain Ayres induced to come on shore, where he 
met a great number of people and was escorted to the State House, where he 
found one of the greatest meetings ever held in Philadelphia. It passed seven 
short and decisive resolutions, that the tea should not be landed, and that it 
should be carried back immediatelv, and that Captain Ayres should be allowed 
until the next morning to prepare for his return voyage. So expeditious was the 
assistance he received, that in two hours after the meeting the Polly wei<yhed 
anchor at Gloucester Point, went down the river, and returned " the East India 
company's adventure to its old rotting place in Leadenhall street, London." 

In May, 1774, effigies of Alexander Wedderburne, who had insulted Dr. 
Franklin before the Privy Council, and of Governor Hutchinson, of Massachu- 
setts, whose actions against the colonists had caused much resentment, were drawn 
through the streets on a cart, hanged on a gallows at Front and Market streets, 
and consumed in a flame which was kindled by the use of an electrical batter}-. 

On the first of June, 1774, the day on which the Boston Port Bill was to go 
into effect, stores and places of business were generally closed. The flags on 
vessels in the river were at half-mast, and at several churches sermons were 
preached with reference to the sad event. One of the consequences of the cir- 
cumstances of the times was the institution of an authority-, under the control 
of town meetings, which was without any law, but which through comiilittees 
exercised the most summary' power. A committee for the city and county of 
Philadelphia was appointed in 1774, which was divided into committees of inspec- 
tion and observation, and which exercised superintendence of all matters in which, 
according to the spirit of the times, it was supposed that public interests were 
concerned. 

News of the battles of Lexington and Concord, on the 19th of April, 1775, 
was received by express on the 24th, at five o'clock in the evening, but was not 
generally known in the city till the next da}'. A meeting was held on the morn- 
ing of the 2oth, at the State House. Eight thousand persons were present. The 
proceedings were brief but to the point. One resolution was passed, in effect that 
the persons present would associate together ''to defend with arms their property, 



1030 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



liberty, and lives, against all attempts to deprive them of it." Thenceforth for 
some years the attention of the people was turned to measures offensive and 
defensive — the embodiment and training of troops, the manufacture of arms 
and munitions of war, building of forts and redoubts, the sinking of obstructions 
to prevent the enemy's ships from coming up the river, the establishment of 
armed boats and vessels, and the organization of a navy. The second Congress 




VIEW OP INDEPENDENCE HAI.L, 1876. 

met on the 5th of May, and the work of preparing for national defence was imme- 
diately commenced. 

Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, offered the resolution that the united Colonies 
are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, on the Vth of June, 
in Congress, then sitting at the State House. It was considered on the 8th. 
9th, and 10th, and then adjourned until Monday, July 1, two committees being 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1031 

appointed, meanwhile, one to prepare a declaration to the effect of the resolution, 
the other to prepare and digest the form of a confederation to be entered into by 
the Colonies. On the first of July, Lee's resolution was partly considered, and 
then postponed until the next day, when it was adopted. This was the great 
and most important matter connected with independence, but the declaration of 
the reasons why independence was sought has long eclipsed the fame of the 
resolution. 

Congress passed Lee's resolution of Independence July 2, 1776. The Decla- 
ration was adopted July 4th. The Declaration w^as formally read to the people 
on Monday, July 8, by John Nixon, a member of the Council of Safety, from the 
observatory erected by the American Philosophical Society for the purpose of 
observing the transit of Venus, which stood in the State House square, west of 
the main avenue, and about half way between Chestnut and Walnut streets, 
probably opposite the [jresent Sansom street. In the afternoon five battalions of 
associators mustered upon the commons, and heard the instrument read to them. 
The King's arms in the court room, west side of the State House, first floor, were 
taken down by associators and burned in front of the old London coffee house. 
Bonfires were kindled, bells were rung, and here the old bell of the State House 
fulfilled the prophetic command cast upon its sides twenty-four years before: 
" Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." On 
that very day (July 8) an election was held at the State House for delegates to 
form a constitution for the State of Pennsylvania. They met shortly afterward, 
adopted a plan of government for the State, elected a Council of Safet}', which 
supei'seded a former body bearing the same name, and provided for the institu- 
tion of a government. 

The movement of General Howe, in 1777, brought the British army in 
a round-about route from the city of New York. The troops were taken in 
ships and transports to the Chesapeake bay, landed near the head of the EIU 
river in Maryland, and marched northward. At Brandywine, Washington, who, 
with his whole army marched from Philadelphia to meet the enemy, fought and 
lost the battle. There were manoeuvres upon the soil of Pennsylvania which 
resulted in no fight. Wayne was surprised and a large number of his men 
massacred near Paoli Tavern. Washington was ready to contest the passage of 
Howe, near the Schuylkill, at Parker's ford. By a feint, the British commander 
evaded the movement, and crossed the Schuylkill on the 22d of September, at 
Gordon's and Fatlands fords. The whole army was safe across the next day. 
O'n the 25th, the British army moved in two grand divisions, one b\' the Falls 
of Schuylkill, and the other by the road to Germantown. Here the main camp 
was formed, extending along the road to Lucans, afterwards known as Robert's 
mill, since know^i as Church lane, east of Germantown to the Main street, and 
across Schoolhouse lane to the Wissahickon. On the 26th two battalions of 
Hessian grenadiers, with a detachment of royal artillery, marched down Second 
street and entered the city. They were speedily followed by others. The 
Pennsylvania State fleet at this time was below the city, and the Royal troops at 
once undertook to throw up batteries for defence against them. These were 
built on the shore and on the wharves, and included the old association battery 
and redoubts in the neighborhood of the present Reed and Swanson streets, at 



1032 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Christian street. On the 4th of October the battle of Germantown was fouHit 
Washington's plan was excellent, but its execution failed. The British did not 
expect an attack which showed so much boldness on the part of an enemy who had 
been despised, that the British commander thought it prudent to march his men 
into the city. Here a line of redoubts, which had been commenced by General 
Putnam in the latter part of 1776 for the defence of the city, was finished. They 
extended from the Delaware, near the mouth of the Cohocksink creek, over to 
the hill at Fairmount. There were ten principal batteries, with redoubts, 
entrenchments, with barbettes between, the whole line being defended by 
abattis extending from work to work. 

When the ro3'al army took possession of the city, it was separated from the 
assistance of the fleet which was below, in the Delaware, but prevented from 
comino- up to the wharves by chevaux de. frize and the forts at Red bank and 
Mud Island. Seven weeks effort were necessary to open a passage, during 
which Red bank was attacked and successfully defended. The British frigates 
Auo-usta and Merlin were set on fire and blown up. A considerable number of 
vessels of the Pennsylvania fleet were burned and destroyed, and Mud fort was 
taken after the most terrific bombardment of the Revolutionary war. On the 
26th of November, frigates and transports arrived at the wharves, greatly to the 
joy of the beleaguered inhabitants. 

Durino- the winter of nt7-'8, and the spring and a portion of the summer of 
the latter year, the British troops remained in the city performing no feats of 
surprising valor. Foraging and predatory expeditions were sent out occasionally, 
which robbed and burned in the neighboring countr3\ An attempt was made to 
attack Washington at Whitemarsh, in December, which resulted in failure, the 
Americans beino- ready for the attack and the British too prudent to attempt it. 
An effort was made to surprise Lafayettje, who was posted on the Ridge road 
near Barren Hill, in May, 1778. The movement was well planned, but the 
Frenchman obtained knowledge of it in sufficient time to make his escape. 
The British officers amused themselves in the city by cock fights, balls, theatrical 
entertainments, and other dissipations. In May they gave the meschianza, a 
grand fete at the Wharton mansion, Southwark, in the manner of an ancient 
tournament, in honor of General Howe, who had been superseded by Clinton, 
and was about to return to England. In one mouth after this festival of folly, 
the roval army marched out of the city, crossed the Delaware, and were in full 
march to New York, closely followed by Washington, who, at Monmouth, 
brought them to a stand. General Benedict Arnold followed close upon the 
heels of the British, and took command of the city as military-governor. He 
remained for several months, addicted himself to Tory company and neglected 
the Whigs, married a daughter of William Shippen, afterwards chief justice, a 
lady who was one of tVie belles of the meschianza. Arnold was poor, but affected 
a high style of living, and was able to do so only by dishonesty and corruption 
in the discharge of the office which he held as governor of the city. 

Congress came back skortiy afterward. The French minister, Gerard, arrived 
in July, 1778, and by his presence gave the very best pledge to the honesty of the 
alliance. News of Arnold's treason at West Point was received September, 1780. 
His books and papers were seized by the Supreme Executive Council, and two 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1033 

effigies of the traitor were carried through the town within three days, one of 
which was hanged on gallows, and the other, a double-faced figure on a wagon, was 
drawn along the streets and hanged, and burned in front of the London Coffec- 
House. 

In September, IT 81, the American army passed through the city, and was 
followed two days afterward by the French armj^, under command of General 
Count Rochambeau. Some of the French troops were encamped on the 
commons for two da3'S, after which they marched on to Virginia, where, at 
Yorktown, they did good service. Six weeks afterward, news of the surrender 
of Cornwallis was receive 1 in Philadelphia, occasioning great excitement and 
general congratulation. 

News of the signing of the treaty of peace of November 80, 1782, by which 
Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States, was received 
in March of the following 3'ear, and the French King's cutter Triumph, eleven 
days afterwards, brought news of the signing of the preliminary treaty on the 
20th of January, and thus ended the events of a long and exhausting war. 

To celebrate the definitive treaty of peace with England, which was pro- 
claimed by Congre3s, January 14th, 1783, tbere was to have been a grand celebra- 
tion on the 22d of Januar}'. A very handsome arch was prepared with transpa- 
rencies, lamps, etc., but before there could be any exhibition on the evening 
named, the structure took fire and was destroyed. Another celebration, on May 
10, proved more satisfactory. 

In the latter part of May, 1787, delegates, appointed by twelve States to frame 
a Federal constitution, assembled at the State House, and elected George AVash- 
ington president, and William Jackson secretary. Nearly four months after- 
ward, on the 18th of September, the convention closed, leaving the draft of the 
Fedei'al constitution to the attention of the States. 

Washington passed through Philadelphia, on his way to New York to assume 
the presidency, in the latter part of April, 1 789, and was received by a procession, 
decorations, flags, etc. In 1789, a convention to revise the constitution of 
Pennsylvania, met in the city, and after a long session, adopted a new instrument, 
on September 2d of the following vear. On the same day General Washington 
and his family arrived in the cit}'^ from New York, and was received by a proces- 
sion, and dined with the convention and the Assembly at the City Tavern, Second, 
above Walnut street. In December, of the same year, the Federal Congress, which 
had assembled in New York, March 4, of the previous year, met for the first time 
in Philadelphia. The seat of government, it was agreed, should be restored to 
Philadelphia, and remain there for ten years, until the public buildings at Wash- 
ington were ready for the use of the government. During Washington's admi- 
nistration there we-o stormy times, particularly after the breaking out of the 
French Revolution, which created great excitement, and subsequently terror and 
disgust at the atrocities of the Revolutionary government. The United States 
was divided into two parties — those who hated France, and those who, out of 
gratitude for her services in the Revolution, were willing to forgive everything. 
In 1793, Washington and Adams were for the second time inaugurated President 
and Yice- President, respectively. 

In the same year, whilst M. Genet, the French minister, was in the city, the 



1034 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



excitement was at its lieight. He was received by a procession, addressed with 
great adulation at the State House, assisted at a grand Revolutionary dinner, 
where he sung the Marseillaise, and wore the red cap of libert}', conducting him- 
self with so much audacity toward the government, particularly in countenancing 
the capture of English vessels b.y French vessels in American waters, that the 
United States government was glad to get rid of him, and demanded his recall 

by the French 
government. 
When Citizen 
Fauchet, his suc- 
cessor, arrived, 
a more amicable 
condition of di- 
plomatic affairs 
was hoped for. 

The nomina- 
tion of John Jay 
as minister to 
England in 1794 
was very un- 
popular with the 
anti- Federalists, 
and to show the 
feeling on the 
subject his effigy 
was guillotined, 
burned, and 
blown up with 
gunpowder, in 
front of the town 
hall, Northern 
Liberties. When 
the news of hb 
treaty with Eng- 
land arrived, 
there was great 
indignation 
among the Dem- 
ocrats, and Jay 
was again burned 
in effigy at Ken- 
sington. 
John Adams was inaugurated as President, and Thomas Jefferson as Yice- 
President, March 4, 1197, at the Congress Hall, south-east corner of Sixth and 
Chestnut streets. During this administration, political feeling was more bitter 
than ever, and was at its height during the year 1798, when the black cockade 
was mounted by the friends of the Federal government as a testimonial of their 




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PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 1035 

loyalty, ami to distinguish themselves from the Democrats whose cockades were 
red, white, and blue. The war with France, which soon after followed, added to 
the excitement. Washington was appointed Lieutenant-General, and arrived in 
the city during the latter part of the year. 

News of the death of Washington was received in December, HOO, and the 
celebration known as Washington's sham funeral took place on December 26, an 
oration being delivered, at Zion Lutheran church, by General Henry Lee. On 
the 22d of February, 1800, there was another celebration at the German Reformed 
church, Race street, near Fourth, under direction of the Society of Cincinnati. 
Mayor William Jackson delivered the oration. There were Masonic ceremonies 
on the same day at Zion Lutheran church. 

By the end of 1800 the Federal government departed from Philadelphia, and 
about the same time the State capital was' fixed at Lancaster, and the fame of 
the city as the metropolis of the State and of the nation ceased. 

In 1790, the first steamboat practically used in the world ran on the Dela- 
ware river between Philadelphia, Chester, Burlington, and Bristol, as a reg^dar 
freight and passenger boat, advertising its trips in the newspapers, and during 
the season traversing over three thousand miles. The boat was thoroughly 
successful, and was laid up when the winter season arrived. But the poverty of 
the inventor, John Fitch, and the lukewarmness of the compan}', which was not 
disposed to continue its investments, led to the subsequent abandonment of the 
project. 

In 1793 the 3'ellow fever visited Philadelphia. The mortalit}' was very heavy, 
the distress and misery great. This misfortune was repeated in following years, 
but more terribly in 1797-'98. For four or five years afterwards there were 
cases of the epidemic everj^ summer, but the mortality was comparativelv light. 
Betw^een 1793 and 1799 the deaths by yellow fever were twelve thousand, and at- 
tention was directed to the causes. Sanitary consultations led to the agreement 
that the existence of Dock ci'eek, which extended into the heart of the city, and 
was surrounded by tan yards and dwellings, and was subject to unhealthy 
drainage, caused the misfortune, added to which was the growing impurity 
of the water taken from wells. As a result of these opinions, it was resolved to 
arch over the creek, and measures were taken to procure water from the Schuyl- 
kill by erecting water works on Chestnut street. They were commenced May 
2d, 1799, and the first water distributed January 1st, 1801. These improvements 
may be said to have banished the 3'ellow fever from the city. In 1812 
ground at Fairmount on the Schu^dkill, including the hill, were purchased for 
water works, and the pumping works were commenced August 1st of that j'ear. 
They were finished and started September 7th, 1815. On the 19th of April, 1819, 
work was commenced for the erection of a dam across the Schuylkill, at Fair- 
mount, with the intention of constructing works which would perform the opera- 
tion of pumping by water power. Three wheels were prepared, and the first 
water passed out of the reservoir July 1st, 1823. Since that time several other 
pumping works have been built in various parts of the city. There were in 1876, 
six, and another is in course of erection. 

In 1808, steamboats again began to ply on the Delaware river. The Phoenix, 
Ijuilt by John Stevens, at Hoboken, was brought around by sea, being the first 




1036 



PHILADELPHIA CITY AND COUNTY. 103t 

steam vessel which ever navigated the ocean. Lines were established and other 
steamboats built, and all the predictions of poor John Fitch of the value of 
his invention were realized, and the profits obtained by others. 

In 1805, the first land carriage moved by steam in the world was exiiibitcd 
by Oliver Evans, who having made a machine for cleaning out docks, built upon 
a scow to be operated by steam, placed it on wheels with such machinery as 
propelled the carriage by steam from Market street and Broad to the Schuylkill, 
where, being launched and paddles affixed, the vessel was navigated down the 
Schuylkill and up the Delaware. Evans oflTered at this time to make a steam 
carriage that would run on land, and laid his proposals Jaefore the Lancaster 
turnpike com pan 3\ 

In 1809, a very serious quarrel arose between the United States government 
and the government of Pennsylvania, which by prudent management only was 
prevented from breaking out in absolute hostilities. The difficulty was caused by 
a legacy from the time of the Revolution, and originated in the misconduct of 
Benedict Arnold, when he was military governor of the city. At that time he 
purchased the claims of some sailors in a prize taken by the Pennsylvania State 
ship and another vessel. The Pennsylvania Admiralty Court made a decree in 
favor of the State. Arnold procured a decree from Congress ordering the whole 
sum to be paid into the United States Treasury. The State of Pennsylvania 
resisted. The question finally got into the United States courts, which decreed 
against the State. The money originally was in the hands of David Rittenhouse, 
State Treasurer, who held it for self-protection. He was dead at this time, and 
his estate represented by his daughters, Mrs. Sei'geant and Mrs. Waters. The 
State passed an act forbidding them to pay the money, and agreeing to liold 
them harmless. This promise was carried out by the calling out of troops, under 
General Michael Bright of the cit}' militia, which were posted around the dwell- 
ing of Mrs. Sergeant and Mrs. Waters, at the north-west corner Seventh and 
Arch streets. The United States marshal made the attempt to serve the writ, 
but he was repulsed by the State troops. For twenty-six daj's the troops were 
on guard, and although the marshal called out a posse comitatus of two thousand 
men, which, if led by him, might have precipitated a bloody collision, he suc- 
ceeded by strategy in entering the house and serving his writ. Subsequentlj^, 
the State ordered the money to be paid. General Michael Bright was tried, 
convicted, and sentenced for high treason, but was pardoned by the President. 
Thus ended an affair which gave to the old mansion the appellation of " Fort 
Rittenhouse." 

The war between Great Britain and the United States, which broke out in 
1812, was sustained in Philadelphia with great patriotism. Volunteer companies 
were formed ; the forts on the Delaware were strengthened ; gun-boats were built 
for the defence of the Delaw^are river. In May, 1813, three companies from the 
city, under Colonel Lewis Rush, Avere stationed on the peninsula between the 
Delaware and Chesapeake bay, and remained two months. In July, the gun-boat 
flotilla, built and equipped in Philadelphia, and commanded by Captains Angus and 
Sliced, attacked the British sloop of war Martin, and the frigate Junon,near Crow 
shoals on the Delaware, and did them considerable damage. In 1814, after news 
was received of the capture of Bladensburg, entrenchments were thrown up by 



1038 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

the volunteer labor of citizens, near Gray's Ferry and on the Baltimore I'oad. 
Twent3'-one companies of volunteers and four companies of militia were in service 
at the camps in Kennett Square, Chester county; Bloomfield, Shellpot, and 
Dupont, in the State of Delaware. They were embodied in the advance Light 
Brigade, under command of Brigadier-General Thomas Cadwalader, and were 
encamped for some months. The treaty of Ghent, of which news was received 
in 1815, put an end to further military operations. 

The first turnpike road fi'om Philadelphia to Lancaster was built and openei 
in 1195. The first railroad built in the city was constructed in 1832, and led to 
Germantown, six miles. The Columbia railroad, a portion of the State work, 
was finished shortly afterward. The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore, 
and the Camden and Amboy railroad to New York, followed in a year or two. 
The Reading railroad was opened February 10, 1842. The Pennsjdvania railroad, 
chartered April 13, 184G, was in operation for a portion of the route in 1848. 
The Philadelphia and Trenton, North Pennsylvania, the West-Chester and Phil- 
adelphia, the Philadelphia and New York, Camden and Atlantic, West Jersey, 
and many others followed. The building of canals through Pennsylvania and 
other States, to facilitate commerce, was a matter of interest and concern as early 
as 1791, when the Schuylkill and Susquehanna were proposed to be united. The 
first practical result Avas the finishing of the Schuylkill navigation in 1825, the 
Union canal shortly afterward, the Delaware and Raritan, the eastern division of 
the Pennsylvania canal from Easton to Bristol, the Delaware and Chesapeake, 
and many other works. 

Lafaj^ette, the " nation's guest," was received with a grand parade and 
enthusiastic ceremonies, ending with a general illumination of the city, Septem- 
ber, 1824. He remained several days, during which time he received many 
courtesies, dined with the corporation of the city and with the Grand Lodge of 
Pennsylvania, visited places of interest, was waited upon by deputations of 
citizens, representing occupations, societies, and bodies of various kinds. After 
his departure, having traveled over the United States, he returned to the city in 
the succeeding year, and remained a few days. During the time of his first visit 
the idea of erecting a monument to the memory of Washington, the corner-stone 
to be laid by Lafayette, was originated, and subscriptions were received. But 
the amount collected being insufficient, nothing was done practically at that time 
toward the erection of the monument. 

In 1832 the centennial anniversary of the birthday of Washington was cele- 
brated, on the 22d of February, by the most magnificent procession which had 
ever marched thi'ough the streets of the city. Trades and occupations were 
largely represented, not only by the presence of persons interested in them, but 
by practical exhibitions of method of manufacture displayed upon stages and 
moving platforms, upon which artisans were at work. Associations and socie- 
•.• ties, fire companies and their apparatus, and other organizations assisted, 
rendering this the most splendid pageant which had ever been seen in the 
city. The feeling in favor of an erection of a monument to Washington was 
again kindled. Further eff'orts were made, so that on February 22, 1833, the 
corner-stone of the proposed monument was laid in Washington square, after 



tkt. 



{rvLO 



SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. IO71 

Philadelphia, in trust, have become immensely valuable. The whole number of 
acres of the Girard estate in Schuylkill and Columbia counties is 18,333, which 
is worth from fifty dollars to one thousand dollars per acre, and we learn from a 
recent report of Heber S. Thompson, of Pottsville, the efficient engineer and 
agent of the Girard estate for Schuylkill and Columbia counties : " The coal 
lands, which are (6,592 acres) about one-third of the whole area of the estate, 
comprise some of the most valuable tracts of the anthracite region, the total 
thickness of coal in seams of three feet or over, amounting in places to one 
hundred feet of regular measures." The same report states the capital invested 
in colliery improvements on the Girard estate by the lessees, exclusive of the 
interest of the estate in the same, is $2,711,188, and estimates the amount of the 
coal still remaining in the ground of the estate, exclusive of waste, at 
114,000,000 tons. 

After a spirited contest Orwigsburg was compelled to relinquish her position 
as the county seat of Schuylkill county, and the first court held at Pottsville 
was of December term, 1851. 

In the census of 1810 the population of Schuylkill county is fixed at 116,428, 
but when that census was taken many of the miners were working out of the 
county, and the census does not give an accurate statement. In 1816 the 
population has reached 125,000 at least. Of the most prominent towns of the 
county, the census of 1810 gives the number of inhabitants as follows: 
Pottsville, 12,384 ; Ashland, 5,114; Mahanoy City, 5,533; Shenandoah, 2,951; 
Minersville, 3,699 ; Schuylkill Haven, 2,940 ; Port Carbon, 2,251 ; St. Clair, 
5,126. 



3 s 



SNYDER COUNTY. 




BY HORACE ALLEMAN, SELINSGROVE. 

NYDER county was formed out of the southern half of Union 
county, by act of March 2d, 1855. The commissioners under said 
act to organize were William G. Heirold, Jamas Madden, Thomas 
Bower, James McCreight, and Isaac D. Boj-er. The name was 
given to the county in honor of Governor Simon Snyder, who was elected 
from this section, and who occupied the gubernatorial chair for three consecu- 
tive terms, commencing in 
the year 1808 and ending 
in the year 1817. 

This county has an area 
of about two h u n d r e d 
square miles, along the 
northern part of which, ex- 
tending from east to west, 
is Jack's mountain, whilo, 
toward the southern pat, 
and running parallel with 
Jack's mountain, is Shade 
mountain. Between these 
mountains lie beautiful and 
fertile valle3'S, formed b^' 
the rolling land. It is 
bounded on the north by 
Union county, on the east 
b}^ the Susquehanna river, 
which is part of Northum- 
berland count^f, on the 
south bj'^ Juniata county, 
and on the west by Mifflin 
county. The pri n c i p a 1 
streams are the Susque- 
hanna river, Middle creek, 
and Penn's creek. These 
creeks furnish an excellent 
water power, which has been utilized for years in the manufacture of flour, 
lumber, etc. The population of the county, according to the last census, is 
about 16,000, of which nine-tenths are of German descent. 

The principal products are whea', corn, lumber, and iron. It is one oT 

10:2 




SNYDER COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MIDDLEBUKQ. 

[From a Photograph by the Kejstoae Company , Seliosgrore. 



SNYDER COUNTY. IO73 

tbe finest wheat growing counties in tlie State, the crops scarcely ever failing. 
The timber grown is excellent, and consists of walnut, chestnut, pine, hemlock, 
etc., much of which is here prepared for market in the numerous mills and 
sash factories. Though Snyder county is still an agricultural district, the day 
cannot be far distant when a new field of labor and advancement will open up. 
Recent prospecting and researches have developed the fact, that in addition to 
the iron ore already taken out, and used, there exists in other sections of 
the county ore of superior quality and in abundance. This ore is principally 
of the fossiliferous variety. It is easy of access, and convenient for trans- 
portation. The Sunbury and Lewistown railroad traverses the county from east 
to west, forming a connecting link between the Pennsylvania railroad at Lewis- 
town and the Northern Central at Selinsgrove station, in Northumberland 
county. The Pennsylvania canal also passes along the eastern border of the 
county. 

T.he townships of the county are, Adams (formed from Beaver township in 
1874), Beaver, West Beavee, Centre, Chapman, Franklin, Jackson, Middle 
Creek, Monroe, Penn's, Perry, West Perry, Washington, and Union (formed 
from Chapman in 1869). 

Selinsgrove, the centre of business for the county, is pleasantly situated on 
the west bank of the Susquehanna, in a most picturesque section of the State. 
Through this town fiows Penn's creek, and within its limits passes the Penn- 
sj'lvania canal. The population of the place is 1,600. Selinsgrove was laid out 
by Anthony Selin, hence its name. Selin was a Swiss, and bore a captain's com- 
mission in the Pennsylvania Line of the Revolution. He was also a member of 
the Society of the Cincinnati. The exact date of the laying out of this place is 
unknown, but it is dou-btless a centennial town, as it was already known by its 
present name in 1785, when Simon Snyder, afterwards Governor, settled here. 

Many thrilling and interesting anecdotes are narrated concerning the early 
history of the place and its inhabitants. On the northern boundary of the 
county one of the most cruel and treacherous murders was perpetrated. This was 
in October, 1155. The Indians, seeing the gradual encroachments of the whites 
upon their favorite hunting grounds, became distrustful and envious. The result 
of this antagonism soon manifested itself a short distance from the mouth of 
Penn's creek, by an attack upon the settlers, consisting of twenty-five persons. 
In this onslaught all were either killed or carried away prisoners, except one, 
who escaped, though being dangerously' wounded. The scene of this massacre has 
been described by some of the neighboring settlers, who came to hury the dead, 
in the following words: "We found but thirteen, who were men and elderly 
women. The children, we suppose, to be carried away prisoners. The house 
where we suppose they finished their murder we found burnt up ; the man of it, 
named Jacob King, a Swisser, lying just by it. He lay on his back, barbarously'- 
burnt, and two tomahawks sticking in his forehead. . . . The terror of 
which has driven away almost all the inhabitants, except the subscribers, with 
a few more, who are willing to stay and defend the land ; but as we are not 
at all able to defend it for the want of guns and ammunition, and few in numbers, 
so that without assistance, we must flee and leave the country to the mercy of 
the enemy." These words were addressed to his Honor, Robert II. Morris, then 



1014 



HIS TOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Provincial Governor. The terror and consternation caused by this cruel outrage 
soon became general. About one week after the events above described. John 
Harris (the founder of Harrisburg), in company with a party of foi'ty-five, 
started up the Susquehanna in search of the savages. A number of the mangled 
corpses were still found, which they buried, and then proceeded to find the Indians, 
for the purpose of making a peace-treaty with them. Their visit was by no 
means satisfactory. During the night a number of the Indians, suspecting that 
the}^ were to be murdered, started to summon their friends. On the following 
morning Harris and his party made presents to the Indians, but their conduct 




LUTHERAN MISSIONARY INSTITUTE, SELINSGROVE. 

had been so suspicious, that they were anxious to get away where they would 
be better protected. They started southward, and had proceeded as far as the 
head of the Isle of Que, where Penn's creek, prior to the construction of the 
Pennsylvania canal, emptied into the Susquehanna. Here they were surprised 
and attacked by some thirty savages, who had laid concealed. Rising suddenly, 
the Indians opened fire upon the whites, four of whom fell mortally wounded. 
Harris and his men immediately sought the shelter of the trees, and opened fire 
in return, killing four of the Indians and losing three additional men. The 
place of this fight was marked by a wedge driven into a linden. 

It is narrated of John Snyder, brother of the Governor, and one of the early 
settlers in this place, that while sojourning at Lancaster, a short time before the 



SNTDEE COUNTY. 



lots 



Revolutionary war, a British officer expressed his opinion of the Americans in 
gross and insulting language, whereupon John repelled the insult to the accom- 
paniment of a sound flogging. This treatment of their superior so incensed the 
soldiery, that they pursued John with fixed bayonets in hot haste. He, however, 
eff-icted his escape, being strong and active and swift of foot. 

Opposite Selinsgrove, in the Susquehanna, are a cluster of beautiful and 
fertile islands. These were first settled and improved by an old man, known by 
the name of Jimmy Silverwood. These islands at that time aflTorded several 
excellent shad fisheries, as high as three thousand being caught at one haul of 
the seine. Silverwood, the owner of the islands, realized quite a handsome 
income from these fisheries, but having, in common with his sons, spent it 
carelessly and with a lav- 
ish hand, they soon found 
that their expenses ex- 
ceeded the income, and 
as an inevitable result 
died poor. 

Selinsgrove at the 
present day is a pleasant 
and attractive town. On 
the night previous to the 
22d of February, 1872, 
and on the evening of 
October 30, 1874, this 
place was visited by large 
conflagrations in the lieart 
of the town. Many valu- 
able buildings and much 
property were destroj'ed 
by each of said calami- 
ties. Since these fires, 
modei'n and ornamented brick dwellings and business places have taken 
the place of those destroyed. At this town the Missionary Institute of the 
Evangelical Lutheran church, a flourishing institution of that denomination, is 
established. It was founded in the year 1858, by the late Rev. Benjamin Kurtz. 
D.D., of Baltimore, and is now under the superintendence of Rev. 11. Ziegler, 
D.D., and Rev. Prof. P. Born. 

The home of Governor Snyder was at Selinsgrove, and his remains are 
buried in the old Luthern grave-yard of the town, with but a simple marble slab 
to mark his resting place. Ilis mansion, of which a representation is given, he 
built and occupied. In this building he breathed his last. It is a substantial 
stone house, with ornamental grounds attached, and is now the residence of 
Samuel Alleman, Esq. Though the building has received some modern improve- 
ments since occupied by its present owner, yet in the main structure, and in the 
interior, the original remains. 

Freeburo is a pleasant village, situate five miles south-west of Selinsgrove, 
in a fertile valley, and is a neat and prosperous place. Its inhabitants are 




SNYDER MANSION, SELINSGROVE. 
[From a Photograph by the Kejstone Company, Selinsgrove.] 



1076 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

greatly given to music, in whicli they display much natural talent. There is an 
academy established here, which has been in successful operation for at least 
twenty years, and is preparatory in its course. It is under the superintendence 
of Professor Daniel S. Boj^er. 

MiDDLEBURG is situatc ten miles west of Selinsgrove, in Middle Creek valley, 
and is the count}^ seat. Its location is central, and hence was selected as the 
seat of justice. It was laid out by Albright Swineford, and the German name 
of the place is Schwinefords-stettel. It contains a population of 310. 

Not far from Middleburg is Beaver Springs, an old town formerly known as 
Adamsburg, near which resided Ner Middleswarth, who for one-third of a cen- 
tury occupied a prominent place in the councils of the State and nation. 

The future of Snyder county is encouraging. Its agricultural and mineral 
wealth is becoming fully known and appreciated. Capitalists have turned their 
attention in this direction, and a strenuous effort is being made for the comple- 
tion of the Selinsgrove and North Branch railroad, which is to connect probably 
with the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg at Northumberland, and the Baltimore 
and Ohio railroad at Hancock, Maryland. Passing through the eastern and 
southern part of the county, it intersects with the Sunbury and Lewistown 
railroad at Selinsgrove, and the Pennsylvania railroad at Mifflin town. 



SOMERSET COUNTY. 



BY EDWARD B. SCULL, SOMERSET, 




HAT part of Pennsylvania now ii;cluded within the limits of Som- 
erset county, was formerly part of Bedford county, from which it 
was taken by an act of Assembly, dated April IT, 1795. It contains 
within its borders an area of 1,050 square miles. Situated as it is, 
between the Laurel Hill and Allegheny mountains, the country is one of remark- 
able beaut}'. It is of an undulating character, consisting of higli hills, fertile 
valleys, and grassy glades. Owing to its elevated position, the climate is liable 
to great and sudden changes. The soil of its glades and valleys, and even on 
some of the mountain sides, is very rich and pi'oductive, and will compare fa- 
vorably with the best 
farming lands in Lancas- 
ter and other eastern 
counties. The county is 
bounded on the north by 
Cambria, on the east by 
Bedford. The southern 
border is the Maryland 
State line, and the west- 
ern border is composed of 
Fayette and Westmore- 
land counties. The low- 
est grade over the Alle- 
gheny mountains is to be 
found in this county, by 
way of the Deeter Gap. 
This gap is formed by a 
small stream, known as 

the Deeter's run, forcing its way through the mountains. It has its source 
within a few hundred rods of the summit of the mountain, and is one of the 
streams that form the head-waters of the Raystown branch of the Juniata river. 
The county is almost a solid bituminous mountain, at least two-thirds of the 
entire area containing coal, one-half iron-ore, one-half limestone, and full one-third 
contains all three in ju:xtaposition. Fully one-half of its area is clothed with 
forests, numbering among their growth almost every variety of timber known to 
a mountainous country. Among the principal coal veins are those of the Xorth 
Fork, Elk Lick, and Buffalo basins, the average depth of the seams being about 
eight feet. The agricultural products are principally wheat, rye, oats, buck- 
wheat, and potatoes. A large amount of the land is devoted to grazing and 
dairy farms, and "Glades butter" enjo3's an enviable reputation in the Balti- 

lon 




SOMERSET COUNTY COURT HOUSE, SOMKRSKT. 



]078 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

more, Philadelphia, and other eastern markets. The amount of maple sugar 
manufactured forms no small item in the yearly products of most of its farms. 
The manufacturing interests are not very numerous, and are mainly confined to 
woolen goods, lumber, whiskey, and leather. A large fire-brick manufactory 
has been established on the line of the Pittsburgh branch of the Baltimore 
and Ohio railroad, a short distance east of Meyersdale. 

The development of the county was very backward until the completion of 
the Pittsburo-h division of tlie Baltimore and Ohio railroad, in the fall of 1870. 
Since that time it has been quite .rapid. There are now seven lines of railroad 
being operated in the county ; the Pittsburgh division of the Baltimore and 
Ohio, the North Fork, Somerset and Mineral Point, Buffalo Valley, Salisbury, 
and the Keystone. 

The point at which the first settlement was made is a matter of doubt, and 
one about which there has been considerable dispute. There is a tradition 
founded on what seems to be good authority (which will be given as we proceed 
further with this history), that the first settlement was made at Turkeyfoot, 
prior to the Chester settlement, but the oldest settlement of which we have been 
able to gain any accurate knowledge appears to have been made in the Glades, 
near the centre of the county, the present site of the town of Somerest, and in 
Brother's Yalley. 

A number of hunters located in the Glades, near the centre of the county, 
where the present town of Somerset now stands, about the year 1765. Their 
names were Sparks, Cole, Penrod, White, Wright, and Cox. The latter appears 
to have been the leader of the party, and gave his name to the creek which flows 
through the Glades. A number of them afterwards removed their families to 
their claims, and became permanent residents. In the spring of 1773 the num- 
ber of settlers was greatly augmented by the arrival of people from the eastern 
side of the mountains, and continued to grow rapidly in numbers and prosperity 
until the beginning of the Revolution. 

As early as 1762, a party of settlers had located along the old Forbes road, 
which had been opened up by Colonel Bouquet, on his expedition to Fort Pitt in 
1758. His command constructed a small fort where Stoystown now stands, and 
it is probable that they threw up the earthworks (known as Miller's breast- 
works), at the forks of the road in the Allegheny mountains. In the fall of the 
year 1758, General Forbes marched his command over this road. A very small 
force of men were regularly stationed at the fort at Stoystown until the memor- 
able invasion by Pontiac in 1763, when they were called in to the assistance of the 
garrison at Bedford. This road continued to be the only avenue of communica- 
tion between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia for nearly forty years after. The set- 
tlers spoken of above settled along the direct line of the road, and were stopping 
places of notoriety among the traders and packers. Among them were Casper 
Stetler, near the summit of the mountain ; John Miller, on the top of the moun- 
toin ; and John Stoy, where Stoystown now is. Mr. Husbands, in his "Annals of 
the Early Settlement of Somerset County," says, "about the year 1780 a colony of 
fifteen or twenty families from New Jersey arrived at Turkeyfoot and Spread 
over the adjacent hills, from which it received the name of Jersey settlement." 
These persons were mostly Baptists. Benedict's history gives the date of the 



SOMERSET COUNTY. 1079 

first organization of a church at this point at 1775. Tlie Redstone Association, 
to which this church belongs, was established in 1776, 

The news of the stirring events that were being enacted in the East during 
the spring and summer of 1776, did not reach this settlement till fall, owing to 
the imperfect line of communication they were enabled to keep up with the out- 
side world. The news of Lexington and the signing of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence awakened the enthusiasm and patriotism of the settlers, and a company 
of riflemen was enlisted by Captain Richard Brown, and marched east to the 
scene of hostilities. This company, after participating in the battle of Long 
Island, was ordered to Charleston, South Carolina, and served in nearly all of 
the battles of the Revolution, fought in the Southern campaign, and but few of 
their number ever returned to the settlement. The absence of such a lar^e 
number of its able-bodied men left the settlement in rather a precarious and 
defenceless condition. The Indians, instigated by the British, commenced to 
become troublesome ; and after the massacre at Ilannastown, Westmorland county, 
in September, 1782 (the nearest settlement to the west of the Glades), the con- 
sternation became so great that the settlement was almost entirely' abandoned. 

In the spring of the following year, a number of them returned, and after the 
treaty of peace with Great Britain, nearly all the old settlers and a large num- 
ber of new ones joined the settlement. From that time on their numbers 
increased rapidly, and on the 21st of December, 1795, the first court was held. 
The court was held in a room in John Webster's tavern, by Alexander Addison, 
Esquire, Judge, and James Wells, Abraham Cable, and Ebenezer Griffith, jus- 
tices of the peace. 

In 1776, the order book of the county commissioners shows that John 
Campbell and Josiah Esp}^ received the sum of two hundred and sevent}^ dollars 
seventy-five cents and one-half cent, for the erection of a temporary jail in 
Somerset town. The sessions of court continued to be held in different rooms 
about the town, rented for the purpose, until the year 1800, when the com- 
missioners had a stone court house erected. The contract for the erection of the 
building was awarded to Robert Spencer. A jail was erected in 1802. These 
buildings remained until about 1852-'3, when they were torn down to make room 
for the present ones. During the Whiskey Insurrection the citizens of tkis county 
took but little part with the malcontents. A liberty pole was raised in the public 
square, and one night a party of masked men, supposed to be from Westmoreland 
county, took the collector from his house and compelled him to swear that he 
would not enforce the odious laws. Mr. Husbands and Mr. Philson were taken 
to Philadelphia and thrown into prison on a charge of having been connected 
with the insurrection. After enduring an imprisonment of eight months, Mr. 
Husbands died, and Mr. Philson was released.. 

In 1833, Somerset was almost totally destroyed by fire. From Main Cross 
street into West street every building was consumed. This was the work of an 
incendiary. Again, on the 9th of May, 1872, the town was visited by fire. The 
number of buildings destroyed was one hundred and seventeen, of which fifty-one 
were dwelling houses. After the fire of 1872 the town was rebuilt in a thorough 
and beautiful manner, and now contains a number of buildings that would be 
a credit to any to«vn in the State. The Somerset and Mineral Point railroad 



1080 HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

connects the town with the outer world. The population is about twelve 
hundred. • 

Berlin, or the Brother's Valley settlement, was originally made by a few 
German families in 1769. After the Indian title to this territory had become 
extinct by reason of the treaty and purchase at Fort Pitt, a number of Menno- 
nite families moved into the neighborhood. The newly-arrived emigrants 
resolved to establish a town, and secured a tract of land on the head spring of 
the Stony creek, known as Pious spring, and laid out the town of Berlin thereon. 
The first deed on record in the county is for " Pious spring." It conveys in 
trust to Jacob Keffer and Peter Glassner, and their successors, a reserved 
interest on all the lots in the town of Berlin, to be paid as an annual ground- 
rent on each lot of one Spanish milled dollar, for the use of the Lutheran and 
Calvinistic churches, and for schools for ever. Reference is made in this deed 
to a warrant dated 1184, and a patent dated 1786. The town of Berlin is 
situated on a ridge that forms the dividing line between the natural water 
basins of the county. The waters on the east flow to the Atlantic through Will's 
creek and the Potomac, and the Juniata and Susquehanna, and on the west to the 
Gulf of Mexico, through the Casselman and Monongahela rivers, and through 
the Stony creek, Conemaugh and Allegheny rivers. It is a neatly built little 
town, and has been increasing slightly since the completion of the Buffalo 
Valley railroad. 

Meyersdale The early history of Meyersdale begins with the year 1785, 

when Andrew Berndreger took up the tract of land upon which the greater part 
of the town is situated, and secured it by a patent from the government. He 
immediately commenced clearing the land, and in 1789 built a small grist mill 
on the Flaugherty. The mill was what is known as a tub mill, and was the first 
built in the county. In 1791, the land was sold to Jonathan Harry, a land 
speculator from one of the eastern counties, who sold it to Michael Buechley in 
1792. During the same year the adjoining land, known as the " Olinger 
property," was patented by John Olinger, a farmer from York county. Mr. 
Olinger moved his family to his claim, and erected a house on it. In 1793 that 
part of the town known as "Buechley lands " was patented, and improvements 
commenced by John Berger. In 1815, John Buechlej^ sold his interest to Jacob 
Meyers, Sr., a farmer of Lancaster county, who in turn sold it to his son Jacob. 
The latter moved on the land, and immediately erected a fulling mill and a grist 
mill, and rapidly put the land in a state of cultivation. About the time of Mr; 
Meyers' settlement and the founding of the town of Meyers' Mills, five of his 
brothers — Christian, Rudolph, Henry, Abraham, and John — also emigrated and 
settled on the adjoining lands. In 1831 Peter and William Meyers started the 
first store in the village. In 1871 the name of the borough was changed to 
Mej-ersdale. After Somerset, it is the largest town in the county. It is 
pleasantly situated on the Casselman river, at its junction with the Flaugherty, 
and is surrounded by hills filled with almost inexhaustible quantities of coal. 
It lies in a rich agricultural section, that is widely noted for its valuable farms, 
and is increasing rapidly in wealth and population. 



SULLIVAN COUNTY. 

BY EDWIN A. STRONG, DUSHORE. 

ULLIVAN county was formed by act of Assembly of 15th March, 
1841, and contains 434 square miles, or 277,760 acres. It was taken 
entirely from Lycoming county. It lies between 41° and 42° north 
latitude, and one-half degree east of the longitude of Washington. 
The whole territory lies between the North and West branches of the Susque- 
hanna river, on what might be termed the "highlands." It is bounded its 
entire length on the north by Bradford county, on the east by Wyoming, 





HEAD-WATERS OP THE LOYAL SOCK. 



Luzerne, and Columbia, on the south by Columbia and Lj'coming, on the west 
by Lycoming. The county is well watered by the Big and Little Loyal Sock 
and Munc}^ creeks, and their tributaries. The two branches of the Loyal Sock, 
which unite at the village of Forksville, traverse the whole length of the county,, 
and drain the townships of Colley, Cherry, Hills-Grove, Forks, Fox, and Elkland, 
and a portion of Laporte and Shrewsbury. The head-waters of the Big Loyal 
Sock are found near the boundaries of Sullivan and Wyoming counties. The 
Little Loyal Sock rises in Cherry township. Muncy creek, the next stream of 
importance, rises in the mountainous portions of Davidson township, and running 

1081 



1082 HISTOET OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

south-west through Davidson into Lycoming county, empties into the West 
Branch a short distance above Muncy. Muncy creek, in addition to the tribute 
paid to it by many considerable streams as it passes througli Sullivan county, 
receives, in addition, the surplus waters of Lewis' and Hunter's lakes. The 
East and West branches of Fishing creek — the largest creek in Columbia 
county — rise in Davidson. After the confluence of the waters of the Big and 
Little Loj'al Sock at Forksville — by which the creek from that point loses the 
distinctive designation of " Big " and " Little " — it passes on to Hills-Grove, 
as the dividing line between Forks and Elkland townships ; then passing 
through the whole length of Hills-Grove township, receiving on its way several 
streams, the largest of which is Elk creek, it moves on in majestic grandeur, 
widening and deepening, until, increasing its waters to the dignit}'^ of a river, it 
empties into the West Branch about one mile below Montoursvilie. 

The Muncy creek, by a series of dams, to accumulate waters for the purpose 
of what is termed " flooding " or " splashing," is made available from a point in 
Laporte township, to its terminus, for the purpose of floating logs, which has 
proven to be a success. The franchises of this highway are secured by corpo- 
rate letters and powers, thus cutting off individual enterprise, save as provided 
by the act of incorporation, allowing others than the corporate company to float 
logs upon the pa3nnent of a toll fixed by law ; in fact, the whole stream as well as 
its principal tributaries, is a monopoly. 

The Little Loyal Sock is navigable during high water for rafts from a point 
about three miles above its junction with its larger brother. The Big Loj^al 
Sock, by the assistance of large dams which flood its banks during the ebbing of 
high waters, is made the medium by which millions of feet of hemlock logs are 
floated to Montoursvilie and intermediate points, for a distance of at least fifty 
miles from its mouth. From Hills-Grove rafts can be run during an ordinary 
freshet with ease and safety. The small rafts thus taken to the West Branch of 
the Susquehanna are united into larger ones suited for river navigation, and then 
floated to the mouth of the Susquehanna and intermediate points. At a point three 
or four miles below the coming together of the Sock creeks, a company incorpo- 
rated have erected what is called Wolf Trap dam, for the purpose of swelling the 
waters of the creek, thus facilitating the floating of logs below. This artificial 
assistance materially increases and improves the capacity of the waters of the 
creek for many miles as a floating stream ; but it is bitterly complained of by 
private individuals Avho wish to run rafts from points above, by reason of the 
obstruction to this kind of navigation, and the imposition of tolls allowed to be 
charged by the act under which it is incorporated. 

Mehoopany creek, and some of its larger tributaries in Sullivan county, forms 
an outlet for getting logs to the North Branch of the Susquehanna, for a small 
portion of the northern and eastern territory of Colley and Cherry townships ; 
but as yet no considerable amount of lumber is taken to market in that way. 
The creek just referred to runs through the whole width of Colley from west to 
east, and through about one-fourth of Cherry in the same direction. 

Sullivan county contains within its borders several lakes of real, and some of 
historic, importance. The principal, Lewis', or as it is now called. Eagle's Mere, is 
located in Shrewsbury township, at an altitude of nearly 1,900 feet above the 



SULLIVAN COUNTY. 1083 

Icvol of the sea ; its greatest length is one and a quarter miles, and its width 
one-half mile. The waters of this lake are clear and placid, with slight undula- 
tions toward the east. The depth has never been definitely determined. The 
western shore is lined with large quantities of the finest glass sand, which is not 
surpassed by any in the State. The lake is evidently fed by subterranean 
waters, whether streams or springs has not been discovered. An examination of 
the surroundings of the lake shows that it is not fed by visible waters. This 
lake covers-an area of nearly six hundred acres, is well filled with fish of various 
kinds. Recently its waters have been well stocked with California salmon, and 
gives promise of success. The salubrity of the air, and the natural enchantment 
of the surroundings of the lake, draw to its environs each j-ear many visitors. 

In the early part of the present century, a wealthy Englishman by the name of 
Lewis was attracted to the place,- and discovering the value and quantity of the 
sands on the shores of the lake, he built what was then regarded as extensive 
glassworks, cleared up and cultivated many acres of the surrounding forest, 
and built several houses, among the rest a large stone mansion, and for some 
time carried on successfully and extensively the manufacture of glass. The war 
of 1812 intervening, and the distance from commercial centres being so great, 
with no means of transportation but the cumbersome conve3-ances of that day, 
and the country surrounding the works being supplied with the wares manufac- 
tured, business gradually decreased, and the works were finally abandoned ; and 
now in their dilapidated condition the tliriving glass works of 1810-'12 trace but 
a faint resemblance of the symmetrical grandeur and utilit}'- of their precedent. 
Like their enterprising projector, the cosy cottage and stately mansion, together 
with the fruits of ingenuity and skill, have passed away. The lake property 
comprises some five thousand acres. It is now called " Eagle's Mere Chasse," 
and will, at no distant day, become a noted summer resort. 

Hunter's Lake is also situated in Shrewsbury township, about four miles 
soutu of Lewis' Lake. Its altitude is somewhat less tlian that of Lewis' Lake. 
This lake also is fed b}^ subterranean waters. It discharges a large quantity of 
water, sufficient to drive the machinery of a large lumber manufactory. Its form 
is long and irregular, contains large numbers of mountain cat?- fish and pickerel, 
and is a great fishing resort. It covers an area of three hundred acres. 

Robinson's, or Long Lake Pond, is situated in the south-eastern corner of 
Colley township, near the Susquehanna and Tioga turnpike. As its name 
indicates, it is a long sheet of water less pure than either Lewis' or Hunter's 
Lake ; its inlet and outlet are of neai'ly equal capacity. The lake is well supplied 
with fish. Some two years since the waters were stocked with black bass, 
which has been attended with favorable results. The surroundings are of a 
wild, weird character, and it no doubt was among the chosen localities where 
the camp-fires of the aborigines were often lighted. 

Lopez Pond, Pickerel Pond, and Grant's Lake are favorite resorts for fisher- 
men. They are of but little note otherwise, except as the source of the Lopez 
branch of the Big Loyal Sock and the East branch of Mehoopany creeks, respec- 
tively. The only remaining lake wortliy of note is Elk or Merritt's, lyi^g in the 
northern part of Elkland, at one time a favorite resort for elk, many of which 
were found in that portion of the county when first settled. It is also of some 



1 084 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

note by reason of the secretion of a murdered body in its waters, the victim of 
the only murderer executed in the county. The waters are shallow and sluggish, 
and of small area. 

The only mines of note opened in the county are those at Bernice, in Cherry 
township, at the terminus of the State Line and Sullivan railroad. (The pro- 
jected Muncy Creek railroad is to connect with the State Line and Sullivan at 
tliis place.) The State Line and Sullivan railroad corapan}^ own some five thou- 
sand acres of land in one body at this locality, much of which is first-class coal 
land. The present operating capacity of the mines is about three hundred tons 
per day. The coal is semi-anthracite, possessing the leading qualities of the 
anthracite, but less dense and compact ; it is said to be very superior as a gene- 
rator of steam ; it is also used largely for fuel, makes a pleasant, healthful fire, 
free of gases and sulphur ; but is not so lasting as the Luzerne or Schuylkill 
coal. The immense body of coal known to exist at this place, together with the 
fact that an underlying vein is proven to assimilate more closely to the pure 
anthracite, will at some future day render this coal deposit as valuable as some 
in the anthracite region. 

Copper has been found in promising quantities in the south-eastern portion 
of the county, but as yet no smelting works have been erected, nor any con- 
siderable portion of the ore taken to market. Lead in small quanties, supposed 
to have been known to the Indians, has been discovered, but no mine or any 
extensive deposit has yet been revealed. Iron ore is abundant in many portions 
of the county, and at some future day is destined to add largely to the wealth of 
the county. Limestone of the gray variety is found in various parts of the 
county. Iron ore, limestone, and coal being abundant, the onl}' obstacle in the 
way of the manufacture of large quantities of iron is the want of facilities to 
market it. 

The manufacture of leather is the principal industiy in the county. There are 
four large tanneries, besides three or four smaller ones. The largest tannery 
is that located at Thornedale, about five miles east of Laporte. This tannery has 
the capacity to tan forty thousand hides per annum. It consumes about five thou- 
sand cords of barft during the year, and is one of the most complete, in all its 
arrano-ements, of any in Pennsylvania. Leather tanned at this place enabled the 
proprietors to take the premium for best hemlock leather, at Vienna, in 1874. 
Laporte tannery, located four and one-half miles east of Thornedale, owned by 
the same firm, is of nearly the same capacity. A large tannery is located at 
Hills-Grove, capacity unknown ; also a smaller one south-west of Sonestown. At 
Dushore are three small tanneries in operation. 

The fact that in the aboriginal period game and fish must have been abundant, 
is sufficient evidence to presume that the whole territory was occupied by these 
dusky denizens ; however, no marks or traces of their occupancy now remain. 
Only one stream in the county bears an Indian name, that of Muncy creek, 
taken from '' Money," the name given to the tribe of Indians that inhabited the 
West Branch country near Muncy, in Lycoming county, and no doubt in their 
predatory excursions reached the territory of what is now Sullivan, if they did 
not abide there. The path to Fort Stanwix north must have passed through 
Sullivan. 



SULLIVAN' COUNTY. 1085 

The fact that Sullivan contains no stream of importance, either historic or 
otherwise, and lies some distance from either branch of the Susquehanna, give 
it by internal location an isolation in the known history of the ancient Province 
of Pennsylvania, with no redeeming incidents to bring it to public notice. Its 
territorj^ lies entirely within the purchase of the Indians made at Fort Stanwix 
in 1V68, and the last purchase of the Penns. 

The first settlements in the county were made between the years 1784 and 
1Y94. Messrs Ogden, Ecroyd, and Griffey located in what is now called Hills- 
Grove. Captain Brown, Strong, and Miller settled in Forks township. The 
celebrated Dr. Priestly purchased a large tract of land about the forks of the 
Loyal Sock, and laid out roads and made many improvements. About the year 
1800, one Henderson, Robert Taylor, and George Edkin, settled near Muncy 
creek. G. Phillips and one Richarts established a settlement quite early in 
Davidson township, known as the North Mountain settlement. About the 
same time, another settlement was made in what is now Cherry township. 
Among the first settlers of Cherry township were Messrs Zaner, Graifley, Huff- 
master, King Col ley, Yonkin, Bahl, and others. 

A curious epoch in the history of the county is what is known as the " Wind 
Fall," whereby the forest for a width varying from twenty rods to one-fourth 
mile, through the whole extent of the county running in a north-easterly direction, 
was entirely uprooted by a gigantic hurricane. Not one tree was left standing 
in the whole line of this belt of destruction. This occurred about fifty years ago. 

But little is known of the early history of Sullivan county, except as 
connected with that of Lj^coming, from which it was taken. 

Laporte, the county seat, was laid out in 1853. It contains the public 
buildings of the county. The court house (jail, sherifTs dwelling, and public 
offices, all under the same roof) is a brick edifice, about fifty feet square, three 
stories in height, with cupola and belfry, in which is a bell of unsurpassed 
sweetness of tone. Laporte is located near the centre of the count}^, and at an 
altitude of nearly 1,900 feet above the level of the sea ; contains two churches, 
Methodist and Presbyterian, a public school building, and two newspapers. 

DusHORE, one of the oldest towns in the county, was not incorporated until 
1859. It is located near the centre of Cherry township, about nine miles north- 
east of Laporte, and contains between 400 and 500 inhabitants, is growing in 
trade, and increasing in numbers rapidly. It takes its name from one of the 
French refugees who took up his residence here at an early day. It covers an 
area of about 400 acres, and contains three churches — Catholic, Methodist 
Episcopal, and Evangelical — several manufactories, etc. It is located on the 
Little Loyal Sock, and is intersected by the State Line and Sullivan railroad, 
and the Susquehanna and Tioga turnpike. It is surrounded by the most fertile 
farming land in the county. The church of St. Basil (Catholic) is, in architec- 
tural strength and interior beauty, one of the finest edifices in Northern Penn- 
sylvania. 

FoRKSViLLE, at the junction of the Big and Little Loyal Sock creeks, is a 
flourishing village, surrounded by a good productive country. It contains the 
finest school building and Protestant church in the county. The inhabitants are 
a thrifty, industrious people, hospitable and enterprising. 



SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY. 



BY EMILY C. BLACKMAN, MONTROSE. 




iUSQUEIIANNA county was set off from Luzerne by an act of Legis- 
lature, passed February 21, 1810, but it was not fully organized^ 
with county officers elected, until the fall of 1812. Bradford count}-, 
erected at the same time, was its western boundary ; Wa^'ne, its 
eastern ; and its southern, Luzerne (now Luzerne and Wj'oming), The length 
of Susquehanna county on the State line of Pennsylvania and New York is 
generally quoted from the sixth to the fortieth milestone, but a recent surve}^ by 
Hon. J. W. Chapman, proves that it extends "from 120 perches west of the sixth 
milestone on the New York State line to the fortieth, and is consequently 33| 
miles in length by about 24^ miles average width ; the east line being 24| miles 
precisely, and the west about 24^ ; the true polar course of the east line being 
N. 2|° W., and the north line due west, embracing an area of about 824 square 
miles" — b}' last report of census, 79t square miles. 

The following diagram gives the southern line as ordered, and is accompanied 
by a list of the townships in the order of erection : 



I 

TOWNSHIPS. 

1. Willingbo- 
rough,Gt.l5end 

2. Nicholson 

3. Lawsville 

4. Braintrim 

5. Rush 

6. Clifford 

7. BridRewater 

8. NewMllford 

9. Harford 

10. Harmony 

11. Silver Lake 

12. Gibson 

13. Choconut 

14. Mirtdletown 

15. SpringvlUe 

16. Waterfnrd, 
(Brooklyn) 

17. Jackson 

18. Uerrick 




19. Dimock 

20. Thomson 

21. Franklin 

22. Forest Lake 

23. Latlirop 

24. Jessiip 

25. Apolacon 

26. Ararat 

27. Oakland 



BOROUGHS. 

M. Alontrose 

V. Dundaff 

F. Friendsville 

S. Susquehanna 
Depot 

L. Little Mea- 
dows 

N. New Mil ford 

CJ. Great Bend 



SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, 1876. 



The first ten townships in their former extent, comprised the area of the 
county at its organization. 

The county seat was located at Montrose in 1811, by Colonel Thomas Parke, 
Major Asa Dimock, and Ilosea Tiffanj^, trustees appointed by the Governor. 
Stakes were set at several places proposed ; but, in addition to a greater political 
influence existing, a stronger pecuniary interest was brought to bear for its loca- 

1086 



SUSQUmiAN-NA COUNTY. 



108T 



tion in Montrose. Dr. R. H. Rose, whose extensive tracts of land reached this 
vicinity, made more liberal offers to secure this location than any that could be 
made elsewhere, and the trustees reported "that Isaac Post's farm, situate in 
Bridgewater township, where the post road intersects the Milford and Owego 
turnpike, is the most proper situation for the erection of said buildings." 
Besides, a gift of a public square at this point for the erection of the county 
buildings, as also of other lots, was made by Bartlet Hinds and Isaac Post. The 
court was organized by the appointment of the Hon. John B. Gibson, president 
judge, with Davis Dimock and William Thomson, associates. 

The county derives its name from the fact that within its limits the Susque^ 
hanna river first enters the State of Pennsylvania. In the grand sweep of the 




SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MONTROSE. 

[From a Photograph by Q. W. Doolittle, Montrose.] 

river, from Lanesboro' to Pittston, it completely drains the county, every stream 
within our borders eventually falling into it. The Lackawanna and Tunkhan- 
nock, with their tributaries, have their sources in the eastern townships, and run 
across the south line of the county. Tiie sources of Martin's and Horton's 
creeks are in the central townships, and, with the Meshoppen in its four streams, 
one of which rises near Montrose, they cross the south line to reach the river, 
while the Tuscarora and Wyalusing find it after crossing the count}- line on the 
west. Hopbottom creek, noted as the locality of the first large settlement in the 
county, is a tributary of Martin's creek, and the outlet of Heart lake. 

With the exception of Great Bend, every township is graced by one or more 
pretty lakes, the largest of which (Crystal lake) is little more than a mile in 
3 T 



1088 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

length ; still several of them have attractions for the tourist. Perhaps no sec- 
tion of Susquehanna county has scenery more beautifully diversified than that 
included in old Willingborough, now Harmony, Oakland, and Great Bend. Here 
the Susquehanna river flows around the base of a spur of the Alleghanies, of 
which the lower outline is marked by a number of rounded peaks of great beauty ; 
the higher, by the two mountains of the vicinity bearing their original Indian 
names — Ouaquaga and Miantinomah. 

This locality appears to have first attracted the notice of the white man during 
the Revolutionary war. Sixteen hundred men, under the command of General 
James Clinton, encamped on the flat at Great Bend, near the "three Indian apple 
trees," in the summer of 1779, while en route to join General Sullivan at Che- 
mung to check the attacks of Indians upon the border settlements. 

Whatever doubts there may be respecting the presence of other minerals 
within our county, that of salt will not be denied. It has not been found, how- 
ever, in quantities large enough to repay the expense of working it ; though the 
salt made, from one spring at least, was of the very best quality. Oil wells have 
been sunk at different places in Apolacon, Auburn, and Oakland, resulting in 
total loss of investments. The water of the mineral spring in Rush is esteemed 
by many for its medicinal qualities. 

Susquehanna is probably the butter county of our State. No better quality 
of butter is made anywhere than is here made. The increased price and the 
facility of sending it to the large cities have not only stimulated but largely 
increased its production within the past few years. 

The Erie railway follows the Susquehanna river in our county. It pays to 
Pennsylvania ten thousand dollars yearly for the right of way, or rather, for 
freedom from taxation, and finds in the arrangement a pecuniary gain. The 
Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad follows up Martin's creek, and 
down the Salt Lick to Great Bend, with an extension westward ; the JeflTerson — 
a branch of the Erie railway — extends from Carbondale through the eastern tier 
of our townships to Lanesboro', where it connects with the Lackawanna and 
Susquehanna railroad from Albany. The Montrose railway — narrow gauge — 
connects Montrose and Tunkhannock. 

In Susquehanna county, except along the river in Harmony, Oakland, and 
Great Bend, traces of the original proprietors of the soil are not very frequent. 
In the vicinity of Apolacon and Tuscarora creeks, and in Herrick and Silver 
Lake townships, numerous arrow-heads, beads, pipes, etc, have been found ; and, 
in other localities, other implements of the Indians. Stones of a kind not 
belonging to our strata, and of exquisite workmanship, were found early in 
Apolacon. One or two friendly Indians lingered in that vicinity after the arrival 
of the whites. The Delawares, who inhabited the country about Deposit, derived 
their supply of salt from this count3^ The Tuscaroras had a village on the flat 
afterwards owned by Colonel Pickering at Harmony. Seven Indian apple-trees 
were found here, besides other evidences of its former occupancy. The "three 
Indian apple-trees" at the west bend of the river were very aged in Revolu- 
tionary times. Years after this section was well settled, Indians of the Six 
Nations claimed the land within the bend of the river, south of latitude 42°, and 
were only quieted upon seeing a fac-simile copy of William Penn's treaty with 



SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY. 1089 

the Indians, which Judge Thomson had procured from Harrisburg, and whereon 
were written the names of all the chiefs, and at the termination of each name was 
the sign-manual of each chief; one was a bow, another an arrow, another deer's 
horns, another the form of a new moon, etc., etc. Red Rock takes its name from 
the fact, that, high upon the face of one of the cliffs bordering the Susquehanna, 
about two miles above Great Bend, was the painted flgure of an Indian chief, the 
outlines being plainly visible to the earliest white visitors ; but after these were 
faded, the red, which predominated in this figure, still remained. The Erie rail- 
road company have cut away a portion of the rock, and destroyed the early 
beauty of this spot. 

The history of Susquehanna county extends far back of its official organ- 
ization. Reference to a period preceding the settlement of the county, when 
its area, with that of Luzerne, from which it was taken, was yet a portion of 
old Northumberland, and to still earlier times, is necessary to account for 
the relation which this territory once sustained to the State of Connecticut. 
To this, reference has been fully made in the sketch of Luzerne county. 
The only Pennsylvania laws that secured the State lands to purchasers under a 
title derived from Connecticut were applicable to such as were located by pro- 
prietors and settlers prior to the Trenton decree ; and none of these were 
within the terriory now comprised in Susquehanna county. An act of 
Assembly, April 6, 1802, provided that no conveyance of land within the 
counties of Luzerne (then including Susquehanna), Lycoming, and Wayne, 
shall pass an}^ estate where the title is not derived from this State or the pro- 
prietors, before the 4th of July, 1116. This law took effect May 1, 1802 ; and, 
from that date, whatever " right " persons here may have had under a Con- 
necticut", title, it was sheer folly to defend. 

(jHEAT Bend. — So far as is known, the section now comprising Susquehanna 
county had not, until 1787, a civilized inhabitant. In the fall of that year there 
were three families living at Great Bend on the Susquehanna river ; the 
Strongs at the West Bend, the Comstocks at the East Bend (Harmony), 
and the Bucks between them at Red Rock. The entire course of the river 
in our county was included, in 1793, in Willingborough — a township of old 
Luzerne — whose limits, at the organization of Susquehanna, were reduced to 
six miles square, and the name of which was changed soon after to Great Bend. 
Ozias and Benajah Strong, from Lee, Mass., and three brothers by the name of 
Buck, from Connecticut, were the earliest purchasers of land here, June 1790. 
Among tlie settlers of the last century, whose descendants remain, were the 
Rev. Daniel Buck (the first minister and phy>ician), Minna Du Bois, and Oliver 
Trowbridge. In 1798, a "post" once a fortnight from Wilkes-Barre to Great 
Bend was established. In 1801, there were three slaves in the township. Until 
1814, when the first bridge was built, the river was crossed by two ferries, which 
accommodated an immense amount of westward travel over the Great Bend and 
Cochecton turnpike. The farms of six of the earlier settlers converged at a point 
near the nineteenth mile-stone on the State line. Each farm had a river front, 
and all extended about two miles on the river. They^ constituted a tract styled 
"The Fan." On the south-eastern part of this tract, north of the river, is 
situated Great Bend borough, which was incorporated November, 1861. It is 



1 090 EISTOB r OF PEN'NS YL VANIA. 

an outgrowth of the Erie railroad, and was first named Lodersville. The 
Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad company formerly ran their 
trains across the river to the Erie station at this place ; but now Great Bend 
Village, also a borough on the south side of the river, is their depot, where also 
they have a machine shop for repairs. It was incorporated in 1875, The 
Presbyterian and Baptist churches are on this side of the river ; and the Metho- 
dist, Episcopalian, and Roman Catholic churches on the other side.. 

Harmony. — Moses Comstock and family, from Rhode Island, were located, in 
1T87, on the flat between the Starucca and Canawacta, where these streams enter 
the Susquehanna river. In 1789, at the mouth of Cascade creek, Samuel 
Preston, of Waj'ne county, cleared several acres, erected dwelling-houses, a saw- 
mill, etc., anticipating a large settlement, and named the place "Harmony;" 
but it was not until 1809 that the township of this name was organized. Samuel 
Preston connected the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers by a road from Stock- 
port to Harmony. John Hilborn assisted him in this enterprise; and, in 1791, 
he too came to Harmony with his family from Philadelphia, and became an agent 
for Henry Drinker of that city, an owner of large tracts of land in this vicinity. 
The first religious meetings here were those of the Society of Friends, at the 
house of J. Hilborn. 

In 1800, Colonel Timothy Pickering came to Susquehanna county to look 
after lands he had purchased. He found located upon them the families of 
Comstock, Smith, and Westfall, whose titles not being obtained from him 
caused their removal. Timothj' Pickering, Jr., an only son, at his father's 
request, reluctantly consented to locate on the flat vacated by Abner Comstock, 
and came on from Boston, and built the first framed house in Harmony. After 
his death, the place was occupied by John Comfort, and later by Martin Lane. 
For a long time it was known as Lane's Mills or Lanesville, and is now called 
Lanesboro'. During the construction of the works of the New York and Erie 
railroad it became a thriving business place. From the time of the completion 
of that road, which passes over the Canawacta bridge above the houses of 
Lanesboro', its business has in part been transferred one mile south, to the 
Susquehanna Depot. 

Oakland. — The settlement of this, the last township, was nearly coeval with 
that of the first, of which it formed a part until the erection of Harmony. It 
was separated from the latter in December, 1853. It derives its name from the 
forests of oak trees north of the river. Isaac Hale and Natlianiel Lewis were 
here as early as 1791. William Smith occupied, the same year, the sharp angle 
formed b}^ the river, which here turns abruptly to the west, making in fact the 
great bend. This name, strangely enough, has been given to that part in the 
township of Great Bend, where the river turns northward at a less marked angle. 
For seventy-five years this locality has been in the Westfall family. Clearings 
were made in Oakland in 1788-'9. 

The borough of Susquehanna Depot was incorporated August, 1853. It 
is an outgrowth of the Erie railroad, the ground for which was broken here 
in 1846. The Erie workshops were first located here in 1848. The 
borough has one street, which runs in the valley, following nearly the course 
of the Susquehanna ; the streets parallel to it are reached by steep accli- 



SUSQUUHAJSTNA COUNTY. 1091 

vities, or by long staircases between the blocks of buildings. It well deserves 
the title it has received — the City of Stairs. It is said that some of the Erie 
employes go up to dinner two hundred feet above their work. 

The pi'esent Erie workshops were commenced in 1863 and finished in 1865, 
at a cost of $1,250,000 ; the tools and machinery cost, in addition, $500,000. 
There are sixteen departments of labor. The buildings, covering eight acres, 
are acknowledged to be the most extensive of their kind in this country, and 
also the most complete in their arrangements for economizing labor and facilita- 
ting work. It has the only library, reading-room, and lecture-hall connected 
with any similar shop in the United States, for which, as for the plan of the 
buildings, the community are indebted to the former master mechanic, J. B. 
Gregg. Oakland village is connected with the former by a bridge across the 
Susquehanna. 

Brooklyn township was taken from Bridgewater in 1814, and was first 
named Waterford, afterwards Hopbottom, and finally, 1825, Brooklyn. In 1781 
John Nicholson, owner of extensive tracts of land throughout the State, 
attempted to colonize his lands along the Hopbottom ; and, in five years, 
collected about forty Irish and German families from Philadelphia and down the 
Susquehanna. He furnished them teams, a quantity of kettles for boiling the sap 
of the sugar maple, and erected a log grist-mill ; but his agreement with them was 
not kept, and the families, suffering much from want, and not knowing how to 
manage in the wilderness, became discouraged, and most of them abandoned the 
settlement. Descendants of a few of them are scattered through several near 
townships. These were followed by a number of New England settlers, who sup- 
posed they had clear titles to their lands under the Connecticut purchase, the 
township being known to them as "Dandolo." They were here as early as 1795, 
at least temporarily; and in 1798, Joseph Chapman, Jr., from Noi'wich, Con- 
necticut, became a permanent resident. The Tracys, Tewksburys, Sabins, 
Baileys, Geres, Tiffany s, Bagleys, and possibly others, were here prior to 1804. 
On Nicholson's failure, his lands passed to J. B. Wallace, of Philadelphia ; and 
in 1810, Putnam Catlin, from Wilkes-Barre, came to Brooklyn as Mr. Wallace's 
agent. In the small frame building erected for his office, his son George, " since 
eminent on three continents as an artist, and particularly as a delineator of 
Indian life and features," once taught school. These were years of disquiet to 
the settlers in consequence of the conflicting claims of Philadelphia landholders, 
warrants issued to Chew and Allen, in 1775, being overlapped by those issued 
to John Nicholson in 1785 ; but, at last, by decision of the Legislature, March, 
1842, the minds of the people were set at rest. 

Notwithstanding the severity of Brooklyn winters, its soil is productive. 
Cattle thrive, industry and thrift characterize the inhabitants and their sur- 
roundings. 

New Milford township was founded in 1807. In 1789 a hunter's cabin was 
on the flat where the borough of New Milford is now located, and where were, in 
1790, Robert Corbet and family, from near Boston. The place was afterwards 
known as McCarty's Corners. The families of Hayden, Doolittle, Summers, 
Leach, and Foote, were here in the last century; of Buel, Hawley, Long- 
street, Mitchell (single), Badger, Ward, and others, prior to 1808. They were 



1092 HISTOB Y OF PENNSL VANIA. 

principally from Connecticut. The Scotch settlement was begun in 1814. 
The township exhibits well cultivated, richly productive, and excellent dairy 
farms. 

The Salt Lick and Martin's creek head near each other, running in opposite 
directions, and their valleys form a natural road bed for the Delaware, Lacka- 
wanna, and Western railway, which has a station in the borough of New Milford. 
This place was incorporated in 1859. It is a little more than one mile long, and 
is "as level as a house floor." But the descent to this valley from Mott's Hill 
was one the early traveler could never forget. Some alleviations of its once 
fearful grade have been effected. New Milford ships a great deal of lumber, 
butter, and leather. The place was once a competitor for the county seat, and 
with good reason. 

Herrick. — Prior to 1796, the settlers on lands now within the bounds of 
Herrick were in the old townships of Tioga and Wyalusing, Luzerne county. 
From that time for ten years they were in Nicholson ; from 1806 to the organiza- 
tion of Susquehanna county they were in Clifford ; from 1814 they were, with 
the exception mentioned above, included in Gibson, until in 1826, the tax list of 
Herrick was made out for the first time, the township having been erected the 
year previous. It received its name in honor of Judge Edward Herrick, who 
presided over the courts of Susquehanna county twentj^-one years. The forests 
of Herrick were broken first in 1789, by N. Holdridge, who removed early to 
Great Bend. Abel and Gideon Kent were here in 1791, and were soon joined bj 
Walter Lyon and others. This section was long known as "the Kent settle- 
ment." Between 1792 and 1800 the only settler was John C. Await, a Hessian 
soldier. Early in the century came the families of Dimock, Dimmick, Burritt, 
Lewis, Giddings, and others. Major Asa Dimock, Sr., early at Dimock's Cor- 
ners, was prominent in township and county. Herrick Centre (quite one side of 
the centre of the township) is a railroad station, and has a large tannery, two 
miles above Uniondale, a thriving village on the Jefferson railroad on the 
Lackawanna creek. The people of Herrick, as early as 1827, 1831, and again 
in 1839, sought to be set off with Clifford, to form a part of a new county 
proposed on our south-eastern border. The natural features of the country 
countenanced the wish, and at the present day, most of the business of the 
section is done with Carbondale and Scranton. 

Harford township was confirmed "finally," January, 1808. Its western 
boundary is Martin's creek. It has three or four pretty lakes. Near the centre 
of the township is the Beaver Meadow, memorable as the birthplace of the settle- 
ment which was long known as the " Nine Partners." A tract four miles long, 
and one mile wide, was purchased by nine young men from Attleborough, Massa- 
chusetts, in the spring of 1790. They were Hosea Tiffany, Caleb Richardson, 
Ezekiel Titus, Robert Follet, John Carpenter, Moses Thacher, Daniel Carpenter, 
Samuel Thacher, and Josiah Carpenter. In 1792, two of them b ought their 
families here, and within three years later others came, including John Tyler 
and family. Caleb Richardson was a captain in the war of the Revolution, and 
held the fort where the Battery is now, in New York city, while General Wash- 
ington retreated from New York. A grandson of John Carpenter became the 
late Governor of Iowa. Amherst College has the eminent services of a grand- 



SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY. 1093 

son of John Tyler. The early settlers were characterized by industry, frugality, 
morality, and mutual kind feeling. 

Gibson township was named for Chief Justice Gibson. It was first settled 
in 1192 or 1793, in the vicinity of Kennedy hill, by Joseph Potter. Mrs. Potter 
did not see a woman's face for six months. Two more families came in 1794. 
Wright Chamberlin came from the Hopbottom settlement in 1796, and prior to 
1800, he was a licensed " taverner." The old road which passed his first location 
was much traveled by emigrants to the " Holland purchase" in Western New 
York. There may not have been more than ten families in the present township 
— the eastern half of old Gibson having been set oflT to Herrick — at the opening 
of the present century. The section now familiarly called " Kentuck '' was once 
quite extensiA^ely known as " Five Partners," as distinguished from the " Nine 
Partners," both being within the former limits of Harford. In the fall of 1809, 
William Abel, James Chandler, Ebenezer Bailey, Hazard Powers, and Daniel 
Brewster, came from Connecticut and bought land here in partnership; returned 
for the winter, and, with the exception of the last named, came back to Pennsyl- 
vania in the spring of 1810. The rich lands of this part of Gibson make it not 
unworthy of its frequent designation — " the garden of the county." Its eleva- 
tion affords views of great loveliness, both near and distant. The slopes furnish 
unsurpassed grazing, as the butter of the township well exemplifies. It abounds 
in productive orchards and gardens. 

Rush township, formed in 1813, was named after Hon. Jacob Rush, 
then president judge of Luzerne. Rush is traversed through the centre, from 
east to west, by the Wyalusing. The mineral spring, alread}'^ referred to, is in 
this vicinity. Soon after the close of the Revolution, some of the Wyoming 
settlers pushed northward on the Susquehanna and along its tributaries, Wyalus- 
ing being one of them ; other settlers came from the New England States, via 
the Susquehanna, to Great Bend, and over the hills, while still others kept to 
the river in canoes, and so reached the Wyalusing. The farms on the Wyalus- 
ing, below the present western line of Jessup, were occupied by the first settlers 
in the following order : Leonard, Adams, Tupper, Lathrop, Brown, Jay, Picket, 
Metcalf, J. Hyde, Brownson, and Ross — all here in 1805. No name occurs more 
frequently in the early records of the town than that of Joab Picket. From 
his opposition to the claims of the Pennsylvania landholders arose what is some- 
times styled the " Picket war," in which it must be owned he was the aggressor. 
Colonel Ezekiel Hyde, in 1798, was surveying and selling lots under the Con- 
necticut title, at " Rindaw " — as the Yankees styled the locality of the fork. 

DiMOCK, the " Bass-wood township," was principally taken from Springville, 
in 1832. It was named after Hon. Davis Dimock, at that time associate 
judge of our courts. The area of Dimock, under the Connecticut surveys, was 
comprised of parts of Chebur, Bidwell, Dandolo, and Manor. The first settlers 
of Dimock were Thomas and Henry Parke, in 1796 ; Joseph Chapman and son 
Joseph, in Chebur, temporarily, in 1798; George Mowry and sons Ezekiel and 
Charles, as early as 1799, in the western part of "Manor;" Martin Myers and 
Thomas Giles, the same year; Asa and Ezekiel Lathrop and Asahel Avery, 
1800-1802. 

Colonel Thomas Parke came here, from Rhode Island, the legal owner, as he 



1 094 EISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

supposed, of about ten thousand acres — nearly half of the township of " Bid- 
well " — lying on the waters of the Meshoppen creek. He -defended the title both 
by argument and with his pen, until the legislative and judicial tribunals of the 
last resort had settled the question otherwise. He lost all, and was obliged to 
purchase upon credit, from his successful opponents, paying by surveying, for 
about six hundred acres, including the farm upon which he died. 

The families of Lane, Bolles, Hempstead, Young, Perkins, Gates, Stevens 
and others, were here before 1819; when a number of emigrants, mostly from 
England, arrived and located at Dimock (then Springville) Corners. Many of 
the latter left early. Among later comers, whose influence has been felt many 
years, are those of Baker, Walker, Cope, Stephens, Woodruff, and others. 

Lenox township is drained by the Tunkhannock. The earliest road followed 
this stream in part, but frequently crossed it to avoid its sharpest turns. In the 
year 1197 four families were here, Rynearson, Hartley, Millard, and Doud, 
whose descendants remain. The Bells, Halsteads, Chandlers, and others came 
some years later. Glenwood is a small village near the confluence of the North 
and East branches of the Tunkhannock. Its business interests have been, of 
late years, mainly built up through the Grow Brothers. Hon. Galusha A. Grow, 
of Glenwood, was sent to Congress by the old l2th district twelve years. 

Auburn. — When Susquehanna county was set off from Luzerne, the southern 
line divided the township of Braintrim, and the portion above the line received, 
by decree of court, the name of Auburn. The general surface of the township 
is rolling or hilly. It is well watered. The Auburn people claim that theirs is 
the best producing township in the county. Considerable attention is given to 
the raising of stock and the dairy business. The first clearing was made in the 
north-west corner of the township in 1197, by Lyman Kinney, from Litchfield 
county, Connecticut. His father had bought 3,000 iicres here, under a Con- 
necticut title. Soon after came the first settlers to the north-east section. After 
the final legal decision in favor of the Pennsjdvania title, some who had paid 
their money, and toiled hard to secure a home, gave up in despair and left. The 
present wealth of Auburn is largely due to men who came within the last forty 
years. Some of the last settlers were from New Jersey, but a larger number 
are Irish. 

Franklin is the southern portion of old Lawsville township, together with a 
strip from Bridgewater, and for thirty years its interests were identified with 
the former. The first settlers were Clark, Lines, the " seven Smiths," and others 
from Connecticut. The families of Barnum, Tuttle, Merriman, Park, Watson, 
Upson, Webster, and others follow^ed them previous to 1820. Neither rich nor 
poor, they belonged to a class which, with small capital, maintained a noble in- 
dependence by persevering industry and prudent economy. A strong religious 
element pervaded the communities in which they were reared, and, as a class, 
they imbibed its principles. 

Liberty township is the remnant of old Lawsville after the erection of 
Franklin. Among the first actual settlers were, Woodcock, Bishop, Hance, 
Holmes, Hazard, Butts, Ives, Truesdell, Richardson, and Baile}- — all here within 
the first twelve years of the century. Later, the De Haert brothers were engaged 
in efforts to develop the resources of the Salt Spring on Silver creek. The town- 



SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY. 



1095 



ship is very productive. The old township of Lawsville received its name in 
honor of Samuel A. Law, a landholder, to whose influence it was owing that 
most of those who settled here prior to 1805 were from his native town, Chester, 
Connecticut. 

Bridgewater township originally included a small portion of what is now 
Wyoming county. Springville, Dimock, Lathrop, Brooklyn, Silver Lake, and 
portions of Forest Lake, Jessup, and Franklin have been taken from it. It is 
more nearly the. central township of the county than any other. 

Montrose, the county seat, is about four miles west of a central north and 
south line, and one mile north of an east and west line. It is twelve hundred 
feet above the mouth of the Tunkhannock. Stephen Wilson, a native of Ver- 




VIEW OP THK BOROUGH OF MONTROSE. 
[From a Photograph by O. YT, Doolittle, Montrose.J 

mont, was the first settler here, March, 1799. His location became a land- 
mark for those who came to this vicinity early in the century. In 1800, Captain 
Bartlet Hinds, an officer of the Revolution, originally from Boston, came to 
Montrose, as agent for ex-Governor Huntington, of Connecticut, under the title 
of that State. He had in his company his step-son, Isaac Post, then sixteen 
years old, Robert Day, Daniel and Eldad Brewster, who settled in Bridgewater, 
and four others who located eleswhere. Colonel Pickering, convincing Captain 
Hinds of the validity of the Pennsylvania title, he was the first here to yield 
to its claims. This brought upon him the indignation of others, and he was 
twice mobbed in consequence. Isaac Post had the first framed house in Mont- 
rose ; and was the first postmaster — March, 1808. " There was not during his 
life a public improvement in which he did not have a prominent part, as originator 
or promotor." He died here, in 1855, aged seventy-one. 

From 1801 to 1804 Joshua W. Raynsford and half a dozen other settlers 
located in " the south neighborhood," and the Backuses and others on the Wya- 
lusing. From 1806 to 1808, the Congdons, Baldwins, and Scotts, in the "north 
neighborhood," and N. Curtis in the " east neighborhood." Elder Davis Dimock. 
the first Baptist preacher, arrived in 1807, and for many years exerted a wide 



1096 EISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

influence in the county. William Jessup, LL.D., many years president judge in 
this section, came here in 1818. 

Twenty years after Stephen Wilson made his first clearing, the township was 
well settled. The site of the court house was fixed in 1811, and from that period 
population and interest centred in Montrose. The borough was incorporated 
in 1824. It has since been twice enlarged, and is now one mile north and south 
by one and one-fourth east and west. The corner-stone of the first court house 
was laid in 1812, and the building was erected in 1813 ; the second in 1854-'55, 
Both the court house and present jail are fine structures. The first residents 
were largely from Long Island. 

In Montrose and vicinity, in addition to the Susquehanna Agricultural 
Company's manufactory and foundry, there are woolen mills, Crandall's " build- 
ing blocks," and several minor industries. The population of Montrose, by the 
census of 1830, was 415 ; in 1810, 1,463. The Montrose and Bridgewater poor 
asylum has been in successful operation for several j'ears. 

MiDDLETOWN towuship was so named because it was the middle of the three 
townships into which Rush was divided in 1813. The earliest pioneers of this 
section were Brister, Abbot, Canfield, Camp, Beardslee, Ross, Coleman, and others, 
in 1799 and 1800. The population, originally almost wholly from New England, 
is now composed largely of persons of foreign birth and descent, principally 
Welsh and Irish. Numerically, the latter predominate. Their immigration 
began about forty j^ears ago. At the opening of the century there were at least 
forty-five persons on the north branch of the Wyalusing, in Middletown, and to 
them the locality was known as " Locke," one of the Connecticut townships. 
They shared the surprise and tribulation of others on learning they had to 
purchase from Pennsylvania. In 1819 the township included what is now a 
third of the borough of Friendsville, and about that time came a large number 
of Friends to this section. A son of Henry M. Pierce, formerly of Middletown, 
held for many years the presidency of Rutgers College, New York. Another 
son is reported in Brace's California (1869), as returning the largest income in 
that State. The outlet of W3^alusing Lake, after passing througli Jackson 
Valley (a post office of Middletown), runs for a mile or two in Bradford county, 
re-enters Middletown at Prattville, and falls into the North Branch two miles 
above the forks. At Prattville, on the road passing from the creek into Bradford 
county, and precisely on the line, is the Methodist church edifice, half of which 
is in Middletown, and this half is all the house of worship there is in the town- 
ship. The village takes its name from Isaac Pratt, who came in 1801. 

Jessup township, named in honor of Judge Jessup, was erected from parts 
of Bridgewater and Rush, with a small portion of Middletown, in April, 1846. 
The Wyalusing creek traverses it from east to west. The first settlers of Jessup 
located with their families on and near Bolles' Flat, March 10, 1*799. They were 
Ebenezer Whipple, his step-son Ezra Lathrop, and Abner Griflis. They came 
from Otsego county. New York. Four brothers, by the name of Maine, came 
from the east about the same time. H. Sweet, Z. Lathrop, E. Ingram, J. 
Meacham, J. Reynolds, D. Foster, S. Lewis, and D. Carroll were included in the 
list made by Hon. Charles Miner, of fifty persons, old and young, who 
were, in 1800, on the Wyalusing between Fairdale, in Jessup, and the present 



SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY. 109Y 

♦ 

east line of Rush. Charles Miner himself took up quarters here for the 
summer of 1799. lie built a log-cabin and began chopping; but having cut 
his foot badl}^, his taste for farming subsided. Doubtless he served his genera- 
tion better in editorial and legislative spheres. In 1801, David Doud occupied 
the first clearing of Mr. Miner. David Omstead came in 1802. Jacob Cooley 
in 1803, to the itqUI begun by H. Sweet in 1799, and now known as Depue's. 
Matthias Smith and Colonel William C. Turrell were here before 1810 ; 11. 
Bolles the latter year. Dutch Hill — settled by persons of Dutch descent, but 
born in New York — comprises the section north of the Wyalusing and east of 
Forest Lake creek. Between these hills is another, which, with equal propriety, 
might be called "Jersey Hill." Fire Hill and Cornell Hill were settled in 1812. 
Later incomers have developed the resources of Jessup, and their descendants 
remain. 

Forest Lake township was named from a small sheet of water near its 
former centre. It was taken from parts of Middletown, Bridgewater, and Silver 
Lake. In 1799, Jesse and Jabez A. Birchard came from Connecticut to what is 
now Birchardville, on the Wyalusing. "Ruby" was the recognized locality 
then; they probably knew nothing of the metes and bounds of Pennsylvania. 
They were the first residents of Ruby as well as of the present township of Forest 
Lake. In 1819 William Turner and wife, from England, located by the side of 
the lake. The latter was the author of a volume of poems entitled " The Harp 
of the Beechwoods." One or two Germans of intelligence settled in this vicinity 
about 1822. Grist mills, saw mills, clothing works, a carding machine, a tannerj^, 
and woolen factory are in active operation. Considerable attention has been 
given to the culture of flax. Excellent crops of corn, buckwheat, oats, rye, and 
potatoes are raised. 

Clifford township, upon the organization of Susquehanna county, was nine 
miles ecist and west by twelve miles north and south. By the erection of Gibson 
it parted with more than half its area. 

It is probable the first stroke of the settler's axe resounded, in 1799, on the 
east branch of the Tunkhannock, about a mile below the deep valley now styled 
the " Cit}^," and was wielded by Amos Morse or his son. The same year 
Benjamin Bucklin began the first clearing on the site of Dundaff. In the spring 
of 1800 Adam Miller and family settled on the flat, within fifty rods of what is 
now known as Cliff'ord Corners. Within the first five years of the century, 
Amos Harding, David and Jonathan Burns, the Nortons, Finns, and Newtons 
were here. It was long known as the " Elkwoods settlement," the township as 
well as the mountain being the home of the elk in great numbers. In 1806, 
James Wells had a farm of one hundred acres at the City (a large name for a 
very small place, sometimes called McAlla's Mills). He was a native of Mini- 
sink, on the Delaware, where he had a grist mill and furnished the Revolutionary 
army with flour. He had a grist mill here also, in 1807. From 1812-'18, there 
was a large influx of population, and their descendants remain. In 1819, Asa 
Dimock had a store, and his son Warren, a hotel, in what is now Dundaff". 
Peter Graham, of Philadelphia, and Redmond Conyngham, of Wilkes-Barr^, 
made their purchases of land here the same year; and in 1820, Mr. Conyngham 
laid out the village named by him Dundaff", in honor of Lord Dundaff, of Scot- 



1098 EI8T0BY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

land. From the fact that the Milford and Owego turnpike passed through the 
place, and from inducements held out by Mr. Conyngham, the place rapidly 
attracted settlers. In 1824, Colonel Gould Phinney came to Dundaff with four- 
teen others from Wyoming Yalley. He had previously owned enterprises with 
the Phelpses, at the City, which was then styled Phinneyton, and had not a 
thought of being outdone by Dundaff. 

Dundaff was incoporated a borough in 1828. Dilton Yarrington, grandson 
of Abel G., who had the first ferry at Wilkes-Barr^, came to Dundaff in 1825. 
He removed to Carbondale in 1847. Several who had been in business at the 
City removed to Dundaff, and among them the Phelps family, of whom there 
were eventually seven brothers here, originally from Connecticut. 

In 1831, a glass factory was established; the Dundaff academy in 1833. 
Dundaff had high aspirations, but in 1836 they began to yield to those of 
Carbondale, which was the proposed seat of justice of a county to be taken 
from Luzerne, and the south-eastern townships of Susquehanna. Later there 
were renewed petitions for a division of the county, which happily were not 
granted. 

Lathrop is the central township on the southern line of Susquehanna 
county. It was taken from Brooklyn, April, 1846, and named in honor of 
Benjamin Lathrop, associate judge of the county. The Delaware, Lackawanna, 
and Western railroad follows Martin's creek on the east side — the tract set off 
April, 1853, from Lenox. Prior to this date the creek had been the boundary 
line. The valley of this creek is a narrow gorge, barely wide enough for a 
carriage road on the west side, and for the railroad on the other ; and compara- 
tively few of the population are located on it below the village of Hopbottom. 

In the spring of 1199, the present area of Lathrop had but one inhabitant — a 
hermit by the name of Sprague. The Hon. Charles Miner found him here — 
"made sugar with him on shares, took a'horse load of it to Tunkhannock, ped- 
dled it out, a pound of sugar for a pound of pork, seven and a half pounds for a 
bushel of wheat, five pounds for a bushel of corn ; saw the Susquehanna, got a 
grist ground, and then took the bridle path to Mr. Parke's, and thence fifteen 
miles to the forks of the Wyalusing." The location of the hermit is now called 
the " Five Corners," just above Hopbottom. 

In the fall of 1799, Captain Charles Gere, from Vermont, joined the Hop- 
bottom settlement, which at that time extended over the present area of Brook- 
lyn, the south-east corner of Dimock, and the northern part of Latlirop. He 
removed, in 1801, to Brooklyn, and Josiah Lord, from Lyme, Connecticut, 
purchased his improvement in Lathrop. It is still occupied by the Lord family. 
The families of Tarbell, Worthing, Wright, Case, and others, were here early. 

Sprinqville was taken from the south part of Bridgewater, and on the 
erection of*Dimock, it was reduced to its present limits. The township is well 
watered by the Meshoppen and its tributaries, as also by excellent springs. The 
soil is fertile, and the farms are in a high state of cultivation. Great attention 
is given to the dairy. 

In 1800, or the previous fall, Captain Jeremiah Spencer and his brother 
Samuel made the first clearing in Springville. They had surveyed here a 
township six miles square for Oliver Ashley, of Connecticut, who had bought 



SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY. IO99 

it under the Connecticut title, for a half bushel of silver dollars, and named it 
"Yictory." [An irregular township of that name appears on the map of old 
"Westmoreland," of the Connecticut surveys.] The southern line ran near 
Lynn post-office. Five hundred acres, just south of Yictory, was bought by 
Samuel Spencer of Colonel Jenkins, of Wyoming, for a horse and saddle ; but, 
on his return to New Hampshire, he sold it for five hundred dollars to Gideon 
Lyman. The families of Thomas, Kasson, Blakeslee, Eaton, Cassidy, Fish, 
Knapp, Taylor, Carrier, Rosencrants, and Strickland were here prior to 1808. 
Zophar Blakeslee's farm covered what is now the village of Springville. His 
daughter Sarah became the wife of Hon. Asa Packer. 

As earlj' as 1839 the matter of annexing Springville and Auburn to portions 
of Luzerne and Bradford, to form a new county, with Skinner's Eddy for a 
count}^ seat, was openly agitated. Again, in 1842, it was only vigilance on the 
part of some that prevented their loss to Susquehanna when Wyoming county 
was organized. To this day there are those who contend that the township for 
half a mile within its southern border belongs of right to Wyoming, since the 
line dividing them is the unrectified one of 1810-'12. This had so long been 
acquiesced in, and farms and town arrangements were so well established in 1842, 
it was concluded best to make no changes. 

Apolacon This township takes its name from the Apolacon creek which 

rises here, runs northward and empties into the Susquehanna river, in the State 
of New York, where it is spelled Apalachin. Li 1800 David Barney came from 
New Hampshire to the extreme north-west corner of the county, now the 
borough of Little Meadows, in Apolacon, and for four years he was the onlj^ 
settler west of Snake creek, above Forest lake. It is difficult to associate the 
early settlers — most of whom came from New York and New England — with 
Apolacon, as they passed awa}'' before its erection from Choconut. Within tlie 
last thirt}'- years many Irish and a few Welsh have succeeded to their lands and 
homes. . Samuel Milligan, from Philadelphia, was the first thoroughly educated man 
who located in Apolacon. A little later (1828) Caleb Carmalt, from the vicinity 
of Philadelphia, purchased of Dr, Rose one-half of his original estate in Susque- 
hanna county, and in the division, nearly afll the unseated lands in this township. 
Royal E. House, inventor of the printing telegraph, was but six months old 
when his father came from Yermont to settle here. Little Meadows, a small 
village, pleasantl}^ situated on the Apolacon creek, was incorporated as a 
borough in 1862. 

Choconut township derives its name from a stream which traverses the 
township from south to north, emptying into the Susquehanna above Apolacon 
creek. The settlement of the township was begun in 1806 along the creek, by 
James Rose, a brother and agent of Dr. Rose, being one of the first five who 
located here. There is not one of the settlers prior to 1817 now in Choconut. 
Lewis Chamberlin was the postmaster of Choconut forty-two years. Dr. Calvin 
Leet came to the township in 1816, and was the first regular physician in the 
western half of the county, and for some years the only one. The year 1819 
was marked by the arrival of a large number from the vicinity of Philadelphia, 
who belonged to the Society of Friends. About this time Dr. Rose set off a 
tract three-fourths of a mile long by three-sixteenths of a mile wide on each side 



1 1 00 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

of the Milford and Owego turnpike, which he named Friendsville. These 
limits doubled constitute the present borough of this name, which was incorpor- 
ated in 1846. Very little of this tract, comparatively, is occupied by village lots. 

In 1829, Caleb Carmalt, from Chester county, located at Choconut lake, and 
became one of Susquehanna county's largest land-holders, and exercised great 
influence among the settlers. The division in the Society of Friends, in 1830, 
took from him many of those who were nearly associated with him here. He 
died in 1862, and his widow in 1873. With them disappeared the distinguishing 
garb of the Friends in Susquehanna county. 

Silver Lake was the first township added to the original ten townships of 
the count3\ It took its name after that of one of the several beautiful sheets of 
water within its limits. The township was included in the one hundred thousand 
acres purchased by Dr. Rose in 1809, of the widow of Tench Francis. The pur- 
chase covered a tract of at least thirteen miles in extent on the State line, and 
nearly one-fourth of Susquehanna county. Perhaps to no one individual is Sus- 
quehanna county more indebted for the early development of its resources than 
to Dr. Rose. His enterprises were a benefaction to those whose services he 
required, as they were paid for in cash — a rare return for labor then. 

Jackson was originally the southern half of Harmony, but has been dimin- 
ished by the erection of Thomson. Near Butler lake there was once a beaver 
meadow. The first residents of Jackson were from Vermont, and came in 1812. 
The Bryants, Lambs, Bensons, Tingleys, Tuckers, Halls, Hills, etc., were here 
within the next four years. In the early years of the settlement, wolves made 
havoc among the young cattle and sheep. Bears were few, but deer were plenty. 

Ararat was erected August, 1852, from parts of Herrick, Thomson, and 
Gibson. It is the middle one of the five townships bordering on Wayne county. 
It consists of an elevated table-land, having an abrupt descent on the west to the 
valley of the Tunkhannock. From the summit of the JeflTerson railroad, "which 
is 2,040 feet above the level of tide-water, near the centre of Ararat, the eye 
takes in a circuit of nearly one hundred and fifty miles, extending west from 
Sugar Loaf, the western border of Wayne county, to the most elevated portions 
of Tioga county. At different points within a circle of half a mile eight coun- 
ties can be seen. The first settlers, John and Jabez Tyler, T. Clinton, J. Clark, 
H. Bushnell, N. West, and W. Tarbox, came in 1810. Most of them were New 
Euglanders , their descendants are still here. 

Thomson. — In 1820, after the rest of the townships were well opened and 
cultivated, the unbroken forest of what is now Thomson (erected from Jackson, 
in 1833), was reached by John Wrighter from Mount Pleasant. The third set- 
tler came in 1826. This township received its name from the Hon. William 
Thomson, for many years an associate judge in this district. Formerly the 
beech-woods stretched from this vicinity fifty or sixty miles eastward to the Bar- 
rens of New York (New Jersey?), but many a thrifty hamlet now relieves the 
scene. One of the hills of Thomson is reported as subject to tremblings and 
explosions from internal gases. The Jefferson railroad winds in and out of the 
township, much as the Starucca creek does, and has already wrought great 
changes along its course. Starucca depot is within the township, but the village 
of that name is just over the line in Wayne county. 



TIOGA COUNTY. 



BY JOHN L. SEXTON, FALL BROOK. 

lOGA county was organized by an act of the Lsgislature March 26th, 
1804 ; taken from Lycoming. The courts, however, were not held 
in the county until 1813, when his Honor, John Bannister Gibson 
(afterwards Chief Justice of the State), presided at the first term of 
court held in and for said county. October 6th, 1814, in accordance with the 
act of the previous 14th of March, the county commissioners, consisting of 
Timothy Ives, Hopestill Beecher, and Ambrose Millard, divided the county into 





VIEW OF THE BOROUGH OP KNOXVILLE, COWANESQUE- VALLET. 

six districts for justices of the peace, as follows: First, Delmar, Daniel Kelly, 
with eightj'-seveji taxables ; second, Deerfield, none, with sixty-three taxables ; 
third, Elkland, Dorman Bloss, with seventy-nine taxables ; fourth and fifth, 
Tioga, William Rose and Daniel Lamb, one hundred and thirty-nine taxables ; 
sixth, Covington, Elijah Putnam, ninety-five taxables. 

The county contains an area of 1,124 square miles, and 719,360 acres. It is 
bounded on the north %by the State line, and the counties of Steuben and 
Chemung, in New York ; on the east by Bradford, in Pennsylvania; on the south 
by Lycoming; on the west by Potter; its mean elevation being about 1,300 
feet, and its maximum 2,280 feet above tide. 

1101 



1102 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

The principal water courses of the county are the Tioga and Cowanesque 
rivers and their tributaries. These streams flow east and north, uniting with the 
Canisteo, Conhocton, Chemung, and North Branch of the Susquehanna. Pine 
creek, on its western border, is navigable for timber and lumber rafts. This 
stream flows south, emptying into the West Branch at Jersey Shore. 

The resources of Tioga county consist in its vast deposits of semi-bituminous 
coal, iron ore, fire-clay, and salt ; its forests of valuable timber, its rich and 
alluvial valleys, and highly productive table lands ; and its tanning and manufac- 
turing interests. Nearly 9,000,000 tons of semi-bituminous coal have been mined 
within its limits, and the ti-ade in this article is now considered only in its 
infancy. Valuable deposits are annually being discovered. The principal 
mining towns are Fall Brook, Arnot, Antrim, and Morris Run. The construc- 
tion of the Pine creek railroad along the western border of the county, when 
completed, will open up a rich field of coal and iron, and it is safe to predict that 
in a few years hence large iron manufacturing establishments will be in successful 
operation along the line of this road. The annual product of coal mined in the 
county is at present about 1,000,000 tons. Coal is found in the following town- 
ships in the county: Ward, Hamilton, Bloss, Liberty, Charleston, Duncan, 
Delmar, and Gaines. Ii'on ore and fire-clay are also found in each of the above 
named townships ; also in Morris, Union, Sullivan, Rutland, and Richmond. A 
peculiar mineral has lately been discovered at Tioga village, resembling iron ore? 
but partaking more of the nature of steel. This mine is in an undeveloped 
state. 

At the time of the organization of the county the territory within its limits 
contained less than a thousand inhabitants. Its progress since has been sure 
and steady. In six years after (1810) it contained 300 families, and a popula- 
tion of 1,687. Settlements had been made on the line of the Williamson 
road, which was cut out north and south through the county in 1792. A 
settler or two had located at the Block House as early as 1795 ; at or near 
Mansfield, in 1797, Gad Lamb had located; at Tioga, Jesse Lacey, a Revolu- 
tionary soldier, had taken up a claim in 1796, and was succeeded by Dr. 
Willard in 1799. Thomas Berry and Jacob Prutsman, in the year 1800, 
made settlements on the river near Dr. Willard. A colony from Virginia, 
Delaware, Maryland, and Philadelphia, located near Wellsboro' about the 
same time (1800), and other settlements were made on the Cowanesque at 
Elkland, in 1801, and also on the east line of the county, now in the towns of 
Sullivan and Jackson, in 1799. In 1802, settlements were made on the Tioga 
river at Covington, and soon after the tide of immigration flowed in from the 
south, north, and east. 

"At the place where the Tioga river crosses the New York State line," writes 
C. L. Peck, "it unites with a beautiful stream somewhat smaller than itself, 
known as Cowanesque river, and which for a great portion of its length flows 
through a section of the country widely known as the Cowanesque valley. The 
different portions of this valley were settled simultaneolisly. Nelson, formerly 
named ' Beecher's Island,' was settled by three brothers, Lyman, Hopestill, and 
John Beecher, and their father, Hopestill Beecher, who located on an island in 
the river at that place, the only one of any considerable size in the Cowanesque, 



TIOGA COUNTY. 1103 

it containing about one hundred acres of land. John Campbell, from Ireland, 
located at Nelson about the same time. He was followed soon after by two 
nephews, Joseph and James Campbell, most of whose numerous descendants 
remain in the valley. p]lkland was first settled by Robert Tubbs, a colonel in 
the Revolutionary war. Soon after, Ebenezer Taylor, Andrew Bosard, Lintzford 
and David Coates, from New York, settled in the vicinity of Osceola (or Pender- 
ville) and Elkland, the two towns being but one mile apart. The latter is at the 
foot of the Cowanesque valley. Israel Bulkley, about 1800, located in the most 
desirable part of the valley, at a place called " Bulkley's flats." Simon Rexford 
first settled at Knoxville, about 1800. Soon after came Jonathan, Solomon, and 
Alexander Matterson, three brothers, from Rhode Island, who purchased nearly 
all the land on which that borough was subsequently laid out. Daniel and 
Thomas Cummings were among the earliest pioneers. They came from the 
Holland Company's purchase in New York. Knoxville derived its name from 
the numerous families of Knoxes, who settled some time after, prominent among 
whom was John C. Knox, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the State. Two 
miles above Knoxville, the Jamison creek flows into the Cowanesque river, 
taking its name from Mary Jamison, an Indian captive, whose narrative forms an 
interesting chapter in the history of this locality. In 1845, S. B. Price, from 
New Jerse}', erected the second academ}^ built in Tioga county, at what is known 
as Academy Corners. Most of the prominent men of Tioga county look to Union 
academy as their alma mater. 

From 1810 to 1820, the population of the county increased more than three 
hundred per cent. During this interval of ten years, the Susquehanna and 
its upper tributaries had been navigated by raftsmen and arkmen with the 
product of the field and forest. State and county roads had been opened, 
forming connections between the citizens of Tioga, Lycoming, and Bradford 
counties in Pennsylvania, and Steuben and Tioga in New York. In 1830 
the county contained 8,978 inhabitants. There. had been erected within 
the previous decade a number of grist mills, thirty to forty saw mills, and 
one furnace, where pig iron was made. An academy was in successful 
operation at Wellsboro', the county seat. A navigation company had also 
been chartered, and the prospect of railroad communication between Bloss- 
burg and Painted Post, together with the mining operations at Blossburg, 
gave an impetus to business which was highly encouraging. The population of 
the county in 1840 reached 15,498. The Corning and Blossburg railroad was 
completed in 1840, traversing almost the entire length of the county north and 
south. This great enterprise stimulated the people in all sections of the county, 
and there was a steady increase in wealth and population from that year to 1850 
The financial condition of the country from 1841 to 1846 interrupted a number 
of well planned enterprises in certain localities of the county. The agricul- 
tural, mining, and lumbering interests had been depressed during this period ; 
but revived in 1848, and continued prosperous until the close of the decade. In 
L850 the population of the county was 23,987. In the matter of railroads and 
mining operations, from 1854 to 1860, was an important era in the history of the 
progress and development of the southern part of the county. The Corning 
and Blossburg railroad was relaid, T ii'on being put down instead of the old 
3 u 



1104 



EISTOE Y OF PENNS YL VAN I A . 



strap rail. The gauge was also changed to correspond with the wide $?auge of 
the New York and Erie. Honorable John Magee of Bath, New York, obtained 
possession of the semi-bituminous coal mines at Blossburg, and for several years 
operated them in a very successful manner. It was through him that the change 
was made in relaying and changing the gauge of the road above referred to. 
In 1859, he completed a railroad seven miles in length, extending from Bloss- 
burg to his mines at Fall Brook, and commenced mining semi-bituminous coal 
in a vigorous manner. This new work increased the population of the county 
nearly two thousand, besides adding much to its material wealth. In 1875, there 
were 581,132 tons of coal mined — by the Fall Brook coal company, 190,806 
tons ; the Morris Run coal 
company'164, 506 tons; and 
the Blossburg coal com- 
pany, 226,420 tons. 

The population of the 
county in 1860 was 31, 044. 
From that year to 1870 
several very important rail- 
road and mining enter- 
prises were begun. The 
Salt company of Syracuse, 
New York, leased of the 
Morris Run or Tioga Im- 
provement Company their 
mines, situated three and a 
half miles east of Bloss- 
burg, and built up a town, 
v/hich contains over two 
thousand inhabitants. The 
Blossburg Mining company 
was organized in the spring 
of 1866, and constructed a 
Tailroad from Blossburg to 

their mines, on Johnson creek, building up a town now known as Arnot. Thus 
within a period of seven years these coal companies were the means of largely 
increasing the population of the county, and giving a stamina to business 
hitherto unknown in its history. 

In 1866-'7 the Lawrenceville, Wellsboro', and Antrim railroad was projected, 
and finished in 1872. This enterprise added forty miles of railroad to the wealth 
of the county, besides developing a rich field of semi-bituminous coal, and giving 
railroad facilities to Wellsboro', the county seat, and affording a great outlet for the 
product of the field and forest. A few years later, a railroad was constructed 
between Lawrenceville and Elkland. This railroad penetrates the rich and fertile 
valley of the Cowanesque. The Lawrenceville, Wellsboro', and Antrim, and the 
Lawrenceville and Elkland, are now known as the Corning, Cowanesque, and 
Antrim railroad, and is operated by the Fall Brook Coal company. 

The Pine Creek and Jersey Shore railroad will, when completed, open up a 







EPISCOPAL, CHURCH AT MANSFIELD. 



TIOGA COUNTY. 



105 



vast field of coal and iron on the western border of the county. The Lawrence- 
ville and Elmira railroad, leading from the city of Elmira to Lawrenceville, has 
recently been constructed. Seventy-five years ago Tioga county was a vast 
wilderness. To-day she contains a population of not less than forty-three thou- 



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sand inhabitants, with all the necessary requisites to place her in a few yeara 
3n the front rank of inland counties of the ( ommonwealth. 

Wellsboro', the county seat, is one of the most pleasant and entertaining 
towns in Northern Pennsylvania. It is located within three miles of the 



N 



1106 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

geographical centre of the county. The first settlers of the town and vicinity 
came from Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Philadelphia. The township in 
which Wellsboro' is located was first named Vir-Del-Mar (Virdelmar) out of 
compliment to the States of Fzrginia, Z^e^aware, and ifaryland. When the town- 
ship was organized in 1808, the abbreviation vir was omitted, and the township 
incorporated under the name of Delmar. Wellsboro' received its name in honor 
of Mrs. Mary Wells Morris, wife of Benjamin W. Moi'ris, and sister of William 
and Gideon Wells, who were among the first settlers at or near Wellsboro', 
These settlements were made in 1801-'2. 

In 1802 William Wells came from the State of Delaware, and settled two 
and one half miles south-west from the present site of the town. He brought 
with him a number of slaves, and some of their descendants are now living at 
that place. In the year 1806, by an act of the Legislature, Wellsboro' was 
declared the county seat of Tioga county. Courts, however, were not held there 
until 1813. A log court house was erected during the year 1812. 

In 1824 Ellis Lewis and Rankin Lewis commenced the publication of a 
newspaper which was called The Pioneer^ the first paper published in the 
county. In May, 1830, Wellsboro' was incorporated as a borough, John 
Norris being selected as the first burgess. The borough contained at that time 
about fifty families, and a population of two hundred and fifty persons. 

Covington is situated five miles north of Blossburg, on the line of the Tioga 
railroad. The earliest settler was Aaron Bloss, who located near the borough 
in 1801, and subsequently removed five miles south and located and founded a 
settlement which has since been known as Blossburg. Covington, for many 
years, was the leading town in Tioga county. It was incorporated in May, 1831. 
The early settlers were principally from New York and the New England States, 
among whom were the Putnams, Dyers, Marvins, Wilsons, Graves, Walkers, 
Kelts, Bennetts, Gaylords, Searles, Packards, Negleys, and Kingsburys. It is 
surrounded by a rich and fertile country. 

Lawrenceville is situated near the junction of the Cowanesque and Tioga 
rivers, the northern boundary of the borough being the State line. The first 
settler was William Holden, in 1793. Among those who settled shortly after 
were John Elliott, Eleazer Baldwin, Ira Kilburn, James Ford, Dr. Simeon 
Powers, John W. Ryon, Hiram Beebe, Curtis Parkhurst, Daniel Walker, and 
Jacob Geer. For many years Lawrenceville was the centre of the lumber trade. 
Three railroads diverge from its boundaries — the Tioga, the Corning and 
Antrim, and the Lawrenceville and Elkland ; with a fourth about completed, 
from Lawrenceville direct to Elmira. It was incorporated May, 1831. 

Elkland, situated on the Cowanesque river, twelve miles from Lawrence- 
ville, was incorporated Ma^', 1850. It is the terminus of the Lawrenceville and 
Elkland railway, and is situated nearly midway in the beautiful valley of the 
Cowanesque, surrounded by a highly cultivated agricultural region, and' bids 
fair to be one of the leading towns in the county. 

Mansfield is situated in the valley of Tioga, on the line of the Tioga rail- 
road, and is the educational centre of the count}'. The first settler was Gad 
Lamb, who located near the place in the year 1797. In the year 1810, Asa 
Mann purchased the lands comprising the present borough, and in 1824 laid it 



TIOGA COUNTY. 



not 



out in town lots. February 15, 1855, the Mansfield classical seminary was 
organized, and a building was completed, and the seminary opened under the 
patronage of East Genesee Methodist Episcopal church, in January, 1857. On 
December 11, 1862, the Seminary was reorganized and recognized as a State 
Normal scliool, being the third school of that kind in the State. In the month 
of September, 18Y4, a second building was erected, one hundred and fifty feet in 
length and four stories high. A soldiers' orphan school is also located at this 
place, and is one of the most creditable institutions in the State. Mansfield was 
incorporated February, 1857. 

Mainsburg borough was formed from the township of Sullivan, in February, 
1859. It is located in the highlands six miles east of Mansfield, and is the 
centre of a fine agri- 
cultural district. 

Tioga borough is 
situated near the junc- 
tion of Tioga river 
and Crooked creek, 
in a delightful and 
fertile spot in the val- 
ley of the Tioga. 
The Corning, Cowan- 
esque and Antrim 
railroad passes along 
on the west, and the 
Tioga railroad on the 
east. Jesse Locey, a 
Revolutionary soldier, 
and one of the senti- 
nels who stood guard 
over Major Andrd be- 
fore his execution, 
was the first settler. 
One of the most en- 
terprising of the 
early settlers was Dr. 
William Willard,who 

located at Willardsburg (now Tioga), in 1799. For many j^ears the place was 
known as Willardsburg ; but about thirty-five years ago it was changed to 
Tioga. Tioga is distinguished for the hospitality of its inhabitants and the 
public spirit of its leading citizens. Bush's park is one of the most attractive 
places in the county. It is a monument to the generosity of its owner, Hon. 
A. C. Bush, and the pride of the citizens of the borough. The borough is sup- 
plied with pure spring water through the enterprise of B. C. Wickham. It was 
incorporated in February, 1860. 

Fall Brook was laid out and founded by Hon. John Magee, late president 
of the Fall Brook coal company, in 1858, and incorporated in August, 1864. It 
is one of the principal mining towns in Tioga county. The business of the 




METHODIST CHURCH AT MANSFIELD. 






1108 



HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 



inhabitants is exclusively devoted to the mining of serai-bituminous coal, from 
two to three hundred thousand tons being annually mined and shipped to 
market. It is the terminus of the Fall Brook railroad. The air is pure and 
healthy, and some of the finest mineral springs in the State are to be found here. 
Blossburq, one of the most populous boroughs in the county, is situated at 
the head of the Tioga valle3\ Semi-bitulninous coal was first discovered here in 
1192, by Robert and Benjamin Patterson. In 1806 Aaron Bloss located here, 
and gave the name to the town. It is at this point where the mining of semi- 
bituminous coal began on an extensive scale thirty-six years ago. Three 
railroads, used principally for the transportation of coal, diverge from Bloss- 
burg — one leading to Arnot, four miles distant, another to Morris Run, four and 




NORTHERN VIEW OF FALL BROOK FROM THE CENTRE. 

one-half miles, and the third to Fall Brook, seven miles. Blossburg is quite an 
industrial centre. The shops of the Tioga railroad are located here, a large 
tannery is in successful operation, as also a glass factory, saw mills, planing 
mills, foundry, etc. 

Knoxville is situated on the Cowanesque river, in the township of Defer- 
field, a few miles from the State line. It is a thriving and enterprising place. 
It was incorporated as a borough in May, 1851. 

Westfield borough is situated on the Cowanesque river, in the township of 
Westfield, in the north-western portion of Tioga county, near the head-waters of 
that river. It was settled by several Methodist ministers, and for manj" years 
•"'as known as Priestville. It is a thriving and enterprising town, and was 
incorporated a borough January, 1867. 



TIOGA COUNTY. 1109 

There are quite a number of important villages in various portions of the 
county which deserve mention, among them being Academy Corners, Antrim, 
Brookfield, Canoe Camp, Cowanesque Yalley, Cherry Flats, Charleston, 
Daggett's Mills, Gaines, Hollidaytown, Keeneyville, Lamb's Creek, Lib- 
erty, Mill Creek, Niles Valley, Nauvoo, Morris -Run, Oqdensburg, Rose- 
ville. Stony Forks, Stokesdale, Sabinsville, Shortsville, and Whitney- 

VILLE. 

Organization of Townships. — Tioga and Delmar, in 1808 ; Deerfield and 
Elkland from Delmar, in 1814; Covington from Tioga, February, 1815; Jackson 
from Tioga, September, 1815; Sullivan from Covington, Februaiy, 1816; Law- 
rence from Tioga and Elkland, December, 1816 ; Charleston from Delmar, 
December, 1820 ; Westfield from Deerfield, December, 1821 ; Middlebury from 
Delmar and Elkland, September, 1822; Liberty from Delmar and Covington, 
and Shippen fi-om Delmar, in February, 1823 ; Richmond from Covington, Feb- 
ruar}^, 1824 ; Morris from Delmar, September, 1824 ; Brookfield from Westfield, 
Februarj^, 1821 ; Rutland from Jackson and Sullivan, and Chatham from Deer- 
field, in February, 1828 ; Farmington from Elkland, and Union from Sullivan, 
in February, 1830 ; Gaines from Shippen, March, 1838 ; Bloss from Covington, 
June, 1841 ; Middletown, Clymer, from Westfield, and Gaines, December, 1850 ; 
Ward from Sullivan and Union, Februarj^, 1852 ; Elk from Delmar and Morris, 
Februar}^, 1856 ; Osceola from Elkland, December, 1854 ; Nelson from Elkland, 
December, 1857 ; Hamilton from Bloss, December, 1872 ; and Duncan from 
Delmar, Charleston, and Morris, December, 1813. With the formation of 
Nelson in 1851, and the incorpoi'ation of Elkland borough, the township of 
Elkland ceased, to exist b}^ that name. 

During the late rebellion the county commissioners raised $600,000, and 
the townships $400,000, for war purposes. Her sons were upon every battle- 
field, and did distinguished service. Her war debt is now nearly extinguished, 
only about $30,000 remaining unpaid. This fact will convej' to the reader her 
patriotism and resources. 

When the fact is taken into consideration that only seventy-five years have 
elapsed since the territory comprising the county was a dense wilderness, remote 
from commercial centres, by reference to the general statistical tables elsewhere 
published in this work, the progress and development made in the countj'- speaks 
volumes for the energy and enterprise of its people. 



UNION COUNTY. 



BY JOHN BLAIR LINN. 




NION county was erected out of Northumberland by the act of 
March 22, 1818. Its territory embraced that within its present 
bounds and those of Snyder county. The aboriginal inhabitants of 
Buffalo, its principal vallej^, were Muncy Indians, subjects of the 
Six Nations, and were governed by Shikellimy, an Oneida chief, who had his 
residence on what is now the farm of Hon. G. F. Miller, at the mouth of Sinking 
run, three miles above Lewisburg, in Kelly township. Here Conrad Weiser vi- 
sited hira, March 



8, 1737, and here, 
without much 
doubt, his son 
Logan was born, 
whose celebrated 
speech, commenc- 
ing, " I appeal to 
any white man to 
say if he ever en- 
t e r e d Logan's 
cabin hungry, and 
he did not give 
him meat," will 
go down to all 
time, whether 
properly or not, 
as a splendid out- 
burst of Indian 
eloquence. 

Bufftdo and 
Penn's creeks are 




UNION COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LEWISBUBG. 
[From a Photograph by W. M. Ginter, Lewisburg.] 



so called in the deed of October, 1758. In papers still earlier, Penn's is 
called Mahanoy ci*eek, and the valley itself went under the general name 
of Shamokin. The southern portion of the county along Penn's creek 
had scattered settlements as early as 1754. It was then in Cumberland 
county, and within the purchase of 1754; but the Indians said they were 
deceived in that purchase, and, emboldened by Braddock's defeat, on the 
15th of October, 1755, came upon the settlers, and killed and carried away 
ail the men, women, and children, twenty-five in number, nearly to the 
mouth of the creek. Of the Le Roy family, who lived in Limestone township, 
Mary and Jacob were carried off and their father killed. .Jacob Breylinger, who 

1110 



UNION COUNTY. UH 

lived two miles below New Berlin, was killed, his wife and two children carried 
to Kittanning. Swisser Run took its name from Switzer Le Ro3\ 

Among the first settlers in 1169, were William Blylhe, at "White Deer Mills; 
John Lee, at Winfield ; John Beatty, at the spring near New Berlin; Jacob 
Grozeau, near Hoffa's mill ; Barney Parsons, at the old Iddings place ; John 
Wilson, at Jenkins' mill ; Adam Haines, on the McCorley place ; John Fisher, 
at Datesman's, West Milton ; Michael Weyland, on the Hon. G. F. Miller's 
place; William Armstrong, at the old ferry, below New Columbia; James Parr, 
adjoining him, and Ludwig Derr. Jacob Fought built the first mill in the valley, 
in 1771, unless Derr's, the exact date of which cannot be ascertained, was built in 
1770. At Fought's mills (late Shi'iner's mill, near Mifflinburg), the first elec- 
tions were held for the valley. Ludwig Derr purchased the tract on which Lewis- 
burg now stands, in 1772, and his mill was in existence in the fall of that year. 

In 1772, Northumberland county was erected, prior to which a small part 
of Union county territory was in Cumberland, but the larger portion in 
Berks county, and on the 9th of April, Buffalo and Penn's townships were 
erected. In February, 1776, White Deer was formed. 

The Connecticut claim extended as far as the 41st degree of latitude, 
and therefore the northern portion of Union county was included from a 
little above the mouth of Buflfalo creek. Accordingly, we find their advanced 
picket, William Speddy, on Buffalo creek, in June, 1772, warning people not to 
accept Penn titles ; and in deeds, for this year, warrants are common " against 
the claim of the inhabitants of New England." Speddy took post on 'I in tie 
creek, where Supplee's mill now is, but could not hold it. He remained, 
however, in the valley, served in the Revolutionary war, and died at a place 
called Speddy 's Gap, in Juniata county. 

In October, 1772, John Aurand bought the Jenkins property of John \^"ilson, 
and erected the mills there. It went by the name of " Aurand's mill" until he 
sold to Morgan Jenkins, in 1778-'9, since which time it has been in the Jenkins 
family. In the fall of 1772, Robert Barber built the first house at White Springs, 
and Peter Smith squatted a location at the mouth of White Deer creek, where his 
widow, Catharine, erected the first mills, in 1775, one of which was largely 
used for boring gun-barrels during the Revolution. 

On the 20th of April, 1775, a circular issued from Sunburj^, signed by Caspar 
Weitzel for the committee, and directed to John Lowdon and Samuel Maclay, 
called for a meeting of the inhabitants of the valley, on tlic 1st of May, at 
Vandyke's spring, near the Cross Roads, "to give opposition to the impending 
tyranny." 

In the latter part of June, came a letter from the Committee of Safety at 
Philadelphia, under date of the 15th, requesting the enlistment of riflemen to go 
to Boston. An enlistment paper found among the Lowdon papers, dated at 
Derr's mills, July 1, 1775, and in the handwriting of Joseph Green, contains the 
names of Cornelius Daugherty, Robert Tuft, Edward Masters, James Carson, 
George Saltzman, Robert Rickey, Thomas Giltson, Robert Line}^, Robert 
Carothers, John Hamberton, and Michael Hare. This was the iiucleus of Captain 
Lowdon's company of Colonel William Thompson's rifle regiment. In this 
company were Samuel Brady, David Hammond, father of the late General 



1112 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Robert Hammonrl, Peter Pence, and other afterwards noted men. They served 
one year, participating in the battles of Long Island and White Plains, and most 
of them re-enlisted in the First Pennsylvania of the Continental Line, Colonel 
Edward Hand's, afterwards Colonel James Chambers', regiment. 

In December, 1776, a large 
number of the associators from 
Buffalo valley joined General Wash- 
ington, and participated in the 
actions at Trenton and Princeton. 
One company was commanded by 
Captain John Lee, of Winfield, and 
the Northumberland battalion was 
officered by Colonel James Potter, 
Lieutenant-Colonel James Murray; 
John Kelly and Thomas Robinson, 
majors; Benjamin Allison, surgeon ; 
Joseph Green, surgeon's mate. 
The heroism of Major Kell}', in 
cutting down the bridge at Worth's 
mills, on Ston3'brook, in sight of 
Cornwallis' advancing army, is mat- 
ter of public history. Captain John 
Clarke, who lived on the first farm 
above Mifflinburg, took down a 
company from the valley proper, 
the remaining officers of which w^ere 
Henry Pontius, first lieutenant; 
James Moore, second lieutenant; 
and Patrick Watson, ensign. They 
did not reach the army in time for 
those battles, but participated in 
subsequent skirmishes during their 
term of service. In that at Pisca- 
taqua, N. J., February 1, 17T7, Pat- 
rick Kellahan and Peler Nees, of 
Clarke's company, were wounded, 
and the latter mortally. Henry 
Doughert}' and John Fitzsimmons, 
of Lee's company', were wounded, 
and Gustavus Ross, the lieutenant, 
was killed. 

In the fall of 1776, Colonel 
William Cook raised the 12th 
Pennsylvania regiment, mostly in Northumberland county, and Hawkins Boone, 
who lived at New Columbia, commanded a company. Hauaniah Lincoln, a 
first lieutenant, Robert King and Samuel Quinn, second lieutenants, and John 
Carothers, a second lieutenant (who was killed at Germantown, October 4, 1777), 










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O 
O 



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O 

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w 



ID 
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UNION COUNTY. III3 

were from Buffalo valley. Boone's company was detached to Colonel Morgan's 
rifle regiment, and was in all the fighting at Stillwater and Saratoga, which 
resulted in Burgoyne's surrender, and there were on the pension rolls, from 
Buffalo valley, George Martin and Samuel McClurghan, who were badly wounded 
there. 

On the 3d of July, 1778, occured the massacre of Wyoming, which occasioned, 
on the 5th, a general stampede of the inhabitants of Buffalo valley, called the 
"great runaway," to which reference has been made in the sketch of Lycoming 
county. In the fall of 1778, the mill of Samuel Fisher, in White Deer township, 
was burned by the Indians. 

In May, 1779, John Sample and wife were killed by the Indians, at a place 
lately owned by Abraham Leib, near Ramsey's school house, in White Deer 
township, where their graves may still be identified. 

At this time occured another runaway, caused by the fear that the Indians 
would double around on General Sullivan's left, and devastate the valley, in 
order to recall him from his expedition into the Genesee country. On the 8th of 
July, widow Smith's mills, at the mouth of White Deer creek, were burned, and 
one man killed. 

On the 8th of April, 1780, the Indians killed David Couples, who lived on 
Redbank run. They scalped him and two of his children and carried off his 
wife. Encamping for the night on the hill above White Deer mills, Mrs. Couples 
made her escape, although one of them had lain upon her clothes so that her 
moving would awake him. On the 16th of Maj-, an attack was made on a party 
near French Jacob's Mills in West Buffalo, and killed John Foster, Jr., George 
Etzweiler, Jr., James Chambers, and Samuel McLaughlin. On the 14th of 
July, a man and three children were killed on Buffalo creek, near Wolfe's mill ; 
the woman, according to a statement of William Wilson, who then owned the 
place, escaped across the creek, and looking back, saw one of the Indians dash 
out the brains of the smallest child against a tree. In the same month, Patrick 
Watson and his mother were killed at his cabin on the slight elevation a little 
east of the new school house at White Springs. On the l-tth of July, Baltzer 
Klinesmith, who then resided on the Byler place, not far from Dreisbach church, 
was killed, and his daughter captm-ed. Her release through Elizabeth's heroic 
conduct, at the spring near New Berlin, is well told by Meginness. Catharine, 
who was shot through the shoulder, afterwards married Robert Cham- 
bers, of Limestone township, and survived within the recollection of many 
yet living. 

In 1780, the original Barber's mill was built by Adam Smith. It long went 
by the name of David Smith's mill. Titzel's mill, spoken of in early accounts 
of the valley, has been long known as Kelly's mill. It was first built by Henry 
Titzel, who fled with the "great runaway," in 1778, and never returned from 
Cumberland county. 

In March, 1781, Captain James Thompson and Margaret Young were cap- 
tured by the Indians on the John Stahl place, in Kelly; and John Shively, in 
the meadow in the rear of Esquire Lincoln's house. He was never heard of 
afterwards. At the same time, George Rote and his sister Rody, aged about 
twelve and fourteen, were captured near Mifllinburg. When peace was declared, 



1114 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



they met near where Clarion now stands, and returned together. Rody married 
James Ben, and moved to Centre county. Jacob and Conrad Katherman wore 
captured at the same time. 

In April, 1181, David Emerick, who lived on the Scebold place, near Chappell 



Hollow, was killed and his family captured. 



Henry Bickel, who lived on the 
Henry Mertz place, was killed 
at the same time, and on the 6th 
of October Christian Hettrick, a 
private in Captain Samuel Mc- 
Grady's company of rangers, was 
killed at Andrew Wolfe's place, 
and David Storms, on the ad- 
joining place, now owned by 
William Cameron. 

In 1782 the outrages began 
as early as May 6. Two men, 
named Lee and Razoner, were 
killed between Mifflinburg and 
New Berlin, and Edward Tate 
badly wounded. The attack on 
John Lee's, who lived where 
Winfield now stands, was made 
in August, 1182. During this 
year, also, a boy sent to Van 
Gundy's mill, now Shriner's, 
was shot from his horse on the 
Meixell place, a short distance 
above Francis Wilson's. He was 
only fourteen years of age. 

In March, 1785, Ludwig 
Derr laid out the town of Lew- 
isburg. Samufl Weiser, of Ma- 
hanoy, was the surveyor, and 
for his services received lot num- 
ber 5. Derr's first conveyance 
(March 26, 1785) was for reli- 
gious purposes — lots numbers 
42, 44, 46, to Walter Clark, 
William Gray, and William Wil- 
son, in trust for the Presbyterian 
congregation at or near Lewis- 
burg, for a meeting-house and 
burjang ground. The present 
Presbyterian church stands on one of these lots. Ludwig Derr went to 
Philadelphia, in September, 1785, and died there suddenly in the latter part 
of October. 

In 1*:89, Caleb Farley built the first grist mill on White Deer Hole creek, 




UNION COUNTY. 



1115 



.ate Charles Gudykunst's, and John Rengler the grist and saw mills on the site 

of the one owned by William Cameron, beyond Buffalo X Roads. 

On the 12th of October, 1790, occurred the first election under the Constitu- 
tion. Samuel Maclay, of BuffiUo valley, ^vas elected, with John White, member 

of Assembly. 
In 1792, 

we note the 

entrance of 

the school- 
master into 

the valley — 

Alexander 

T empleton 

and George 

Paget — 

whose names 

have come 

down to us. 

Templeton 

taught at 

New Berlin, 

and Paget 
manj^ years 
at an old 
school house 
near Michael 
Grove's. 

In 1792, 
Mifflin burg 
was laid out 
by E 1 i a s 
Young man, 
and New Ber- 
lin by George 
Long, and 
Buffalo town- 
ship was divi- 
ded into East 
and West. 
In 1793, 

Colonel Wil- 
liam Chamberlin moved into the valley from New Jersey, having bought the 
Bear mills property, and Michael Shirtz built the grist and saw mills at Penn's 
Yalley Narrows; Joseph Green, a grist and saw mill on Penn's creek. 

In April, 1811, Hartley township was erected, after which the town of Hart- 
leyton, which was laid out by Colonel Thomas Hartley many years before upon 
land owned by him, commenced to improve; and in September, 1815, Union 




1116 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

township was laid out. In May, 1818, David Yoder laid out the town of 
New Columbia. 

In 1802, Ray's church, now in Lewis township, was founded; in 1815, St. 
Peter's, in Kelly, the land being the gift of Jacob Lotz ; in 1820, the Associate 
Reformed church at Mifflinburg. In the fall of 1814, Andrew Kennedy 
published the first newspaper ever issued in the county at Mifflinburg. 

Educational interests have always received the attention they deserve. 
In 1805 a log cabin academy was built by subscription in Lewisburg ; and 
in 1807, land was donated for a German High school near the Buffalo X Roads, 
where a school was kept up many years. In 1827, the Mifflinburg academy was 
incorporated, and received a grant of two thousand dollars from the State. In 
1839, a new brick academy was erected in Lewisburg. 

In 1845, a movement was inaugurated by the Northumberland Baptist 
Association for the establishment of a college in Central Pennsylvania, which 
resulted in the organization of the University at Lewisburg. Its present site 
was purchased in 1847, and the present academy building was soon after erected. 
The following year, one wing of the main edifice was begun. The central 
portion and east wing were erected in 1858. The building, as it now stands, 
consists of a central portion, 80 feet square and three stories high, for public rooms, 
and two wings for student's use, each four stories high, and 32 feet deep by 125 
feet in length, making the entire length of the building 330 feet. Instruction 
was commenced in the basement of the Baptist church of Lewisburg, in 1846, 
under the direction of Dr. Stephen Taylor, and the first class was graduated in 
1851. Dr. Taylor was succeeded by Dr. Howard Malcolm, who resigned the 
presidency in 1857, and in 1858, Dr. J. R. Loomis, the present incumbent, was 
inaugurated. The present organization is — first, a College, with which is con- 
nected a department almost exclusively devoted to preparation in Latin and 
Greek, for admission to the regular college course. Second, an English Academy, 
a boarding and day school designed for those who do not propose to engage in 
classical studies. Third, a University Female Institute, erected in 1858, a 
boarding and day school to give a thorough education to young ladies. These 
are three separate institutions, all located in the borough of Lewisburg, in 
distinct buildings, situated on their own grounds, and having for each a 
separate faculty of instruction, though still under one president and with the 
same boards of control. Its real estate and assets are valued at $275,000. 
About two hundred and fifty has been the average number of pupils in all the 
departments, and for the ten years past the income from funds and tuition 
charges has met all expenses. It has no debts. 



\ 



VENANGO COUNTY. 



BY REV. S. J. M. EATON, D.D., FRANKLIN. 




VENANGO was erected into a county by act of March 12, 1800, from 
parts of Allegheny and Lycoming, That portion of Yenango 
county lying west of the Allegheny river was, by act of Assembly 
of April 8, 1*785, declared to be within the limits of Westmoreland 
county. By act of September 24, 1T88, it fell within the new countj^ of Alle- 
gheny. The portion east of the river belonged to Northumberland county, 
afterwards it fell into the new county of Lycoming. The name is taken from 
the foi'mer name of French creek, that was anciently called by the English 
Venango river. It is a corruption of the Indian name, In-nan-ga-eh, from the 




VIEW OF LIBERTY STREET, FRANKLIN, 1876. 

[From a Photograph by Wilt Bro's, Franltlin.] 

Seneca language, having reference to the rude figure cut on a tree when first 
discovered by this tribe. In 1839 its limits wei-e much reduced by the establish- 
ment of Clarion county, the Clarion river having originally been the south- 
eastern boundary. In 1866 it was farther reduced by attaching a portion of its 
north-eastern territory to Forest county. It now forms an irregular figure, and 
contains about six hundred and forty square miles. 

The Allegheny river runs through the county near its centre, but such is the 
structure of the land, that in its progress it rims toward every point of the 
compass. The valley of the Allegheny is narrow, and the hills that flank it 

1117 



/ 



] 1 1 8 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

high and precipitous, making the scenery beautiful and varied, with many a 
bold outline and many a richly wooded slope. In the ancient history of this 
region, this river is often called the Ohio. Both the Indians and the French 
considered the Allegheny and the Ohio as one and the same river. In fact, in the 
Indian dialects, their names signified the same thing. Allegheny is from the 
Delaware language, and 0-he-o from the Seneca, both meaning "Beautiful 
water." Hence, too, the French term " La Belle Riviere," is Beautiful river. 
In his celebrated map of 1755, Lewis Evans calls it the Allegan. He also gives 
the Shawanese name as "Palawa Thoriki." 

The next important stream in the county is French creek. It too has 
received various names. The Indians seem to have known it as To-ra-da-koin. 
By the English' as Venango river. By the French it was called " Riviere aux 
Boeufs," or Buffalo river. B3' George Washington it was re-christened French 
creek, at the time of his visit in 1153. The beautiful and romantic then gave 
way to the practical, and the stream is known as French creek unto this day. 

The great source of wealth has been and still is petroleum. This county 
seems to have been its native home, for although it has been found in large 
quantities in some of the neighboring counties, yet it was first gathered here, 
both in small and in large quantities, and has been a valuable product since the 
organization of the county. Oil springs have been known, and the product gathered 
here since the first discovery of the county by the present inhabitants. They 
were found chiefly along Oil creek, and on the banks of the Allegheny. The oil 
was used for medicinal purposes. It was well known all over the country as 
" Seneca oil," "British oil," and other names. It was collected by digging out 
the place where it oozed from the ground, and when oil and water had accumu- 
lated, blankets were thrown in, taking up the oil, when it was wrung out, and 
the process repeated. Half a century ago, the product of the Oil Creek vallej'^ 
amounted to a dozen barrels a year; The first shipment in bulk was by Mr. 
Gary. Two five-gallon kegs were filled, and lashed on each side of a liorse, 
with Mr. Gary between. The market was Pittsburgh, and this supply for a time 
stocked the market. In 1865, Yenango county was shipping of the same product 
thirteen thousand barrels per day. This was when the entire production was 
confined to this councy. Petroleum began to be sought as an illuminator, but 
the small quantity produced rendered it too expensive. Some of the heavy 
crude oil that was collected from the surface springs was taken to New England for 
examination. Enterprise was stimulated. In 1853, it came to the notice of 
George H; Bissell, who proceeded to investigate its claims. He was joined by 
J. G. Eveleth. The firm purchased some territory containing numerous oil 
springs, and commenced operations by pumping the oil and water into vats by 
water power. This was a slow process, but it stimulated enterprise. A joint 
stock compan}^ was organized, and the resolution formed to bore into the rock 
in quest of oil. Golonel E. L. Drake was selected to carry out this resolution. 
After many discouragements, under the direction and I'esponsibility of a part 
of the company, oil was at last struck at the depth of seventy feet. This was 
on the 28th day of August, 1859. This small hole drilled through the rock so 
peacefully, opened the way to wealth hitherto unknown. It yielded about forty 
barrels per day, but it was the prophecy of better things to come. This first 



VENANGO COUNTY. 



1119 



well was in Cherry Tree township, on Ihe bank of Oil creek, and about two miles 
below Titusville. The second well was on the McClintock farm, farther down 
the creek, and about three miles from Oil City. The third was in Franklin, and 
known as " the celebrated Evans well." For a time these wells were operated by 
pumps driven by steam ; but in 1861 a new feature was developed. Wells began 
to flow spontaneously, under the expansive power of the confined gas. The first 
flowing well was on the McElhenny farm, and known as the Funk well. In June, 
1861, it suddenly commenced flowing at the rate of two hundred and fifty barrels 
per day. In the autumn of the same year, the Philips well, on the Tarr farm, 
commenced flowing at the rate of two thousand barrels per day. This was 
followed by the Empire well, on the lower McElhenny farm, at the rate of three 
thousand barrels per day. This was the largest daily production of any one 
well. The Noble and Delamater yielded twenty-four hundred barrels daily; 
the Coquette fifteen hundred; the Maple Shade one thousand; the Jersey .five 
hundred ; the Reed one thousand. 
This latter was on Cherry run, 
near Rouseville. The Maple 
Shade, Jersey, Coquette, and 
Keystone wells were on the Eg- 
bert farm, near Petroleum Cen- 
tre. The Sherman was on the 
Foster, and the Delamater on the 
Farrel farm. 

Sometimes these wells would 
produce gas to such an extent as 
to take fire and produce the mo it 
disastrous results. Such an ac- 
cident occurred at Rouseville in 
1861. A well was bored on the 
Buchanan farm to the depth of 
three hundred feet, when a 
column of gas rushed up and 
took fire from a neighboring engine. Immediately thei'e was a shock like that 
of an earthquake, when the mingled oil and gas rushed from the well and 
took fire as it emerged from the orifice. It seemed as though the earth 
was pouring forth smoke and fire, carrying death and destruction in their 
path. At the time of the explosion, from eighty to one hundred persons 
were standing around. Many of these had their clothing at once saturated 
with the oil and instantly took fire, and were helpless in the folds of the 
destroyer. There were thirt^'^-eight persons burned more or less, and of these, 
nineteen died. Amongst the latter was H. R. Rouse, an energetic persevering 
young man, who had done much to develop the business on the creek. The 
well burned three days before the fire could be extinguished. This was 
accomplished by heaping earth upon it. Another well on the Allegheny river, 
below Franklin, took fire before reaching oil. It was located at the mouth of 
Mag's run. It burned for more than a year, keeping vegetation green around it, 
even in the winter time. The column of flame that shot up from the gas was 

^ IT- 

o V 




coii. drake's pioneer oil welu 

[From a Photograph by Mather, Titusville.] 



^ 



1 1 20 BIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

about ten feet in diameter at the base, the height varying from fifty to an hun- 
dred feet. As there was no oil to take fire, and the workmen absent at the time, 
there were no accidents connected with this well. 

The business extended up the Allegheny, and down the same to the extreme 
limits of the county. It was pursued with advantage up the valley of French 
creek. The heavy oil district is confined to the neighborhood of Franklin. 
This is used chiefly for lubricating purposes. It is found in the high hill over- 
looking Franklin, but chiefly on the Galloway, McCalmont, Fee, Lamberton, 
Smith, Bleakly, and Kunkle farms. The gravity of the lighter oils of the county 
is from forty to forty-eight degrees ; that of the heavy Franklin oil is from 
twenty-eight to thirty-two degrees. The total product of some of the largest 
wells along Oil creek has been from a half million to a million barrels each. 
Generally they have been short lived. Thei-e is one well, perhaps the oldest 
in the oil region, that has produced constantly for some fifteen years. Since 
1865 the production of the county has fallen off greatly, as the territory on 
the level below has been developed. 

Several railroads are now in active operation in the county. The first 
constructed was the Franklin branch of the Atlantic and Great Western. This 
runs from Meadville to Oil City, along the banks of French creek and the 
Allegheny river. It was finished as far as Franklin, in June, 1863, and 
extended to Oil City in 1866, The next railroad in the county was the James- 
town and Franklin railroad, intersecting the Erie and Pittsburgh road at 
Jamestown, Mercer county. It was completed to Franklin in 1867, and the 
next season extended to Oil , City. Following these were the Allegheny Yalley 
railroad, from Pittsburgh to Oil City ; the Oil Creek and Allegheny River rail- 
road, extending from Oil City, up Oil Creek, to Titusville and beyond, with 
its river division, extending up the Allegheny river to Warren. The Cranberry 
railroad extends from South Oil City to the Cranberry coal mines. 

There is a noted land mark in Indian history on the eastern bank of the 
Allegheny, about six miles below Franklin and nine by the course of the river. 
It is known to the present inhabitants as " the Indian God," At times of high 
water it is entirely submerged. Indeed the wear of time and the friction of 
floating ice and timber have sadly mutilated its face. It is an immense boulder 
in a deflection of the river, standing on an inclination of about 50° to the hori- 
zon, and is about twenty-two feet in length by fourteen in breadth. The 
inscription is in hieroglyphics on its inclined face, that has originally been 
drawn with great distinctness. 

The view presented is from Schoolcraft's work on the Indian tribes, and was 
drawn by Captain Eastman, United States Army. The following is School- 
craft's description: "The inscription itself appears distinctly to record in 
symbols the triumphs of hunting and war. The bent bow and arrow are twice 
distinctly repeated. The ari'ow by itself is repeated several times, which denotes 
a date before the introduction of fire-arms. The animals captured, to which 
attention is called by the Indian pictographist, are not deer or common game, 
but objects of higher triumph. There are two large panthers or cougars, 
variously depicted; the lower one in the inscription denoting the influence, 
agreeably to pictographs heretofore published, of medical magic. The figure of 



VENANGO COUNTY. 



1121 



a female denotes without doubt a captive ; various circles rdpresenting human 
heads denote deaths. One of the subordinate figures depicts by his gorgets a 
chief. The symbolic sign of a raised hand, drawn before a person represented 
with a bird's head, denotes apparently the name of an individual or tribe." At 
the foot of this inscription rock is a smaller one, having on it a single 
figure. 

This territory was originally included in the French claim. The lilies of 
France waved over it for years. The claim was based on the discoveries of the 
Jesuits, Marquette and La Salle, together with their construction of tlie treaties 
of Utrecht and Aix la Chapelle. They had possessions in Canada and at the 
mouth of the Mississippi, 
and their intention was to 
unite these two claims, and 
hold the entire country 
west of the Allegheny 
mountains. This grand 
project shows the boldness 
and energy of the time in 
which it was inaugurated. 
In the year 1749, Gallis- 
soniere, then Governor of 
Canada, sent Louis Celeron 
with a party to bury lead- 
en plates along the whole 
line from Presqu'Isle, or 
south to the Mississippi, as 
evidences of the French 
claim and possession. 
These plates were all simi- 
lar in form and design, 
differing only in date, in 
the name of the place where 
they were to be deposited. 

They were fourteen inches in length, by nine inches in breadth, and one-eighth 
of an inch in thickness. The inscription was in capital letters, and the margin 
ornamented with the lilies of France. On the reverse were the words " Paul 
Labrasse, fecit." 

The plate buried at Franklin bore the following inscription: " Lan 1749 dv 

BEGNE DE LOVIS XV ROY DE FRANCE NOVS GELORON COMMANDANT DVN PETACHE- 
MENT ENVOIE PAR MONSIEVR LE MIS DE LA GALLISSONIERE COMMANDANT GENERAL 
DE LA NOVVELLE FRANCE POVR RETABLIR LA TRANQVILLITE DANS QVELQVES VILLA- 
GES SAUVAGES DE CES CANTONS AVONS ENTERRE CETTE PLAQVE AV CONFVTENT DE 
L'OHYO ET DE TORADAKOIN CE 29 JVILLET PRES DE LA RIVIERE OYO AUTREMENT 
BELLE RIVIERE POVR MONVMENT DV RENOVVELLEMENT DE POSSESSION QVE NOVS 
AVONS PRIS DE LA DITTE RIVIERE OYO ET DE TOVTES CELLES QVI Y TOMBNT ET 
DE TOVES LES TERRES DES DEVX COTES JVSQVE AVX SOVRCES DES DITTES RIVIERES 
VINSI QVE ONT JOVY OV DV JOVIR LES PRECEDENTS ROYS DE FRANCE ET QVILS 




INDIAN GOD EOCK. 



u 



1122 



HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



SISONT MAINTENVS PAR LES ARMES ET PAR LES TRAITTES SPECTALEMENT PAR 
CEVX DE RISVVICK DVTRCHT ET DAIX LA CHPELLE."* 

The following translation is sufficiently literal : " In the year 1749, reign of 
Louis XV., King of France, M. Celoron, commandant of a detachment by 
Monsieur the Marquis of Gallissoniere, Commander in Chief of New France, to 
establish tranquillity in certain savage villages of their cantons, has buried this 
plate at the confluence of the Ohio and Toradalvoin, this 29th of July, near the 
Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possession, which 
we have taken of said river, and all its tributaries, and of all lands on both sides, 
as far as the sources of said river, inasmuch as the preceding kings of France 

have enjoyed it by their arms and by 
treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, 
Utrecht, and Aix la Chapelle." By the 
Ohio we are to understand the Allegheny, 
and by Toradakoin, French creek. 

This plate was stolen from Joncaire by 
the Seneds the following, year, and 
brought to Colonel Johnson to be read, 
who made good use of it to exasperate 
them against the "French. 

To make good the French claim, a line 
of forts was erected : one at Erie, one at 
Waterford, on French creek, and one at 
Franklin, at the mouth of the same. The 
works at Franklin were commenced in the 
autumn of 1753, and completed in April, 
1751. In the sketch of Erie county, is 
given the deposition of Stephen Coffin, an 
English prisoner, which furnishes the par- 
ticulars of the building of these forts, and 
the objection of the Indians to their erec- 
tion. The Indians, however, were propitiated, and the fort commenced in 1753^ 
and completed early in the spring of 1754. All along French creek, troops were 
gathering. The Indians were supplied with whiskey and became friends to the 
new project. Scouts were sent out, and every effort made to learn the movements 
of the British. Canoes were prepared and cannon dragged slowly and heavily 
through the forest. Everything in the way of armament and provisions was 
brought from Lake Erie across the countr}^ to Le Boeuf, and thence down 
French creek by canoes and rafts. This work was called Fort Machault. 

These French forts from Lake Erie to the Ohio were not remarkable either 
for strength or for engineering skill. Neither Presqu'Isle, Le Boeuf, nor 
Machault, had any earth works of importance. Tiiey were all probably on the 
same pJan, although Machault at Yenango was the smallest of the three. Fortu- 
nately the plan of this latter fort has survived the changes of one hundred and 




INSCRIPTIONS ON INDIAN GOD ROCK. 



* Foi a fac-simile representation of one of these leaden plates, see History of Allegheny 
county, page 318. 



VENANGO COUNTY. 



1123 



twenty years, and has recently been verified beyond a question as the iden- 
tical plan* of Fort Machault and the surrounding territory, with the bearino- of 
the hills and the distances to them. The fort was located on the western bank of 
the Allegheny, or Ohio, as it was originally called, sixty yards from the edge of 
the water, and about sixty rods below the mouth of French creek. On the 
present plan of the town. Elk street runs through the site of the fort, while its 
southern side reached nearly to Sixth street. The body of the work was in the 
form of a parallelogram, seventy-five by one hundred and five feet in size, with 
bastions at the four angles. These bastions were in the form of polygons, the 
two western ones having a perimeter of one hundred and thirty-five feet, and the 
eastern ones of one hundred and eleven feet, each. A portion of the curtains 
was of hewn timbers laid lengthwise upon each other, that served at the same 
time as the sides of the barracks. The remainder of the walls, with the bastions, 
were formed of timbers eight inches in diameter, and thirteen feet in height, set 
up after the manner df a 
stockade. The gate front- 
ed the river. In the inte- 
rior were the magazine, 
fifteen by eighteen feet, 
protected by a thickness 
of three feet of earth, and 
several buildings for bar- 
racks. Two of these were 
eighteen by fifty-five feet in 
size, with three others that 
were much smaller. The 
barracks were two stories 
high, and furnished with 
stone chimneys. A door 
in the north-eastern bas- 
tion led to a large cellar. The soldiers' barracks consisted of thirty-seven 
separate buildings, disposed around the fort, chiefly on the northern side 
A saw mill was erected on the little stream forty rods above and near to the site 
where the English fort was subsequently built. It was supplied with power by 
the stream. The dam was constructed of heavy timbers, that are, man}^ of them, 
found in their places at the present day. This dam was just along the eastern 
line of Elk street where it crosses the ravine. Here was prepared the lumber 
used for barracks, and perhaps for building boats and barges to be used in 
conveying supplies for the camp. Along the northern side of the fort, and 
within fifty feet of it, there was a small stream of water that fiowed from the 
neighboring hills, which supplied the camp with water. 

This work is invariably spoken of by the French as Fort Machault. It was 
named in honor of Jean Baptiste Machault, born at Amonville, France, Decem- 
ber 10th, noi. In n45 he was controller of the finances; in 1750, keeper of 
the seals, and succeeded to the colonial department in 1750. In 1794 he was 

* This map was found amongst the MSS of the Shippen family, and is'now in the posses- 
sion of William Reynolds, Esq., of Meadville. 




PLANS OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH FORTS. 



H 



1124 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

imprisoned by tlie Revolutionary government, and died tlie same year at ninety- 
three. By the English, this post was spoken of as the French fort at Yenango. 
Monsieur Pouchot, in his memoirs, speaks of it rather contemptuously: " At 
its mouth (Riviere aux Boeuf), called in English, Yenango, the French had :i 
very poor, mean fort called Fort Machault, which is also an entrepot for that 
, which is going down to Fort Duquesne." 

It seems generally to have been poorly garrisoned, often short of provisions, 
and in mortal fear of assault by the English. Except in special cases, when 
marshalling their forces for an attack on Fort Pitt, the garrison numbered only 
from twenty to fifty men. They seem to have secured the friendship of the 
Indians, not so much by the strong arm of power, as by presents of whiskey and 
gewgaws. 

We have a partial description of the work in the deposition of a French 
prisoner : " Fort Machault is a fort of wood, filled up with earth. It has 
bastions and six wall pieces or swivel guns, and the whole works take up about 
tvvo acres of ground. No Indians are there, but pass and repass to and from a 
little town they have about seven leagues west from Fort Machault, called 
Ticastoroga. They are of the tribe of the Wolf." Henry De Courcy, on the 
authority of an old map preserved at Quebec, affirms that Fort Machault was 
situated on the eastern side of the river, on French creek. Monsieur Duquesne 
speaks of it as on both the rivers Ohio and Yenango. With these statements we 
must compare the ground and later authorities. 

The plan of the fort befoi'e alluded to settles the question of location so tuo- 
roughly that there is no longer room for doubt concerning it. There was but one 
French fort. Not the slightest allusion is in any place made to two, in that region^ 
in the voluminous records that ai'e now accessible in relation to the French occu- 
pation there. With the very limited knowledge of the geography of the country, it 
is easy to account for the mention of Fort Machault on the opposite side of 
French creek, by mistake. Monsieur Duquesne probably meant, by saying that 
it was one half on the Ohio river and the other on River an Boeuf, that it was 
designed to command the approaches of both those rivers. On the upper side of 
French creek there is neither sign nor tradition of militar}^ work. Although the 
first settlers arrived here within less than thirty years after the evacuation by the 
French, there was never known to them the slightest trace of earthworks or 
military work of any kind. It is, therefore, incredible that there should have been 
such works there. On the ground of the fort have been found bullets, knives, 
scissors, beads, melted glass, burned stone, and other relics, showing that it had 
passed through the fire at its destruction. 

The first interruption in this chain of French forts was the forced abandon- 
ment of Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh. This was on the 24th day of Novem- 
ber, 1T58, on the approach of General Forbes' expedition. That oflSicer, in his 
report, says : " They have blown up and destroyed all their fortifications, houses, 
ovens, and magazines — all their Indian goods burned in the stores, that seem to 
have been considerable." Of the garrison, four hundred men, with the Gover- 
nor, M. De Lignery, went up the river to Yenango. This rendered it necessary 
to bring all supplies to this fort by the way of Presqu'Isle and Le Boeuf. In the 
meantime they were making every eff'ort to strengthen their position ^latforms 



VENANGO COUNTY. 1125 

were erected in the bastions, and swivel guns mounted on them. The stockades 
were lined to render them more secure. A large force of laborers were at work 
with the avowed object of rendering Machault as strong as Fort Duquesne. 
Monsieur La Marie was in command at this time. This was in April, 1759. 
Colonel Mercer writes that he had learned from a spy that at that date there 
were one hundred and fift}' men at the fort, and others on the way. • " They have 
eleven batteaux at Venango, and one great gun of the size of a quart pot, which 
they fire off by a train by powder." 

We hear from the fort again on July IT, l'r59. Colonel Mercer, commandant 
at Fort Pitt, had sent six Indian scouts up to Fort Venango, who reported that 
the place was strong and well manned. They said that there was then at the 
place seven hundred French and a thousand Indians, and that preparations 
were making to attack Fort Pitt. They were to set out on the 11th of that 
month. Three pieces of cannon had arrived from Le Boeuf, the otliers were 
expected every hour, with many batteaux loaded with provisions. Soon after a 
messenger arrived and handed a packet to the commandant. This contained bad 
news. At length he said to the Indians : " Children, I have received bad news, 
the English are gone against Niagara." Orders were immediately given for the 
evacuation of the fort. It was the month of July. The river was too low to go 
up by boat, and a great sacrifice must be made of their effects. The Indians 
were tricked out in laced coats and hats, tlie squaws were gorgeous in red 
blankets and French calico, and all their stores were either given awa}'' or 
1 turned. The batteaux and canoes that were to have conveyed them in their 
assault upon Fort Pitt were likewise burned. Even their artillery must have 
been buried, as it would be impossible to carry it with them. An old gun 
found an hundred years afterwards is evidence of this, and no doubt others are 
still slumbering in the neigh] -orhood. 

The spies sent up from 1 'ort Pitt witnessed this grand breaking up of the 
camp, the burning of the fort, and the departure for Le Boeuf, and on to the 
relief of Fort Niagara. Th( ) reported that " there were upwards of a thousand 
Indians, collected from twelve different nations, at Venango." Here was an end 
to their expectation of retaking Fort Pitt. They had made a great effort 
towards the accomplishment of this object. The fort had been recently rein- 
forced for this purpose. Monsieur D'Aubray, commandant at Kaskaskia, 
Illinois, had brought there 400 men and 200,000 pounds of flour from Kaskaskia 
to Venango. "Cut ofi" from the route of the Ohio (or Allegheny) by the aban- 
donment of Fort Duquesne, he proceeded with his force down the Mississippi 
and up the Ohio to the Wabash ; thence up that river to the portage at Fort 
Miami, or Fort Wa3nie, and carried his stores over to the Maumee, [>assed down 
that river mid along the shore of Lake Erie to Presqu'Isle, and carried again 
his stores to the portage to Le Boeuf; thence descended French creek to 
Venango." This was followed by the surrender of Fort Niagara and the fall of 
(Quebec, and the final withdrawal of all claims to the territory. 

After the abandonment of the country by the French, the English authoritie? 
took possession. This was in 1160. Major Rodgers was sent to repair and 
garrison the forts along the lake. At this place an entirely new site waa 
selected, and a new fort erected. Fort Machault was so thoroughly dismantle \ 



1126 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

that there was nothing valuable left. The site for the new work was about forty- 
rods higher up the river, and nearer the mouth of French creek. In the present 
plan of the town, Elk street runs nearly through the centre of it, and the 
northern bastion extends out into Eighth street. It was a much more perma- 
nent and substantial work than that of the French. The original plan has been 
lost, but from the earth- works, yet in good condition at the early settlement of 
the country, a very good idea can be formed of its general features. The general 
outline was square, with bastions projecting from the curtains, as shown in the 
sketch. The enclosed area was eighty-eight feet square, with a block-house in 
the centre. This was surrounded by a ditch twentj^-four feet in width. Outside 
of this was the embankment, about eight feet in width, with bastions of earth on 
each side, and completely commanding all the angles of the fort. 

This fort was probably called Fort Venango, and like its predecessoi". Fort 
Machault, was destined to be short-lived. The garrison was probably small, and 
the same difficulties attended communication with it that had hampered and 
annoyed the French. Still it had its importance, particularly as long as there 
were fears remaining of further difficulties with the French. But new dangers 
arose. In 1163, only three years after the construction of this fort, the formid- 
able conspiracy of that mighty Sagamore, Fontiac, was organized. It was bold 
in its conception, and carried out with wonderful vigor and promptitude. It 
aimed at nothing less than the destruction of all the military posts and settle- 
ments of the English from Fort Pitt and Lake Erie to Detroit. The shock 
came in the month of June, and resulted in the destruction of all but three of 
the posts along the entire line. 

Presqu'Isle and Le Boeuf were taken by assault, Ycnango by stratagem. 
The Indians had been in the habit of playing at foot-ball on the grounds around 
the fort. Occasionally the ball would fall within the pickets, when they would 
be allowed to go within to procure it. On this occasion the ball was sent inten- 
tionally into the fort. The gate was opened, when the savages rushed in in a 
body, massacred the garrison, and tortured Lieutenant Gordon, the commander, 
over a slow fire for two or three days, burned the fort, taking with them a woman 
as prisoner. This prisoner was afterwards recovered from the Indians at Fort 
Erie, and related the circumstances of the capture and destruction of the Fort. 

An expedition was fitted out after the reported capture of the forts, to 
explore. At Venango they found but the ruins of the works, with the remains 
of the murdei'ed garrison lialf consumed by the flames. Whether this fort was 
rebuilt and garrisoned by the English after this time is extremely doubtful. 
There is a gap in the history that we have not the means of filling up. The 
probabilities are that the country was abandoned until after the Revolutionary ' 
war, and the possession of the United States authorities. 

In the spring of 1787, the United States government began to take 
possession of this region. A company of United States soldiers, under the com- 
mand of Captain Hart, came up from Fort Pitt to erect a fort for the protection 
of probable settlers, against the Indians. The company numbered eighty-seven 
men, including officers, with perhaps a dozen persons who accompanied them 
'" their own account. They at once commenced the erection of a fortification 
that they called Fort Franklin. The site selected was a strange one. Instead 



VENANGO COUNTY. 1127 

of locating near the mouth of the creek, so as to command both streams, 
they selected a site on the southern bank of French creek, about half a mile 
from its mouth. It was just above what is now the upper French creek 
bridge. It was built in the form of a parallelogram, the outworks including 
about one hundred feet square. These outworks consisted of high embank- 
ments of earth, outside of which pine pickets, about sixteen feet in height, 
were planted. Small cannon were mounted on its four bastions. Within the 
area formed by the ditches was the block-house, with a huge stack of chimneys 
in the centre. The block-house contained the magazine. The soldiers were 
quartered within the pickets. A ditch extended along the bank of the creek for 
some distance, that was no doubt used after the manner of modern rifle-pits. 

In 1190, a committee, consisting of Timothy Matlack, Samuel Maclay, and 
John Adlum, was appointed to examine the western waters of the State. 
Among others they were to examine French creek from its mouth to Le Boeuf, 
also the Allegheny from French creek to the Kiskiminetas. The following year, 
as the result of this examination, the Legislature made an appropriation of one 
hundred pounds to improve the navigation of French creek, from its mouth to 
Le Boeuf. At this time the Indians were troublesome. On the 2d day of April, 
1791, all the women and children at Meadville, in the adjoining county of Craw- 
ford, were brought down French creek in canoes for protection in the fort. 

In 1793 the Pennsylvania Population company was formed to promote the 
settlement of the country. It offered, with other inducements, " to the first 
twenty families that should settle on French creek, one hundred and fifty acres 
of land each.'' But difficulties were increasing with the Indians. In a deposition 
made at Fort Pitt, June 11th, 1794, D. Ransom, who had been a trader at Fort 
Franklin, said that " he had been advised to leave ; that the times would soon be 
bad ; that the British and Indians would soon land at Presqu'Isle, and there 
form a junction with Cornplanter, on French creek ; and were then to clear it by 
killing all the people, and taking all the forts on it." 

Captain Denny, writing from Fort Franklin, June 14, 1794, seems to have 
had the same opinion in regard to the intentions of the British and Indians, 
But these difficulties were all amicably settled, and a treaty of peace was signed 
by fifty-nine sachems. They had all been mollified b}'' presents of land and 
money, and the influence was good upon their people. 

The garrison was kept at Fort Franklin until 1796, when the place was 
abandoned, and a new site selected on the flat near the mouth of the creek that 
was long known as the old garrison. It was a strong building, a story and one 
half high, and about thirty by thirty-six feet square. There were pickets planted 
around it, but no cannon mounted. In 1800 the garrison was withdrawn, and 
military protection ceased. The garrison was afterwards used as a jail from 1805 
to 1819. It remained standing until 1824, when it was overthrown. The. shifting 
current of French creek washes its site, so that its exact location is now 
unknown. 

In the war of 1812 this county was well represented. A call was issued 
for all the able-bodied men to go to Erie, to protect the frontier from an 
anticipated attack at that point. All who could be spared fn^m their homes 
repaired to the scene of expected action. Of the regiment tbat \^as formed 



1128 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



from this and some of the neighboring counties, Samuel Dale was elected 
lieutenant-colonel. He was a native of Union county, but had resided in 
Franklin for many years. About this time the Seneca chief, Cornplanter, came 
to see Colonel Dale, to^ inquire into the cause of the war. When this was 
explained to him, he declared his willingness to accompany him with two 
hundred warriors. He insisted on the propriety of his going. The corn was 
planted, and the young men could go as well as not to assist in the war with 
their white neighbors. Colonel Dale could satisfy him only by agreeing to 
call upon him should it be actually necessary. During the war, Franklin 
presented quite a busy aspect. All the military and naval stores were brought 
up from Pittsburgh in keel boats, thence up French creek to Waterford, and 
thence by teams to Brie. It was matter of surprise to the British, how Perry's 
fleet was equipped under the circumstances, as they were ignorant of this 
inland communication with Pittsburgh. All these boats were pushed up by 
hand, with the assistance of the capstan, in places where the water was specially 
rapid. 

In the civil war of 1861-'5, this county was largely represented. The 

soldiers' monument, standing in South park, Franklin, contains the names of 

over four hundred soldiers who fell in battle or died in prisons and hospitals. 

From the organization of the county, in 1800, to 1805, it was associated for 

judicial purposes with the 

= neighboring counties of 

Warren, Butler, Mercer, 
Erie, and Crawford, with 
the seat of justice at Mead- 
ville. The first court held 
there was presided over by 
Judge Alexander Addi-on. 
By act of April 1, 1805, 
Venango was fully organized 
for judicial purposes, with 
Franklin as the county seat. 
The first court was held 
in a log house on Liberty 
street, facing West park. 
Jesse Moore was the first judge. He was succeeded by N. B. Eldred, in 1839. 
After these were Alexander McCalmont, Gaylord Church, Joseph Buffiugton, John 
C. Knox, James Campbell, John S. McCalmont, Isaac G. Gordon, and John Trunkey. 
The first court-house was erected in 1811. It was of stone, on West park, and facing 
what is now Plumer's Block. A second court-house was built of brick in 1848, 
on South park, and facing up Liberty street. This was succeeded by a third 
building of brick, in 1867. It was located a little to the north of its predecessor. 
The old garrison was used as a jail from 1805 to 1819, when a small stone 
building was erected for the purpose, on the South park. There was a yard 
attached to one end of it, surrounded by a stone wall about twelve feet in height^ 
with a well in the enclosure. The cells were lined with oak plank, about five 
inches in thickness. This was the receptacle for prisoners until 1853, when a 




Einnear House. 



Court House. 



Jail. 



Prea. Ch. 



VIEW OF FKANKLIN IN 1840. 
IRe-produced from an old engraving.] 



VENANGO COUNTY. jl29 

njY stone jail, with sheriff's house of brick, in front, was erected on Elk street. 
The prison was rebuilt in 1868, on the same foundation, and with the same 
material. 

Franklin, the county seat, is the oldest town in the county. It was located 
on lands belonging to the State. On the 24th day of March, 1 789, it was resolved 
by the General Assembly, " that not exceeding three thousand acres be surveyed 
for the use of the Commonwealth, at the Fort of Venango." By act of April 
18, 1795, commissioners were appointed to survey one thousand acres of the 
reservation at the mouth of French creek, and lay off thereon the town ofj 
Franklin. The commissioners designated for this purpose were Genei'al William 
Irvine and Andrew EUicott. Mr. EUicott had charge of the surveying, and 
General Irvine of the military escort of fift}^ men. The name was probably 
suggested by the name of the fort. The plot selected lies along the south branch 
of French creek and the west bank of the Allegheny river. The A^alley in which 
it is situated is about two miles in length and about half a mile in breadth, sur- 
rounded on every side by bold, precipitous hills, rising to the height of about 
five hundred feet. The town is beautifully laid out with wide streets, crossing 
each other at right angles, with the exception of Twelfth street, where there is 
an acute angle to accommodate a flexure in the creek. Franklin was incorporated 
into a borough, April 14, 1828, and honored by the Legislature with a city 
charter in 1868. T. Anderson Dodd was the firs, mayor. 

Oil City is comparatively a modern town, and is based on the rise and progress 
of the petroleum business. It is now a grand railroad centre, and a place of 
great commercial importance. It is situated on both sides of Oil creek, and 
at the same time on both sides of the Allegheny river, seven miles above 
Franklin. The land on the western side of Oil creek was purchased from the 
State in 1803, by Francis HoUiday, descending to his son James Holliday. He 
sold it to Dr. John Nevins, and b}' him it was sold to the Michigan Rock Oil 
company, about 1859 or 1860, and by them laid out in lots. Previous to 1859 
there were but two or three houses on that side of the creek. Two of these were 
hotels. One kept by Thomas Moran was an old landmark. They were designed 
for the accommodation of raftsmen. The eddy above and below was often lined 
with rafts for miles in extent. East of the creek, and along it, the land belonged to 
the old Indian chief Cornplanter. The United States government had presented 
him with three hundred acres of land in return for services rendered the 
country during the Revolutionary war. By him it was given to his son, and 
by him sold for a small consideration. 

In 1861 the town began to grow rapidly, and in 1862 it was incorporated into 
a borough. In 1863, Cottage Hill was laid out in lots by J. H. Marston 
and Charles Haines. In 1863, William L. Lay purchased the Bastian farm on 
the south side of the river, and laid out a town by the name of Laytonia. After- 
wards James Bleakley, of Franklin, purchased the Downing farm, and laid out a 
town adjoining this by the name of Imperial City. In January, 18G6, these two 
towns were consolidated by an act of court, under the name of Venango City. 
On March 11, 1871, the two towns. Oil City and Venango City, were consolidated 
with a city charter by the Legislature. 

Reno is on the Allegheny river, four miles above Franklin. The land was 



1130 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

settled first by Martin Clifford, afterwards by Mr. Bowles. In 1850 it belonged 
to Joseph Shafer and J. W. Howe. Soon after the oil business commenced, it 
was purchased by C. V. Culver, a town laid out, and a company organized for 
the production of oil. A railroad was built from Reno to Rouseville, on Oil 
creek, that has since been discontinued. It takes its name from General J. L. 
Keno, formerly a citizen of Franklin, who fell in the la*;e war. It has produced 
a large quantity of oil within its limits. It has the advantages of the Atlantic 
and Great Western, and also the Jamestown and Franklin railroads. 

Rouseville is on the Oil creek valley, at the mouth of Cherry run, and 
about three miles above Oil City. It was at one time a great shipping point for 
oil. It owes its importance to the oil development. The second well in the 
county was discovered in its neighborhood. It is called after H. R. Rouse, one 
of its proprietors, who perished in the burning of the well alluded to. 

Petroleum Centre was one of the remarkable places in the oil region. 
In many of its features it has never been equalled by any town in the whole 
countrj^ It sprung into notice with the oil production, and declined with 
it, until its vices, as well as its glories, have departed. It is on Oil creek, 
midway between Oil City and Titusville, and located on the lands of the Central 
Petroleum company. A peculiarity of this town is, that though laid out in lots, 
these lots were never sold, but leased. There was no borough organization, 
although at one time it contained a population of some three thousand. The 
result was that vice and dissipation reigned with little control, until the town became 
a fearful plague-spot to the regions around. The Hyde and Egbert, McCray, Wood, 
and other farms adjoined the town, and were productive in oil. There were Presby- 
terian, Methodist, and Catholic churches in the town. 

Pleasant viLLE is about twenty-four miles north-east from Franklin, in the 
northern part of the county. It was settled by Aaron Benedict, about the year 
1820. The pottery business was an^ early enterprise. It was incorporated as a 
borough in 1849, with two hundred and fifty inhabitants. It has been the scene 
of a wonderful oil development. The first well was the Nettleton, struck in 1855. 
Little, however, was accomplished until 1868, when the matter assumed a won- 
derful importance. There were at one time over two hundred wells, with a daily 
production of some two thousand barrels. The entire region round presented 
the appearance of a forest of derricks, with the prospect of unlimited wealth. 
But the supply was soon exhausted, and business declined. 

SiVERLEYViLLE is two miles above Oil Cit}^, on the Allegheny. It was settled 
by Mr. Siverley about the year 1821. The largest refining business in the 
county is carried on here. It is known as the Imperial, oil refinery. 

Emlenton is a flourishing town on the Allegheny river, in the southern part 
of the county. It is about thirty miles below Franklin. It derives its name 
from Emlen, the maiden name of Mrs. Hannah Fox, wife of Joseph M. Fox, who 
were the original owners of a large part of the land on which the town is located. 
The first improvement was made by John Kerr in 1802-'3. He was followed by 
John Cochran, in 1820. Andrew McCaslin started a small store. After him 
came P. G. Hollister, in the same business ; then came John Keating, William 
Karnes, and others. It was incorporated as a borough some years since. 

CooPERSTOWN is ou Big Sugar creek, nine miles from Franklin. It was com 



VENANGO COUNTY 



U31 



menced about 1827, by William Cooper, on land received from his father, who 
had been an ensign in the army. A flourishing woolen factory has been operated 
here. It has also flour and saw-mills, with a thriving trade from the country 
round. The first improvements were mills. It is an incorporated borough. 

Plumer is on Cherry run, about seven miles above Oil City. The neighbor- 
hood was first settled by Henry McCalmont, At the advent of the oil business 
quite a flourishing village sprung up. The Humbolt refinery was located here, 
which for a time carried on quite a -large business. One of the oldest'United 
Presbyterian churches in the county was planted in its neighborhood. 

Pit Hole City.— The history of this place seems like a dream of romance. 
In rapidity of growth and 
excitement during its short 
career, it exceeded that of 
any other town in Ame- 
rica. From a single farm 
house, in May, 1865, it 
suddenly expanded"' until, 
in September of the same 
year, a period of only five 
months, it had a population 
of fifteen thousand. It had 
its hotels, theatres, lecture 
halls, churches, and other 
public buildings, on a 
grand scale. It is situated 
on Pit Hole creek, from 
which it derives its name, 
about eight miles from its 
mouth, in Cornplanter 
township. In January, 
1865, the first well was put 
down, on the Thomas 
Holmden farm. It was called the United States, and soon produced eight 
hundred barrels per day. This was far out from other wells. In June the 
Grant well was sti'uck, flowing at the rate of twelve hundred barrels per daj'. 
This incited the country to fever heat. Capitalists rushed in ; money flowed as 
freely as oil itself; and for three months, anything like a correct description of 
things would seem like fiction. The Holmden farm had been bought by Prather 
& Duncan, who laid it out in lots. These lots brought large prices ; one of them 
$15,000. At the height of the fever the Holmden farm was sold for $1,300,000, 
and resold for $1,600,000. But business began to decline. The oil belt was 
found to be merely a small basin amid the rocks, and was soon drained. The 
town was deserted ; property declined in value ; the buildings that had been 
erected at great expense were removed to Pleasantville, Oil Cit}-, and Franklin ; 
until the proud city became but an humble hamlet, sitting down to dream of 
its former glor\-. 




CABLE GROUP CITY DERRICKS, PLEASANTVILIiE. 

[From a Photograph by Wilt Bro's, Franklin.] 



WAKREN COUNTY. 



BY SAMUEL P. JOHNSON, WARREN. 




Y the act of the 24th of September, 1188, Allegheny county was 
created, including all the territory in the State north and west ol 
the Ohio and Allegheny rivers, together with considerable on the 
other side. On the 12th of March, 1800, was passed the great new 
county act, by which Beaver, Butler, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Warren, Venango, 
and Armstrong counties were created out of Allegheny, and a portion of Lj'com- 
ing county territory. Thus and then Warren county was formed from parts of 
Allegheny and Lycoming counties, and William Miles, Thomas Miles, and John 
Andrews were appointed trustees for it. That portion of Warren county, east 
and south of the river, from 1772 until 1795, was a part of Northumberland 
county. In 1795, it was embraced in the new county of Lycoming, created 
that year, where it remained until the year 1800. Even before this, four or five 
years, a few settlers had found their way into its wilderness, and located on the 
waters of the Brokenstraw and Conewango creek. Quite a number came that 
year by following Indian trails and surveyors' lines. 

The county and county seat of Warren were named after that distinguished 
patriot who fell at the battle of Bunker Hill — General Joseph Warren. 

Warren county is bounded on the north by the Xew York State line, in 
latitude forty-two degrees north; on the east by M'Kean county; on the south 
by Forest and Yenango counties, and on the west by Crawford and Erie counties. 
It contains eight hundred square miles of territory, and 512,000 acres of land. 
The Allegheny river, entering near the north-east corner and running south- 
westerly, divides its territory, leaving about three-eighths of it on the south-east 
side. Its tributaries, of sufficient size to be useful for propelling machinery or 
floating rafts, are Willow creek. Sugar run, and Kinzua creek, entering on the 
east, and Cornplanter and Hemlock runs, and Conewango, Brokenstraw, Tidioute, 
and West Hickory creeks, entering from the west; the Kinzua, Conewango, and 
Brokenstraw, being navigable, from ten to twenty miles, for rafts of timber and 
manufactured lumber. 

Early in the year 1794, warrants were purchased and located on nearly all 
the land east and soutli of the Allegheny river, by thQ Holland Land Company 
and George Mead. The land was surveyed into tracts of 1,000 and 1,100 acres. 
A memorable controversy arose between these high contending parties as to the 
location of their respective warrants. The Holland company had purchased 
several hundred 900-acre warrants in Jul}^, 1794, which the}'' claimed to be 
descriptive. 

In Februar}', 1794, General George Mead procured 100 warrants for 1,000 
acres each, and had them located partly in Warren county, in the spring following. 

1132 



WARREN COUNTY. 



1133 



The Holland company alleged he was upon their territory, and on the 15th of 
April, 1794, filed caveats in the land office against the issuing of any patents on 
the Mead surveys ; and they proceeded in September following to locate their 
warrants on the same lands. This inaugurated a controversy over more than 
100,000 acres of land, a large portion of which was in territory now einbraced in 
Warren county, which, however, was compromised in 1796 by the surrender by 
Mead, of about 30,000 acres of the land covered by his surveys, and the with- 
drawal of the caveats by the Holland company as to the balance. These con- 
flicting surveys have since been the source of great vexation to surveyors, and of 
much litigation to subsequent owners. 



■? '''i&}-(i^s-c 










In 1813, the Hollmd Land company sold to Henry 
Shippen and others, SLvliug themselves "The Ltiueaster Land compan}'," 174,000 
acres of their land on the east side of the Allegheny river. In 1814, this com- 
pany em' loyed Colonel Samuel Dale, of Union county, to re-survey and subdivide 
their lands into smaller lots, which he did in that and the following j'ear, re-num- 
bering them from 1 to 772. These lands have ever since been mapped, taxed, 
bouglit, and sold by these subdivisions, surveys, and numbers. The Lancaster 
Land company soon failed to keep the taxes paid, and these lands are now all 



1 1 34 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

held by treasurer's deeds under sales for unpaid taxes. The want of a general 
proprietorship in these lands, and a land office where they could be bought, 
served greatly to retard tlie settlement of that part of the county. The same 
was true of the George Mead lands, most of which came into the tax sale market 
as early as 1818. 

The territory of the county west of the Allegheny river and Conewango creek, 
hitherto entirely unappi'opriated, was mostly covered by warrants taken out by 
the Holland Land company soon after the passage of the celebrated actual settle- 
ment act of the 3d of April, 1792, and surveyed into tracts of 400 acres each, 
about the year 1195. This part of the county has always had and still contains 
much the largest bulk of the population. 

That portion of the county lying between the Allegheny river and Cone- 
wango creek was mostly surveyed on warrants taken out by John Nicholson, 
about the year 1800, while he was Treasurer of the Commonwealth. Nicholson 
proved defaulter to the government, and failed to pay his notes for the purchase 
money, and the State at one time claimed to still own the lands, but abandoned 
it, and they were all sold and re-sold for taxes, and are now held and occupied 
under tax titles. 

By the act of the 18th of March, 1T95, the Grovernor was required to appoint 
two commissioners to survey and lay out the town of Warren and certain 
reserve tracts adjoining, upon the land reserved for that purpose by the act of 
the 3d April, 1^92. It was done that year by General William Irvine and 
Andrew Ellicott, and soon after the Holland company erected therein a block 
store-house, to which they boated provisions up the river from Pittsburgh, to 
supply their surveyors and settlers. This was the first erection in the town. 

■ Even before 1800, and within the next five years, quite a number of adven- 
turous pioneers had commenced actual settlements for agricultural purposes in 
several localities throughout the county. John Gilson, James Morrison, and 
Martin Reese were the first to occupy the river flats in and adjoining the town 
of Warren ; Joseph Marsh and Robert Russell, in the beech-woods, now Farming- 
ton township ; the Morrison, English, and Marsh families on the Kinzua flats, 
twelve miles above Warren; Robert Miles, John Barr, John Dickenson, the 
Hood and Stewart families, the hardwood uplands of Sugar Grove; and Daniel 
Horn and Abram Davis, on the upper waters of the Brokenstraw, where the 
borough of Columbus stands. Lower down on that stream, James White, 
Andrew Evers, Robert Andrews, Joseph and Darius Mead, and Daniel McQuay 
cleared land for farming in connection with their lumbering operations, and still 
below them, as the valle}^ widened near its mouth, farms were opened by 
Matthew Young, who gave to Youngsville its patronymic, John McKinney, 
Hugh Wilson, and Joseph Grey. At its outlet and on the river flats was opened 
the splendid farm then owned by General Calender Irvine, the best in the 
county, and which has remained in the possession of the family ever since. 

Upon the close of the last war with Great Britain, a rapid tide of emigration •' 
set in from New York and the Eastern States. Soon that element predomi- 
nated, and has retained the ascendancj'^ ever since. The Yankees have ruled 
Warren county, and to their enterprise and industrj^ its rapid development is 
largely attributable. About 1830 some Germans found their way mto the 



WAKREN COUNTY. II35 

county, and made known its attractions to their friends abroad. In a f^w years 
a large Protestant German population had sought homes here, mostly in and 
around Warren borough, where they and their descendants still remain. Both 
the agricultural and mechanical departments have been and now are largely 
supplied from this foreign element. 

A history of Warren county would be incomplete without some notice of, 
perhaps the earliest settler, Gy-ant-wa-chia, alias John O'Bail, alias " The Corn- 
planter." He was a distinguished chief of the Seneca tribe of Indians, one of the 
confederate Six Nations, celebrated before and during the Revolutionary war. 
Cornplanter was a half breed, the contemporary of Washington, about the same 
age, a valiant warrior of his tribe, and of superior sagacity and eloquence. He 
fought on the side of the French during the French and English struggle for the 
north-west of this continent, commencing with the battle of the Monongahela, on 
the 9th of July, 1755, and resulting in Braddock's defeat and death. During 
the Revolutionary war, he, as a chief of one of the Six Nations, was in league 
with and fought on the side of the British. Immediately on the close of the 
war, being deserted by his British allies, his superior sagacity convinced him he 
had been in the wrong in that contest, and that the true policy for his tribe and 
race was to accept the situation, and make friends with their future masters. 
This he hastened to do, and was efficient in bringing the Six Nations into 
friendly treaties with the Government. He was himself one of the negotiators 
and signers to the treaties of Fort Stanwix and Fort Harmar, ceding large 
districts of land to the United States. He maintained his allegiance most faith- 
fully and efficiently during the Indian war, from 1790 to 1794, rendering valuable 
assistance to the general government and in the protection of the western 
frontiers of Pennsylvania. For these services, among other rewards, he received 
from Pennsylvania permission to select 1,500 acres of land from her unappro- 
priated territory for himself and his posterity. Among his selections he chose 
for his own occupancy a tract of 640 acres of beautiful land on the west bank of 
the Allegheny river, about fourteen miles above Warren, together with two large 
adjacent islands. Here he permanently located himself and family about 1791 
and resided until his death, in 1836, at the age of one hundred or upwards, 
and here his family and descendants, to the number of about eighty-five, still 
reside. Notwithstanding their history and surroundings, they have never 
brought their land to a high state of cultivation. They farm it some, not 
enough for their subsistence, and many of them talk English. But with all the 
advantages of white neighbors and an English school kept among them, they are 
Indians still. 

In 1866, the Legislature of Pennsylvania authorized the erection of a monu- 
ment to the memory of the old chieftain, which was done under the supervision 
of the writer at a cost of five hundred and fifty dollars, and now marks the grave 
of one of the bravest, noblest, and truest specimens of the aboriginal race. 
Three of his children were present at the dedication of his monument in 1866 — 
the last of whom died in 1874, at the age of about one hundred years. 

Almost the exclusive occupation of the first settlers was the manufacture of 
pine lumber. This continued, with some exceptions, for the first twenty years. 
Still, very early in the century, necessity compelled the cultivation of the soil to 

3 TV 



1136 HISTOR T OF PEKNS YL VANIA. 

some extent, even by the lumbermen. This, and experiments made elsewhere 
at length developed the fact that soil which produced valuable crops of timber 
would, when subdued, produce other crops equally luxuriant. The northern part 
of the county, generally covered with hard wood, beech and maple predominating, 
was found to be well adapted both to grazing and grain raising. In the production 
of grass, oats, and potatoes, and indeed of all climatic roots, it is unsurpassed b}' 
any county in the same latitude. Other grains are cultivated with success. 
Corn and buckwheat are generally remunerative crops. Good crops of wheat, 
rye, and barley, are raised in some localities, yet much flour is imported into the 
county. Naturally and properh^ the agriculturalists, in late years, have turned 
their attention to grazing and the manufacture of butter and cheese, large 
quantities of which are now exported to eastern cities. 

The lumbering business, commencing nearly with the present century, 
exhibited its infancy and primitive character for many years, in water mills and 
single upright saws, driven by overshot or flutter wheels, working only at certain 
stages of water, and subject to suspension by ice, flood, and drouth. A mill 
that would cut one hundred thousand feet per annum was considered a good 
investment. Floating lumber to market in rafts was commenced by Daniel 
Jackson on the Conewango, and by Darius and Joseph Mead on the Brokenstraw, 
in 1801. For halting and tieing up rafts, halyard and hickory splint cables were 
mostly used for some j'ears, the latter being manufactured by George Gregg on 
the Brokenstraw. 

In 1805, a new trade sprung up, in the boating of seasoned lumber from the 
Brokenstraw to New Orleans. Several trips were thus made during this and the 
following years, and good profits realized, though at great hazards. The late 
William B. Foster, of Pittsburgh, and Colonel William Magaw, of Meadville, 
were engaged in that enterprise. Of the pilots and hands employed, Daniel 
Horn and some others would return by sail vessels to Baltimore, and from thence 
travel home on foot. Dan. McQuay and some others made some return trips on 
foot all the way from New Orleans. Such lumber, the best quality, of course, 
brought there forty dollars per thousand feet. From this small beginning, the 
lumber business, under the management and energy of the Meads and McKin- 
neys, Elijah Smith, Daniel Horn, Dr. William A. Irvine, and others on the 
Brokenstraw ; Guy C. Irvine, Robert Russel, Jacob Hook, Robert Miles, Josiah 
and Orvis Hall, and others on the river and Conewango creek, acquired huge 
dimensions, until at the springtime freshets these streams would seem almost 
covered for miles with floating rafts. Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louis- 
ville, St. Louis, and other intermediate towns, had grown up in the meantime, 
and opened their markets for lumber. Re-action wheels, steam mills, circular and 
gang saws, had superseded the flutter wheel and lonesome single saw, and millions 
of feet were now made where thousands were before. 

This business reached and passed its summit between the years 1832 and 
1840, when it took the down grade, and has now, by the failure of the timber, 
dwindled to a mere fraction of what it was. 

In the same period agriculture has increased in about the same proportion as 
the lumbering has decreased. It now sends to foreign markets much butter, beef, 
cheese, hay, and other products. 



i 



WABREN COUNTY. 1137 

Perhaps the most important branch of manufacturing industry of modern 
growth are tlie tanneries, that within a few years have discovered and commenced 
to utilize the immense forests of heralocli that covered large portions of the 
count}^, especially that part east of the Allegheny river. Six large tanneries and 
several smaller ones have recently commenced the consumption of hemlock bark, 
and are making sad havoc of the native deer parks. These establishments 
require large investments of capital, and are now one of the most important and 
successful industries of the county. 

Crossing from the side-hill on the west side of the river near Tidioute, oil 
(originally called Seneca, now petroleum) was seen and smelt by the denizens 
and navigators for many years, without supposing it to be of any value, or 
knowing how to utilize it. Soon after the first production of oil at Titusville, in 
1859. and the discovery that it could be refined into an illuminator, the 
attention of speculators was attracted to Tidioute, and a few flowing wells were 
opened there. Immediately this ragged, lonely spot was invaded b^- crowds 
from all sections of countr}' . For a time it seemed to be the Mecca of the multi- 
tude seeking wealth without work. On the river and adjacent hills, several 
hundred wells were sunk, with more or less success, with fewer dry holes and 
better permanence in production than were incident to many other developed 
localities. But, as is true of all others, the production gradually diminished, and 
the bright anticipations of many were blasted. In the excitement, Tidioute 
grew from a small village to a large and prosperous borough. Hotels, banks, 
saloons, chui'ches, and mercantile houses appeared upon its streets with magical 
rapidity. Money floated in every breeze like leaves in autumn. But with the 
diminished supply, and low price of oil since the panic of 1873, came a terrible 
revulsion in its prosperity. The suddenly rich became as suddenly poor, and 
the inflated prices of property depreciated to the lowest standard of value. 
Still oil continues to be produced there in paying quantities in a number of wells, 
mostly owned bj' men and companies that low prices could not break. 

The rise and fall of Enterprise and Fagundus, two other oil-fields of the 
count}^ laying south and west of Tidioute, were but repetitions of the same inevi- 
table destiny of all villages and cities forced to an unnatural growth by the 
stimulus of an oil excitement. 

The production of petroleum, however, has been the source of much wealth 
to the people of the county. Large quantities of rough and poor land were 
sold to foreign speculators at fabulous prices, the greater portion of which 
remain dead stock in the hands of the buyers. In many cases the sellers also, 
thus made suddenl^^ rich, in the end are worse off than if they had never sold. 
The county, in its municipal capacity, incidentally received a large benefit from 
the discovery of oil. 

In 1861, Ilenry R. Rouse, who had represented the county in the Legislature 
the two preceding years, embarked largely in the oil speculations of tlie day, 
and acquired much vahiable territory on Oil creek. In the moment of trium- 
phant success, he became enveloped in an explosion of gas from one of his own 
wells, and was fatally burned. During the few hours he lived afterwards he 
executed a will, making the county his residuary legatee. A large estate was 
thus acquired, one-half for the benefit of the poor of the county, and the other 



1138 



HIS TOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA . 





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half to be expended upon the roads and bridges of the 
county. By this act of beneficence, Wari'en county 
acquired a permanent fund of nearly $200,000. 

A first-class farm, in the valley of the Brokenstraw, 
on which are erected large and commodious brick 
buildings for the accommodation and comfort of the 
destitute, designated as " The Rouse Hospital," sus- 
tained by the income from an invested fund of $85,000, 
remains as a permanent blessing to the county and 
lasting monument to the benevolent heart of Henry R. 
Rouse. The farm and fund almost entirely exempt 
the people from the burden of a poor tax. 

The improved condition of the roads and bridges 
also bear daily testimony to the beneficent results de- 
rived by the public from the interest of the other half 
of his generous bequest. This fund, and the judicious 
and economical management of the finances by the 
commissioners, have given to Warren county the dis- 
tinction of being one of a very small number in the 
Commonwealth entirely free from debt. 

The production of petroleum is still prosecuted to 
a considerable extent in the southern part of the 
county, and some recent developments have created a 
pretty general impression that the land immediately 
around Warren borough, especially that bounding it 
on the north and east, is about to develop us good oil 
territory. A few producing wells are now in opera- 
tion, and active measures are now in progress to tho- 
roughly test it. Some testing experiments are being 
made elsewhere, but as yet with no favorable results. 

Incidents in the History of Warren County, 
WITH Dates. — County erected and surveyed in 1800 ; 
organized for judicial and municipal purposes by act 
of March 16th, 1819; first court held, Hon. Jesse 
Moore, president judge, Isaac Connelly and Joseph 
Hackney, associate judges, in November, 1819; the 
Hon. Henry Shippen appointed president judge in 
1 824 ; trial of Jacob Hook, for the murder of Caleb 
Wallace, was had in 1824 ; the first court house 
erected in 1827; first jail built in 1829; the steamboat 
Allegheny, built mainly by Archibald Tanner, of 
Warren, and David Dick, of Meadville, opened steam- 
boat navigation on the Alleghen}'- river up to Warren, 
making one and the only trip ever made by steam to 
Clean, in New York State, to the great amusement of 
the Anglo-Saxons, and the astonishment of the native 
Senecas, in 1830 ; the Warren academy, aided by a 



WABliEN COUNTY. II39 

State appropriation, was built 1834 ; the Lumbermen's bank of Warren chartered, 
organized, and opened with a paid up capital stock of $100,000, Robert Fal- 
coner, president, and Fitch Shepard, cashier, 1834 ; the Sunbury and Erie, now the 
Philadelphia and Erie railway, chartered and organized in 1837; Sunbury and 
Erie railroad surveyed and located through Warren county in 1838; the Lum- 
bermen's bank failed in 1838 ; the first bridge across the river built at Warren 
in 1839 ; Warren county taken out of the Sixth Judicial District, iind made 
part of the Eighteenth District, and N. B, Eldred appointed president judge, in 
1835 ; he was succeeded by Alexander McCalmont in 1839 ; Warren county 
restored to the Sixth District in 1840 ; a district court created in the Sixth Dis. 
trict for five years, and James Thompson appointed judge, 1840 ; Judge McCalmont 
was succeeded by Gaylord Church, 1843 ; Hon. John Galbraith elected president 
judge in 1851 ; Judge Galbraith having died, the vacancy was filled by the appoint- 
ment of R. Brown, 1860 ; he was succeeded by the election of S. P. Johnson, 1860 • 
the district, so long composed of Erie, Crawford, and Warren counties, was 
changed in 1870 ; L. D. Wetmore was elected for the district, including Warren 
county, in 1870; an assistant judgeship was created for the Sixth District, 
including Warren, in 1856 ; filled by David Derrickson for the first ten years, 
and by John P. Vincent, until 1873; owing to the failure of the United States 
bank, the Sunbury and Erie railroad enterprise, in which it was the principal 
stockholder, was suspended for nearly twenty years, was revived in 1857, 
and the western division from Erie to Warren was completed in the fall of 
1859; the line was completed to Sunbury in 1863; other railroads folloAved, 
first, the Warren and Franklin railroad, from Irvineton to Oil City, was com- 
pleted in 1867 ; the Dunkirk and Warren railroad, between those two points, 
was built in 1871 ; and the Warren and Venango road, from Warren to Titusville. 
in 1872 ; the Warren county bank was chartered in 1856 ; and after changing its 
name to the North-western Bank of Warren, finally failed in 1861 ; a new and 
elegant suspension bridge over the Allegheny river was erected at Warren in 
1872 ; and another at Tidioute in 1873 ; a new, ornamental, and commodious jail 
built in 1874 ; the Western Insane Hospital was located in this county, in the 
Conewango valley, two miles north of Warren borough, in 1873, which is now 
being built by the State on a most beautiful site, with twelve hundred feet 
frontage, and at an estimated cost of near one million ; the old court house was 
torn down, and a new one of modern style and conveniences commenced on the 
same ground, this 3'ear of 1876. 

Warren borough was incorporated in 1832 by act of the Legislature, with 
a population of 358, which may now be safely estimated at 2,600. It is beauti- 
fully situated just below the confluence of the Conewango creek and Allegheny 
river, bounded on the east and south by these two streams. It has within its 
limits about 400 acres of land, seven churches, a large and elegant Union school 
house, an excellent water power, on which arc erected a grist mill, and several 
mechanical and manufacturing industries. 



.#" 



WASHINGTON COUNTY. 




BY ALFRED CREIGH, LL.D., WASHINGTON. 

ASIIINGTON county, Pennsylvania, of 1781, may very justly claim 

an existence as a portion of Virginia, under the original charter 

grantc 1 to Sir Walter Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth, on the 25th day 

of March, 1584. -lames I., in 1C06, divided the entire colony between 

the London and I lyirouth land companies, and the south-western portion of 

Pennsylvania, claimed by Virginia, belonged to the Plymouth Land Company. 

Charles L, being the successor to James I,, gave extensive grants of land to 

^_^_ ^ Lord Fairfax 

and Lor d 
Baltimore, 
which event 
caused much 
ditflculty. In 
1634, Vir- 
ginia was di- 
vided into 
eight shires, 
or counties, 
which, since 
the American 
Revolution, 
have been di- 
vided into 
one hundred 
and fifty-two 
counties, of 
which fift}''- 
three are in 

West Virginia. According to historical evidence, the territory of Washington 
.county was originally a part of the district of West Augusta, but in 1720, Spott- 
sylvania county was taken from West Augusta, with Williamsburg as its county 
town. In 1734, Orange county was taken from Spottsylvania, and comprised what 
is now known as Western Virginia; but in 1738, Frederick and Augusta counties 
were erected from Orange, and b}^ the terms of that act Augusta county was to 
constitute all that portion of Virginia west of the Blue ridge. As early as 1774, 
Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, organized a court at Fort Pitt, then claimed by 
Virginia. We may remark, that in 1773 it was called Fort Dunmore, in honor of 
its governor, and because the British had abandoned it. On November 8, 1776, 

1140 




WASniNGTON AND JEFFEKSOX COLLEGE, AT WASHINGTON. 



WASHINGTON COUNTY, lU] 

West Augusta was divided into three counties, viz, : Yohogania, Ohio, anc? 
Monongalia. Yohogania county embraced the northern part of Washington 
county of 1781, and Ohio county the southern part, while Monongalia county 
embraced a large portion of Fayette county. In 1778, the lines of these three 
counties were adjusted by Colonel William Crawford, Richard Yeates, Isaac 
Leet, William Scott, and James McMahon, whose descendants reside within 
the original boundaries once claimed by Virginia, but now belonging to 
Pennsylvania, 

The organic act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, under date of March 28, 
1781, gave to Washington county its metes and bounds. It was bounded by 
Virginia on the south and west, the Ohio river on the north, and the Monon- 
gahela river on the east. It remained intact until September 24, 1788, when all 
of Allegheny county south of the Ohio and west of the Monongahela river was 
taken from Washington, and on September, 1789, the whole of Dickinson town- 
ship and the one-half of Cecil township, Washington county, was also added to 
Allegheny county. On February 9, 1796, the townships of Cumberland, Morgan, 
Franklin, Ilich Hill, and Greene were taken from Washington county and consti- 
tuted Greene county. On March 12, 1800, the last reduction of the limits of 
Washington county was effected, b}'- striking all its land south of the Ohio river, 
b}^ which Beaver county was organized. James Edgar, Hugh Scott, Van 
Swearingen, Daniel Leet, and John Armstrong were appointed commissioners 
to organize the county, according to the provisions of the act in which its 
boundaries were defined, courts to be organized, purchase lands for public 
buildings, and to divide, the county into townships, specifying their organization 
on July 1, 1781. 

The chief employment of its inhabitants is agriculture, more especially 
breeding and grazing cattle, and the raising of wool. Since the introduction of 
sheep into this county, about the year 1820, the farmers devote their time and 
attention to this product, and according to the census of 1870, the entire 
number of sheep was 426,621, while all other live stock numbered only 41,451, 

Bituminous coal is easily accessible in the vicinity of Washington borough, 
yet in some few townships it lies at quite a depth from the surface. There ai'e 
twenty-seven mining establishments in this county, employing 1,042 hands, with 
a capital of $1,298,118, Limestone abounds throughout the county, from a 
dark gray to a dove or cream color. It is used for lime and " piking " tlie roads 
and streets. Hence, coal and limestone are the only mineral resources of 
Wasliington county. 

The names of our early settlers, and with whom the history of Washington 
county are so intimately blended, are David Hoge, Daniel Leet, Doctor Absalom 
Baird, Van Swearingen, William Findley, lion, Alexander Addison, David Red- 
dick, Hon. James Ross, Alexander Reed, James Marshall, Rev. Thaddeus Dodd, 
John Rutman, Dennis Smith, Abel McFarland, Nathaniel McGiffcn, Joseph Town- 
send, Isaac Jenkinson, Matthew Ritchie, Rev. Matthew Henderson, Thomas 
Stokely, Rev. Joseph Smith, Rev. Thomas Marquis, William Rankin, Rev. John 
McMillan, Colonel George Morgan, James Stephenson, George Burget, Patrick 
McCullough, Adam Poe, Rev, Elisha McCurdy, Rev, John Watson, Henry 
Graham, Samuel Johnson, William Patterson, and a host of others too nume- 






1 1 42 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

rous to mention, whose descendants are living in our county, and generally upon 
the homestead of their fathers, each having a strong desire to perpetuate their 
respective families in the home of their ancestors. 

Washington county may very justly lay claim to a very large amount of 
patriotism in defence of liberty. As early as 1781, the very year of her 
organization as a county, we find Brigadier- General George Clark organizing a 
brigade to prosecute a war against the Indians, which he successfully accom- 
plished. The officers of Westmoreland and Washington counties, on June 3, 
1781, responded to his call, with the soldiers under their command, for the 
defence of the frontiers against the Shawanese, Delawares, and Sandusky Indians. 
In the fall of 1781, Colonel David Williamson, of Washington county, prosecuted 
his first expedition to break up the Indian settlements at the Muskingum r ver 
and after having taken the Indians as prisoners, he sent them to Fort Pitt, where 
in due time they were liberated. But on their re urn home they killed and made 
prisoner a family by name of Montour, which gave rise to the second expedition, 
in March, 1782, the result of which was the destruction of the Moravian Indians. 
In the summer of 1782, Colonel William Crawford organized a third expedition, 
with a regiment of four hundi'ed and eighty-two men, and proceeded to Sandusky, 
where his command met with the disaster to which we have heretofore alluded. 

In a resume of the history of Washington county, there properly belongs 
some reference to the Virginia and Pennsylvania controversy from 1752 to 1783, 
the running of Mason and Dixon's line, and the progress of the Whiskey Insur- 
rection, in all which measures the county took an active part, and was the principal 
point wherein meetings were held and measures adgpted both to promoie 
and defeat these several objects. These subjects have, however, been referred to 
in the General History. 

The borough of Washington was a portion of Strabane township. It was 
originally called " Catfish's camp," from two facts — first, an Indian chief by the 
name of Catfish, of the Kuskee Indians, was the possessor of all these lands for 
his tribe, and as early as 1759 we find him addressing the Provincial Council of 
Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. The stream also bears his name. Then, again, 
in 1769, when David Hoge purchased the three tracts of land from the Hun- 
ter family,' the patent designates one as Catfish's camp, because it was the 
resting-place of persons traveling from Red Stone Old Fort to Wheeling — 
hence it was called Catfish's camp. When the town was laid out by David . 
Hoge, October, 13, 1781, he gave it the name of Bassettown. On the 4th 
November, 1784, the name was changed to Washington. On the 13th of Febru- 
ary, 1810, it was incorporated as a borough, and its limits were extended in 1854. 

Washington college was established March 21, 1805, as a corporation, 
although it existed as an academy as early as September 24, 1787. While I 
an academy, Benjp-min Franklin, in 1790, presented £50 to be applied to the* 
foundation of a library. In August, 1852, by an agreement between the board 
of trustees and the Presbyterian Synod of Wheeling, it became a synodical 
college, with a permanent endowment fund. September r, 1864, the Synod of 
Wheeling, with several other Presbyterian synods, made a formal and earnest 
appeal to the trustees of Washington and Jefferson colleges, to unite on an 
equitable basis, and after many meetings and full discussions by tl;e aluinni 



WASHINGTON COUNTY. 



1143 



and trustees of the institutions, the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed an act 
of incorporation, March 4, 1865, uniting these colleges, subject, however, U) a 
two-thirds vote of the trustees. Accordingly, on April 20, 1869, twenty-seven 
members out of thirtj^ being present, the question of consolidation was adopted, 
and Washington and Jefferson college was thenceforth to be located in Wash- 
ington, Pennsylvania. On February' 2, 1870, the board of trustees completed 
the organization and consolidation of these two colleges. 

It will not be inappropriate at this time to briefly refer to .Jefferson col- 
lege, which was located at Canonsburg, seven miles from Washington. This 
institution was originally incorporated as an academy in 1794, and on January 




SOUTH-WESTERN COLLEGE, CALIFORNIA. 



15, 1802, received a charter from the Legislature. It continued from its organi 
zation to the date of its consolidation, diffusing and disseminating, through its 
president, professors, and alumni, the principles of science and literature, and its 
entire history as a college stands second to none in the United States. 

A female seminary was established in Washington, November 26, 1835, and 
during its existence of forty years it has had but three principals, of which Miss 
N. Sherrard has occupied the position for one year. It is very deservedly one 
of our best institutions, in which every branch of education to adorn the female 
mind, and prepare them for the duties and cares of life, are imparted by the 
esteemed principal and her assistants. 

Canonsburg was laid out by Colonel John Canon, April 15, 1788, being 
situated on Chartiers creek, seventeen miles from Pittsburgh and seven miles 
from Washington, and within Chartiers township. It was incorporated as a 



1144 HISTOBY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

borough February 22, 1802. It was the original seat of Jefferson college, now 
consolidated with Washington college. . . . West Middleton is situated 
in the north-western part of Hopewell township, and was erected into a borough 
March 27, 1823. In close proximity to the borough is Pleasant Hill seminary, 
which has lately been purchased to elevate the colored race in literature and 
science. . . . Claysville is on the National road, and was erected into a 
borough April 2, 1832. It is located in Donegal township. . . . Green- 
field, in East Pike Run township, laid out in 1819, was incorporated as a 
borough April 9, 1834. 

California is also situated in East Pike Run township, on the Monongahela 
river, and was laid out in November, 1853, and incorporated as a borough May 
1, 1859. The ground upon which the borough is laid out belonged to Yoho- 
gania county, under Virginia. It was at this point that the Indians met, in 
1767, with Rev. John Steel, of Carlisle, whose mission was to persuade the 
white man not to molest or invade the Indian hunting grounds. The land origi- 
nally belonged to Indian Peter. The South-Western Normal College, of the 
Tenth District, was established in this borough, March 16, 1865, under an efficient 
faculty and board of trustees. 

MoNONQAHELA CiTY is in Union township, on the western bank of the Monon- 
gahela river. It was originally called Parkinson's ferry, and known as such 
during the Whiskey Insurrection. In 1833 the name was changed to Williams- 
port, and April 1, 1837, to Monongahela City. It has now, by an act of the 
Legislature, ceased to be a borough, and enjoys all the rights and privileges of a 
eit}', with the accustomed officers. It contains varied mechanical and manufac- 
turing industries, with an active and enterprising population. 

MiLLSBORo' was laid out on a tract of land patented as early as June 3, 1769, 
on the north bank of Ten Mile creek. It is situated in East Bethlehem township. 
The Monongahela river at this point is slack-water, and twenty miles further up 
the river, as far as Ne.w Geneva. . . . West Brownsville was laid out in 1831, 
and erected into a borough April 2, 1852. It is situated on ihe Monongahela 
river, and has within its limits a vein of bituminous coal seven feet in thickness. 
It is a thriving, growing town. . . . Beallsville was laid out in August, 
1819, and erected into a borough Februai'y, 16, 1852. It is located in West 
Pike Run township, and on the National road, fifteen miles from Washington. 
. . . Bentleysville was laid out on the waters o.f Pigeon creek, March 4, 
1816, and on Ma}'^ 2, 1868, became a borough. Its original limits have been 
extended. It is situated in Somerset township. . . . Fredericktown, in 
East Bethlehem township, is on the west bank of the Monongahela river, two 
miles north of the mouth of Ten Mile creek, eight miles above Redstone Old Fort 
(Brownsville), and twenty miles south-west of Washington. It was laid out as 
early as 1790, the laud thereof being patented in 1788. So determined were 
the people to promote literature and science, that in 1793 they established a 
public library. . . . West Alexander, in Donegal township, was laid out 
in 1817, and incorporated as a borough May 31, 1874. The National turnpike and 
Hempfield raili'oad runs through this thriving borough. 



WAYNE COUNTY. 



BY THOMAS J. HAM, HONESDALE. 

AYNE county was organized by the act of xMarch 21st, 1798, declar- 
ing that "all that part of Northampton county lying and being to 
the northward of a line, to be drawn and beoinnins: at the west end 
of George Michael's farm, on the river Delaware, in Middle Smith- 
field township, and from thence a straight line to the mouth of Trout creek on 
the Lehigh, adjoining Luzerne county, shall be, and the same is hereby, erected 





VIEW OP THE BOROUGH OF HONESDAtB. 

into a county, henceforth to be called Wayne." It was so named in honor of 
that gallant officer of the Revolution, General Anthony Wayne, of Chester 
county. 

The county, as originally set off from Northampton, contained an area of about 
1,300 square miles, and was divided into four townships, viz.: Delaware, Middle 
Smithfield, Matlack, and Upper Smithfield. At the first term of its courts the 
expediency of its farther division was recognized, and on the second day of the 
session, September 11th, 1798, in compliance with a petition of twenty-five 

1145 



1146 HISTOK Y OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

citizens of the northern part of the county, praying that the county north and 
west of Shohola creelc be made into six townships, to afford greater facilities for 
the transaction of town business and convenience in assessing, an order was 
made for that purpose, Samuel Stanton, Eliphalet Kellogg, Nathan Skinner, 
Mordecai Roberts, and Hezekiah Bingham, Jr., or any of them, being authorized 
to run the lines. On the 26th of March, 1814, that portion of Wayne county 
lying south and east of Big Eddy on the Delaware, and south of the Waullenpau- 
pack creek, was erected into Pike county. 

The resources of the county may be comprised under the general heads of 
manufactures and agriculture. Large mineral deposits are believed to exist in 
different parts of the county, but, as yet, with the exception of occasional un- 
successful experiments, nothing has been done toward their development. It is 
quite certain that veins of anthracite coal extend within the north-western 
boundary line ; small quantities of lead ore have been found in the hills on the 
east of Honesdale; iron ore exists in Berlin township, and indications of other 
minerals crop out in different localities. In Mount Pleasant, Texas, and Berlin, 
prospecting has at various times been engaged in to a considerable extent, but 
leading to no profitable results. During the oil excitement of a few years since, 
unquestionable indications of petroleum deposits were discovered at various 
points in the county, and in Damascus township, opposite Narrowsburg, a well 
was sunk to a considerable depth, but, owing to unsatisfactory results, finally 
abandoned. 

As it has been largely owing to the operations of the Delaware and Hudson 
canal company, however, that the development of Wayne county has been con- 
tinuous and rapid, it is fitting that a brief account of the origin, growth, and 
present business of that corporation should be given in this connection. 

The experiment of burning anthracite coal in a grate proving successful in 
Wilkes-Barre in 1808, attempts were soon made to forward the fuel to market. 
Among other avenues of transportation an outlet was sought through Rixe's gap, 
in this county, in addition to the old Connecticut road. The coal was drawn on 
sleds during the winter. The distance to the Lackawaxen by this route, which 
lav through Cherry Ridge township, was about twenty miles. Arrived at White 
Mills, it was loaded on pine rafts and floated to Philadelphia. The risk of navi- 
gating the Lackawaxen in this manner being found to be great, in 1823, Maurice 
Wurts obtained authority from the Legislature to improve the navigation of the 
J stream, but competition from other companies, just formed in the Schuylkill and 
Lehigh region, springing up, Philadelphia was abandoned as an unremunerative 
market, and the project of connecting the Delaware with the Hudson river, with 
the view to reaching New York by water communication, began to be seriously 
considered. William Wurts shortly afterward made a survey of the route, and- 
reporting favorabl}', the needed legislation was obtained from the States of New 
York and Pennsylvania, and a competent engineer was emploj^ed to re-survey the 
line and furnish estimates of the cost of the proposed canal. 

The original survey of the canal placed the western terminus at or near 
Keen's or Headley's pond, in Wayne county, whence the mines were to be 
reached by a short railroad crossing the Moosic mountain by means of inclined 
pianos. This was subsequently changed, and the connection of the railroad 



WAYNE COUNTY. II47 

and canal made at the junction of the Lackawaxen and Dyberry creeks, then a tract 
covered with the primeval forest, and an almost impenetrable jungle of laurel. 

The canal was commenced in 1826, and occupied two years in its construc- 
tion. It was at first designed for boats carrying twenty-five tons, and has since 
been from time to time enlarged, at a cost of over six millions of dollars, until 
at present it floats average cargoes of one hundred and thirty tons. It is 108 
miles in length, while the railroad extending to Providence is thirty-two miles 
long, and cost upwards of three millions of dollars. This road was the second 
one built on this continent, and the first in America upon which a locomotive 
was attempted to be run. This engine, named the "Stourbridge Lion," was 
built in England, and imported in 1828. It was put upon the rails near the old 
Methodist Episcopal church building, in the borough of Honesdale, and success- 
fully run two or three miles up the valley and return, Major Horatio Allen 
being the engineer. It was soon found, however, that the locomotive was too 
heavy for the slender trestling of which much of the road was then composed, 
and its agency was abandoned, stationary' engines and inclines being made to 
obviate the necessity for its use. 

The Pennsylvania coal compau}^, in 1848, commenced the building of a rail- 
road from Pittston to Hawley, a distance of forty-seven miles, about thirty of 
which pass across the south-western portion of this county. It was completed 
in 1850, and its building gave a new impetus to the growth of the village at its 
eastern terminus, Hawley becoming in a short time the second town in popula- 
tion in the count3\ 

The manufacture of glass was one of the earliest prominent business ventures 
of the county. The first furnace was started in 1816, by a company organized 
by Christopher Eaatz, who had previously been engaged in the same business in 
Milford. Mr. Faatz was a native of Germany, and the first man to blow window 
glass in the United States. The factory was located on a tract of six hundred 
acres of land, situated near Bethany, the then county seat. It was heavily 
wooded, thereby insuring an abundance of fuel, and upon it were three beautiful 
ponds, whose margins supplied unlimited quantities of suitable sand. A large 
business was done, but on the whole an unprofitable one, and within a few 3'ears 
the establishment passed into other hands. Subsequently the factory was kept 
running until December, 1848, when the buildings were destroyed by fire. In 
1841 the Honesdale glass factory, located at Tracyville, was started. An 
extensive business was carried on until the buildings were swept away by a 
flood, caused bj' the bursting of the dam of one of the Delaware and Hudson 
canal company's reservoirs, in Februar}', 1861. In 1813 the Honesdale glass 
company was organized, by which the woi'ks at Tracyville have been rebuilt, and 
the business resumed on an extensiye scale. Yery extensive flint-glass works 
have been in operation for several years at White Mills, five miles from Hones- 
dale. They were established by Christian Dorflinger, who is also president of 
the Honesdale glass company. The White Mills works are among the most 
complete in the country. 

As a dairy county, Wayne enjoys a very enviable reputation. The grazing 
qualities of the land are excellent, the water pure and chemically adapted to 
butter-making. A large proportion of the butter of Wayne county is sent to the 



1 1 48 HISTOIt Y OF P ENNS YL VANIA. 

New York market, where it ranks as the product of first-class Orange county 
dairies, and commands the highest market rates. The annual yield is: butter, 
1,100,000 pounds; cheese, 5,000 pounds. 

Concerning the earl}" settlement of the count}', neither the scope of this 
sketch, nor the extent of our researches, at this time, admit of an extended 
account. It was part of tlie territory long in dispute between Connecticut and 
Pennsylvania, and is generally admitted to have been the first point at which an 
attempt to locate under the Connecticut title was actuall}^ made, the Delaware 
company commencing its settlement at Cushetunk (Cochecton) as earlj^ as 1757. 
In 1761, a warrant was issued by the Chief Justice of the Province, directing the 
sheriff of the county (then Northampton) to arrest a number of New Englanders 
who had intruded upon the Indian lands at Cushetunk without leave. There is 
abundant evidence that this settlement was made near the mouth of Corkin's 
creek, and Simon Corkins, from whom the stream derived its name, was one of 
the offenders named in the warrant. Many of the descendants, of his colleagues, 
recited in the writ, are at present among the most respected citizens of the 
count}-. The Skinners, Corkinses, Smiths, Willises, Tylers, Chapmans, and 
Adamses, of Damascus and adjoining townships, can boast these venturesome 
and hardy pioneers as their ancestors. In 17G2, Sheriff John Jennings, of North- 
ampton county, emplo3-ed John W-illiamson to visit Cochecton and gain intelli- 
gence of the condition of the settlement. In his report, Williamson saj'S, that he 
reached the place b}' traveling up the Delaware to Minisink, seventy miles from 
Easton, and thence following an Indian path for forty miles, through a miserable 
rocky countr}-. He found sixteen families settled on the Delaware, their im- 
provements extending for a distance of seven miles along the river. TJie spirit 
which animated these pioneers may be inferred from Williamson's report, in 
which he says : " There were in all forty men. They threatened, if any sherifi" 
came to molest them, the}' would tie a stone about his neck and send him down 
to his governor. They knew the woods well, and would pop them down three 
to one." The "head man" of the settlement was Moses Thomas. Other leading 
men were Aaron Thomas, Isaac and Clnistopher Tracey, Jonathan Tracey, Reu- 
ben Jones, Moses and Levi Kimball, James Pennin, Daniel Cash, Nathan Parks, 
and Bezaleel Tyler. They were living in comfortable log houses, covered with 
white I'/me shingles or boards, and each raising a few acres of corn. Chapman 
says, that by this time the settlement had grown to a village of thirty dwelling 
houses, three large log houses, a block-house for defence, one grist mill, and one 
saw mill. This settlement was soon afterward broken up by the Indians, and its 
founders driven away ; but they subsequently returned, anci some of them pene- 
trated to the valley of Wyoming, where their history has been traced in letters 
of blood. An Indian path leading from Cychecton, through Little Meadows, in 
Salem township, and across the Moosic mountains to Capoose, whence a well- 
beaten trail led to Wyoming, was the first route by which the Delaware and Sus- 
quehanna were connected, and the first rude wagon-road cut out and opened 
from the Hudson river to Wyoming valley, for the pack horse or wheels followed 
this track the greater portion of the way, because of its being the most direct 
route from Connecticut to the backwoods of Lackawanna and Wyoming, then 
called Westmoreland by the Yankees. 



WAYNE COUNTY. 1149 

The Proprietary survey of WauUenpaupack Manor, located on the Waullen- 
paiipack creek, now the dividing line between Wayne and Pike counties, was 
made in 1748. It contained something over twelve thousand acres. A settle- 
ment was made on this tract by a family named Carter, in 1753, supposed to be 
the first whites who ever attempted to make themselves a home in this region. 
During the French and Indian war— probably in 1757— the family were 
butchered by the savages and their house burnt. The Connecticut settlers, 
following the old Indian path from Cochecton to the Susquehanna, which ran 
near the site of Carter's house, found the chimney still standing. In 1774, the 
Connecticut adventurers laid out farms lying along the creek for a distance of 
four miles and a half, and extending back to the mountains a distance of one 
mile. These were allotted to the settlers, and, for the most part, are still owned 
by their descendants. In the following year, about half of the settlers were 
arrested, at the instance of Governor Hamilton, as " Connecticut intruders." 
On their way to Easton, they entered into a written obligation with their captors, 
in consideration of being released, to resign all claims to the lands they were 
^occupying, and in future pay due obedience to the laws of Pennsylvania, and, if 
required, march for the defence of American liberty. During the Revolution, 
the settlement was subjected to many warlike incursions from the Indians and 
their Tory allies living on the upper waters of the Delaware. The well authen- 
ticated accounts of the outrages perpetrated during these raids are highly 
interesting, but the restrictions as to space imposed upon the writer prevent 
their being placed on record here. They had the effect of nearly depopulating 
the settlement for the time being, but on the return of peace with Great Britain, 
several of the WauUenpaupack people who had sought refuge in Orange countj', 
N. Y., and in Connecticut, found their way back to their old homes, and shortly 
afterward began to extend the boundaries of their pioneer work, following the 
courses of" the streams, aud locating on the rich bottom lands through which 
they flow. 

The first settler in Salem township was Robert Strong. He moved there 
with his family in 1776. Being hospitable to the Indians, he was favored with 
their friendsliip, and was never molested in any of their murderous raids. These 
relations continued until 1779, when General Sullivan desolated the Indian 
countr}', from the Suquehanna to the Genesee. This awoke the spirit of revenge 
in the savages, and, thirsting for vengeance, small parties of them roamed the 
mountains in search of victims. None were spared. Death was tlie sentence 
pronounced upon young and old, and fortunate were those who were not 
first put to the most cruel torture. In the early winter of 1779, a raid 
was made upon the little settlement in Salem. Strong, who for nearly a 
quarter of a century had been exempt from harm at the hands of the Indians, 
felt assured that his family would still be spared. But the slaughter was 
general. Strong and his entire family were butchered in cold blood, and it was- 
not until the savages supposed that every man, woman, and child of the little 
hamlet was slain, that they left for Cochecton and other settlements, in search 
of new victims. The only survivor of this raid was a man named Jacob Stanton 
He managed to secrete himself at the outset of the attack, and, watching a 
favorable opportunity, crept to the shadow of the woods, where he found a 



1150 



HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VAJSTIA. 



hiding-place until after the Indians had left the neighborhood. He then pre- 
pared a common grave as the last resting-place for his martyred famil^^ and 
neia-hbors, and. unaided, laid them in it side bj' side. Over their remains he 
fashioned a huge mound, which still exists as a mute, yet eloquent, witness of 
the fearful trials to which pioneer settlements were sometimes subjected. This 
massacre took place on what was in after years known as the Seth Goodrich farm. 
HoNESDALE, the present count}'- town, located on the Lackawaxen river, at 
the junction of the West Branch and D3^berry creeks, was first laid out in 1826, 
and incorporated a borough in 1831. It became the county seat in 1842, the 
first court being held in the new court house, December sessions, 1843. Up to 

182G, when active 
V ^ ^^zZ^^^S^^^^^M^K^ operations in the 

construction of the 
canal were first 
commenced, the 
site of the village 
was a Avilderness, 
but dating from 
that event, the 
growth of the town, 
which was named 
Hone's Dale, in 
honor of H o n . 
Philip Hone, an 
early and efficient 
patron of the Dela- 
ware and Hudson 
canal company, has 
been rapid and con- 
tinuous. The bo- 

WAYNE COUNTY SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, HONESDALE. r0UO"h is mUCh the 

largest village in 
the county, and is noted for the regularity and cleanliness of its streets, its public 
park, etc. During the late civil war, Wayne count}^ contributed liberally of 
blood and treasure for the maintenance of the Union, and through the exertions 
of the ladies of the county, a noble monument has been erected in the public 
square in Honesdale, to perpetuate the memory of those who fell. The streets 
are lighted with gas, and well conducted water works supply nearly every house 
with excellent water. It contains seven churches, a public library, and, in fact, 
a liberal supply of all the institutions which contribute to the prosperity of 
communities. 

Bethany, the county seat of Wayne from 1805 until 1843, was erected into a 
borough from a portion of Dyberry township, March 31, 1821. It is a pretty 
village, occupying a beautiful site on a high eminence, three miles north-west of 
Honesdale, though it has naturally lost much of its business activity since the 
removal of the county buildings. A newspaper was established in Bethany as 
early as 1818, called the Wayne County Mirror. 




WAYNE COUNTY. 115] 

IIawlet, the second village in size in the county, and an important point in 
consequence of being the depot for transhipping the coal of the Tennsylvania 
coal company from the Wasliington to the Erie railway, and the Delaware and 
Hudson canal, is located in Palmyra township. The business of the place has 
suffered somewhat of late years in consequence of the removal of the company's 
shops to another point. 

Prompton borough was incorporated out of parts of Texas, Canaan, and 
Clinton, in September, 1850. The village proper is located on the West Branch, 
about four miles west of Ilonesdale, while the borough limits extend nearly to 
Way mart and the Clinton 1 ine on the west and north. The Wayne County Normal 
School, established by the county superintendent, is located here. 

Waymart was incorporated April 8, 1851. The borough was erected out of 
the northern portion of Canaan township, and borders on the Clinton line. The 
Delaware and Hudson canal conapany make this an important point, tlieir road 
running through the village. Considerable quantities of coal are sometimes 
stocked in Waymart when the docks in Honesdale become full. 

Wayne borough was incorporated in 1853. The village is located in Scott 
township, and is important as being the centre of extensive tanning and lumber- 
ing operations. 

Organization of Townships. — Berlin, from Dyberry, November 27, 1826. 
. . . Buckingham was one of the original six townships into which Waj'ne 
was divided, on its erection in 1198, and comprised all of the territory now 
embraced in Buckingham, Manchester, and Scott townships, together with a part 
of Preston and all of Wayne borough. . . . Canaan was erected in 1798, 
on the organization of the county. . . . Clinton was erected in 1834, out of 
the northern portion of Canaan, and a small part each of Dyberiy and Mount 
Pleasant. . . . Cherry Ridge from Texas and Canaan, December 6, 1843. 
. . . Damascus, in the original division of all that portion of the county of 
Wayne lying north of Shohola creek, in 1798. . . . Dyberrt, from Damas- 
cus, in September, 1803, comprised at first all of the present territory known by 
that name, as well as Berlin, Oregon, Texas, and part of Prompton. . . . 
Lebanon was erected in August, 1819. . . . Oregon, from part of Berlin, in 
December, 1846, . . . Preston was erected April 28, 1828, from parts of 
Mount Pleasant and Scott. . . . Manchester, from a part of Buckingham, 
August 30, 1826. . . . Mount Pleasant, originally one of the six divisions of 
the count}^, on its erection in 1798, has been materially reduced by the subsequent 
laying out of other townships, leaving it at present an area of about thirty-two 
thousand acres. . . . Palmyra was erected, September, 1798, and originally 
included the territory now comprising Palmyra, Paupack, and part of Texas. 
. . . Paupack, from Palmyra, in May, 1850. . . . Scott, from Bucking- 
ham, in 1821. . . . Salem, one of the original six townships of the county, 
erected in 1798, and then included Sterling, which was set off in 1815. Part of 
Sterling was again added to Salem in 1839. . . . Sterling, from Salem. 
April 24, 1815. . . . South Canaan, from Canaan, in February, 1852. . . . 
Texas, from Dyberry, in 1887. 
3 X 




1152 



WESTMOEELAND COUNTY. 




BY DALLAS ALBERT, YOUNGSTOWN. 

ROM 1169 to 11*71, all the western portion of the State was embraced 
in Cumberland county. Bedford county was erected in 1771, 
with Bedford town as the county seat. The limits of this county, 
m its tui*n, extended to the Ohio river, and as early as this year 
the Penns appointed magistrates to cover their jurisdiction about Pittsburgh. 
But from the continual accession of emigrants into this region, and from the 
question already (jj-eating trouble between the colonists about the Youghio- 
gheny, in reference to the boun- 
dary lines, it was needful, as 
well as politic, to erect a new 
county government in no long 
time. After recognizing the 
formality of the petitions from 
numerous inhabitants of Bed- 
ford county, west of Laurel Hill, 
prating for the erecting of a new 
county, the General Assembly, 
on the 26th of February, 1773, 
passed the act by which West- 
moreland county was estab- 
lished. It was called West- 
moreland, after the county of 
Westmoreland in England. By 
the act it was placed on an equal 
footing with the other counties, 
and ample provision was made 
for the regular course of jus- 
tice in open court at the doors 
of her people. By provision of 

the act, the courts were- to be held at the house of Robert Hanna, till a court 
house should be built.' Hanna's settlement was on the old Forbes road, 
about thirty miles east of Pittsburgh, and about three miles north-east of 
the present county town, Greensburg. Robert Hanna, a north-county Irish- 
man, had early opened a public-house here, and near him had soon been com- 
menced a settlement, prosperous for .those times. If we except the region 
immediately contiguous to Fort Ligonier, and the region about the forks of 
the Ohio, the settlement about Hanna's was, at this date, the most flourish- 
ing in the county. After the courts had been appointed for here, the place 
w.as further stimulated. It was the first collection of houses between Bed- 

1 1 5.^ 




WESTMORELAND COUNTY COURT HOUSE. 



1154 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

fox'd and Pittsbara:li dio-nilied with the name of town. It at no time contained 
more than perhaps thirty log cabins, built after the primitive fashion of those 
days, of one story and a cock-loft in height, with clap-board roofs, and a huge 
mud chimney at one end of each cabin. These, scattered along the narrow pack- 
horse track among the monster trees of the ancient forest, was that Hannastown 
which occupied such a prominent place in the early history of Western Pennsyl- 
vania, where was held the first court west of the Allegheny, where the resolves 
of May 16, 1775, were passed, and which, swept off the earth by the merciless 
fire of the British mercenary savages, in truth and in deed marks the termina- 
tion of the war for Colonial independence. 

The first court held at Hannastown was opened April 13, 1773, in the 
thirteentli year of the reign of George the Third. It was a court of quarter 
sessions, and William Crawford presided. Here was justice first dispensed in 
the forms guaranteed by the great Alfred and the English Justinian, sacred in 
the traditions of the English sj^eaking people ; and this was the first place in the 
Mississippi valley where justice was administered in virtue of judicial authorit}-. 

Among the justices named in the first commission, William Crawford appears 
to have been the most conspicuous. He was a Virginian, and had settled on the 
southern side of the Youghiogheny. He was always recognized as the presiding 
justice when he was present at the county courts, although this distinction was 
not sanctioned by law, and only by usage. Why this distinction was so gene- 
rally conferred upon him is a difficult matter for us to determine ; for his pre- 
dilections were, as a matter of course, in favor of Virginia, he holding his lands 
under title from Virginia, his military commissions under the patronage of Vir- 
ginians, and with the claims of Virginia being personally concerned and inte- 
rested. Perhaps it was indeed to reconcile the apparent troubles arising from 
the conflicting claims of the two colonies. Crawford, at any rate, above the rest 
enjoyed this distinction, till, by an order of 1775 from the council, he was 
removed from office, on iufoi-mation that he openly sided with Virginia in the 
troubles then culminating. 

The most active agent in these affairs was one Doctor John Connolly, a man 
of great energy and of some ability, but of a mercenary and tyrannical disposition. 
He was by birth a Pennsylvanian, but became a willing tool of Dunmore. In the 
early part of 1774, Connolly took possession of Fort Pitt by an armed militia 
force, gotten together in the western part of the district of West Augusta, a 
name for that division of Virginia which lay beyond the Blue Ridge. He 
changed the name of Fort Pitt to Fort Dunmore, and in a proclamation from 
here asserted the claims of Virginia, and commanded the people west of Laurel 
Hill to recognize the authority of the King's governor. Nor did he stop at this; 
but he opposed the action of the Provincial magistrates both at Pittsburgh and 
at Hannastown, took private property from citizens, and abused with insolence 
any one who opposed his pretensions. St. Clair had Connolly arrested, and 
bound over to keep the peace, when Copnolly, going to Staunton, in Augusta 
county, was vested with the authority of a justice of the peace, to give a legal 
sanction and a show of civil authority to his actions. 

The disadvantages suffered by the inhabitants about Pittsburgh are forcibly 
put in the correspondence of Devereux Smith, one of the county justices, and a 



WEST3I0 h- ELAND COUNTY. II55 

firm cadlierent of Penn, and the apprehensions of the people at hirge fully set 
forth in the letters of St. Clair. In short, so much did these suffer in mind, body, 
and estate, by the tyranny of Connoll}^, that many left for the east to escape the evil 
time. The crops were allowed to lie ungathered ; the fences were down, and the 
cattle running at large. No taxes could be collected ; for twenty miles on either 
side of the Youghiogheny there was an exemption from civil and military duty; 
and worse than all, the public fears were heightened by the prospect of an Indian 
war, then gathering along the Ohio. How these troubles would have ended is 
unforeseen, for during the latter part of 1774 the attention of all the western 
frontier was turned to the Indian invasion. This war, called Dunmore's war of 1774, 
was strictly confined to the western border of Virginia. In the fall was fought 
the battle of Point Pleasant. Not knowing whether the whites or the savages 
might be successful, all the inhabitants remaining in Westmoreland were in arms, 
Under the advice and supervision of St. Clair, assisted b}' Colonel Proctor, 
Colonel Lochre3\ Captain James Smith, the frontier was put in a state of defence. 
All settlers withdrew back of the Forbes road, and the country between that and 
the Allegheny river was almost totally deserted. A company of rangers, whose 
extra pay was promised b}' the prominent men of the county, was organized, first 
at Fort Ligonier, but increased in numbers so that they, in squads of from ten to 
thirty, were scattered at intervals from Ligonier valley, by way of Hannastown, 
to the Bullock Pens, a few miles east of Pittsburgh. Many stockade forts and 
block-houses were then erected, which served during the Revolution, and after, as 
Ijlaces of defence to the inhabitants. Ligonier fort was put in repair, a stockade 
was put up at Hannastown, one on the Kiskiminetas, one at Kitaaning, one at 
Proctor's, between Hanna's and Fort Ligonier ; while block-houses, by the 
exertions of the people, were raised at convenient distances and of easy approach. 
An unaccountable panic seized upon the people. Alarms without foundation 
were constantl}'' spread, and continually increasing. Every exertion was made 
by those in authority to keep the inhabitants from wandering away. Such a 
state of miserable uncertainty continued, till the fortunate news of the success of 
Colonel Lewis at the mouth of the Kenhawa. ^ 

After the termination of Dunmore's war, in the fall of 1774, the civil troubles 
were again agitated. What, with this and the scanty supply of food, saved over 
from the preceding harvests, the winter of 1774-'75 was long remembered in the 
traditionary annals of Westmoreland. But the trials and sufferings of this time 
made this people, perhaps more than any other of the western colonists, appre- 
ciate that liberty which was now apparently to pass from them. 

All Americans appreciate the course their forefathers took in 1775. But 
especially may Pennsylvanians in general, and Westmorelanders in particular, 
W'ith patriotic pride and reverence, contemplate the actions of their ancestors at 
this date. The American'Revolution was then actually begun. When the news 
of the first skirmish reached the wilderness west of the mountains, a thrill of 
sympathy went up from the people. On the 16th of May, four weeks after 
Lexington, there were two meetings held in Western Pennsylvania, and both of 
them within the virtual limits of Westmoreland. One of these meetings was 
held at Pittsburgh, the other at Hannastown. 

Of the meeting at Pittsburgh, both Virginians and Pennsylvanians partici- 



1156 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



pated in it ; the meeting at Hamiastown was composed exclusively of Pennsyl- 
vanians. The resolutions adopted at Pittsburgh gave expression to a common 
sympathy, but took the occasion to refer more especially and at large to local 
affairs and grievances. Of this document we have the names of the signers and 
the names of those nominated to the committees. The only record we have of 
the meeting at Haiyiastown is preserved in the second volume of the American 
Archives (fourth series), and a letter of St. Clair to Governor Penn, written two 
days after the meeting, in which he alludes to the fact of his being present. 

The celebrated document which was produced on that day by these frontiers- 
men, sets forth in substance, that at a meeting of the inhabitants of Westmore- 
land county, to take into consideration the very alarming state of the country, 
caused by the unjust and unconstitutional measures of the ministry and parlia- 
ment, it was resolved that 
they, anticipating the fu- 
ture results of such a po- 
licy if persisted in, consid- 
ered it the duty of every 
American citizen to op- 
pose by every means which 
God had put in his power 
the execution of this sys- 
tem ; as for them they were 
ready and willing to op- 
pose it with their lives 
and fortunes. To this 
end, they formed them- 
selves into a military or- 
ganization known as the 
Association of Westmoreland county. They asserted that they acknowledged 
the King of England as their lawful and rightful sovereign, and that they did 
not mean by the association to deviate from that loyalty which it was their duty 
to observe ; but that, actuated by a love of liberty, it was no less their duty to 
transmit unimpaired that liberty to their offspring which was taken from them by 
a corrupt ministry and a hired Parliament. And to this end, was the association 
formed to serve, if need be, in a military capacity against any power sent to 
enforce the arbitrary measures. But when things were restored to the same 
condition as before the era of the Stamp Act, when America grew happy, that 
then their association should be at an end, but till then it should remain in force. 

The association formed that day, was perfected under the military control of 
Colonel John Proctor. It did not in its regimental organization serve in the 
Continental army, but many of those who belonged to it saw service either under 
Washington himself, or in the campaigns against the Indians and British in the 
west. St. Clair was appointed early in \1'1Q to command a battalion of Penns3'l- 
vania militia. His services during the war were varied. He has the honor of 
having proposed id Washington the plan of attack on the British at Princeton ; 
and as an officer of great experience was one of the commission which sat on the 
trial of Major Audrd. 




HOME OF GEN. ST. CLAIR, ON CHESTNUT RIDaE. 
[From a Pencil Sketch by Dallas Albert.) 



WESTMOBELAND COUNTY. II57 

As the Revolution continued, their troubles, instead of having abatement, 
increased. During HIS and 1719, Ligonier valley suffered, perhaps, more than 
any other portion. The rivers by this time presented a barrier of armed posts 
from Kittanning to Brownsville ; but Fort Ligonier was the only place of refuge 
for the people of this valley, who had, in spite of war and privation, increased in 
population. The valley derives its name from the fort. It lies between the 
Laurel Hill on the east and the Chestnut ridge on the west, and extends from 
the waters of the Yough to the Conemaugh. It is well watered with noble 
streams, and is now a thrifty and populous region. It was then infested with 
beasts of prey and overrun by savages. It was marked north and south by the 
Indian trails of the old Six Nations. For the Indians who at this day scalped 
for the bounty^ it was a desirable hunting-ground. These, on their predatory 
war-trips, could dash upon the settler in the field, the woman at the cabin, the 
child at the spring; and after securing the booty, either in prisoners or in tufts 
of bloody hair, would skulk into the deep forests, evading all pursuit. It was 
not safe to go from the fort. Within sight of the little stockade, women were 
killed and men carried captive. The noble souls of that time, sainted by after 
generations, who never stirred from their birth-place, were such men as Captain 
Shannon, Colonel William McDowell, and the Cliffords. This date, 1779, corre- 
sponds with the date of the stories of adventure and deeds of courage and 
prowess of the border, which, having found their way into print, have, as in the 
instance of Mrs. Experience Bozarth, of Dunkard creek, since remained as a 
standing memorial of the spirit of those daj's. 

The effect of this warfare has been noticed b}- general historians, and all 
agree that the ceaseless conflict goaded on the whites to wage, on their part a 
kind of half-savage war. At length, in 1781, it was resolved by the inhabitants 
of Western Pennsylvania to carry the war into the hive itself. Colonel Brod- 
head, the 3'ear previous, had planned a campaign against the Indians, at the 
forks of the Muskingum ; and now the militia of the south-western counties, 
under the command of Colonel Williamson, on their own responsibility ,,marched 
against the friendly Moravian Indians to insist upon their removing from their 
half-way position between the two races, under the pretence that they harbored 
those whose business was war. Their villages were broken up, and they were 
scattered to the wilds. These, returning toward the end of the winter to gather 
in the corn, were attacked by a second party of rough backwoodsmen, and 
although they themselves were peaceable Indians, who, under the charge of joious 
missionaries, pursued the ways of peace, yet in cold blood were they murdered 
by the exasperated whites. Above ninety of them were slaughtered like 
beasts, not choosing to raise their arm in their own defence, but on their knees 
beseeching the mercy of the God of Christians. To further complete the work 
of esctermination, but more ostensibly to carr}' a war into the towns of the 
Wyandots, in 1782, was the expedition of Colonel William Crawford planned. 
This expedition met the fate which human justice would say the expedition of' 
the former, Colonel Williamson's, had merited. But in the terrible death of Craw- 
ford, in the plenary vengeance which the savages inflicted upon their unfortunate 
prisoners, this campaign stands out prominently in border liistory, and has to 
be noticed in a sketch of Westmoreland, in connection with the subsequent 



1158 HISTOEY OF PEXySYLVAXIA. 

troubles which she sustained. For if ever the destruction of Gnadenhiitten was 
avenged, it was by the burning of Hannastown. 

The hopes formed upon the success of this expedition were to the southern 
Westmorelanders bitter ashes. Another and no less disastrous expedition left in 
mourning the inhabitants about Hannastown. While General Irvine com- 
manded at Fort Pitt, the celebrated campaign of Colonel Clarke, of Virginia, 
was set on foot. To protect the western colonists who could not protect them- 
selves, the State of Fennsjlvania assisted in raising a company of militia to 
co-operate with Clarke. These were now on the border of the county, and to 
assist in the enterprise of Clarke, part of these, together with a company- of 
young Westmorelanders. under the command of Colonel Archibald Lochrey, in 
all amounting to one hundred and seven men, started westward to form a junc- 
tion with Clarke. In the meantime, Clarke had proceeded as far as the Miami • 
in Ohio. Leaving there a small party to wait upon Lochrey. who together 
were to follow him, he went on into the wilderness. Lochrey and his men never 
made the junction with the Tirginians, for they were attacked by the Indians 
and British, and killed to a man. Long did* their friends in Westmoreland 
await for their returning. It was not till vears after tbat the fate of the ill- 
starred expedition was really known. The bones of these brave men lie near a 
small creek called Loehre3-"s creek, not far below the mouth of the Miami. 

No sooner had the Indians been successful in repulsing the whites, than 
they banded together under the instigation of the renegade whites, and poured 
in upon the defenceless people of northern Westmoreland. A body of about 
three hundred, said to have been under command of Kyashuta, crossed the 
Alleghen}-, On the 13th of July, 1782, the laborers at work in a harvest field 
about a mile north of Hannastown spied the foremost Indians skulking about 
the fields. Some seizing their guns, hurried back to the stockade, and others 
carried the news throughout the country. Then all flocked together where best 
they might. Within a few hours the mongrels were around the A'illage of 
Hannastown. Tim el v warning had been given, and all had hied into the little 

f » C3 3 7 

fort. But its defenders, though brave, were few. Its inmates were mostly 
decrepit old men, and women and children. Most of the young men were out 
giving the alarm and assisting the helpless. Besides, they had few arms. When 
the savages came up over the brow of the hill, north of the village, a loud yell 
indicaxJil to the housed-up inmates that they had been baffled out of a rare 
butchery. They did not attack the fort for good reasons, but fell to the work of 
plunder and demolition. Soon the flames rose from the rude cabins, and, carried 
by a favoring wind, swept over all the place. While the flames were rising gaily 
a consultation was held by the renegades. A party of perhaps sixty then broke 
off, and while the rest danced around the burning houses, passed toward the 
south to attack the station at Miller's, about three mUes away. Here had 
eollected about a dozen families, and hither the de^nls had hoped to come before 
they were looked for. But brave souls, regardless of danger to themselves, had 
spread the alarm ; and no sooner were the naked bodies seen in the sunshine in 
the edge of the clearing at Miller's, than Captain Matthew Jack, on his reeking 
horse, was srathering the men in. There were stout and brave ones among thero. 
used to Indian warfare and fearless of death, but they now could do nothing. To 



WESTMOBELAND COUNTY. 1159 

venture battle with the treacherous crew was to bring death upon the more 
numerous women and children under their care. While some could scarcely be 
kept from firing, the cooler prevailed upon these to rather take their chances of 
captivity. The Indians were upon them, and soon they were bound with stout 
thongs aud laden with such booty as their captors fancied. Thus they were 
driven into the woods towards the British posts in Canada. 

The noise of the guns and the shouting of the crew, now drunken with 
whiskey, about the fort, were carried for miles through the country on that quiet 
summer day. The yeomanry gathered from all convenient parts, and by niglit- 
fall, a party of perhaps thirty, well armed, had collected at a pohit within three 
miles of the smouldering village and the beleagured fort. The Indians by this 
had retired to the hollow, awaiting the day to begin the attack. The noise made 
by the relief who entered across the bridge into the stockade, and the beating of the 
drums, braced up and beaten through the night, struck the wretches with such fear 
that they altered their former intention, and under the morning stars they started 
with their prisoners from all that was dear aud near. The town lay in ashes, 
and with the coming day the prowlers were away. They were followed by the 
settlers as far as the Kiskiminetas, 

Besides remembering the cool bravery of Captain Jack, the burning of Hannas- 
town, to all Westmorelanders, recalls the untimelj^ death of the maiden jNIargaret 
Shaw. When the town people were driven into the stockade a little child Avas 
seen to wander away toward an opening in the picket wall. Margaret Shaw ran 
to fetch it back, when, as she stooped to reach it up, a bullet entered her breast. 
She fell dead. She was of a family of hardy pioneers, and her brother, David 
Shaw, was long one of the heroes of those trying times. Shaw and Brownlee 
were two whose virtues shone in that age as possibl}^ in no other. Brownlee was 
at Miller's when the savages came there. The evident reason why he did not 
fight upon the word, was that he expected to make his escape when captured ; 
and the plaintive voice of his wife, " John, you will not leave me," made the long 
rifle drop with its muzzle to the ground. When they had captured him they 
loaded him with a great burden, and on all set his own little boy. The little 
fellow clung to his father's neck, and the brave backwoodsman trudged along as 
docile as a slave. The Indians knew him as a brave man. When he stopped to 
fix his child upon his shoulders more comfortably^, an unpitying wretch sunlc his 
hatchet into Brownlee's head. He rolled over, and the same hatchet was buried 
in the brain of the child. The mother saw it all. 

We cannot, in such a sketch, give incidents but in a general way. As it was, 
the people appeared to see the vengeance of God ; and distracted, distressed, and 
apparently forsaken, they huddled together in such places as they might till the 
storm had blown over. But thenceforth the evils were few, and slowl}^ their old 
ways came back again. The village of Ilannastown was never rebuilt. W^ith 
the suns of the coming spring, the men went back again to their deserted fields,, 
and henceforth labored in peace. 

The burning of Ilannastown divides the history of Westmoreland into two 
eras. The termination of the Revolutionary war brought peace to the western 
Pennsylvanians. AflTairs then began to go on smoothly. In 1779 the bound-Mies 
of Pennsylvania and Virginia were adjusted, and in 1784 definitely mrniccc out. 



1 J 60 HISTOE Y OF PJiJNNS YL VANIA. 

Although the contention had ceased some time prior to this, yet the jurisdiction 
of Westmoreland over the southern tier of counties was m'^rely nominal. And 
no sooner was this jurisdiction fixed than it was needful to divide the territory. 
In 1781 was Washington county erected out of part of Westmoreland. Fayette 
county was formed in 1783; and in 1788 Allegheny county was carved out of a 
part of Westmoreland and of Washington. Thus to the most casual observa- 
tion it is seen that, barring the troubles of the early conflicting claims and the 
intervening general war, the actual boundaries of Westmoreland, so far as to 
historical purposes, were nearly identical, and with little exception the same. 
For the northern tier of counties, erected out of the territory of Westmoreland, 
were for many years unpeopled, and their history previous to their legislative 
existence is devoid of interest. 

After the end of the Revolution, under the government of the State, a great 
change took place in the matter of roads and in the facilities for transportation. 
Nor do we know of any method by which we can get a clearer view of the 
progress of the county than by noticing it in connection with these. 

In 1784 and '85, the old Pennsjdvania State road was opened out upon nearly 
the old Forbes' trail. Villages sprang up along this route, and on either side 
of it, as along a river, the population increased. About this time lots were laid 
out on the lands of Christopher Truby, and a few houses built north of a block- 
house of Revolutionary times. This was the beginning of Greensburg, which is 
said to have derived its name from General Greene, of the army. After the 
dclitruction of the public buildings at Hannastown, a committee of trustees being 
appointed whose duty it was to locate a place within certain specified bounds for 
the buildings of the county, they chose upon Greensburg ; and this place has 
ever since remained the county seat. It was incorporated a borough in 1799, 
and was the first borough in the county. 

The State road. gave way to the chartered turnpike, aided by the State, 
in 1807 and 1808, and finished about 1819. Its route was nearly identical with 
the old road. The northern turnpike, passing from Blairsville to Murra3'sville, 
was also projected and aided about the same time. Between these two dates, 
small clusters of houses had been built both along these roads, along the road 
leading from Somerset to Mount Pleasant, and along the rivers. A collection 
of about a dozen houses marked the site of the present shipping point of 
West Newton, then called Robbstown. This place has been dignified in history 
under the name of Simrall's Ferr}'^, as the starting place of those New Eng- 
landers who, in 1788, emigrated to the Muskingum, so elegantly described by 
Hildreth. 

At the beginning of the century, there were a few houses and shops in the 
centre of a rich country' called Mount Pleasant, a name derived from Mount 
Pleasant church, an old point selected by the Redstone Presb^'tery, and named 
thus by them, where there was preaching as earl}^ as 1781. On the old Pennsyl- 
vania road was Ligonier, called then Ramsej^stown, near the site of old Fori 
Ligonier. It consisted of a score of log houses, scattered along on either sidf 
of the miry mountainous road. Farther on, half way betwixt Ligonier and 
Greensburg, at the base of the Chestnut hills, five or six cabins, half of them 
inns, marked the site of Youngstown, an old village called first Martinsburg, 



WESTMORELAND COUNTY. 



1161 



after the name of a prominent land-owner. On the northern route was New 
Alexandria, These places flourished when the turnpike and other highways 
were established, and were, up to the advent of canals and railroads, the centres 
of business and wealth. Now all of them, with the exception of those which 
have been touched by railways, have filled their corporate destiny, and are only 
thrifty detached villages, doing a fair share of local business, and presenting a 
quaint and venerable appearance. After the construction of the Pennsylvania 
railroad, which completely revolutionized traffic and travel, other villages sprang 
up with rapidity theretofore unknown. The older places became deserted, and 
instead of retaining their supremacy, many have retrograded in a relative pro- 
portion. The Pennsylvania railroad touched the turnpike only at Greensburg, 
elsewhere keeping to the north of it. Of the new towns, now centres of merchan- 
dising, of manufacturing, of mining, the most noticeable are Derry, Latrobe, 
Penn, and Irwin, all thrifty towns, built up in modern style, and full of the 
vigor of a later generation. No less wonderful have been the innovations 
since the South-west Penns3dvania Branch 
road has been in operation. This road, 
built in 1873, and running from Connells- 
ville to Greensburg, bisects a territory rich 
beyond telling in mineral deposits of bitu- 
minous coal and iron. Numerous villages 
have sprung ujj along its track, and the old 
places have been made new. For miles along 
either side of the road, especially towards 
the southern terminus, the eye at night sees 
a continuous line of fiery craters and ghostly 
figures in the glare — coke ovens and cokers. 

Up to within two decades of this writing, Westmoreland was pre-eminently 
an agricultural county. Attempts had, it is true, been made, so early as toward 
the end of the last century and the beginning of the present, to work up the iron 
ore found in her mountains. This proved unprofitable, unless along the rivers 
where cheap transportation lessened the cost of marketing it ; and the people 
were content to transfer their capital and energ}' to cultivating the soil. In the 
rich limestone valley lying west of the Chestnut ridge, and extending along the 
whole range, all marketable grain was grown. But when the railroads offered a 
new method of transportation, new interests were readily engaged in. These 
interests — lumber, bark, limestone, coal, coke, fire-clay, iron, have now for 
twenty years been developing in a constantly accelerating degree. 

Although we can only glance at the part Westmoreland has taken in the 
affairs of the Union, it is deserving of a more extended notice. Some discon- 
tented parties participated in the sedition known as the Insurrection in the Four 
Western Counties. Upon the whole, that local disturbance had a good result for 
the interests of the county ; for many of the soldiers collected here at that 
time afterward permanently located. Indeed the accession of new settlers con- 
sequent upon that affair was remarkable. Several Westmorelanders figured 
prominently in it. William Findley, the first representative in Congress for the 
county, wrote an apologetic ^^.count of it, which has long been considered goxl 




UONUMENT TO GEN. ST. CLAIR. 



1162 HISTOUY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

historical autliority ; and Edward Cook, an associate judge of Fayette, who had 
been a delegate for Westmoreland in the Convention of 1776, helped much to 
reconcile the people with the government. In the war of 1812, many Westmore. 
landers volunteered and saw service in Canada. No full company was organized 
here. But, when war was declared with Mexico, the martial spirit of her children, 
emphatically Westmorelanders, bred on her rugged hills, was fully and creditably 
made apparent. When the first attempt was made to enlist volunteers, the num- 
ber who offered themselves was seen to be quite sufficient to make at least one 
■full company. This was organized at Grcensburg ; and the list embraced repre- 
sentatives from all parts of the county. 

In the war for the Union, Westmoreland was liberal in her volunteers. 
These were among the first to enlist, and they were in service in every depart- 
ment of the army. Owing to the system by which the men and the companies 
could choose their regiments, her soldiers were scattered under numberless com- 
mands. Although there was only one company from Westmoreland originally in 
the Old Eleventh, yet, by the end of the war, the majority of the regimental 
officers were Westmorelanders, and to this regiment a great proportion of the sub- 
sequent recruits were added. They point with pride to the record of the regiment, 
which on many fields, under the command of Colonel Richard Coulter, sustained 
the honor of the Republic. 

On the 2Gth of February, 1873, Westmoreland celebrated, at Greensburg, the 
centennial anniversary of the organization of. the county. At the meeting, her 
most eminent citizens rehearsed the glory of her hundred years' history. They 
pointed with pride to the status of the mother county of Western Pennsylvania ; 
how, from a sparsely settled community she had grown to be a powerful county ; 
how, from a handful of hardy emigrants she had inci'cased to a population of 
nigh sixty thousand souls ; how her record of patriotism and glory had kept 
pace with her statistics of material advancement. They rehearsed the deeds of 
her soldiers, the sufferings of her early settlers, and recalled to mind the long 
list of her children who had become distinguished as judges, legislators, physi- 
cians, and divines, eminent in letters, or glorified in the list of heroes. On the 
15th of May, 1875, she ushered in the series of anniversaries intended to com- 
memorate the era of the Revolution, by remembering the resolutions of May, 1775. 
On that occasion were read to the descendants of the Hannastown patriots, letters 
of gratulation from the most illustrious citizens of the Union. Amid the ring- 
ing of bells and the sounding of cannon, the delegates from the fourteen counties 
formed out of the original territory of Westmoreland paid homage to the prin- 
ples of liberty spoken by the backwoodsmen who had defined their rights in the 
face of the Parliament of Great Britain. Senators, judges, statists, military 
men, and civilians, with common interest and common patriotism, with aglow of 
the ancient devotion, laid their wreaths on the urns of her dead heroes, and 
rejoicing in the liberty now amply secui-ed to the people, signified the pride they 
felt in being the children of Old Westmoreland. And may her history for the 
next hundred years equal that of the last 1 



WYOMING COUNTY. 




BY CHARLES M. LEE, TUNKIIANNOCK. * 

"On Susquehanna's side, fiiir Wj'oming! 
Although the wild flower on thy ruined wall 
And roofless homes a sad remembrance bring 
Of what thy gentle people did befall, 
Yet thou wert once the loveliest land of all 
That see the Atlantic wave their morn restore. 
Sweet land ! may I thy lost delights recall."— Campbell. 

YOMING ! at that name, wherever the English tongue is spoken, 
wherever the traditions of our nation's first struggles for life are 
read, wherever in the round world the tales of American patriotism 
and endurance are told, a thrill electric threads the nerves, and 

makes the heart of man 

beat faster in its sympathy 

with true braver}', true 

nobility. This name is 

most appropriately given 

to this count}', as being the 

northern opening of the 

wonderful and beautiful 

Wyoming valley, the home 

of heroism, the fount of 

history and song. True, 

within the immediate limits 

of this Count}', the records 

remain of no hard-fought 

battles, no bloody massa- 
cres, no life-long captivi- 
ties, to transmit her name 

down to posterity as one 

rendered immortal by the 

bloody deeds committed 

within her border; yet 

while the work of devasta- 
tion was going on in other 

counties, and even before it 

had commenced, it was the 

scene of quarrels and In- 
dian plottings, that culminated, at length, in the great massacre of Wyoming. 
While the Indians were making preparations for the decisive move on the 

valley below, it was evident that Wyoming county was destined to be the scene 

1163 




WYOMING COUNTY COURT HOUSE, TUNKHANNOCK, 

[From a Photograph by B. S. Williams, Tunkfaannoclc.] 



1164 HISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

of much bloodshed. Her bright sun of peace and happiness was about to set. 
" On the 5th of June, 1778, there was an alarm from the Indians and six Avhite 
men, Tories, coming in the neighborhood of Tunkhannock and taking Wilcox, 
Pierce, and some others prisonei's, and robbing and plundering the inhabitants." 
The foregoing is from the journal of Lieutenant Jenkins, and he tells ns that as 
soon as this reached the ears of those in the valley below they began to fortify, 
so this seems to have been one of the first indications of the approaching danger. 
On the 12th of June, 1778, William Crooks and Asa Budd came up the river in a 
canoe to a place some two miles above Tunkhannock, formerly occupied by a Tory 
named John Secord, which was near where Uriah Swetland now lives. Crooks 
was fired upon and killed by a pai'ty of Indians. He was the first white man 
killed in Westmoreland, so we see the first blood was shed in Wyoming county. 
On the 1 7th of June of the same j^ear, a party of six men, in two canoes, came 
up the river to observe the movements of the enemy. The party in the forward 
canoe landed about six miles below Tunkhannock (La Grange), and on ascending 
the bank they saw an armed force of Indians and Tories moving toward them. 
They gave the alarm, returned to their canoes, and endeavored to get behind an 
island to escape the fire, which was being poured in upon them. The canoe, in 
which were Miner Robbins, Joel Phelps, and Stephen Jenkins, was fired upon, 
and Robbins killed and Phelps wounded. Jenkins escaped unhurt. In the party 
that fired upon the canoe was Elijah Phelps, a Tory, the brother of Joel and 
brother-in-law of Robbins. 

Thus the work of death commenced, and on the 30th of June, the enemy, 
numbering about two hundred British Provincials, and about two hundred 
Tories from Penns3'lvania, New Jerse}'^, and New York, under the command 
of Major John Butler and Captain Caldwell, of Sir John Johnson's Royal 
Greens, and about five hundred Indians, commanded by Joseph Brant, a 
Mohawk, descended the river in a boat, and landed on the south bank of 
Bowman's creek, where they remained some time waiting for the West Branch 
party to join them. This party consisted of about two hundred Indians, under 
the command of Gucingerachton. After the juncture of these forces, numbering 
altogether about eleven hundred, they moved forward to the invasion of 
Wyoming. They left the largest of their boats, and with the lighter ones 
passed on down the river to the Three Islands, now known as Keeler's. From 
this point they marched to the valley. The bloody scene had now commenced, 
and these fiends of hell were let loose upon the inhabitants of the country, 
dealing death to whomever they met. 

Wyoming county is a new county, having been taken from the north-eastern 
corner of Luzerne, b}' act of April 4, 1842, when Henry Colt, of Luzerne, George 
Mack, of Columbia, and John Boyle, of Susquehanna county, were appointed 
commissioners to mark out the boundary. Its form is that of an oblique paral- 
lelogram, being about twenty-three miles long by fifteen wide, making an area 
of three hundred and forty-five square miles. Its eastern boundary is a broken 
line extending from Marcy's saw mill, on Tunkhannock creek, to Stearn Keeler's, 
a point on the Susquehanna about two miles below Falls village. The surface 
of the county is diversified by numerous spurs of the Appalachian system, some 
of which tower into lofty peaks, among which the principal are Mount Solecca, 



WYOMING COUNTY. 1165 

whose base is washed by Tunkhannock creek and the river, and which rises to 
the height of one thousand feet in the face of the borough of Tunkhannock ; 
Mount Cliudano, nearly opposite, on the south bank of Bowman's creek, and 
of about the same height; and Mount Matchasaung, which rises to a great 
height, overlooking the little hamlet of La Grange. The Susquehanna river 
runs from the north-west to the south-east corner, thus dividing the county 
diagonally into two almost equal portions. It has numerous tributaries which, 
by reason of the mountainous region through which they flow, descend very 
rapidly, and thus afford excellent water-power for factories and mills of all 
descriptions. Among the most prominent of these streams are the Tuscarora, 
Meshoppen, Tunkhannock, Falls, and Wyolutimunk creeks, from the east side, 
and Little and Big Mehoopany and Bowman's creeks from the west side. There 
are also several beautiful little lakes, among which are prominent Lake Care}^, 
Lake Wynola, and Oxbow lake. The largest of these. Lake Carey, is situated 
in Lemon and Tunkhannock townships, about three miles north of Tunkhannock 
borough, and is three miles long by one wide. It is surrounded by lofty pines 
and hemlocks, which give it a picturesque appearance. This, as well as the 
others named, is filled with fish. Lake Wynola is situated in Overfield township, 
about five miles south-east of Tunkhannock, and is a beautiful little body of 
water. 

The resources of the county are principally agricultural and manufacturing, 
the minerals abounding being unimportant from an artizan's point of view- 
Leather, lumber, and agricultural implements are the principal articles of manu- 
facture. By reason of the vast forests of timber in difierent portions of the 
county, lumber forms one of the principal exports. The soil along the river and 
its tributaries is exceedingly fertile, and well adapted to the raising of grain, 
while the hill sides afford excellent pasture for cattle and sheep. Butter and 
grain are shipped yearly in considerable quantities. The railroads which pass 
through the county furnish ample facilities for transportation, while its 
contiguity to the coal fields of the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys makes it a 
desirable location for manufactories. 

Wyoming county contains seventeen townships and two boroughs. Brain- 
trim, originally known as White Haven township, was laid out in 1766, but 
owing to the troublesome times incident to the Revolution, it was re-granted in 
1778, and called by its present name. This was one of the three certified towns 
which were situated in the county, and was one of the first settled. Among the 
settlers of Braintrim was John Depue, who located at the mouth of Tuscarora 
creek. In July, 1776, the farm passed into the hands of William Hooker Smith. 
About two miles below, on Black Walnut bottom, Frederick Vanderlip was 
seated. This was a favorite stopping point for travelers, and was the place 
where Sullivan's army encamped in its march up the river on the night of 
August <f, 1779. 

Exeter was granted on the 28th of November, 1772, to Isaac Tripp, John 
Jenkins, and Jonathan Dean. It was named Exeter in 1774, from Exeter in 
Rhode Island. When the county was set off from Luzerne, that part of Exeter 
embraced in Wyoming was still called Exeter. Among the first settlers were 
Mr. Headley and Paul Keeler, about 1795. 



1166 



HISTOEY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



FoRKSTON was taken from Windham in 1844. Tlie first settler was Leonartl 
Lott, wlio came up the river in a canoe about the year 1795, and drew the canoe 
up the creek to the forks where he settled. 

Clinton township was erected from parts of Tunkhannock, Falls, Nicholson, 
and that portion of Abington, in Wyoming county. The people petitioned to 
have the township named Uarmony, but for some reason the judges then on the 
bench called it Clinton. It was settled by emigrants from Rhode Island. 
Robert, Phineas, Oliver, and Solomon Reynolds, were the first settlers, who 
came there in the year 1798. Stephen Capwell and sons were the next, who 
came in 1800. 

Eaton was erected from parts of Tunkhannock, in 1818. It was named for 

General William Eaton, of 
Massachusetts. Among the 
first settlers was one John 
Secord, who located on the 
flat about two miles above 
Tunkhannock, on the op- 
posite side of the river, in 
1773. This flat was then 
called Catchakamy Plains. 
It was at his house that the 
first white man was killed 
in Westmoreland duringthe 
Revolutionary war. Below 
this, at the mouth of Bow- 
man's creek, lived Jacob 
and Adam Bowman, settled 
there in 1773, whence the 
name of the creek. It was 
on their farm that the In- 
dians encamped on the night 
previous to the massacre 
of Wyoming. Elisha Har- 
ding came in 1790, and 
Joshua Patrick, a soldier of the Revolution, about 1795. Glen Moneypenny, 
situated in Eaton township, on a little stream which empties into the Susque- 
hanna on its western side, six miles below Tunkhannock, presents one among the 
many wildly picturesque scenes to be found throughout th^ mountain region of 
the count3\ 

Falls was originally granted to James Park, Obediah Gore, George Dorrance, 
and Captain Joseph Park, but being driven off" by the natives it was re-granted 
on the 8th of May, 1786. The first settlement was made in July, 1773, by 
Benjamin Jones, at Wyolutimunk. This old Indian village was situated in the 
lower end of Falls township, and was the camping ground of Sullivan's army on 
the night of August 1, 1797. It signifies " we came upon them unawares," The 
Delaware Indians saj^ in explanation of this name, that a party of the Five 
Nation Indians were making a descent upon them with hostile intent ; that they 




GLEN MONKYPENNY, WYOMING COUNTY. 

[Prom a Photograph by B. S. 'Williams, TuDl£hannook.] 



WYOHJING COUNTY. 



1167 



went out to meet them, ambuscaded them at the lower end of the mountain, and 
surprised and captured them. Justus Jones came in 1794, David Moorehouse 
and John Fitch in 1787, Zuriel Sherwood in 1789, John C. Williams in 1784, and 
Matthew Sherwood in 1789. The latter is now living at the advanced age of 
eighty-nine years, and is the oldest Connecticut settler in the county. 

TuNKiiANNOCK was the third of the original certified towns, and was then 
called Putnam, after General Israel Putnam, of the Revolution, he owning lots here- 
It was organized in 1790 ; the borough in 1842. The oldest settlers of Tunkhan- 
nock, as far as known, were Zebulon Marcy, who lived near where the tannery 
now stands, and Christopher Avery, who lived on the flat on the south side of the 
creek. Philip Buck, a German, sent here by the Pennamites in 1773, lived upon 
the land of Christopher Avery, but afterwards, in company with two others, 
settled opposite the mouth of Bowman's creek. Abraham and Adam Wartman 
were also two Germans sent here by the Pennamites in the same year that Philip 
Buck came. They settled near the mouth of Tunkhannock creek. Nicholas 
Phillips settled near the creek in the same year ; Jacob Teague settled about two 
miles above the mouth of the creek, in 1774; and Increase Billings near the 
forks of the north and 
south branches, in the 
year 1773. He conveyed 
to one Reuben Herrington, 
in 1775, and Herrington, 
in 1776, conveyed his to 
Job Tripp. Just below 
Philip Buck, lived Fred- 
eric Anger and Frederick 
Frank ; below this, where 
La Grange now is, lived 
Jeremiah Osterhout, who 
came here prior to 1796. 

Putnam was granted, 
September 24, 1775, and 
on December 20, lots were 
taken by twenty-six per- 
sons. The place of encampment of Sullivan's army on the night of August 3, 
1779, was at Wartman's, who lived in a cabin near Palen's tanner3^ 

Washington was taken from Braintrim and Tunkhannock, in 1831. John 
Carney and son, the first settlers, located on the flat opposite Mehoopuny in 
1787, his son William having come two or three years previous. Directlj^ back 
of Mehoopany depot, Jacob Miller settled in 1791, and his son Christopher (now 
living) w^as born the following spring. Near Vosburg depot lived one Mr. Hunt, 
who came there prior to the year 1795. He established a ferry, which has 
always been known as Hunt's ferry. 

Windham is among the oldest townships in the county. Job Whitcomb was 

one of the first settlers, having settled on North Flat in the year 1787. Hiram 

and Solomon Whitcomb also lived near by. Asa Stevens lived on the upper end 

of Hemlock Bottom, now Scottsville. Just below him lived Josiah Fassett, who 

3 y 




OSTERHOUT MANSION. 
[From a Photograph by B. S. 'Williams, Tunkhannock.) 



1168 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

came to this township in the year 1795, It was on his farm that Timothy- 
Pickering was imprisoned in a log cabin, and confined some months. Asa Budd, 
who was with Crooks when he was shot at Secord's house, lived just below Fassett's. 
Abijah Sturdevaut was the first settler at Jenningsville, having come there some 
time previous to 1795. 

Lemon was organized from Tunkhannock and Washington in 1847. Daniel 
Earle was among its first settlers. 

Mehoopany was taken from Windham in 1844. It was originally " Hop- 
peny," an Indian name, and signified "the place of potatoes," or " where potatoes 
grew." "Amos York erected a house in 1Y75, opposite, and above the mouth 
of the Meshoppen, and enclosed a considerable tract of land, and afterwards 
removed to Wyalusing. Elijah Phelps finding the house empty, moved in with- 
out any authority from York, who warned him off some time prior to the battle. 
York was slain in the battle." This battle was probably the massacre of 
Wyoming. Thomas Millard lived near Elijah Phelps, and came about the same 
time. Noah Phelps lived nearly opposite Meshoppen creek, as early as 1195. 
Just below, at the mouth of the Little Mehoopan}'-, Henry Love, a soldier of 
the Revolution, settled in 1*796. At the mouth of the Big Mehoopany settled 
Zepheniah Lott in 1791, and on Grist Flat, John and George Grist, about 1795. 

Meshoppen was taken from Bi-aintrim in 1854. The Indian name from 
which it is derived means "the place of choral beads," or a "distribution of 
choral beads." Amaziah Cleveland was probably the first permanent settler. 
He built a saw mill and two houses at the mouth of Meshoppen creek. Mason 
F. Aldeu came there as early as 1775, followed by Ezekiel Mowry, some years 
after ; he built the first grist mill in Meshoppen. Farther up the river, Benjamin 
Overfield came prior to 1795, and Peter Osterhout about the same time. After 
him came Paul Overfield. 

Monroe was taken from North Moreland, in 1831. Matthew Phenix was 
probably the first settler, but he did not come there until 1817. • . . Nichol- 
son is an old township, named for John Nicholson, formerly comptroller general 
of the State. . . . North Branch was erected in 1856. . . . North 
Moreland was the second of the three certified towns in the county. It was 
erected in 1815. Timothy Lee was probably the first settler of this township, 
having settled on the place now owned by Manning Champlin, in 1800. . . . 
Overfield was taken from Falls, in 1859. Abel Patrick was probably the 
first settler, having settled in 1787. 

Tunkhannock was incorporated August 8, 1841. When the county was set 
ofi" from Luzerne, Tunkhannock became the county seat, and the stakes for the 
court house were set on the 25th of May, 1842, upon two acres of land presented 
to the county by Thomas Slocum. The court house and jail were built in 184.3-4, 
and the jail was re-built in 1868. The court house was enlarged in 1869-'70. The 
borough proper contains 983 inhabitants, but within the immediate neighborhood 
of the borough there are 1,245. At this place the Montrose railway intersects 
the Lehigh Yalley. It is a quiet, orderly town, and is the largest in the county. 

Nicholson was incorporated in August, 1875. It is a flourishing little town 
of about 450 inhabitants. It is on the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western 
railroad, and ships considerable quantities of lumber and farming produce. 




YORK COUNTY. 

BY M. 0. SMITH, HANOVER. 

ilORK county was erected by act of Assembly, August 19, 1Y49, being 
separated from Lancaster county. Its boundary was described to 



be north and west by a line from the Susquehanna along the South 
mountain to the Maryland line, on the east by the Susquehanna, and 
on the south by the Maryland line. In 1800, its limits were curtailed by the 
separation of Adams county. Its present area is nine hundred square miles. 

The first settlers in York county were intruders from Maryland. The Pro- 
prietaries of Pennsylvania would allow no settlements on any lands not thoroughly 
freed from Indian claims ; but the Marylanders thought only of pushing their 
boundary northwards, and thus to take the lands in dispute between the Calverts 
and the Penns by force, if necessary, regardless of Indians or Pennsylvanians. 
The Indians complained to Governor Keith, and he, obtaining their consent, had 
five hundred acres of land surveyed for himself west of the Susquehanna, in 
April, 1722. The Marylanders were not thus to be intimidated, but kept press- 
ing on their surveys. Governor Keith held a council with the Indians, at which 
it was determined to survey a large ti'act, for the use of Springett Penn, to be 
known as Springettsbury Manor. This survey, including 75,520 acres, was made 
June 19 and 20, 1722. The Indians cheerfully granted this privilege, for they 
were confident they could at any time obtain as much of this land as they might 
want for their own use. Springettsbury Manor was resurveyed in 1768. The 
boundaries of this survey differed from those of the first. This manor, like 
others, was not confiscated during the Revolution, but remained the private 
property of the Penns. This caused, in after years, tedious and bitter litigation, 
which continued down as late as 1830. 

As the Marylanders showed no intention of respecting these surveys, it was 
resolved to permit settlements by Pennsylvanians. As the lands were not yet fully 
purchased from the Indians, licenses to settle only wei'e granted — Samuel Blun- 
ston, of Wright's Ferry, being commissioned to issue them. The first license so 
issued is dated January 24, 1733-4, and the last, October 31, 1737, after which 
period clear titles were given, the Indian right to the land having been extin- 
guished by treaty. 

Among the intruders from Maryland were Michael Tanner, Edward Parnell, 
Jeffrey Summerfield, and Paul Williams, who settled near the Indian town of 
Conejohela, in 1723. They were driven off by the Pennsylvania authorities in 
1728, after repeated complaints from the Indians. In 1729, the first authorized - 
settlement west of the river was made by John and James Hendricks. They 
intended to settle on the abandoned farm from which the squatters had been 
driven, but James Hendricks having accidentally shot his son while viewing 
these lands, they made their settlement about three miles north. Other families 

1169 



1170 



HIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VAKIA. 



followed rapidly, and soon along Kreutz creek, in Hellam township, and for 
some miles around, the settlers were quite numerous. In 1732, three years after 
the first settlement, the tax collector re[)orted that there were four hundred 
persons west of the Susquehanna who paid taxes to Lan aster county, and 
acknowledged allegiance to Pennsylvania. 

Thomas Cresap, in March, 1730, under a Maryland grant, settled upon the 

lands from 
which Tan- 
n e r and 
others had 
been remov- 
ed two yeai's 
before. Cre- 
sap was a 
bold, reck- 
less man, 
and was ac- 
companied 
by others 
equally des- 
perate. They 
proceeded to 



drive away 
the Indians, 
burning the 
cabins over 
their heads. 
Refugees 
from justice 
here sought 
safet}'^ from 
pvinishment, 
and joined 
C y e s a p ' s 
lawless band 
Besides this 
sett 1 e m e n t 
between 
Kreutz and 
C o d o r u s 
c reeks, 

"^ which was composed mainly of Germans, an English colony was soon 
planted near the Pidgeon hills, being composed mostly of persons having 
Maryland titles. " The Barrens " was also settled about this time — com- 
prising the lands now in Chanceford, Fawn, Peach Bottom, Hopewell, and 
Windsor townships. A number of families of the better class of peasantry from 
Scotland and Ireland settled these lands from 1731-'5, and their descendants still 




YORK COUNTY COUBT HOUSE, YORK. 

(Prom a Photograph by John T. Williams, York.] 



YOEK COUNTY. 117 1 

retain them in many cases. Tlie country around York was also settled between 
1Y30 and 1735, but the land whereon that borough stands was not taken up 
before 1741. 

The dissensions between the Penns and the Calverts as to the boundary line 
between Maryland and Pennsylvania, gave rise to many acts of violence in York 
county. Among the most notorious of the characters who figured in these 
struggles was Thomas Cresap, reference to whom has been made in connection 
with the sketch of Lancaster county. 

Many of the settlers were not very conscientious, and turned all these 
troubles to their own advantage — acknowledging or refusing allegiance to either 
Province as best suited their purposes. In February, 1757, the grand jury took 
such action as compelled all to obey the Royal order, by showing allegiance to 
the Province from which they had received the titles to their land. 

The increase of settlers, now that quiet was restored, was large and constant. 
Roads, were opened, mills erected, and new and permanent dwellings were built, 
as the land titles were settled, it was supposed, beyond dispute. A road was 
opened in 1740, from Wright's ferry to the Monocacy road at the Maryland 
line, thirty-five miles long, which became at once a highway of travel between 
Maryland and Virginia, and the eastern cities and towns, thus adding much to 
the prosperity of the growing colony. 

In 1741, the Proprietaries ordered a town site to be laid off on Codorus creek, 
in Springettsbury manor. It was to be named Yorktown, and laid out after the 
plan of Philadelphia. In October, the part east of the creek was laid out into 
squares. The Proprietaries gave "ticlcets" to applicants for lots. These tickets 
gave a right to build, and promised a patent upon certain conditions. One of 
these was that the applicant build at his own cost a substantial dwelling house, 
sixteen feet square, with a brick or stone chimney, within one year from the time 
of his application. Seven shillings sterling yearly quit-rent was required from 
each lot-holder. If all the conditions were not complied with, the lot was trans- 
ferred to another. 

The first election in the new county was held in October, 1749. The only 
polling place was at a log tavern in Yorktown. The candidates for sheriflT were 
Hans Hamilton, the favorite of the Irish of the western part of the county, and 
Richard McAllister, the candidate of the Germans. A quarrel occurred early in 
the afternoon, resulting in a riot between the two factions. The Irish were 
driven from the polls, and the Germans elected McAllister by an overwhelming 
majorit}'. But Hamilton was a great favorite with the Governor, and was soon 
after duly commissioned. At the election in 1750, the rioting was renewed, 
Hamilton was again commissioned. Both parties appealed to the Assembly, the 
sheriff was called to the bar of that bod}^, and publich' admonished to maintain 
better order in his county in the future. 

The first court of quarter sessions met on the 31st day of October, 174!). 
John Day, Thomas Cox, John Wright, Jr., George Swope, Matthew Diehl. 
Hans Hamilton, Patrick Watson, and George Stevenson, being judges, by virtue 
of their commissions as his Majesty's justices of the peace. The courts were 
held in private houses until 1756, when a court house was built in the public 
square of Yorktown. It was a two-story brick building, with four gables 
surmounted by a steeple. 



1172 



HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



The people of York county were now left undisturbed, until the defeat of 
'' General Braddock opened their settlements, as well as the few west of them, to 
the horrors of an Indian invasion. Meetings were held, and it being found that 
arms and ammunition were not to be had, the greatest excitement ensued. Many 
of the people fled to York, and some even to the east side of the Susquehanna, for 
safety. The great numbers of refugees from Cumberland county passing through 
the county, intensified the fears of the people, and increased the panic. Several 
companies of troops were raised and sent to the Cumberland valley. As these 
took with them all the arms in the count}'^, the people were left utterly defenceless. 
Partial order was restored by the retreat of the Indians, after having driven from 
their homes one thousand families, in the latter part of November. The season 
of quiet did not endure long, however, for in August following, an Indian foray 
created a still greater panic. Marsh creek became the frontier, all the county 
be^'ond being deserted. All the able-bodied men in the county were enlisted 
into associated companies, and drilled daily. This raid and its consequent 
excitement was soon over, and quiet reigned until 1758, in April of which year 
another inroad was made into the western part of the county. But little damage 
was done, and the alarm was not as great as upon former occasions. Four com- 
panies of militia, with a number of teamsters, wagons, etc., were furnished by 
York county to the Forbes expedition which reduced Fort Duquesne. 

Peace now prevailed until Pontiac's war in 1763. York county improved 

rapidly during this period. 
A terrible storm followed 
the calm, when news of 
Pontiac's outbreak was 
received. The reports 
greatly exaggerated the 
danger, and the excite- 
ment west of the Sus- 
quehanna never ran 
higher. The whole peo- 
ple feared immediate 
massacre, and, utterly 
dismayed, fled to the 
towns for shelter, Ship- 
pensburg, Carlisle, York, 
and Lancaster being 
crowded with the refugees. 
But when the tidings came 
that the forts at Bedford, 
Loyalhanna, and Pitt, had 
successfully resisted the 
onset of the savages, the 
panic was gradually allayed. From that day, the Indians have had no terrors 
for the people of York county. 

Under the influence of peace and quiet, the settling of York went forward 
rapidly. More roads were opened, churches built, and the settlements assumed 




THE GLATZ MANSION. — BUILT 1732. 



TOBK COUNTY. 



1173 



a more permanent character. In 1*764, the town of Hanover was founded, being 
laid out in a wilderness by Richard McAllister. The people of the neighborhood 
laughed at McAllister's " folly," and one old lady jeeringly called the new town 
" Hickorytown," from the trees that covered the site. The town, however, grew 
steadily, and while McAllister's house still stands, it is surrounded now by a 
thriving town of twenty-five hundred souls, instead of a dense hickory forest. 
Being located in » Digges' choice," it was long doubtful to which Province it 
would be assigned, hence fugitives from justice made it a harbor, and " Rogue's 
Resort" became its familiar appellation. 
This added rapidly to its population, 
but such accessions were not to be 
desired. Several robbers broke into 
McAllister's store ; he arrested them 
and took them to York. The sheriff 
refused to receive the prisoners, saying, 
" You of Hanover wish to be indepen- 
dent, therefore punish your villains 
yourselves." McAllister took him at 
his word, and thereafter was himself 
judge and jury among the rough settlers 
of " Rogue's Resort." 

On the 1st of July, 1715, a company 
of riflemen marched from York to join 
the Continental army before Boston. 
This was the first company that marched 
in arms against Great Britain from that 
part of the colonies west of the Hudson 
river. It was over one hundred strong, 
composed of excellent marksmen, and 
had as officers : Michael Doudel, cap- 
tain ; Henry Miller and John Dill, lieu- 
tenants ; John Watson, ensign. They 
were enthusiastically received at Cam- 
bridge, and attached to Colonel Thomp- 
son's rifle regiment. Lieutenant Miller, 
on the day after their arrival, nothing 
fatigued by the long and wearisome 
march, formed a plan to capture a British guard on Bunker Hill. The attempt 
was made ; it failed, but several Britishers fell, and several were captured, 
without the gallant riflemen sustaining any loss. This company also partici- 
pated with honor in the battles at Long Island and White Plains. 

During the latter part of 1775, the men of the county, as recommended by 
Congress, were enrolled into militia companies. The companies were consoli- 
dated into five battalions. One company was chosen from each battalion to 
form a regiment of minute men. Of this regiment Richard McAllister was made 
colonel. This plan of organization succeeded admirably, there soon being 
nearly 4,000 men enrolled. 




THE PROVINCIAT. COURT HOUSE AT YORK, 

Where the Continental Congress met, 1T77-78. 



1 1 74 HISTOR Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

Early in 1776 four companies were sent to Colonel Irwin's regiment, of which 
Thomas Hartley, of York, was lieutenant-colonel. Three of the companies were 
commanded by David Grier, of York, Moses McClean, of Marsh creek, and 
Archibald McAllister, of Hanover; the name of the captain of the fourth is now 
unknown. The men were enlisted for fifteen months. In 17*17 this regiment 
was commanded by Colonel Thomas Hartley, David Grier being lieutenant- 
colonel. It participated in several engagements, including the battle of Brandy- 
wine. So warlike was the spirit of the people at this time that officers from 
other counties came into York county to enlist their companies. In May, a rifle 
company marched to Philadelphia and joined Colonel Miles' regiment. William 
McPherson was captain of this compan3% On the 4th of July, at a convention 
of representatives of the associators of Pennsylvania, at Lancaster, James 
Ewing, of this county, was elected second brigadier-general of the militia of 
Pennsylvania. 

The five battalions of militia from York county marched to New Jersey in 
Jul}', 1776. Here a camp was formed, and enough men drawn by lot to fill two 
battalions in the Flying Camp. The first battalion was commanded by Colonel 
Michael Swope, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Stevenson, and Major William 
Baily. There were eight companies, commanded by Captains Michael Smyser, 
Gerhart Graeff, Jacob Dritt, Christian Stake, John McDonald, John Ewing, 
William Nelson, and Williams. The second battalion's officers were : Colonel 
Richard McAllister, Lieutenant-Colonel David Kennedy, and Major John Clark. 
The captains were Nicholas Bittinger, McCarter, McCoskey, Laird, Wilson, 
and Paxton. 

As soon as completed, although not yet under discipline, the Flying Camp 
was sent to join Washington, and on the 27th of August, but a few weeks after 
they left their homes, the men fought gallantly on Long Island. The York 
county companies lost heavily. Of Graeff's company, only eighteen reported 
after the battle, the rest being killed, wounded, or captured. At Fort Washing- 
ton, on the 16th of November, Dritt's and McCarter's companies lost heavily. 
McCarter was mortally wounded, and Ensign Barnitz, of Dritfs company, was 
wounded in both legs. After fifteen months' imprisonment he was exchanged, 
and carried home on a litter. Thirty j^ears later he had one leg amputated from 
the efl'ects of his wound. Colonel Swope, with nearly all his officers and men, 
fell into the enemy's hands, and were crowded into the loathsome prisons of New 
York. Throughout the retreat across New Jersey, that followed these disasters. 
Miller's York company (formerly Doudel's) earned many thanks from the 
commanding officer for their efficient services in aiding to check the enemy and 
protect the rear of the shattered patriot force. 

The next event of importance in York county was the arrival at York of the 
Continental Congress, September 30, 1777, having been driven from Philadel^ hia 
by the enemy. The sessions were held in the court house at York until June 27, 
1778, nearly nine months, when the members returned to Philadelphia. While 
at York, the news of Burgoyne's surrender was received by Congress ; John 
Hancock resigned his presidency of that bod}'^, and Henry Laurens was elected 
as his successor ; Lafayette was appointed to the command of a division ii' the 
Continental army ; and Baron Steuben's offer of service was accepted. Piiilip 



TOJiK COUNTY. II75 

Livingston, one of the delegates from New York, died June 11, 1778, and was 
buried next day in the German Reformed graveyard. 

From the close of the Revolution until 1800, the people suffered from hard 
times, brought about partly by the depreciation of the paper money, and. partly 
by the waste of life and property in the long struggle. National, State, and local 
debts being heavy, taxes were by no means light, and the people were every- 
where more or less irritated by the visits of the tax-gatherer. A riot occurred at 
York, in November, 1786, to prevent the sale of a cow for delinquent taxes. The 
leaders in the affair were heavily fined, but the fines were afterwards remitted. 

In 1797 and 1798 occurred the "Dady" imposture, an interesting account of 
which is given by Judge Henry. 

In 1800, after a long and bitter controversy, the western part of the county 
was cut off and erected into a new county, named Adams. The old quarrel 
between the Irish and the Germans, and the political difference between the two 
sections, led to the separation. 

1803 is memorable for a negro conspiracy to burn the county seat. Incensed 
by the punishment of a negro woman for an attempted poisoning, the blacks fired 
the town several times. At length one carried a pan of coals at midday to her 
master's barn. She was seen, and confessed the plot. It was found that she 
had mistaken twelve o'clock noon for twelve o'clock midnight, the hour fixed 
upon. A number of the plotters were convicted and sent to prison. They were 
mostly f laves — of whom there were many owned in York before the abolition of 
slavery in the State. 

In the war of 1812-'14, York county was not specially called upon for troops 
until the summer of 1814, during the British attack on the Maryland coast. A 
number of her sons served in various commands, however, in the campaigns in 
Canada. When the militia were ordered to the defence of Baltimore, all the 
companies in the county that were armed and equipped marched at once. The 
others were furnished arms as rapidly as possible, and sent forward, but they 
reached the city too late to assist in its defence. The "York Volunteers," under 
Captain Michael H. Spangler, a fine company of young men, nearly one hundred 
strong, marched to Baltimore, and having been attached to the Fifth Maryland, 
fought gallantly at North Point. Two were captured, and several wounded. 
Their services were mentioned in the officiMl dispatches with the highest compli- 
ments. Two companies from Hanover and vicinity, under Captains Frederick 
Metzger and John Bair, also reached Baltimore in season to participate in the 
fight, and bore themselves right gallantl3^ 

It may not be out of place, at this point, to state that the first locomotive 
made in the United States was built in the early p'art of 1830, in York, by Mr. 
Phineas Davis, and took the premium offered b}^ the Baltimore and Ohio 
raili'cd "to the constructor of the locomotive which would draw fifteen tons, 
gross weight, fifteen miles an hour." This engine, a curiosity at this time, was 
the model for those built after it for three or four years. 

The firing on Port Sumter, in April, 1861, caused a,n outburst of indignant 
feeling, but the Baltimore riots subsequent, increased the excitement tenfold. 
Rurao 5 of an attack from the Baltimore " roughs " kept the people of York, 
Hanover, and the smaller towns along the border in a ferment, and preparations 



1176 



HIS TOE Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 



for defence were promptly made. Troops from Harrisburg were sent towards 
Baltimore, and on the Saturday following telegraphic orders were received for the 
York companies to go to their assistance. This was the beginning of that 
four years' struggle for the Union in which York county contributed her full 

share. 

General Lee's first invasion of Maryland caused great excitement and dread 
amono- the people. Home guards were formed, and arrangements made to 
remove horses, cattle, and valuables to places of safety. The Confederate 
retreat after the battle of Antietam brought quiet to the southern border, but in 

the ensuing summer it was 
destined to suffer the evils 
of actual invasion. Early 
in June, Lee crossed the 
Potomac, and at once the 
wildest excitement arose. 
Merchants shipped their 
goods to eastern cities ; 
banks depleted their 
vaults ; farmers drove their 




horses and cattle across 
the Susquehanna ; and 
every road was crowded 
with refugees seeking safe- 
ty for themselves and pro- 
perty. A committee of 
safety was appointed at 
York, June 15th. They 
made every effort to raise 
companies, but as the men 
were to be sent to Harris- 
burg for the defence of the 
State, only a few volun- 
teered, as their own homes 
were in immediate danger. 
One company of six 
months' men, under Cap- 
tain Seipe, was sent to 
Camp Curtin. Numerous 
companies of home guards 
were formed in various 
parts of the county. Han- 
over sent one com pan}' of sixty men, raised in forty-eight hours, to Harris- 
burg. A citizens company of horsemen was formed and did good service as 
scouts. Major Haller, of the regular army, was entrusted with the defence of 
York. The places of business were closed at 6 P. M., and on June 26th, at noon, 
meetings were held, and companies formed and drilled. It was thought that at 
the worst, but a force of cavalry raiders would visit York county ; but on the 



THE OLD REFORMED CHURCH AT YORK. 

[Prom a Photograph by John T Williams, York.] 



YORK COUNTY. n^i 

26th of June, information was received that large forces of cavalry, artillery, 
and infantry were approaching Gettysburg. The same night came news of the 
occupation of that town, and the retreat of the small militia force guarding there. 
Saturday, the 30th, all places of business were closed, and York presented a gloomy 
appearance, notwithstanding the crowds on the streets. At 3 P. M., the enemy 
was reported at Abbottstown. Major Haller ordered out his little force of 
defenders, consisting of the convalescents of the United States hospital, the 
hospital guards, a number of the 87th Regiment, the Philadelphia city troop, an 
Adams county cavalry company, and some citizens of the borough, in all about 
three hundred and fifty men. Upon receiving reports of the strong force of the 
enemy, this body fell back on Wrightsville, leaving York defenceless. A. B. 
Farquhar, a citizen of the borough, had entered the rebel lines, and was author- 
ized by General Gordon, commanding the advmife, to assure the borough 
authorities that if no resistance was* offered, ^..ivate property and unarmed 
citizens would be respected. 

The committee of safety then adopted the following : " Besolved, That, find- 
ing our borough defenceless, we request the chief burgess to surrender the town 
peaceably, and to obtain for us the assurance that the persons of citizens and 
private property will be respected ; the chief burgess to be accompanied by such 
of the committee as may think proper to join him." Chief burgess David 
Small, Colonel George Hay, W. Latimer Small, and Thomas White, Esquires, 
accompanied Mr. Farquhar to the rebel camp on Saturday evening. They 
assured General Gordon that they had endeavored to defend the town, but had 
failed, and asked the safety of citizens and property. General Gordon gave 
them every assurance of the pi'otection they asked. Next morning, at 10 o'clock, 
the town was occupied ; the large American flag flying in Centre square was 
taken down, and carried away by the enemy. The fair grounds and government 
hospital were occupied, and artillery planted to command the town. The 
court house was made the head-quarters of General Early, Gordon's brigade 
passing on towards Wrightsville. Here a slight skirmish occurred. The Penn- 
sylvania and New York militia fell back over the river, burning the bridge. No 
damage was done at Wrightsville beyond the burning of several houses which 
took fire from the bridge. The rebels destroyed the railroad bridges above and 
below York. Requisitions were made on the people of York for 165 barrels 
flour, 3,500 pounds sugar, 1,650 pounds cofl"ee, 300 gallons mollasses, 1,200 
pounds salt, 32,000 pounds fresh beef, all to be delivered at the market house by 
4 o'clock P.M. Demands were also made for $100,000 in money, 1,000 hats, 
1,000 pairs of socks, 2,000 pairs shoes or boots. The citizens held a meeting, 
and endeavored to fill the requisition. Goods and money to the amount of $35,000 
were collected, with which General Earlj^ expressed himself satisfied. 

No damage was done in the town until Monday evening, when General 
Early personally led a detachment to the depot to destroy the railroad property 
Seeing that their destruction would result in great loss of private propertj- , he 
desisted ; but destroyed some cars, by fire, and tore up the track, switches, etc. 
The same evening, Gordon's brigade returned, passed through town, and 
encamped a few miles west. On Tuesday morning, at an early hour, the remain- 
ing troops followed, and York was freed from her captors. Although a general 



1 1 78 EISTOB Y OF PENNS YL VANIA. 

gloom overspread the community during the occupancy, no private citizens were 
molested ; and with the exception of the ransacking of a few deserted houses in 
the country, no damage was done. Hoi'ses and cattle were taken by the enemy. 
On their retreat, however, in a few cases, stolen horses were returned to their 
owners on identification. The number of horses taken from the county by the 
enemy has been estimated as high as two thousand. The corps hastened to 
Gettysburg, engaged in the battle, and lost heavily. 

On Tuesda3'',,June 30th, a cavalry skirmish took place at Hanover. General 
Kilpatrick, with his cavalry division, was in search of Stuart's rebel raiders, and 
was passing through Hanover, each regiment halting in the streets to receive 
food from the people of the town. The 18th Pennsylvania was the rear-guard, 
and while halting in the streets, many of the men being dismounted, was sud- 
denly attacked by Stuart's men, who had been moving on a road parallel to that 
over which Kilpatrick was passing. The 18th was thrown into disorder, and 
driven from the town befoi-e it could re-form. In the open country, the regiment 
rallied, and with the 5th New York, made a gallant counter charge, driving the 
rebels back to their artillery, which was forthwith opened. The roar of the guns 
brought Kilpatrick back to the rescue, with the 1st Vermont, 1st Virginia, and 
5th Michigan. He formed his line of battle on the hills north of the town, while 
the enemy held the heights to the south. The 18th occupied the town, and barri- 
caded the streets. Artillery firing and skirmishing were kept up until dusk, 
when Stuart retreated. This skirmish prevented Stuart from joining Lee until 
after the battle of Gettysburg, much to the loss of their cause. When the rebels 
charged into the town, the streets and public squares were crowded with citizens, 
women, and children, yet fortunately none were injured. The Union loss 
in the fight was one adjutant, three sergeants, one corporal, and six privates 
killed, and forty -two wounded, several of whom afterwards died of their wounds. 
The loss of the rebels was never fully ascertained, but was at least as large as 
the Union loss. The fight over, the wounded were at once placed in an hospital 
opened in a large building known as Pleasant Hill hotel. Tl e ladies furnished 
bedding, food, and acted as nurses. Sick and wounded soldiers from the army 
at Gettysburg sought an asylum in this hospital, and it soon contained over one 
hundred and fifty inmates. Strenuous efforts were made to have the government 
establish the hospital as a permanent one, but it was ordered to be closed in 
August, and the patients sent elsewhere. 

Early in 1862, the 6th New York cavalry w/ e stationed at York to perfect the 
men in drilling. A barracks and stables were erected on the public common for 
their use. The regiment was soon ordered to the front, and the buildings altered 
and converted into an extensive general hospital, which wa^ maintained until the 
close of the war. There were usually over one thousand patients present, sick 
and wounded, and owing to the healthful location and great care exercised, the 
death rate was small, not over two hundred deaths occurring among the thou- 
sands treated. Almost all who died were buried in a lot in Prospect Hill 
cemeter3\ A few years ago these bodies were removed to a central lot, and 
a handsome bronze monument erected to their memory. The ladies of York 
had formed a relief society, earlj^ in the war, and had, by means of fairs, etc., 
raided a laro-e fund to alleviate the distresses of the sick and wounded. Several 



YOBK COUNTY. 



1179 



thousand dollars of this fund remained unexpended at the close of the war; 
this was appropriated to the purchase of the monument referred to. 

The surface of the country is broken and hilly, though nowhere mountainous. 
Many irregular spurs of the South mountain lie near the north-western boundary, 
the Conewago hills cross the county near York Haven, the Slate hills occupy the 
south-eastern corner, while the Pigeon hills extend from the south-eastern part 
of the county across the line into Adams county. Crossing the centre, from 

north-east t o 
south-west, is a 
strip of lime- 
stone, the rich 



farming lands 
of which have 
been brought to 
the liighest de- 
gree of cultiva- 
tion by the Ger- 
man f ar m e r s 
and their de- 
scendants. The 
lands along the 
southern bor- 
ders, and espe- 
cially the south- 
eastern p art, 
were once 
known a^ the 
"York Bar- 
rens," from the 
fact that when 
settled they 
were found en- 
tii-ely free from timber, the natives having cleared it with fire to improve their 
hunting ground. 

The Codorus creek drains the centre of the couaty, the Conewago the 
northern portion, and the Muddy creek the south-eastern part. These streams, 
with their numerous branches, and the Susquehanna river flowing more than 
fifty miles along the eastern border, make the count}^ finely watered, and the 
countr}^ being hilly, mill-sites are numerous. 

The principal occupation of the people is agriculture. The farmers are gene- 
rall}' prosperous, having convenient markets for the sale of their grain and pro- 
duce, nearly all parts of the county being accessible by railroad. Deposits of 
iron ore exist in many parts of the county. About forty j-ears ago there were 
several charcoal furnaces in blast ; but all have been abandoned. There is an 
anthracite furnace at Wrightsville, recentl}' erected, and quite prosperous. Much 
iron ore is mined, and taken to furnaces in other counties. Near Hanover Junc- 
tion is found an ore known as "steel ore," which, mixed with other ore in 




PUBLIC FOUNTAIN, CENTRE SQUARE, HANOVER. 



1180 HIS TOE Y OF PENNS TL VANIA. 

certain proportions, produces most excellent steel. In the Slate hills, in the 
south- eastern part of the countj^, are mined large quantities of the best quality 
of roofing slate. It is widely known as Peach Bottom slate. Distilleries were 
formerly very numerous, but there are now only a few in the county. Tanning 
is a business of considerable importance, though it, too, has declined. 

York, the county seat, is on the banks of Codorus creek, eleven miles from 
the Susquehanna. Rich and thriving, it is surrounded by a fertile region. The 
court house, a brick edifice, with massive granite front, in tlie form of a Grecian 
temple, stands near the centre of the town. It was erected in 1841-'2, at a cost 
of $150,000. The county prison, of sandstone, resembling a Norman castle, 
and the county hospital and almshouse, both magnificent buildings, stand on' 
the county farm adjoining the town. The town was founded in 1*741 ; incor- 
porated as a borough in 1787. Turnpikes radiate to Baltimore, to Gettysburg, 
to Wrightsville, to Harrisburg, and to Dallastown ; railroads to Baltimore, 
Harrisburg, Wrightsville, Peach Bottom, and Hanover. The history of the 
borough has been interwoven with that of the county in the preceding pages. 

Hanover is situated in the extreme south-western part of the county, near 
the Adams county line, on the headlands between the sources of the Codorus 
and the Conewago. The town was founded in 1764, and the borough incor- 
porated in 1815. Railroads run to the Northern Central at Hanover Junction, 
to Gettysburg, to Littlestown and Frederick, and to York. The population of 
the town and neighborhood is of German descent, but the English language is 
now generally spoken. 

Wrightsville is on the west bank of the Susquehanna, opposite Columbia, 
with which it is connected by a bridge. The town occupies an elevated site, and 
commands an extensive view. The place was long known as Wright's Ferry, 
but the building of the bridge, in 1834, caused a change of name. The borough 
was incorporated in 1834. 

Shrewsbury borough is on the York and Baltimore turnpike, thirteen miles 
south of York, and one from Railroad borough or Shrewsbury station on the 
Northern Central railway. It was incorporated in 1834. The place was 
formerly known as Strasburg, and was a thriving village in the days of turn- 
pike travel. 

The remaining incorporated towns are : Manchester, formerly Liverpool, 
laid out about 1815, and erected into a borough, March 9, 1844, when its name 
was changed. Dillsburg, the southern terminus of the Dillsburg and 
Mechanicsburg railroad, was incorporated April 9, 1833. Lewisberrt, in the 
" Red Lands," celebrated for its minor manufactures, was incorporated April 
2, 1832. Dallastown, on the Peach Bottom narrow gauge railroad ; Logans- 
viLLE, seven miles south of York; Franklintown, laid out in 1815, two miles 
south of Dillsburg; New Freedom, Glen Rock, and Goldsboro', on the 
Northern Central railroad; Jefferson, laid out in 1811, are thriving villages. 



\, 



GENERAL INDEX. 



ABORIGINES, characteristics of, 17. 

Adams county, sketch of, 279; resources of, 281; early 
settlements in, 281; towns of, 303; formation of town- 
ships in, 312. 

Addison, Judge Alexander, 231. 

Agriculture in Pennsylvania, annual value of products 
of, 546. 

AKTicultural Hall, Centennial exhibition, 653. 

Albany, Colonial conference at, 79. 

AUegewi. 17, 20. 

Alleghenies, distant view of, 399. 

Allegheny City, Western penitentiary at, 326; descrip- 
tion of, 327. 

Allegheny county court house, 315. 

Allegheny county, sketch of, 35; resources of. 316; his- 
torical review of, 317; towns of, 325. 

Allegrippus, scene at, 401. 

Allentown, Lehigh county court house at, 871; descrip- 
tion of. 877 

Allen rifles of Allentown, 261. 

Algonquins, 17. 

Alricks, Jacob, Governor of the Colony, 39. 

Alricks, Peter, Deputy Governor, 42. 

Altoona, description of, 402. 

Amber Cascade, Glen Thomas, 499. 

Amherst, General Jeffrey, 99, 103; his opinion of the 
Pennsylvania Assembly, 107. 

Andastogues— See Susquehannas. 

Anderson, Major Robert, 2.59. 

Andross, Sir Edmund, English Governor, 42. 

Anthracite coal, opening up of trade of, 242; progress of, 
1062; discovery of, 1068; first use of, 1064; mining and 
transportation of, 1067. 

Argall, Sir Samuel, 28. 

Armstrong, Colonel John, 93; destroys Kittanning, 95. 

Armstrong county, sketch of, 330; public buildings of, 
330; resources of, 331; historical review of, 332; towns 
of, 3.S6. 

Arnold, expedition of to Quebec, 154; in command of 
Philadelphia, 186; conduct of, 190; treason of, 196. 

Arnot. coal schutes at, 1105; incline at, 965. 

Associators, org.anization of, 148; address to by conven- 
tion of deputies, 160. 

Atlee, Colonel Samuel J., 166. 

Atliens, description of, 430. 

Augusta fort, building of, 999. 

Ayers, General, at Gettysburg, 291. 

Bald Eagle's nest, 508. 

Baltimore, Lord, grant for Maryland, 32; Penn meets 
with, 51; controversy witli, 51. 

Baltimore, passage of Pennsylvania troops through city 
of, 262. 

Bank of Pennsylvania, incorporated, 214. 

Bantling, Emanuel, invention by, 210. 

Barl^er, Kobert, notice of, 830. 

Bates, Samuel P., 273. 

Battle-drum of the Revolution, 154. 

Battle-flags, preservation of, 270. 

"Battle of the Kegs," 183. 

Beaver borough, description of, 347. 

Beaver college, 348. 

Beaver county, sketch of, 340; resources of, 341; histori- 
cal review of progress of, 343. 

Beaver Falls, description of, 353; view of, 354. 

Bedford borough. Provincial court house at, 362; "Wash- 
ington's head-quarters at, 1794, 371; description of,372. 

BeOford county, sketch of, 361; historical review of, 
362; town5pr, 372. 

Bedford Sprihgs, view at, 368; medicinal properties of, 

Oil . 

Beekraan, Williahi, Dutch Governor, 39. 

Bellefonte, view of, 502; description of, 507; view of gap 
north of, 513. 

Benner, General Philip, 515. 

Berg (Hill) Kirohe, 867. 

Berks county, sketch of, 378; resources of, 379; historical 
review of, 382; formation of townships in, 403. 

Bethlehem, old Indian chapel at, 967; first house erected 
in, 869; old Crown Inn at, 979; Lehigh university at, 
980; Old mill at, 982; notice of, 991; Schnitz house at, 
992; married brethren and sisters' house at, 993. 

Berlin, or Brothers' valley, notice of , 1080. 

Berwick, notice of, 595. 

Bethany, notice of, 1150. 

Biddle, Lieutenant James, 239. 

Big Island, map of, 572. 



Bigler, William, Governor, 255; biographical sketch of, 

255. 
Birmingham Friends meeting house, 531. 
Birney, Gener.al D. B., at Gettysburg, 289, 290. 
Black or French Cockade worn, 233. 
Blackwell, Captain John, Deputy Governor, 54. 
Blair county, sketch of, 397; resources of, 397; towns of , 

400; formation of townships in, 403. 
Blairsville, notice of, 796. 
Bloemart, Samuel, 30. 
Blood's settlement, 733. 
Bloody Run, now Everett, 375. 

Bloomsburg, State Normal school at, 592; notice of, 593. 
Blunston, Samuel, 831. 
Boone, Captain Hawkins, 189, 1003. 
Border counties, claims of, 273. 
Boston, Pennsylvania sends relief to, 99. 
Boston Port Bill, 132. 
Bouquet, Colonel Henry, expedition of 1763, 103; reaches 

Fort Pitt, 106; expedition to the JMuskinguni, 122, 626. 

826. 
Brackenridge, Judge Hugh H., 225, 226, 231. 
Braddock, General Edward, arrives in America, 82; map 

of route of, 84; journal of, 85; surprised by an amlnis- 

cade, 87; death of, 88; consternation caused by defeat 

of, 89. 
Braddock's Fields, meeting of insurgents at, 226. 
Bradford county, sketch of, 405; resources of, 408; hlg. 

torical review of, 409; towns and townships in, 429. 
Bradford, David, 225, 226, 228, 231. 
Brady, Captain John, killed, 918. 
Brady, Captain Samuel, adventures of, 333, 457, 553. 
Brady, General Hugh, 785. 
Branilywine, battle of, described, 172, 531,664. 
Bright, General Michael, 1037. 
Bristol, notice of, 4.50. 
Brodhead, Colonel Daniel, 166. 
Brooks, General W. T. H., 205, 383. 
Hrookville, court house at, 798; notice of, 805. 
Brown, John, raid of, into Virginia, 2.57, 753. 
Brownsville, view of, 724; noticeof, 730. 
Bucluanan, James, President of the United States, 758. 
Bucks county, sketch of, 438; resources of, 440; historical 

review of, 440; towns of, 451; formation of townships 

in, 4.53. 
Buckingham Friends meeting house, 450. 
"Buck-shot War," 249. 
Butler borough, court house at, 454; view of, 458; notice 

of, 458; public school building in, 459. 
Butler county, sket( h of, 454; resources of, 455; historical 

review of, 456; towns of, 460. 

Cadwallader, General John, 167. 

Cambria county, sketch of, 461; resources of, 463; his- 
torical review of, 467; roads in, 473; towns of, 475. 

Cambria Iron works, 464. 

Cameron county, sketch of, 479; historical review of, 480; 
formation of townships in, 484. 

Cameron, General Simor), Secretary of War, 260. 

Campanius, Rev. John, 34. 

Camp Curtin, establisliment of, 260, 263; Western troops 
quartered at, 264; troops organized at, 264; view of 
general iiospital at, 268. 

Canon, John, 784. 

Canonsburg, notice of, 1143. 

Canton, notice of, 432. 

Capital of the Nation, removal of, 233. 

Capital of the State, removal of, 233. 

Carlisle, court house at, 612; notice of, 623; soldiers' 
monument at, 628. 

Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, 1774, 141. 

Carbondale, notice of, 911. 

Carbon county, sketch of, 486; resources of, 488; histori- 
cal review of, 490; towns in, 499. 

"Carroll's Delight," 282. 

CarroUtown, church and convent at, 476. 

Carr, Sir Robert, Deputy-Governor, 41. ^ 

Cascade, Glen Onoko, 497. 

Catawissa, notice of, 593; ancient Friends meetlng- 
house at, 594. 

Catfish camp, near Washington, 1142. 

Cayugas— See Iroquois. 

Censors, council of, 207. 

Centennial exhibition, 1876, 1044: main building for, 596; 
medal— obverse, 339; medal— reverse, 360. 

Centre county, sketch of, 502; historical review of, 503; 
towns of, 507; formation of townships in, 512. 



1181 



/ 



1182 



QENEBAL INDEX. 



Cliambeisbiirg, burniiiff of, 2G7, 753; view of, before tlie 
fire, 754; after Ibe tire, 756; notice of, lit. 

Chaiiibeis, Colonel James, 154, G20. 

Cliauieleon falls, GlenOiioUo, 485. 

(Jliester county, sketcli of, 617; lesoiuces of, 520; histori- 
cal review ol, 525; educational institutions iu, 534; 
towns and townsliips in, 554. / 

Ohesier, old town ball at, aiS; first meeting-liouse of 
Friends at, 6(il; notice ot, U(jy. 

Chester valley, view of, 5iy. 

(Jbevaux-de-trize in the Delaware, 156. 

Chew inansioti, lierniaiilown, 178. 

Christ church, I'liiladelpUia, 102e. 

Church, Jerry, 570. 

Clarion county, sketch of, 547; resources of, 550; educa- 
tional inleiests in, 551; historical review of, 552: towns 
of, 554. 

Clarion, court bouse at, 547; prison at, 549; Carrier 
- seminary at, 552; notice of, 554. 

Clarke, Ueneial Ueorge, troops enlisted for expedition 
of, 1142, 1158. 

Clayioii, (Julonel Aslier, 110. 

cieartiL'kl county, sketch of, 557; resources of, 559; his- 
torical review of, 5(i3; towns oi, 5()4. 

Oieartield borough, view of, 557; notice of, 564. 

Clin ion county, sketch of, 5U9; resources of, 571; his- 
torical review of, 574; towns or, 579. 

Clinton, Sir Henry, succeeds Lord Howe, 184; evacuates 
I'hiladelphia, 185. 

Cloud I'oint, Lehigh valley, 500. 

Cluggage, captain Kobert, 154. 

Ciucinnaii, Society of, 270. 

Coaches, first thiough line to Pittsburgh, 236. 

Coal, u.seaiid discovery of,- 487, 834, 1063, 1146. 

Coaiesviile, notice ol, iWB. 

Cockade, Stale, adopted, 235. 

Colve, Anlliony, Uatch Governor, 42. 

Columbia borough, nonce of, 830; view of towu hall and 
Locust street in, 831. 

Columbia couniy, sketcli of, 584; hislorical review of, 
585; towns of, 593; formation of townships of, 596. 

Committee of Safety, appointment of, 148; seal of, 148; 
new appuinlnient of, 154. 

Conesioga iudians, treachery of, 107; removal of re- 
quested, 111; murderous Indians harbored by, 112; de- 
stroyed by the f axtaiig boys, 112. 

Conemaugb, view on the. 1152. 

Conewago canal company, 214. 

Connecticut, claims of, 2u4, 420, 887, 1111, 1149. 

Counellsville, notice of, 729. 

Connolly, Dr. John, agent of Virginia, 144, 1154. 

Conshobocken, notice of, 959. 

Consiituiional Convention of 1776, 165; of 1690, 212; of 
1837-8, 249; of 1873, 275. 

Continental Congress, delegates from Pennsylvania, 141. 

Convention of Uepuiies, 159; address to Congress, 160; 
address to the Associaiors, 160. 

Cook, Colonel Edward, 225, 227. 

Cook, Jlarth-a Walker, 615. 

Corbly family killed, 771. 

Cornwall mines, notice of, 864. 

Corry, notice of, 721. 

Couch, General U. N., 265, 283, 302, 749. 

Coudersport, court house at, 1053; notice of, 1057. 

Coulter, trenera! llichaid, at (jettysburg, 2)3. 

Counties and county towns, 278. 

Couniy histories, 277. 

Cove, Great, massacre by Indians in, 745. 

Coveulioven's narrative, 917. 

Crawford county, early history of, 597; education in, 
COS; resources of, 609. 

Cravf ford. Colonel William, expedition and fate of, 202, 

1154, 1157. 

Cresap, Tbomas, agent of Lord Baltimore, 822. 

Crooked Billet, surpiise at, 184, 959. 

Crozer theological seminary at Upland, 681. 

Cumberland county, sketch of, Gi2; first settlers In, 615; 
Indian incursions in, 617: resolves oi inhabitants, 1774, 
618; rebel invasion of, 1863, 622; t"wns of, 633. 

Curtin, Andrew G., Governor, 259; biographical sketch 
of, 2.59; inaugural declarations, 259; comprehemls the 
magnitude of the rebellion, 260; his care for the troops, 
268. 

Curwensville, notice of, 564. 

Danville, court house at, 961; notice of, 962; insane 
hospital at, 904. 

Dauphin county, sketch of, 637; early .settlement of, 640; 
In the Revolution, 642; town of, 649; formation of town- 
ships, 653. 

Davis, Jefferson, President Soulhern Confederacy, 279. 

Decatur, Commodore Stephen, 239. 

De Haas, Colonel John Philip, 156. 

Declaratory act of the British Parliament, 124. 

Delaware county, sketch of, 655; first settlement In, 656; 
towns and townships in, 667. 

Delaware Indians, 19, 20, 21,22, 23. 

Delaware river, discovery of by Hudson, 28; names 
known by. 29. 

Delaware Water Gap, 949. 

Denny, William, Deputy Governor, 93; biographical 
sketch of, 93.- 

Derry cluiich, description of, 644. 

Deshler's F(u-t, sketch and notice of, 876. 



DeVries, David Pieterszen of Hoorn, 31, 82. 

D'Hiiioyossa, Alexander, 39. 

Dickinson, John, course of at the outset of the Kevolu- 

tion, 163; elected president, 204; biographical sketch 

of, 205. 
Di(;kin.son college, Carlisle, 629, 630. 
Dix, Miss Dorothea L., the philanthropist, 254. 
Doanes, tlie outlaws, 446. 
Donegal cliurch, notice of, 840. • 
Doubleday, General Abner, at Gettysburg, 286. 
Doudle, Captain Michael, 154. 
Dowiiingtown, notice of, 536. 
Doylestown, notice of, 449; court liouse at, 438; soldiers 

inouunient at, 449. 
Drake's pioneer oil well, 1119. 

Duel between John Biniis and Samuel Stewart, 1004. 
Duncan's island, description of. 651. 
Duiimore, Lord, Governor of Virginia, 144. 
Duiimore's war of 1774, 1155. 
Duquesne Fort, erection of, 80; burning of, 98, 

Early, General Jubal, at Gettysburg, 293, 294; orders 
the burning of Chainbersburg, 763. 

Easton, grand Indian council at, 1756, 95; second coun- 
cil at, 1758, 98; historical summary of, 985. 

Eaton, Kev. George W., 784. 

Ebensburg, notice of, 475. 

Economy, description of, 356; assembly house at, 357; 
church of the Harmonists at, 358. 

ErtucafiQii, of the poor, 235; liberal system of adopted, 
243; public or. free system adopted, 247; advocates of, 
248. 

Elder, (;olonel John, 109, 114; letter of to Colonel Burd. 

120. 
Elftsborg or Elsingborg, Swedish fort. 34. 
Elliott, Commodore Jesse Duncan, 240. 
Elk county, sketch of, 682; resources of, 683; early settle- 
ments in, 684; towns of, 690; formation of townships 

in, 690. 
Einigh's Gap, Tyrone and Clearfield railroad, 567. 
Emporium, view of, 479; notice of, 483. 
England, policy of. 123. 
Kplirala, wounded at Brandywine taken to, 176; notice 

of, 835; biothers' and sisters' liouse at, 835. 
Erie city, view of from the lake, 692; old block-house at, 

693; notice of, 719; soldiers and sailors' monument at, 

72u'. 
Erie county, sketcli of, 693; early history of, 693; towns 

and townships in, 721. 
Erie, lake,, account of battle of, 704, 934. 
Evans, John, Deputy Governor, 6U; biographical sketch 

of, 61 . 
Evans, Oliver, inventions by, 210, 236. 
Ewell, General Kobert, at Gettysburg, 282, 286, 288. 293, 

299, 300, 302; at Carlisle. 622. 
Ewing, General James, 162. 
Excise laws, summary of, 218. 

Fair Play men, notice of, 919. 

Fall Brook, notice of, 1107; view of, 1108. 

Fallston, notice of, 349. 

Fayette county, sketch of, 724; roads laid out in, 727; 
historical summary of, 727; towns of, 729. 

Federal constitution, convention to frame, 210; adop- 
tion of, 211. 

Feeble-minded cliildren, training school for, 236. 

Fell. .Judge Jesse, burns aiirhracite coal in a grate, 884. 

Findlay, William, Governor, 242; biographical sketch 
of, 242; notice of, 758. 

Findley, William, 229, 231. 

Fisheries, inland, 275. 

Fitch, John, invention by, 209. 

Five Nations Indians, 21. 

Fletclier, Benjamin, Governor, 55. 

Forts— Asbcraft's, 726; Augusta, 999, 1001; Bedford, 362; 
Bosley, 586; Burd, or Necessity, 726; Casimir, 36; Cas- 
sell's, 726; Christina, 34; Cresap's, 824; Deshler's, 876; 
Forty. 902: Franklin, 1126; Fraeland, 189, 1001: Gad- 
dis', 726; Granville, 942; Hamilton, 948; Henry, 866; 
Hunter, 649; Jenkins', 586; Le Boeuf, 102, 698, 1126; 
Lucas, 726; Lyttleton, 765; McClure's. 586; McCoy's, 
726; Alcliitosh, 188; Machault, 1122; Meninger, 1001; 
Mercer, 180; Mifflin, 180; Miller's, 1078; Minter's, 726, 
Morris', 726; Muiicy, 188, 1001; Nassau, 35; Norris, 9;a; 
Oplandt, 31; Pearse's, 726; Penn, 948; PresflU'I.le, 
102, 694, 1126; Rice, 586; Stevenson's, 726; Smith. 866; 
Swearingen's, 726; Venango, 102, 11'26; Washington, 
166; Wheeler, 586. 

Fort Bedford house, 363. 

Fort Pitt, erection of, 98; plan of, 98; redoubt at, 104. 

Fort Stanwix, treaty of 1768, 130; second treaty at, 1784. 
207. 

Fort Sumter, firing on, 259. 

Forest county, sketch of, 733, resources of, 734; early set- 
tlements in, 737; towns a:id townships in, 738. 

Forbes, General John, expedition of, 97; erects Fort 
Pitt, 98. 

Frame of government, 47. 

Franklin and Marshall college, 825. 

Fiauklin, Benjamin, establishes Philadelphia library, 
71; publishes historical review of Pennsylvania, 98; po- 
litical pamphlet written by, 120; letter to Lor4 Kames 
relative to, 120; elected president, 209; biographical 
sketch of, 209. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



1183 



Franklin, view of Liberty street in, 1117; view of in 1840, 
1128; notice of, 1129. 

Franklin county, sketch of, 739; resources of, 742; his- 
torical review of, 743: towns of, 756. 

"Freedoms and Exemptions," 30. 

Freidenshutten, Moravian monument at, 415. 

French and English forts at Venango, plan of, 1123. 

French and Indian war, station of troops during, 95. 

French, designs of, 71; erection of torts by on the Ohio, 
79, 319. 

French neutrals, 1025. 

French refugees, 424. 

Fries Insurrection, 233. 

Frontiersmen, nnirch of to Philadelphia, 115; present 
their grievances, 115; Governor Penn's opinion of, 121. 

Fulton county, sketch of, 760; resources of, 761; histori- 
cal review of, 764; towns and townships in, 787. 

Fugitive slave law, passage of, 255. 

tiALBRAlTHl of Donegal, 845. 

Gallatin, Albert, 227, 231; residence of, 731. 

Gallilzin, missionary priest, 469. 

Gas, tirst introduction of, 1042 

Geary, General John W., at Gettysburg. 288, 293, 295; 
elected Governor, 273; biographical sketch of, 273. 

Genet, M., violates the neutrality laws, 215. 

Germantown, battle of, 177. 

Germantown, notice of, 1045; academy at, 1046. 

Gettysburg, battle of, 282; General Lee's head-quarters 
at, 2S5; the flrst day's battle, 286; General Meade's 
head-quarteis at, 288; the second day's battle, 2S3; the 
third day's i)attle, 294; plan of the battle of, 295. 

Gettysbuig ijoiough, di^scriptiou of, 303; Lutheran theo- 
logical seminary at, 303; Pennsylvania college ar, 305, 
soldiers' national cemcttery at, 306; national monu- 
ment at, 308; monument to General Reynolds at, 310. 

Gibbon, General, at Gettysburg, 292. 

Gibson, James, 115. 

Gilbert family, capture of. 493. 

Girard college at Philadelphia, 1044. 

Glatz mansion, erected 1732, 1172, 

Glen Moneypeiniy, 1166. 

Glen of Glenolden, 668. 

Gnadenhutten, notice of, 491. 

Granville, fort, captured, 942. 

Great Island, map of, 572. 

Great Meadows, Jnmonville defeated at, 80. 

Greeley, Horace, charges of against Pennsylvania dis- 
proved, 266. 

Greencastle, notice of, 758. 

Greene county, sketch of, 769; historical summary of, 
171; towns of, 773; townships in, 774. 

Greeusbnrg, court liouse at, 1153; notice of, 1160. 

Gregg, Andrew, 515. 

Grove, Peter, adventures of, 482. 

Godyn, Samuel, 30. 

Gookln, Charles, Deputy Governor, 62; biographical 
sketch of, 62. 

Gordon, General John B., at Gettysburg, 283. 

Goi-don, Patrick, Deputy Governor, 70; biographical 
sketch of, 70; death of, 74. 

Gyantwacliia, orC'ornplauter, 1135; monument erected to 
by Pennsj Ivania, 1135. 

"■Half Suaue " men, 421. 

Haiti's church near Wernersville, 389. 

Hamburg, sketch of, 387. 

Hamilton, Andrew, Deputy Governor, 60; biographical 

sketch of, 00. 
Hamilton, James, Deputy Governor, 77; biographical 

sketch of, 97. 
Hampton, General Wade, at Chambersburg, 748. 
Hancock, General W. S., at Gettysburg, 287, 292. 
Hannastown, sketch of, 1154; destruction of, 1158. 
Hanover church, view of, 646. 
Hanover, Dauphin county, resolutions in 1774, 641. 
Hanover, York county, notice of, 1180; public fountain 

at, 1179. 
Harmony Society at Economy, 355. 
Harrisburg, seat of government removed to, 238; view of 

State Capitol at, 244; insurrection at, 250; view of, 636; 

first German cliurch at, 647; first English, 647. 
Harris, John, notice of, 639; grave of, 640. 
Harris mansion, 637. 
Hartley, Colonel Thomas, expedition against the Indian 

country, 188, 418. 
Hatboro', noiic of, 959. 
Hazleton, notlc-> of, 909. 
Heckewelder, 17, 19. 

Hebron church, Ltbanon, notice of, 868. 
Hendricks, Captain William, 154. 620. 
Hendriekson, Captain Cornells, 29. 
Hetli, General, at Gettysburg. 288, 297, 300. 
lliester, Joseph, Governor, 243; biographical sketch of, 

243. 
H\ll, General A. P., at Gettysljurg, 282, 286, 288, 292, 296, 

3(X). 
Hochitagete or Barefoot, 19. 
HoUandare, Peter, Swedisii Governor, 34. 
Holland land company, 1133, 1134. 
Hollidaysburg, Blair county, court house at, 397; sket 

of, 400. 
Hood, lieneral, at Gettysburg, 288, 289, 30O. 
Hooker, General Joseph, 284. 

3 /. 



Horse Shoe Curve on Pennsylvania railroad, 396. 

Horticultural Hall, Centennial Exposition. 437. 

" Hot Water" war, 233. 

House tax, imposition of, 2.'}3. 

Howard, General O. O., at Gettysburg, 284. 

Howe, General, marches on Philadelphia, 171; defeats 
the Americans at Brandywine, 173; entrance into 
Philadelpia, 175. 

Hudde, Andreas, Dutch commissary, 35, 38 

Hudson, Henry, discovers the Delawaie, 28 

Humphreys, Whitehead, invention by, 210. 

Humphrey. General A. A., at Gettysbuig, 290, 295. 

Huntingdon county, sketch of, 775; resources of, 776- 
history of, 777; early settlers in, 779; towns of, 785; for- 
mation of townships in, 789. 

Huntingdon borough, 775; seal of, 779; notice of, 785. 

Immigrants into Pennsylvania, C9. 

Indiana borough, notice of, 795, 796. 

Indiana county, sketch of, 790; resources of, 791; early 
settlements in, 793; towns of, 795; townships in, 796. 

Indian battle at Lackavvaxen, 1050. 

Indian God Rock, view of, 1121; inscriptions on, 1122. 

Indian incursions, 1794, 2l6. 

Indian marauds, fears of, 78; on the frontiers, 90, 107. 

Indians, purchases from, 1682, 442; 1683, 525; 1762, 388; 
1768, 504, 1085; map showing, 208. 

Indian relics found near Safe Harbor, 818. 

Indian scalps, rewards for, 93. 

Indian walk, 74, 443, 967. 

Independence Hall, 1876, 1030. 

Independence proposed, 162; declared, 164; signed, 164; 
publicly read in Philadelphia, 165. 

Insane poor, flrst State iiospital erected, 254. 

International Exposition, 1041. 

Internal improvements, measures taken for, 213; vig- 
nette, 789. 

Iroquois, the, 17. 18, 19, 22. 

Irvine, General William, 157; coinraissioner to wester;! 
insurgents, 227. 

Irving Female College, Mechanicsburg, 632. 

Jack, Captain, sketch of, 615. 

Jack, Captain Matthew, 1158. 

Jack's Narrows, Pennsylvania railroad, 781. 

Jacquett, John Paul, Dutch Governor, 38. 

Jay's Treatv with Great Isritain, 232. 

Jennings, Colonel William W., 264, 283. 

Jenkins' cavalry. Confederate, 282, 622, 750, 751. 

Jefferson county, sketch of, 798; resources of, 799; his- 
torical review of, 800; towns of, 805. 

Jersey prison ships, 204. 

Jersey Shore, notice of, 921. 

Jesuit missionaries, 17. 

Johnson, General, division at Gettysburg, 282, 293. 

Johnston, Rfv. Jolin, 785. 

Johnston, William F., Governor, 254; biographicai 
sketch of, 254. 

Johnstown, view of, 464; description of, 475. 

Jubilate Deo. in language of Six Nations, 24. 

Juniata county, sketch of, 806; early settlements in, 8C7; 
towns of, 811; townships in, 813. 

Kaskaskunk, 857. 

Keith, Sir William, Deputy Governor, 61; biographical 

sketch of, 64; meets the Indians at Albany, 68. 
Key of Kalniar, ship of war, 33. 
Keystone State, Pennsvlvania first called, 235. 
Kieft, Sir William, Director-General, New Netherlands, 

34. 
Kilpatrick, General, at Gettysburg, 299. 
King, Francis, 925. 
Kittanning borough, notice of, 336. 
Kittanning, Indian town of. destroyed, 9;.. 
Kittanning path, 472. 
Kirkpatrick, Major Abram, 225. 
Kiyasuta, Seneca Chief, conspiracy of, 101. 
Knipe, General Joseph, 622, 752. 
Kuoxville, view of, 1101; notice of, 1108. 
Kingston, notice of, 910; Wyoming seminary at, 911. 
Kutztown, notice of, 388. 

Lafayette college, Pardee Hall, 966; notice of, 986. 
Lafayette, General, wounded at Brandywine, 175; vlfit 

to Pennsylvania, 245, 53.3, 670, 1038. 
L.ancaster city, old court house at, 814; court Uo.ise 

at, 827; higli school, 823; soldiers' monument at, .SJT: 

county hospital at, 851. 
Lancaster, conference with Six Nations at, 77; Saprerue 

Executive Council at, 176, 183. 
Lancaster county, when formed, 70; sketch of, 814; rt- 

sources of, 815; early settlements in, 820; towns an I 

townships in, 841. 
Lancasterian system of education, 243. 
Lancaster land company, 1133. 

Lands improved and unimproved in Pennsylvania, 5tj/. 
Laporte, notice of, 1085. / _, ^.^ ^. 

Latta, John, Lieutenant-Governor under Constitution 

of 1873, 276. f o« .,• 

Lawrence county, sketch of, 854; resources of, 855; his 

torical review of, 856; towns of, 859. 
Leaden plate deposited by the French in the Ohio, Jl"; 

translation of inscription on, 1122. 
Lebanon borough, view of, 892: county court house it, 

863; notice of, 867. 



1184 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Lebanon county, sketch of, 863; resources of, 864; his- 
torical review of. 865; towns of, 867. 
Lee, Governor Henry, lu command of Western army, 

Lee, General Robert E., at Gettysburg, 288, 296. 299, 300, 
301; at (Mianibersburg, 749, 752. 

Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, 869. 

Leiiighcoal, Uiscovery of. 487. ,„„„,,, . 

Lehigh connty. sketch of, 871: resources of, 873; histori- 
cal review of, 874; towns of, 877; townships in, 879. 

Lehigli navigation company, 487. 

Lehigh university, at Betlilehem, 980, 981. 

Lehightoii, notice of, 499. 

Lemke, Kev. I'eter Henry, 470. 

Lenape— see Uelawares. ... 

Lewisburg, court house at, 1110; view of, 1114; univer- 
sity of, 1116. , ..,„,, 

Lewislown borough, view of, 943; notice of, 944. 

Lewis' lake, notice of, 1082. 

Lewistown narrows, Pennsylvania railroad, 941. 

Liberty bell. Independence hall, 556. 

Library company of Philadelphia established, 71. 

Lincoln university, 535. 

Lindstrom, I'eter, 37. 

Litiz, notice of, 537; spring and walk at, 838. 

Logan Guards of Lewistown, 2tjl. 

Logan, James, Provincial secretary, 60, 64, 74; bio- 
graphical sketch of, 76. 

Logan, the Mingo chief, 940. 

l^og college, 444. 

Long Island, battle of, 166. 

Longstreet, General, at Gettysburg, 282, 295, 299. 

Loretto, St. Aloysius college at, 477. 

Lovelace, Colonel Francis, English Governor. 41. 

Lowdoii, (Japtain John, 154. 

Lower Merion Friends meeting-house, 954. 

Lowreys, of Donegal, 848. 

Ijoval Sock, head-waters of, 1081. 

Lutheran theological seminary at Gettysburg, 304. 

Luzerne countv, sketch of, 881; resources of, 884; early 
history of, 885; towns of, 909. 

Lycoming, sketch of. 913; resources of, 913; historical 
summary of, 915; towns of, 919; townships in, 922. 

Lykens, notice of, 652. 

McCANDLESS, General "William, at Gettysburg, 292, 299. 

McCausland's for.ay, 753. 

MeConnellsburg, court house at, 760; notice of, 767. 

McFarlane, Captain James, 225. 

M'Kean county, sketch of, 923; resources of, 924; early 

settlements in, 925. 
M"Kean, Thomas, commissioner to western counties, 

227; elected Governor, 234, biographical sketch of , 234. 
SIcKeespori, description of, 327. 
fllachauit Fort, 1122. 

Machinery hall. Centennial Exhibition, 861. 
Magaw, Colonel Kobert, 157. 
Manor of Maske, 281; Pennsbury, 441; Springettsbury, 

1171: Succoth, 503. 
Mansfield, Episcopal church at, 1104; Methodist church 

at, 1107; State normal school at, notice of, 1106, 1107. 
Maiietta, notice of, 843. 

Markh.ini, William, Deputy (jovernor, 47, 56, .57. 
Mauch (Jhuiik, description of, 49G. 
Maryland intruders, 68. 72, 822, 1169. 

Mason and Dixon's line, historical resume of, 124; run- 
ning of, 129. 
Meade, General George G., at Gettysburg, 284, 287, 288, 

2ii6; report of, 301. 
Meaiiviiie, court honse at, 597; county seat fixed at, 605; 

view of, 607. 
Mechaiiicsburg, notice of, 632. 
Media, conn house at, Sin. 
Memorial Hall, Centennial Exhibition, 774. 
Mengwe— see Iroquois. 
Mercer borough, notice of, 938. 
Mercer county, sketch of, 931; historical review of, 932; 

towns of, 9a6. 
.Merrill, General Jesse, 274. 
Mey, Captain Cornelis Jacobsen, 29, 30. 
Meyersdale, iicitice of, 1080. 

Midilleburg, county court house at, 1072; notice of, 1076. 
Middletown, description of. 649. 
Mifflin county, sketch of, 939; historical review of, 940; 

towns of, 944. 
.M illiintown, county court house and soldiers' monument 

ai, SuU: ii(>tice of, 811. 
M\flUii. riionias, elected President, 211; chosen Gover- 
- nor, 213: biographical sketch of, 213. 
Miles, Coionol Samuel, 166, 167. 

Milfojd, county court house at, 1049; notice of, 1052. 
Vlillta^y academy at Chester. 672. 
MiUerslmig, description of, 651. 
Millersvilte, State normal school at, 842. 
Milroy, Geneval, dispersion of command of, 26.5, 266, 282, 

750. 
.Milton borough, notice of, 1004. 
IMinuit, Peter, Swedish Governor, 30, 33. 
Mischianza, 181. 
Mohawks, Indians, 17. 
Moliicaunittuck, 20. 
Monroe county, sketch of, 946; historical review of, 947: 

towns of, 949. 
"Monroe doctrine " endorsed by Pennsylvania, 245. 



.Monongahelacity, notice of, 1144. 

Montgomery county, sketch of, 950; resources of, 951- 
historical summary of, 952; towns of, 956. 

Montour county, sketch of, 961; towns of, 962. 

Montrose, county court house at, 1087; view of, 1095; 
notice of, 1095. 

Moore, Nicholas, Chief Justice, 53. 

Moore, William, elected Vice-President, 192; chosen 
President, 202; biograpliical sketch of, 202. 

Moravian missionaries, 17. 

Moravian missions, 412. 414, 490, 402, 856, 868, 972, 978. 

Moravian Indians, treachery of, 109; removal of to Pro- 
vince island, 109; opinions of the frontiersmen relative 
to, 117. 

Morrell, General Isaac, 238. 

Morris, Kobert Hunter, Deputy-Governor, 80; bio- 
graphical sketch of, 80. 

Mount Pisgah inclined plane, 496. 

Muhlenberg, Peter, elected Vice- I'resldent, 210; resigns, 
211; grave of, 960. 

Muncy, notice of, 921. 

Muskingum, Colonel Bouquets' expedition to, 122. 

Myggenuorg or Mosquito fort, 34. 

Nagel, Captain George. 154. 

National light infantry of Pottsville, 261. 

National road, 725. 

Native American riots, 252. 

Navy, Pennsylvania, organization of, 154. 

Nazareth hall, view of, 990. 

Nazareth, notice of, 990. 

Negr6es, importation of, 100. 

Nesquehoniiig bridge, 601. 

Neville, General John, house burned, 225; re-assumes 
the duties of his office, 230. 

New Bloomfield, court house at, 1007; notice of, 1014. 

New Brighton, view of, 350; description of, 350. 

New Castle, Delaware, made a corporation, 41. 

New Castle, Lawrence county, court house at, 854; pub- 
lic school building at, 859; notice of, 859; Disciples 
church at, 860. 

New Gottenberg, Swedish fort, 34. 

Newport, view of, 1009; notice of, 1014. 

New Purchase, 130. 

New Sweden, map of, 43. 

Newtown, description of, 451. 

Nicole, French Indian trader, 62. 

Nicolls, Sir Richard, captures New Netherlands, 40. 

Noailles, Viscount Louis de, 424. 

Non-injportation resolutions signed, 130. 

Norristown, court house at, 950; notice of, 956; old fire 
company at, 957. 

Nortlianipton county, sketch of, 968; historical summai-y 
of, 968; townships in, 981; men of note of, 996. 

Northumberland borough, notice of, 1004. 

Northumberland county, sketch of, 997; historical sum- 
mary of, 998; towns of, 1004. 

North Branch canal, completion of, 256. 

Ohio, obstruction to navigation of, 255. 

Oil City, notice of, 1129. 

Oil (petroleum), notices of, 604. 1118. 

Ole Bull settles in Pennsylvania, 1056. 

Onoko Falls, 498. 

Opessah, Shawanese chief, 23. 

Osceola, description of, 565. 

Osset, Giles, Dutch commissary, 31. 

Oslerhout mansion, 1167. 

PACKEit, William F., Governor, 2-57; biographical 

sketch of, 257, 
Palmer, Anthony, 77. 
Paoli battle ground, 176, 532. 

Pappegoya, John, Governor of New Sweden, 36. 
Parkinson's Ferry, meeting of insurgents at, 227, 229. 
Patterson, James", 344, .353. 
Patton, Colonel John, 515. 
Paxtang churcli, description and views of, 645. 
Paxtang, Indian marauds in, 110. 
Paxtang rangers, destroy the savages at Conestoga, 112; 

complete their work at Lancaster, 113; seeds of the 

Revolution sown by, 121. 
Peniberton, Lieuteirant-General, C. S. A., 261. 
Pender, General, killed at Gettysburg, 288, 300. 
Peunamite war, 891, 9tS, 1000. 
Peiin, Gulielinii Maria, death of, 57. 
Penn, Hannah, 07, 74. 
I'enn, Jolm, 71; death of, 77. 
Penn, John. Lieutenant-Governor, )!1; biographical 

sketch of. 111; goes to England, 131; returns to the 

Province, i;^I; course of, 142. 
Penn, Kicbard, Lieutenant-Governor, 131; biographical 

sketch of, 131. 
Perm, Springett, 74. 
Penn, Thomas, 71. 
Penn, William, portrait of, frontispiece; description of 

the Indians, 25; Charles II. giants Pennsylvania to, 45; 

proclamation by, to people of the Province, 46; arrives 

at New Castle, 48; returns to Europe, 52; deprived of 

his Province, 55; second visit to Pennsylvania, 58; 

trantsanew charter to the Province, 69; returns to 
;ngland, 60: death of, 65; biographical sketch of, 45; 
book plate, 6fi: chair of, 27. 
Penns compensated for proprietary riglits, 192. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



1185 



Penn's creek massacre, 1110. 

I'enirs treaty monument, 49. 

Peuu's treaty with the Indians, 50. 

Penn's valley, from Nittany mountain, 505. 

Pennsylvania granted to William Penn, 45; how named, 

46; divided into three counties, 51; map of, 1685, 52; 

map of, 1730, 02. 
Pennsylvania canal, prosecution of, 24o. 
I'ennsylvania college at Gettysburg, 304. , „ „ „„ . 
Pennsylvania militia, conduct of in war of 1812, 241; in 

1862, advance into Maryland. 265; thanks of (ieueral 

McClellan to, 265; at Gettysburg, 283, 302. 
I'ennsylvania, manufacturing industries of, 667. 
Pennsylvania, patrjoiism of the people of. 266. 
Pennsylvania, population of by counties. 329. 
Pennsylvania railroad, completion of, 256. 
Pennsylvania reserves, organization of, 260, 265; at (jSt- 

tysburg, 292, 299. , , 

Pennsylvania troops first to reach the Federal capital, 

1861, 262; thanks ot Congress to, 263. 
Pennsylvania soldiers in tlic Revolution, deplorable con- 

diiionof, 196; revolt of, 197; their grievances, 197; set- 
tlement wiih, 201; claims ot, 206. , 
Perry county, sketch of, 1006; early settlements in, 1007; 

towns of, 1012; townships in. 1014. 
Perry, Oliver Hazard, gold medal to, 240; victory on 

Lake Erie, 704; flag ship Lawrence, 706. 
Pettigrew, tienei-id, at Uettysburg, 297, 298. 
Philadelphia city arid county, sketch of, 1015; historical 

summary of, 1015; townships of, 1019, consolidation of, 

1022 
Philadelphia captured by the British, 1031; yellow fever 

in, 1035; old slate-root house at, 1016; new city hall in, 

1018; old court house at, 1021; old navy yard at, 1040; 

view of Delaware front, 1043; United States mint at, 

404; old Pine street church in, 732. 
Pickering, Colonel Tiniothv. conference at Tioga, 422. 
Pickett, General, at Gettysburg, 239, 294, 297, 298. 
Pike county, sketch of, 1049; historical review of, 1050; 

towns of, 1052. 
Pittsburgh, vi -w of, looking up the Ohio, 314; laying out 

of town of, 321; progress of, 322; descriptiou of, 325; 

city hall at, 3J5. 
Pittston, notice of, 912. 
Pit Hole city, description of, 1131. 
Pleasantville, grmp of oil derricks at, 1131. 
Plunkett, Ur. William, expedition ot, 1000. 
Pollock, James, Governor, 256; biographical sketch of, 

256. 
Puntiac, Ottawa chief, conspiracy of, 101. 
Poilageroad, viev/ on, 474. 
Porter, Uavid K., Governor, 249; biographical sketch of, 

250. 
Porter, General Andrew, 957. 
Potter, Geneial .lames, 516. 

Potter county, sketch of, 1053; resources of, 1054; settle- 
ments in, 1055; townsliips in, 1057. 
Pott, John, burns anthracite coal, 1065. 
Pottsville, view of, 10.58. 

President's house built by Pennsylvania, 232. 
Prequ'Isle. Indians opposed to establishment at, 216; 

town laid out at, 216. 
Priestly, Ur. Joseph, 1004. 
Princeton, battle of, 169. 
Printz Hall, Indian convocation at, 37. 
Pi iiitz, Joliii. Swedish Governor, 34. 
Proprietary government, relative to, 122. 
Provincial conterenoe, proceedings of, 133. 
Provincial convention, proceedings of, 144. 
Public works, sale of, iSrt. 
Pulpit rocks, near Round Island, 580. 
Pumpkin flood, 907. 
Punxsutawney, view of, 803; notice of , 805. 

QUAKERTOWN, description of, 451. 
Quappas, driven from the Ohio, 17. 
(Quebec, capture of by General Wolfe, 98; Arnold's expe- 
dition against, 154. 

Railroad, first, in America, 246. 

Italston Incline plane, 922. 

Ruiiioiph, Peyton, of Virginia, 141. 

Kapp, Rev. George, founder ot the Harmonists. ?,hh. 

Ueading, county court house at, 378; Trinity Lutheran 

cliurch at, ;i94; cemeterv gate at, 395. 
Redick, I>avi(l, elected Vice-President, 211. 
Redstone old fort, meeting of insurgents at, 221, 288. 
Kesd, General Joseph, President, 190; biographical 

sketch or, 190. 
Reed, General WiUiam, Adjutant-General, 233. 
Relief notes, issue or, 251. 

Renova station, Philadelphia and Erie railroad, 582. 
Reynolds, General John F., at Gettysburg, 265, 284, 286, 

300; monument to, 310. 
)tidgway, view of, 682; description of, 690. 
Ridley Park lake, 606. 
Hidley I'ark station, 679. 



Ringgold light artillery of Reading, 261. 
Ritner, Joseph, Governor, 247; biograi: 



xphica'. sketch of, 

Riots In Philadelphia, 1039. 

Roberdeau, Daniel, appointed brigadler-f'eueral, 162. 

Rome, description of, 433. 

Roshorough, Rev. John, murdered by the British, 977. 



Ross, George, elected Vice-President, 211. 

Ross, Captain James, 154. 

Rouse, Henry R.. 1119, 1137. 

Runaway, the brig, .575. 

Ryslngh, John Claudius, Governor of New Sweden, 86. 

Safe Harbor, notice of, 839; Indian relics found near, 

818; inscription on rocks at, 8.39. 
St. Clair, General Arthur, commandof In the Revolution, 

1.57; defeat of by the Indians, 212; home of ou Chestnut 

Ridge, 1156; monument to, 1161. 
St. Mary's, <lescription of, 690. 
Saltsburg, discovery of salt springs at, 791. 
Salt works established by Pennsylvania ou Tom's river, 

166. 
"Saw-dnst" war, 274. 
Saxton, Joseph, 784. 
Schellsburg, notice of, 376. 

Schuylkill coal and navigation company, 245, 1063. 
Schuylkill county, sketch of, 1059; early settlements in, 

1059; townships of, 1061; coal development in, 1065. 
Schuylkill river, view on, 945. 
Scranton, description of, 909. 
Scotch-Irish, the first settlers in Northampton county, 

970. 
" Scout Fisscal," office of, 30. 
Scull, Nicholas, map of, 974, 1003. 
Seal of Assembly— 1776, 168. 
Seal of Committee of Salety— 1775, 148. 
Seal of Huntingdon borough, 779. 
Seal, Proprietary, 27. 

Seller, Capiain George A. C, forms Camp Curtin, 263. 
Seigfried, Colonel John, 976.. 
Selinsgrove, notice of, io73; Snyder mansion at, 1076; 

Lutheran missionary institute at, 1074. 
Senecas— See Iroquois. 
••Shades of Death," 188. 
Shakamaxon, supposed treaty at, 49. 
Slianiokin, now Sunbury, 998. 
Sharon, notice of, 938. 
Shawanese Indians, '23. 585, 885, 
Shaw, Margaret, bravery of, 1159. 
Shee, Colonel John, 157. 
Sheshequanunk, site of, 412. 
Sbeyichbi country, 20. 

Shikellimy, notice of, 998; residence of, 1110. 
Sliippensburg, desciiplion of, 631. 
Shrewsbury, notice of, 1180. 
Sliunk, Francis R.. Governor, 252; biographical sketch 

of, 252; farewell address to people of Pennsylvania, 253; 

death of, 253. 
Sluilze, John Andrew, Governor, 245 ; biographical 

sketch of, 245. 
Sickles, General, at Gettysburg, 288, 290, 292. 
Six Nation Indians, 21; conference with at Lancaster, 

77; treaty witli at Fort Stanwix, 130; take sides with 

the British, 188. 
Slavery abolished in Pennsylvania, 193. 
Snyder county, sketch of, 1072; towns and townships in, 

1073. 
Snyder, Simon, Governor, 236; biograpliical sketch of, 

236; mansion of, at Selinsgrove, 1075. 
Sineihport, conn tv court house at, 923; county prison at, 

929; notice of, 9.30. 
Sinitn, Matthew, lays before Provincial authorities the 

grievances of the frontiers, 115; comman<ls in the 

Revolution, 154; elected vice-president, 192; resigns, 192. 
Soldiers' Nalioua! («metery, .306. 
Soldiers' Orphans' schools, origin of, 271, 272. 
Soleluiry Friends meeting-house. 444. 
Somerset borough, county court house at, 1077; notice of, 

1079; fires in, 1079. 
Somerset county, sketch of, 1077; resources of, 1077; 

early settlements in, 1078; towns ot, 1080. 
South-western college, California. 1143. 
Springettsbury manor, 68. 1169, 1171. ^ 

Spruce Ci'eek tunnel, Pennsylvania railroad, 788. 
Sianipact, passage of, 123; opposition to, 123; repeal of, 

124; effect of, 1027. 
Standing Stone, 778. 
State college. Centre county, 511. 
State house. Provincial, erection of, 71; in 1778, 187. 
Slepliens, .John, invention by, 2l)9. 
Stevens, Thaddeus, grave of, 830. 
Stewart, Captain Lazarus, expedition to Wyoming, 110; 

commands the Paxtaiig boys, 111; threatened arrest of, 

120; goes to Wyoniiug, 120. 
Stewart, Commodore Charles, 241, 
Stewart's block-house, 895. 
SUiison family, murder of, 109. 
Struudsliurg, notice of, 949. 
Stuart, Gen. J. E. B., at Gettysburg,284; raid of in 1862, 

T47. 
Stuyvesant, Peter, Governor of New Netherlands, 36. 
Sullivan county, sketch of, 1081; lakes in, 1083; resources 

of, 1084: towns of, 1085. 
Sullivan, General John, expedition of, 191, 906. 
Sunbury, notice of, 1004. 
Susquehanna county, sketch of, 1086; plan of townships 

in, 1086; historical sumtnary of, PI88; towns of, 1092. 
Susquehanna Indians, 17, 18, 19. 
Susquehanna river, view near M'.lton, 998; junction of 

North and West Branches of, 1002; view ou from Col- 
lege lull, Lewisburg, 1112. 



1186 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Swanendae), 31. 

Svvarthmore college, 654. 

Swedes church, 1024. 

Swedish settlements on the Delaware, 33, 656. 

Sykes, (General, at Gettysburg, 288. 

Talon, Omer, French refugee. 424. 

Tainichill, General Adamson, 238. 

Taxation without representation, 123. 

Taylor, Abiah, house built by, 1724, 539. 

Tavlor, George, signer of Declaration of Independence, 
986. 

Tea ships notallowed to land at Philadelphia, 131. 

Teedyuscung, Delaware chief, 23, 95, 119. 

Tliaimawage, Mohawk chief, 21. 

Tiionias, Sir George, Deputy-Governor, 75; biographical 
skeich of, 75. 

Thompson, Colonel William, commands the first regi- 
ment of ihe "Army of ihe Continent," 154. 

Thomson, Charles, 12.3, HI. 

Tienpoiit, Captain Adrieu Joriz, 30. 

Tionesta, view of, 733; notice of, 738. 

Tinicum island, 35. 

Tioga county, sketch of, 1101; resources of, 1102; tov?ns 
of, 1105; townships in, 1109. 

Torkillus, Rev. Keorus, Swedish minister, 83. 

Towanda, view of, 405; description of, 435. 

Trappe, ancient Lutheian churc^h at, 960. 

Treaty between Swedes and Indians, 37. 

Trefalldigbeit, or Fort Trinity, 38. 

Trenton, battle of, 168, 169; decree of, adverse to Con- 
necticut, 420. 

Troops called out to quell the Whiskey Insurrection, 227. 

Tunkhannoek, county court house at, 1163; description 
or, 1167, 1168. 

Turnpike roads, first, 1038. 

Tuscarora valley, settlement of, 807. 

Tyrone city, notice of, 402. 

UXALACIITGO, or Turkey tribe, 20. 

Un;imis, or Turtle tribe, 20. 

Uni( n canal, 215. 

Union county, sketch of, 1110; historical summary of, 

nil; towns of, 1114. 
Union League House, Pluladelphia, 253. 
Uniontown, description of, 729. 
University of Lewisburg, view of, 1115. 
University of Pennsylvania— Department of Arts and 

Sciences, 1034; Department of Medicine, 1036; sketch 

o'. 1045. 
University of Pennsylvania, purchase of the president's 

house for, 232. 
Upland, now Chester, 657. 
Obselinx. William, 33. 

Valley Forge, cantonment at, 181 ; Washington's 

head-iiuiirters at, 182: view of, 955. 
Van (dampen, narrative of, 587. 
Van Dyck, Goerau, "scout fisscal," 39. 
Van liulst, William, 30. 
Van Tvviller, Wouter, Dutch Governor, 32. 
Venango county, sketcli of, 1117; French occupation of, 

1122; towns of, 1129. 
Vini-ent, General, killed at Gettysburg, 291, 300. 
Virginia, pretensions of relative to western boundary, 

144, 1154. 

Walking X'urciiase, 443, 968. 

Wall, George, 210. 

Ward, Ensign Edward, 80 

War for the Union, 259; establishment of Camp Curtin, 
260; first troops to reach the Federal capital from Penn- 
sylvania, 261; first invasion of the State, 265; last invar- 
sion, 267; troops raised for, 269. 

War 111 Independence, troojis raised for, 148. 

War of 1812-14. _ .7; enthusiasm of the people, 238. 

Wai- with Mexico, 252. 

Warren borough, view of, 1133; State hospital for insane 
at, 1138; notice of, 11S9. 



Warren county, sketch of, 1132; land claims in, 1133- 
resources of, 1136; incidents in history of, 1138,- 

Warren, General, at Gettysburg, 291. 

Washington and Jefferson college, 1140. 

Washington artillery, of Pottsville, 261. 

Washington borough, notice of, 1142. 

Washington county, sketch of, 1140; early settlement of, 
1141; resotirces of, 1141; towns of, 1143. 

Washington female seminary, 478. 

Washington, President, proclamations issued by, 222, 
227; proceeds to tlie western counties, 229; letter to 
General Seigfried, 976. 

Wayne county, sketch of, 1145; resources of, 1146; his- 
torical summary of, 1148; towns of, 1150; townships in. 
1151. 

Wayne, General Anthony, birth place and residence of, 
640; in the Revolution, 157, 176; revolt of foices of, 197; 
victory over the Indians, 231; death of, 703. 

Waynesburg, county court house at, 769; notice of, 733. 

Weed. General, killed at Gettysburg, 300. 

Weissport, notice of, 499. 

Wellsboio', notice of, 1105. 

Welsh, Colonel Thomas, in command of Camp Ourtln, 
204. 

Welsh settlement, 952. 

West Chester, county court house at, 517; notice of, .537. 

Westmoreland county, sketch of, 1153; historical review 
of, 1154; Revolutionary resolves of, 1156; Centennial 
celebration of, 1162. 

Western counties, opposition to excise in, 221; hardships 
of the people, 220; President Washington's proclama- 
tions to, 222, 227; turbulent proceedings in, 222; State 
commissioners to, 227; Federal commissioners to, 227; 
inarch of troops to, 229. 

Wharton, Thomas, Jr., elected President, ITQ; bio- 
graphical sketch of, 170; sudden death of, 1S6. 

Wliarton house, where the mischianza was held, 185. 

"Whigs" and "Tories," terms first used, 132. 

White Marsh, Washington's head-quarieis at, 181. 

AVhiskey Insiiriection, historical suuiinary of, 222. 

Wicaco, first church at, 1015. 

Wilcox, view of, 690. 

Wilkps-Barre, county court liouse at, 881; county prisoD 
at, 908; description of, 908. 

Williamsport, county court house at, 916 ; description 
of, 916. 

Wilson female college, Chambersburg, 757. 

Wissahickon, view on, 635. 

Wolf, George, Governor, 246; biographical sketch of, 
246. 

Wolf or Minsi Indians, 20. 

Woolcomber family killed, 1008. 

AVomen's Pavilion, Centennial Exliibitlon, 813. 

Womelsdorf, notice of, 388. 

Wright, James, 832. 

Wright, John, 832. 

Wright's Ferry Mansion, C'lluinbla. 833. 

Wyalusing, Indian mission at, 411; Moravian monument 
at, 415. 

Wyoming battle ground, 898; massacre at, 188; full de- 
tails of, 1164. 

Wyoming county, sketch of, 1163; resources of, 1165; 
towns and townships in, 1165. 

Wyoming seminary at Kingston, 911. 

Yellow Fever at Philadelphia, 215. 

York, James, Duke of, 40, 42. 

York borougli, laid out, 1171; Continental Congress In 

session at, 176, 183; court house at, 1170; court house, 

Provincial, 1173; Reformed church at, 1176; notice of, 

1180. 
York county, sketch of, 1169; first settlers, 1170; in the 

Revolution, 1173; in war of Rebellion, 1175; resources 

of, 1179; towns of, 1180. 
Yorktowu, surrender of Cornwallis at, 201. 

Zetsbergek, Rev. David, apostle to the Indians, 832, 

856. 
Zinzendorf, Count, missionary to the Indians, 886. 
Zook, General, killed at Gettysburg, 300. 



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